EW may be one of the worst expansions for raiders but was one of the best for casuals

[iVolke]

Endwalker has been one of the best expansions for demonstrating how many players are susceptible to gaming addictions. They keep saying the game is bad and yet they still can't walk away from it.

You confuse can't for not wanting to.

How dare people want to play the game they pay a monthly sub for. The entitlement.

People complain about the lack of content because they WANT content. And I mean meaningful content. Not "run around and click on things while occasionally opening menus"

This game makes a lot of money, we should be getting new interesting, engaging things to do. Criterion was handled extremely poorly, Island Sanctuary is objectively nothing, relic quests no longer exist, 24mans were incredibly nerfed (no lb3 day one??) while also introducing zero new mechanics), and the post MSQ is the worse one we've gotten so far (idc if you liked it, Pandemonium quests were way better and you know it).

All of these factors AT ONCE is why many people consider this expansion to be unwashed buttcheeks. They add a bunch of solo stuff while group content is sorely lacking. It has nothing to do with anyone being addicts.

[Supersnow845]

I’d argue the vast majority of casual engagement at this point doesn’t even come from what square releases

Between penumbra, mare and the club scene the speed in increase in modding has likely driven a lot of engagement as people are forced to make their own content.

Midcore is lost without field content and EO being by far the worst of the three deep dungeons that brings nothing new to the table (seriously stop trying to design the deep dungeons to be solo able, POTD is the best because it was never designed to be soloable)

Hardcore unironcially got the most content but hardcore is sick of the stale raid design and the boring jobs

So it’s hard to say who was the best recipient of EW content

[Banriikku]

I’d argue the vast majority of casual engagement at this point doesn’t even come from what square releases

Between penumbra, mare and the club scene the speed in increase in modding has likely driven a lot of engagement as people are forced to make their own content.

Midcore is lost without field content and EO being by far the worst of the three deep dungeons that brings nothing new to the table (seriously stop trying to design the deep dungeons to be solo able, POTD is the best because it was never designed to be soloable)

Hardcore unironcially got the most content but hardcore is sick of the stale raid design and the boring jobs

So it’s hard to say who was the best recipient of EW content

The Mogstation my dear gamer.
We all did loose, the midcore, the casuals, the hardcore only the damn shop and SE's bankaccount did win.

[Mayhemmer]

You confuse can't for not wanting to.

How dare people want to play the game they pay a monthly sub for. The entitlement.

People complain about the lack of content because they WANT content. And I mean meaningful content. Not "run around and click on things while occasionally opening menus"

This game makes a lot of money, we should be getting new interesting, engaging things to do. Criterion was handled extremely poorly, Island Sanctuary is objectively nothing, relic quests no longer exist, 24mans were incredibly nerfed (no lb3 day one??) while also introducing zero new mechanics), and the post MSQ is the worse one we've gotten so far (idc if you liked it, Pandemonium quests were way better and you know it).

All of these factors AT ONCE is why many people consider this expansion to be unwashed buttcheeks. They add a bunch of solo stuff while group content is sorely lacking. It has nothing to do with anyone being addicts.

Basically this. FFXIV has been my "comfort game" for a long time. I enjoy playing it, despite how many out there who would throw around "addicted" or "something something, sunk cost fallacy." I guess I'd call myself a mid-core player who plays almost entirely solo at the moment, but I have a lot of issues with EW's approach to content.

The tomes-based relic is boring, imo. It doesn't offer anything new, I'm still just doing everything I would have been doing already.

Myths, despite being aesthetically amazing, makes me pine after the older approach to alliance raid design. In short, I wish raids were more punishing and engaging, and spent less time tutorializing their own mechanics. In the waiting period for ShB launch, I would q up for Dun Scaith on healer just for the fun challenge of it. I can't see myself doing that with Myths.

Eureka Orthos is... alright. It's a deep dungeon, for the third time. I've already exhausted my interest in it. I wish they'd stop recycling content types like Deep Dungeon, and approach new ideas for repeatable content for Dawntrail. As well as introducing them earlier so I can actually make use of them in leveling jobs.

Island Sanctuary is cute, but every aspect of it funnels through the workshop, which is a time-gate and is only as engaging as your desire to see numbers go up. I do not wish to see future cosmetic rewards gated behind a piece of content like this again.

Pandemonium (as somebody who has not done Savage) was good. Probably my favorite piece of content this xpac, but it's hardly going to tide me over for an entire expansion cycle.

Criterion is a thing I tried to engage with when Sil'dihn was released, but as a solo player on Crystal, progging it (with randoms) was such an immense pain I gave up with a sticky note to come back later. I didn't, and from what I hear, I wasn't missing much.

[Aravell]

I’d argue the vast majority of casual engagement at this point doesn’t even come from what square releases

Between penumbra, mare and the club scene the speed in increase in modding has likely driven a lot of engagement as people are forced to make their own content.

Midcore is lost without field content and EO being by far the worst of the three deep dungeons that brings nothing new to the table (seriously stop trying to design the deep dungeons to be solo able, POTD is the best because it was never designed to be soloable)

Hardcore unironcially got the most content but hardcore is sick of the stale raid design and the boring jobs

So it’s hard to say who was the best recipient of EW content

Hardcore raiders may have gotten the most content, but the quality of said content has been rather questionable. I won't touch on the first tier because it's meant to be easy to ease people into savage with unfamiliar jobs, but Abyssos was hit hard and Anabaseios is also hit to a lesser extent. P6S was a savage in name only, P7S was only savage for 3 mechanics, and P10S is sandwiched between 2 fights that are easier, it's quite a mess. I think the only content we got that's almost entirely agreed on to be good was DSR.

[ThaCa]

Eh, the base Endwalker was pretty good overall, but the post patches have been major let down for most of the part.

[Rehayem]

I fail to see what's there for casuals? I'm a casual player, and most content I've done during EW cycle was pre-EW stuff. I did do some EXs and Unreals and all of that. Crafters and gatherers had more content than your average casual Joe player.

[LianaThorne]

I fail to see what's there for casuals? I'm a casual player, and most content I've done during EW cycle was pre-EW stuff. I did do some EXs and Unreals and all of that. Crafters and gatherers had more content than your average casual Joe player.

Can always get into roleplay and go to venues, you're on the best DC for it. That seems to be the main casual thing to do in this game, especially if you like afking.
/s

[Teno]

Endwalker has been one of the best expansions for demonstrating how many players are susceptible to gaming addictions. They keep saying the game is bad and yet they still can't walk away from it.

Imagine complaining because you like the game and want it to be better. Or you liked the game and contemplate its current state (*wink* healer gameplay *wink*).

If anything complainers are barely playing the game, they're actually complaining here (usually because they want it to improve, sometimes because they're bored trolls that have nothing better to do).

All in all, it's been the same for years and has become even more prevalent since the homogenization became strong in ShB.

[CNitsah]

You should define casual players. To me casual players are people that play a few hours a week (maybe up until 5, maybe 7), and have a lot of content they have not touched (like exploratory zones, for examples), and a backlog they will probably never complete. Those people have probably not seen any problem.

Problems come for players that play more and don't raid or go into high lvl content. They've probably engaged (maybe finished) most of the content. That's the public for which exploratory zone lacks.But those people can't really be called casuals anymore, despite often being grouped with them. Which lead to those situation where some says "it's bad for casuals, then a real casual comes and just say no. It's for those players (more midcore thus) the extension has been awful. If they don't raid, don't engage in very hardcore farming rewards, everything has been one off and they have no reason to do anything in the game right now. It has been a little better for hardcore players because of the raids, but long running content is also done by hardcore players, and they also felt it.

Casual to Hardcore player is not a two pole thing, but a spectrum, and I feel like a lot of the problem in EW are due to not seeing it like that, thus ignoring the whole middle of the spectrum. And this kind of thread participate to that problem.