Breaking the Majority’s Silence: A Job Criticism Thread

[Lyth]

Since when has complaining about job 'homogenization' ever been an underrepresented viewpoint on these forums? This is hands down the most common complaint issued about job balance. You might as well follow-up with a statement of concern about the two minute meta.

The elephant in the room is that job homogenization only gets trotted out when players want to preserve a unique advantage that they have over others. Nobody cares about complete homogenization, which makes the same action available to everyone. Otherwise we'd see more complaints about the 'balance' around role actions and such.

The problem is partial homogenization, where you make a set of actions nearly identical, but then give one job an obvious unique advantage over all the others. WAR is probably the biggest offender in this regard, but we've seen others dominate across multiple expansions in this manner as well. Jobs that were grandfathered into an advantage are loathe to let it go.

If you want uniqueness, you have to be willing to accept unique weaknesses as well as strengths. But most people act on their own self-interest, rather than looking for a level playing field for everyone to compete on the basis of skill. You see something that you don't have, and the next expansion, you have to have it. Where's my Plunge? Where's my Cover? Where's my Divine Veil? It's an arms race. And that's why job design naturally converges over time. It just happens to preferentially converge faster in favor of the jobs with the loudest voices and the most players.

[Connor]

What worries me is that there’s never any definitive way to prove that the silent majority isn’t the one saying ‘everything in FFXIV is fine’. I don’t think that’s the case, but how would we ever know lol

[NekoMataMata]

What worries me is that there’s never any definitive way to prove that the silent majority isn’t the one saying ‘everything in FFXIV is fine’. I don’t think that’s the case, but how would we ever know lol

This is true too. Someone is always complaining, and most of SE's stats don't really get too specific. If SE sees participation/subscriptions at good positions then they likely assume everything is fine. It's not like there's specific polls and surveys being handed out, and honestly most of the active regular playerbase is too addicted to the game to ever quit and cause a major drop in numbers.

[ReynTime]

You can't get the actual majority to talk.
The majority of players in any given MMO just log in, play the game, and don't talk about the game beyond their own small closed circle.

[ThugosaurusRex]

What worries me is that there’s never any definitive way to prove that the silent majority isn’t the one saying ‘everything in FFXIV is fine’. I don’t think that’s the case, but how would we ever know lol

There will never be an explicit statement, but you pretty much can prove that through subscriber counts. SE has the data on player activity and attachment and is still designing in the direction the game has been moving. I'm sure they want to make the game the best they can, but their #1 priority is making money first. That tells me the actual majority either like the direction SE is designing, don't care about it, or don't hate it enough to negatively impact revenue. It's just not the issue for the actual silent majority of players that people who are into it enough to discuss it online believe it to be. And really, if you have to proclaim you're speaking for the silent majority, you are almost certainly neither.

[Bonoki]

Hot take: But I do not believe this game can no longer reasonably sustain job identity and job balance. It can only do one or the other and never both. One has to give. Pick your poison.

[Xirean]

Honestly, anything in its peak design isn't complex. And when someone trys to make it more complex, they mess it up. Think of a door. If you don't think of the door as you pass through it, it's a good door. If you smack into it because it looks like a push door, but it's a pull door, it's a bad door. Class design in the same. You see simplicity, and it bothers you, and I see it, and it makes me happy. Because I don't want to slam into the door.

That's actually a really great way to think about it. Could you expand on your thoughts with this? If we are comparing classes to simple things like doors, what exactly are you expecting to see when you look at specific classes?

[Xlantaa]

I am part of the silent majority, I do not think like you. I think the game is fine. It is not good idea talk in the name of other people...

Majority of people do not post this forum or any other place. The number and the sub numbers it is what matters, and it is very high, that's the answer. Those are the silent majority. The ones who still play but no say a single thing. Nothing talks more than the money, people spent a lot of money in this game.

[SieyaM]

In regards to AST, the cards as they are now are simple oGCD damage buffs and astrodyne is such a disappointing ability that has no impact on combat unless you actually use a parser to see the miniscule increase in DPS. StB was a good time for AST because cards had real function and gave the job identity.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

In regards to AST, the cards as they are now are simple oGCD damage buffs and astrodyne is such a disappointing ability that has no impact on combat unless you actually use a parser to see the miniscule increase in DPS. StB was a good time for AST because cards had real function and gave the job identity.

6% DPS is quite a boost in burst phases. Just because you can't see it in the content you do doesn't mean it has no impact. My AST main friend prefers current AST cards over the originals, because fishing for Balance was a terrible game mechanic.