Weekly Lockout this late into the tier is disheartening

[Hyperia]

It was more like 6 months, which is quite a lot of time after the odd-numbered patch.

What is different now is they extended the patch cycles from 3 and a half months to 4 months, combined with the fact they want to really draw out the final minor patches to reduce the impact of the content drought that is going to last all the way until the middle of 2024.

Patches went from 3 months to 4 to 4.5 months. With them extending the patches so often, the existing content ends up going stale and people just stop logging in, then quitting. This new patch cycle is a disaster for the FC I am in, nobody is left except for a few raid loggers and they are done next month.

There gets to be a point where you just don’t even want to come back for expansions.

We went from a steady supply of content to a trickle to a drip and now…

Really feels like the game is in maintenance mode now that they finished it. Yea yea I know expansion is coming but it feels as if the original team has moved on and given it to a maintenance team.

Dragging out the echo and lockouts feels like an attempt to make anemic content last longer.

[Jeeqbit]

Patches went from 3 months to 4 to 4.5 months.

They told us it was increasing from 3 and a half months to 4 months (aka an extra 2 weeks). If it is longer than that, then it is not consistent with what they said it would be. However, they mentioned they would take breaks for holidays now as well, so that could explain added delays too.

With them extending the patches so often, the existing content ends up going stale and people just stop logging in, then quitting.

That happens anyway. That is how most people play games. They load up the newest game or a game that just released DLC, burn through it in a few days, then move onto the next game. This happens even if SE tries to keep them playing for months, so SE chooses not to fight it because it's beyond their control.

Instead, they design content to be done within a few days because that's just how people play video games. Most gamers aren't like those of us who stick to playing the same game all year round.

This new patch cycle is a disaster for the FC I am in, nobody is left except for a few raid loggers and they are done next month.

I feel like that has always happened though unless it's an RP FC or a hunt FC where people create their own content.

We went from a steady supply of content to a trickle to a drip and now…

I'm curious how you think the content has changed, since they have kept mostly the same format. The only major difference, really, is not having a set of Eureka/Bozja areas and their associated grind, which is good for keeping you occupied with a long-term grind that involves social interaction, but that doesn't make it a "steady supply of content". It's more like it's a steady grind to keep you there for months despite no new content.

Really feels like the game is in maintenance mode now that they finished it.

I mean, patches are basically maintenance mode, yes. But expansions are definitely treated like a "whole new game" from SE's perspective, so the expansions are what get some of the resources that would be given to a new game.

[Absurdity]

They told us it was increasing from 3 and a half months to 4 months (aka an extra 2 weeks). If it is longer than that, then it is not consistent with what they said it would be. However, they mentioned they would take breaks for holidays now as well, so that could explain added delays too.

They told us a lot of things over the years that turned out to not be true. Fact is that the time between 6.2 and 6.3 was 20 weeks, 6.3 and 6.4 was 19 weeks, 6.4 and 6.5 was also 19 weeks, all of which are more than 4 months.

[sindriiisgaming]

Patches went from 3 months to 4 to 4.5 months. With them extending the patches so often, the existing content ends up going stale and people just stop logging in, then quitting. This new patch cycle is a disaster for the FC I am in, nobody is left except for a few raid loggers and they are done next month.

There gets to be a point where you just don’t even want to come back for expansions.

We went from a steady supply of content to a trickle to a drip and now…

Really feels like the game is in maintenance mode now that they finished it. Yea yea I know expansion is coming but it feels as if the original team has moved on and given it to a maintenance team.

Dragging out the echo and lockouts feels like an attempt to make anemic content last longer.

its this mentality which is tthe reason that if they just give up with ffxiv after DT and churn out a new mmo i will not support it.. because they dont even care about it. all the talk latley just feels like one big lie

[Colt47]

its this mentality which is tthe reason that if they just give up with ffxiv after DT and churn out a new mmo i will not support it.. because they dont even care about it. all the talk latley just feels like one big lie

It is the life cycle of an MMO and the fact that there is a point where people just have to walk away for a while. There's no real way to make infinite content that is worth consuming and a single team of developers are going to be hard pressed to release a product that has the kind of breadth and variety that every person wants to enjoy. What feels more like an issue with FFXIV is the core it was built upon is flawed. A lot of the content that is designed to keep people engaged long term in the game is currently geared towards skill checks or coordination checks, with really high learning curves or at least requiring a specific way to approach the content to even do it. This expansion lacks something like Bozja that people can really grind out, as well as meaningful achievements that are integrated into the game world. It focused more on PvP and hardcore content that generally doesn't integrate into the main game, and went into seasonal passes that force people into participation or miss out on a reward.

The reason the game is more "dead" this expansion at the end then Shadowbringers is because all of the people who do normal grind content have left the game to do other things. They just have nothing to do right now unless they are still grinding out Island Sanctuary. Without having something casual to grind out and compete with savage, everyone went into savage full swing and burned themselves out, and not to mention the change to servers pushed everyone into Aether for the most part so people who were use to more social FCs and such got exposed to... well the complete garbage heap that is Aether where people "play for goals and business" and not much else. Having communities separated from one another is an advantage, not a disadvantage, because generally the quality of those someone plays with will be vastly better if they aren't picking up the wrong lessons.

Social FC on Crystal: People literally log on and just chill with each other. Got easy events we all do on scheduled days, people can pop out and in when they want, no real issue. Heck most stay on anyway and just lounge around in Limsa.
Normal FC behavior on Aether: No one is logged on at all until it is time for savage raid. Everyone gets in the chat and they might do something slightly social, but then it's into the savage fight and spending 2-3 hours dying to a boss repeatedly before everyone just logs out. Super rare for anyone to stay on beyond that.

Reason for the latter behavior is the same problem that happened with WoW and other MMOs that focused too much on the end game: It went into playing the game only to do the most efficient thing and nothing else. No room for doing things that are viewed as "too easy" or "naw that's just something you do solo, so it's easy". The only thing that has worth to the people on Aether because of end game savage is beating the hardest fight in the game, getting the biggest numbers, and not giving a single crap about story, side ventures, or anything that doesn't give better gear.