We need to talk about the PC Gamer article

[Turtledeluxe]

I think we understand very well.

the people who complain have every right to. however they constantly complain and still.. pay money to be here.

this is an mmo, kinda... people will always come and go. when they are done with what they wanted to do, or experience, they will play it less. revenue will always rubber band because of this.

are the devs complacent? I dont know, I am not in their work place or in their heads. many still enjoy the game, and some of us even understand that things are not always how we want but we enjoy it enough to keep paying for it until it doesnt do it for us any more. People such as the OP post countless variations of the same tired drivel, and yet keep rewarding SE (or any game company for that matter) with their money.

so please feel free to educate me on why the rest of us are misguided when we still enjoy things, and the OP doesnt, and expresses that DAILY and still... gives them money. is the attention they get from a handful of forum goers worth it?

we seem to understand.. but do you?

Conversely, people who actually care about the game beyond the superficial experience use the forums. Maybe what you should do, since you're the one dictating behavior, is go play the game instead of expecting the forum to be an echo chamber. Or post in threads that agree with your perspective. So no, you don't understand, because you not only disagree with the article (which is fine) but you are silencing feedback by asking people to unsub. Nor did you know the game's financials when you made the point about SE making money. I'm glad you understand that now.

And if I sound annoyed it's because it's annoying. The same tired "please unsub" across the social media for the game. People are doing that just fine but some of us do prefer to see if change is possible by discussing more critical feedback. And you can say this article is the same tired "the game is boring" but you admit you didn't read it. So who really needs to reevaluate their perspective and their behavior in regards to this discourse between critics and defenders??

I'd also point out, that the dev team has proven historically that it doesn't take financial injury or the collapse of the game to enact major changes to jobs, combat, content, etc outside of 1.0.

[Kes13a]

ah yes, the tired old saw that "only the people complaining truly care about the game". I was not dictating anything, what I was pointing out was the error in your assumption that people just dont get it. I play daily actually, why? because I have things I can do with my friends. I didnt silence anyone, I asked a question.. which is if they dislike everything, based off their posts.. why are they still paying for it?

please stop confusing people who complain daily as people who care about the game more than the rest of us. the OP makes daily threads along the same lines. if something makes you that unhappy... its time to examine priorities, never told them to unsub, since thats a personal call on their part.

the bottom line is, SE will not change until forced to. and I said nothing about the article in question being tired or boring, I said it about the OP. NOWHERE was I defending SE... at all. all I said was its a trend in mmo's. its not secret knowledge.

[Benjo]

Hey there! Thanks for sharing your thoughts. It's always interesting to see different perspectives on the game's evolution. I totally get where you're coming from regarding the concerns about the game's current formula. Change can be tough, especially when it feels like some aspects are moving away from what initially drew us in.

I've been around for a while too, and I can appreciate the nostalgia factor and the sentiment that some elements might not feel as original as we'd hope. On the positive side, though, the game still has its unique charm, and there's something special about diving into the world of Eorzea.

While I understand your reservations about the combat system and job design, it might be worth considering taking a break if things feel a bit stale. Sometimes stepping away and coming back later can provide a fresh perspective. And hey, have you ever tried playing as a male beefy Roegadyn? The generic catboy, sleeky characters can be a bit jarring at times, so Roegadyn-ing up might just add a new layer of enjoyment to your gaming experience!

It's clear you're passionate about the game, and I hope your concerns get the attention they deserve. In the meantime, don't forget that it's okay to take a breather and come back when the game aligns more with what you're looking for. Here's to hoping that dawntrail brings the positive changes you're hoping for!

[caffe_macchiato]

So has anyone reached out to PC Gamer regarding this article? It is obviously false since it says bad things about our game. Is there a way Yoshi-P can maybe talk to the editor and have this article taken down?

[Nabril]

the combat system has also been neutered in exchange for making things easier. straying more and more away from tradition ff jobs like time mage, geomancer and corsair as we edge towards these "original" jobs that feel.. honestly.. out of place. reaper i feel only worked because the lore supported it so well.. however. yes. the job feels out of place

So... is this nothing more than a "It's broke because I don't like it" post or do you actually have a suggestion to offer? I always see things like, "Combat system is neutered!" from people who can't be bothered to describe HOW it's broken. Do you want them to keep all of the old buttons? This is a CONSOLE game. It can't have 312 attack buttons. Some powers have to be taken away to keep it fresh and new. Is that what's bothering you or is it something else? Do we need 312 buttons that have to be pushed in a random order each rotation in order to maximize DPS? IS that what you mean when you say that you want a more complex system?

I'm at a loss here. Do you yourself even know what you mean here? How exactly have combat been neutered? Do you want harder boss fights? So much ground AoE and line of sighting that your character never has a chance to stand still? Sure- as long as you are prepared to explain how all the casting classes are now obsolete including the healers. What do you want to get out of the combat system that isn't there now?

[Aword3213]

ah yes, the tired old saw that "only the people complaining truly care about the game".

People who say that never met Karens, or just new to the internet

Some people just rage over anything, especially so when they're anonymous.

[Lium]

And here I thought people were criticizing the developers for not improving the game. Now it turns out they're being criticized for improving it.

Goes to show you just can't win.

I skimmed the article but didn't read it fully. Seemed like she was complaining about how SE continues to use the same content release formula and wants them to change it because she's bored, then tossed in a few community memes in an attempt to gain credibility.

I feel like all I needed to know about the author was included in the profile at the end. "When she's not staring at her bunny girl, she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade. " In other words, she doesn't really play the game. She just logs in to stare at her Viera for whatever reason.

I'll repeat what I've said many times before. If you're not longer enjoying the game, take your money elsewhere. Blizzard didn't pay attention to what players had to say until WoW players took their money elsewhere, or stopped playing modern retail to play Classic instead.

SE will not behave any differently. As long as FFXIV is not falling massively short of whatever revenue goals they've set for the game, they're going to stick with a formula that is making money for them. When it stops making money, that's when they'll think about change.

THANK YOU!!!!

I say this all the time to consumers in general. Not just video games. If you don’t like something, or want to really effect change, vote with your wallet. Corporations aren’t gonna give a crap until it hits their bottom line in meaningful way.

And that’s literally all there is to it

[Erinellza]

Okay. Next they should write an article about the fact that FFXIV still gets more and better content than other MMOs. Source: I play XIV, ESO, GW2, LA.

[Alaray]

It's true that FFXIV's pattern in the expac/patch cycle is very much predictable. You'll know exactly what you're getting when.

However, shaking things up just for the sake of shaking things up isn't always a good thing, and the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence.

I sort of disagree with your sentiment, only quoting since it's a fairly common one when it comes to long running/live-service styled games. (So don't take the "you" as you, personally - it's general)

Even when everything is as close to perfect as it can get, there will always be a running issue of: people will grow bored of it. Shaking things up, for the sake of it, is usually a way to reinvigorate something that's gone stagnant - it can be done well, it can be done poorly, however; fear of failure is never a reason not to do something - nothing would ever get done with that kind of perspective. If the general gameplay experience is something a large core of players initially enjoy, even for three or more years, it'll always become dull, boring, same-old/same-old eventually. This extends, as well, to content cadences -- excitement for the new wanes, because you already know what to expect and there's no air of surprise to anything anymore. While I enjoy aspects of XIV and still play it for either raiding content, or some solo challenge stuff, I don't remember the last time I felt any sort of excitement for anything upcoming - I know what it'll be already. I would, personally, prefer to see risks taken to change things up and to make things feel fresh, feel more interesting, to try different variations of design to give different flavors to each era of the game's life. Some will feel good, some will feel bad. But I think it's a risk worthwhile - as, the good that comes from risk taking comes, often, into its own as a high point. Every time there's a mistake along the way, ideally it's something that's learned from that can lead to improvements.

It's also part of the issue of: You can't please everyone. And you can't, so you shouldn't try too hard to do so. A game can be shaken up in one way by alternating through common gamestyle preferences, too. For example: something more akin to Stormblood's encounter/job design was my favorite (for ref: I was a tank player), and while I know people who loved Heavensward's, and even people who do like Shadowbringer's/Endwalker's; having some expansions with more complex/engaging job design paired with simpler fights, and then expansions that flow the opposite direction, expansions that - maybe - prioritize on team synergy, and others that prioritize a different approach etc... would help (again) to add flavor to the experiences, and just let different types of people have their fun in the sun. (I'll stick in a disclosure: I, personally, don't think that Heavensward design would be good to go back to due to the complexity of jobs in an unintuitive/clunky manner and the scaling/fight difficulty - at the time - being quite higher as well: people who enjoy this combination are completely fine in that preference -I do enjoy it - but the reality is this combination does tend to kill raiding scenes and... from, maybe, my selfish perspective: I do like a raid scene existing).

And there's a plethora of other things that make the game feel less exciting. I know I really preferred the Exploratory Zone content for Relics and I still think that Island Sanctuary is about as shallow as daily log-in maintenance of a mobile game. But, stagnation is a problem the game's facing (and, to be frank, been facing for a little while) and (again) changing things up to make them feel fresh, new, and re-create some replayability with a new experience would be nice. Perhaps frustrating, sometimes. But, I do welcome fresh experiences and even design perspectives - the actual designers are good at what they do, I just wish there was more room for creativity/risk/new ideas/and making environments of dungeons/alliance raids/even the open world and exploratory zones feel more like they are truly Places, and not like things are plopped down awkwardly by a game dev (I like atmospheric immersion in setting design, and using the setting some can help make the connection of: Place + Narrative + Gameplay slot more smoothly together). And, I mean: changing up how dungeons flow and are laid out, how alliance raids flow and present themselves, changing up the types of mechanics and the speed/complexity - not to insane levels, but just a smidge to make it feel like a Fight - changing up how all the pieces interact with each other, and so on, can all help make things feel less stagnant in their own right, too.

While the article also touched on some other critiques outside of stagnation (ie: reward structure), I will say that when that team wants to provide good rewards, they do. But for whatever reason they try to make a lot of things far, far less exciting or motivating to do because there isn't anything cool to go after by doing it (and this extends from Criterion, to the PvP rewards in the reward track thing). And, in a way, poor reward structure can also make things feel boring - there's not much excitement to getting a win on, say, Criterion when the thing to look forward to is some cheap Materia.

[Turtledeluxe]

ah yes, the tired old saw that "only the people complaining truly care about the game". I was not dictating anything, what I was pointing out was the error in your assumption that people just dont get it. I play daily actually, why? because I have things I can do with my friends. I didnt silence anyone, I asked a question.. which is if they dislike everything, based off their posts.. why are they still paying for it?

please stop confusing people who complain daily as people who care about the game more than the rest of us. the OP makes daily threads along the same lines. if something makes you that unhappy... its time to examine priorities, never told them to unsub, since thats a personal call on their part.

the bottom line is, SE will not change until forced to. and I said nothing about the article in question being tired or boring, I said it about the OP. NOWHERE was I defending SE... at all. all I said was its a trend in mmo's. its not secret knowledge.

I stopped reading your post after "only people complaining care". That isn't what my post says. You are your likes lack reading comprehension, and that's OK.

To be clear, it says people who care about the game beyond the superficial. That could mean you are discussing rotations. Housing, narrative. The difference between fake white knights like you and genuine players like me is that I don't go into threads I don't agree with looking for people to ubsub. I might disagree with someone but I don't call for them to unsub. That is the laziest possible response to a problem.

To cover all the points again-- people are unsubbing, people are playing less, and SE is losing money quarter after quarter. Hence why people are criticizing. We want the game to attract and retain players, not repel them.

And obviously I'm being a little sarcastic because I'm sure you care about the game. It's just that this tactic of dismissing boredom and telling people to unsub is actually counter intuitive to the goal of an MMO.