I feel like i cant support Squex or cbu3 anymore

[Fyrebrand]

Just throwing my two cents in here: Yoshi-P and team have talked about some of the complications they've faced with workload for the past while. Updating the graphics engine has been quite the hefty undertaking. Converting every MSQ dungeon in the game for Duty Support ended up being significantly more work than they initially expected. Covid hit them hard, as it did for many companies -- and while I realize the worst of that was a while back, delays like that can have a ripple effect that pushes back content long after the fact. They're also working on porting the game for Xbox, updating the dye system, and they're adding female hrothgar. And... well, let's not pretend developing FFXVI didn't drain resources from the team as well.

You can argue some of these are valid or invalid as excuses, but I don't bring them up as excuses, I bring them up to point out that they're all one-time things that cease to put extra demands on their workload once they are finished. Things like Duty Support, the graphics update, new race, dye channel update, the Xbox launch, are all investments that will make the game better across the board. Once Dawntrail is out, they won't have to worry about any of that stuff, it'll already be integrated. Whatever you can say regarding Endwalker's patch content lull, what's done is done, and I think we have reason to believe things will improve with Dawntrail, on onward.

Regarding the cash shop, well, I can't defend that. I hate it. I bought the game. I bought the expansions. I pay my subscription fee. I don't like that they ask for more money on top of that, and some of the prices are unreasonable to boot. I don't even really believe the claim that "cash shop money goes back into supporting FFXIV." It may be technically true, but there's probably something scummy going on behind the scenes, like the CEO looks at FFXIV's cash shop revenue for the year and says "Great, we can fund FFXIV that much less next year, because you're making it up in cash shop sales."

people like to believe there is a perfect paradise where if there wasn't a cash shop or wasn't these statues or anything else they dislike about this game or any other, that all the stuff they make would be put into the game and added for free.

It's not that everything in the cash shop would have been put in the game for free, it's that the developers and designers only have time to make X amount of stuff in a day. Their workload is divided between making game-earnable things, and making cash shop things. Did Square Enix simply hire more staff to account for this, so that the regular flow of free game-earnable content did not lessen in the slightest? We don't know, but frankly I would find it hard to believe.

On the other hand, many cash shop items were available for free during limited-time holiday events. In most MMOs, holidays come back every year and if you miss something you can probably get it next year. Not so for FFXIV, they just take it away forever, and if you want it then you can buy it with real money. Setting aside the subject of the items themselves, even the quest content disappears and can never be played again. As a result, they put very little effort into making holiday content because it is so brief and disposable. Holidays in FFXIV are just vectors for future cash shop items, and that's a huge part of why they are cursed to always be terrible.

[Reap00]

ngl.. im just sick of seeing things in the game getting worse, the quality of content lowering, the amount of content lessening, the gap between content getting wider and the new expansion information being fragmented and not having much to it.. (no release date, no job action trailer.. 3 trails before the final one) all for the sake of drawing things out, or delaying things to not be called out

the cashshop has become predatory to the point where it feels like they respond to players begging for content by adding new cash glam or $400 figures with predatory emotes.

im starting to look at this company, this game.. and feel disgust in the place where i used to feel respect for them having built this game up so well. Im currently playing monster Hunter world, and im asking myself.. am i excited for dawntrail, yea.. but im also kinda repulsed by it too. cause the idea of giving them more money to keep predating on players in a way that now feels kinda dispicable.

you are free to tell me to unsub, leave give you my gil all the ususal toxic rubbish, but i wonder; how, you- the people who DO feel this way continue to justify youre support of FFXIV
and im not asking that in a mean way.. im asking it legitimatley. how DO you do it

I don't have to or want to justify anything to you. Stop playing the game and stop crying. Your troll threads are tiresome and very boring.

[Supersnow845]

I pretty much agree with the general consensus, for all the complaining I do (which to be fair is a lot, I don’t like healers) time with my friend in the game is enough to justify my subscription and when it’s not I simply unsubscribe

The problem comes from the fact that 14 is square Enix’s cash cow and we basically get little back for it, I can partially forgive EW for having a lot of backside upgrades (duty support, graphics update, streamlining the MSQ) meaning we aren’t really seeing the entirety of what they are doing but it does get annoying we each pay them like 20 dollars per month, plus purchasing the game and expansions and maybe cash shop items and the patch dropping tonight will have 2 hours of cutscenes and a relic that needs 1500 tomestones I’m sure most of us already have in our inventory

[Jojoya]

im asking it legitimatley. how DO you do it

I don't walk into any game demanding it meet my expectations. I go into a game to learn what the game is and if I will have fun playing it.

I don't expect to want to play the same game forever. The game will change. I will change. At some point, it will be normal to part ways and move on.

I don't treat a game like it's my babysitter. It doesn't need to keep me occupied all the time. I'll play other games and do other things with my leisure time regularly. It helps prevent burnout and slows down how quickly a game might start feeling boring.

Specific to FFXIV, I don't agree that the quality is lowering. Just because I don't like certain changes or how the story is written doesn't mean the developers are getting lazy and putting in less attention to detail. It just means they missed the mark for what I enjoy.

I don't mind the content release schedule getting spread out more since I do more than play FFXIV. I couldn't understand how they were releasing so much content on a consistent short schedule in the first place considering the majority of my past MMORPG experience had been WoW. Getting major patches 4-5 months apart is still a lot better than getting them 6-14 months apart.

What information have we gotten at past FanFests that we didn't get this time other than a pre-order start date? We shouldn't get every detail in advance. Some should be learned by playing the game.

The cash shop is completely optional. If you think it is predatory, you haven't played any games that have a cash shop that require purchase of a cash shop currency in preset bundles or place power gains in their cash shops. There is nothing predatory about FFXIV cash shop, nor is it the only way to get "the good stuff". There's plenty of good stuff to be earned through game play.

I don't blame you if you have concerns about the track record of the current CEO of SE but I don't see him having much impact on this game.

Play other games that have the true predatory practices for a few months first then see how you feel about FFXIV. I'm perfectly comfortable here because I've seen the predatory crap elsewhere. If things change in this game in the future then I'll reconsider playing it but it's not a concern I have at this time.

The problem comes from the fact that 14 is square Enix’s cash cow and we basically get little back for it,

I don't understand why you feel that way.

What other game gives you more for the same amount of money?

[StarRosie]

TL;DR. If you think FFXIV's cash shop is predatory, I'll show you Lost Ark's.

I'll raise you one better. Elsword. Where you have to buy your second hotbar from the cash shop! NO I AM NOT KIDDING! You get 4 skill slots by default and if you want the other 4, better whip out that credit card! And this isn't account wide by the way, you have to do this for EACH CHARACTER YOU MAKE!

how DO you do it

By ignoring it. None of it is required to play the game. It's all optional. It's not like they sell 24 hour crit boosters that double your crit chance and damage for the day. If it was stuff like that, I'd bang the drums of this being predatory and BS. But as it is now? It's just cosmetics that are optional and in my opinion, a lot of them aren't that great...save for the shoes. Wish I could just buy those separately, but oh well.

[Carin-Eri]

The cash shop is completely optional. If you think it is predatory, you haven't played any games that have a cash shop that require purchase of a cash shop currency in preset bundles or place power gains in their cash shops. There is nothing predatory about FFXIV cash shop, nor is it the only way to get "the good stuff". There's plenty of good stuff to be earned through game play.

I don't blame you if you have concerns about the track record of the current CEO of SE but I don't see him having much impact on this game.

Play other games that have the true predatory practices for a few months first then see how you feel about FFXIV. I'm perfectly comfortable here because I've seen the predatory crap elsewhere. If things change in this game in the future then I'll reconsider playing it but it's not a concern I have at this time.

I don't understand why you feel that way.

What other game gives you more for the same amount of money?

I know whataboutisms tend to be unpopular in discussions like this, but I agree with you.

Having spent over eleven years playing a game that, over those years, slipped from a subscription model to a having a fairly reasonable F2P business model, to one that was, in my view, outright predatory I do wonder how many of those who bemoan FFXIV's cash shop have actually played a MMO with a business model that revolves entirely around gamble boxes with powercreep dangled like a carrot on a stick, but with abysmal odds( which the studio refused to divulge) of winning anything useful and £300 item bundles comprised of three items you really wanted, and six fluff items that you didn't care about to justify increasing the price.

[Rehayem]

Wow I had no idea the type of drama would start here with the game going down for 24h maintenance lol

[ElysiumDragon]

One of the things a lot of NA players don't realise is that they pay roughly 20% more for the exact same cash shop item than other regions. What's $14 for me in EU, is $18 for them in NA.

[SXTC]

I don't have to or want to justify anything to you. Stop playing the game and stop crying. Your troll threads are tiresome and very boring.

I'm confused... Why do you even feel you need to justify yourself when he didn't attack you personally? Why do you disrespectfully call his rant/vent "crying" while doing something similar in how you word it and end up with a disrespectful comment.
Opinions are never "tiresome" or "boring" even if they may be inaccurate or we simply do not agree with them. It's basic human decency to listen & learn or to just "move on" and ignore it rather then making people feel like their opinion doesn't matter.
Lets all remain humane please. I understand it may feel very unpleasant to see a game or company be badgered when you care deeply for them and I also understand that makes one get defensive but lets not go too far to the point where we become the thing we claim to dislike or hate.

All I would say to sindriiisgaming is to word things differently next time knowing that people tend to get upset quite easily based on not having reached that level of maturity where they have their emotions in check and not let it dictate their every word and action.
Because that is how drama is born, make someone feel offended and they grab for pitchforks (figure of speech but still accurate in terms of the impulsive reactions). So please next time word it more neutrally so it doesn't come off like you hate the game or company itself simply because you do not agree with how things are done within SE.

Also if you do not like something its always better to make suggestions on how to change the community for the better. Posting a complaint about it won't make anyone listen n'or are your chances great if you posted suggestions since many things were pre-planned far ahead of times... but sometimes little changes can be adopted when they are in sync with what was already planned so never lose hope, and always try to come to a sollution together. Because that is what SE is known for... They might not listen all the time but when it benefits the community and doesn't endanger income/sales then I'm sure they'll listen... Sometimes you just have to think universal before you'll be heard.

Despite that your message was heard.. and true to some extent but not entirely accurate. So this outcry of yours, despite it being worded a bit too aggressive/angry to everyone's liking (but its forgiven since we all have our weak moments where we need to vent) is about 50% true so its never wise for anyone of us to claim it to be 100% fake news knowing that for 50% it's not. And it's clear your intentions weren't to badmouth the company as a whole but just to express that you think its centered too much at things that do not benefit everyone as a whole. But thats what a good company does.. they look at where they can earn the most money, its how they make sure they continue to exist as a company.

[Stormpeaks]

I don't have to or want to justify anything to you. Stop playing the game and stop crying. Your troll threads are tiresome and very boring.

Reap00 speaking the truth. Second time I have to agree with them because of OP.

Just quit dude, don't worry I'll keep my alt account up to make up for your subscription, we'll all be just fine without you I promise you, life will go on.

Also lol @ the person above going on a wall of text rant defending op when it's obviously a troll thread just like always with op.