speak with your wallet if you feel unheard

[Jojoya]

I think there's a pretty big gulf between an actual "strategy" game like Civilization VI where you plan your game hours in advance and wanting more than one button to push in an action game.

You have more than one button to push.

This isn't an action game. It's a role-playing game where combat is just one of many activities.

It's rather ironic that this game actually has more buttons you need to push than most action games and yet you pretend there is only one button to push.

[Zaniel]

You have more than one button to push.

This isn't an action game. It's a role-playing game where combat is just one of many activities.

It's rather ironic that this game actually has more buttons you need to push than most action games and yet you pretend there is only one button to push.

People here are acting like complete mental cases. They'll all still be there playing though, alongside the 24 million players who don't even know the address of this forum.

[Malthir]

People here are acting like complete mental cases. They'll all still be there playing though, alongside the 24 million players who don't even know the address of this forum.

I'm a sucker that pre ordered so I'll play for the first week complete the story just to get my money out of it then unsub, 3 expac of crap is enough for me.

[Boblawblah]

I'm a sucker that pre ordered so I'll play for the first week complete the story just to get my money out of it then unsub, 3 expac of crap is enough for me.

You're not a sucker, you just had hope that it would be something more to your liking and it looks like it might not be. The fact that you're willing to dip out is a good thing. imo, that's the only thing that will affect change.

[Malthir]

You're not a sucker, you just had hope that it would be something more to your liking and it looks like it might not be. The fact that you're willing to dip out is a good thing. imo, that's the only thing that will affect change.

Sadly it wont, they have a system of not having forum posts if you're not subbed. This creates a positive feedback loop to all their changes, because eventually only the die hard yes-men stay and post. Then when sub figures do decline, they have no way of knowing what their playerbases actually wanted because they have no reasonable means of interacting with the players that have dipped. Locked forums on subs is a terrible idea from a quality perspective. This is the reason why WoW is struggling so hard to sort out their game, they have no real idea what their playerbase want to get them back because they have no engagement with them anymore.

[AnimalsALot]

Sadly it wont, they have a system of not having forum posts if you're not subbed. This creates a positive feedback loop to all their changes, because eventually only the die hard yes-men stay and post. Then when sub figures do decline, they have no way of knowing what their playerbases actually wanted because they have no reasonable means of interacting with the players that have dipped. Locked forums on subs is a terrible idea from a quality perspective. This is the reason why WoW is struggling so hard to sort out their game, they have no real idea what their playerbase want to get them back because they have no engagement with them anymore.

But this isn't an issue because of locked forums. No one has a reason to stay on /r/ffxiv if they already quit the game. It's the same everywhere. If they want genuine feedback they need to find lapsed players in other games, and boy, when you play other MMOs and find FF14 refugees, there are a lot of complaints.

[Striker44]

Sadly it wont, they have a system of not having forum posts if you're not subbed. This creates a positive feedback loop to all their changes, because eventually only the die hard yes-men stay and post.

Umm, have you read this forum? It's practically an echo chamber of negativity outside of times like when new benchmarks get released and we get flooded with those posts. Try posting something positive here and watch the cabal swarm you for daring to speak good of this game...

Then when sub figures do decline, they have no way of knowing what their playerbases actually wanted because they have no reasonable means of interacting with the players that have dipped.

Actually, they do. You can post for up to 2 weeks after your last login, and anyone who actually uses the forums has a good chance of posting before they leave. Once people do leave...who wants to go back and post afterward? The dev team has far more data available on engagement numbers and the like than we'll ever imagine. If people leave in any meaningful numbers, they'll have a good idea why.

If they want genuine feedback they need to find lapsed players in other games, and boy, when you play other MMOs and find FF14 refugees, there are a lot of complaints.

Well, of course there will be a lot of complaints. You're sampling specifically those who have left the game. There's also plenty of genuine positive feedback through the data they have and, if nothing else, general sub numbers. If I play any game and find "refugees" from another game, I'd expect them to say something negative about the game they left. It doesn't mean the game itself needs to change anything if they're still charting in the positive direction (as FFXIV is doing).

I remember back in ARR when doing dungeons the group had to plan the pulls ahead and utilize spells like Sleep to make it so the encounters wouldn't run amok.
This kind of tactical thinking is not something that should be considered "too much" when it comes to an MMORPG imo.
I miss those days, now it's just braindead wall-to-wall pulls and mashing buttons.

I hate to say it, but this is a "living in the past" kind of thing. Society has moved on, mainly because of the core demographic. Back 10-20 years ago, the primary MMO gamers were teenagers, college kids, and young adults with lots of time on their end. Today? It's the same people, except now they're primarily adults with families and full-time careers. They as a general group don't have the time nor the inclination for "complex" design or artificial slowdowns (which, in the end, is all needing to CC certain mobs did). They want a game they can play after a long day at work and just kick back, relax, have simple fun, and feel like they're making progress on something.

[Reimmi]

You have more than one button to push.

This isn't an action game. It's a role-playing game where combat is just one of many activities.

It's rather ironic that this game actually has more buttons you need to push than most action games and yet you pretend there is only one button to push.

I assume they're a healer main
and its definitely almost true. press your dot, spam 1 button because this game doesn't need healing often enough for you to have a healing rotation

[LianaThorne]

I assume they're a healer main
and its definitely almost true. press your dot, spam 1 button because this game doesn't need healing often enough for you to have a healing rotation

SCH in dungeon hallways:
Slap Excog on tank -> AoE spam

SCH in bosses:
Slap Excog on tank -> DoT -> Broil spam

If running with a WAR, only spam attacks since healing is literally irrelevant with their AoE heals + shields.

So much fun

[Galvuu]

This isn't an action game. It's a role-playing game where combat is just one of many activities.

I'm not gonna bother with the general discussion (although I agree with the general sentiment that combat in this game has grown stale and very unrewarding), but I want to focus on this one aspect.

FFXIV is awful as a role-playing game. There's is a plethora of small things the game could do to enhance its core role-playing aspects. Aside from the (already mentioned) nonexistent customization, from a pure roleplay perspective, the game is still awful.
XIV could offer a myriad things- dialogue and cutscenes that are customizable based on your leveled jobs- something as simple as the often requested healing jobs actually healing injured people in cutscenes, but different animations when interacting with an enemy (instead of everyone punching Zenos in a certain cutscene, have a distinct animation for every combat job), or slightly branching story quests/dialogues (for example, grant me the option, if I have crafters leveled, to help Cid built whatever plot device machine he's working on for the MSQ by doing some EX crafts). It irks me to no end that my character, an omni-caster, omni-healer and omni-crafter with 4k Intelligence, apparently cannot, in any capacity, meaningfully contribute to any conversation about aether, or magic, or Allagan relics, or anything at all. The last time I remember anything like this, it was a single line in a dialogue with Urianger about the weather in ShB.
XIV also has no affection system whatsoever (not even necessarily romantic- imagine if, due to high affection with Allisae or Estinien, a cutscene changes and one of them intervenes to block a blow aimed at my character, or something like that), and the few dialogue choices you're given have absolute no impact (imagine if branching dialogue led to two different single player trials with slightly different outcomes). I know XIV is constrained due to being an MMO, but the narrative roleplaying this game offers me is literally on the same ballpark as what was offered by Pokemon Red/Blue on the Gameboy 27 years ago.
I'm not asking for BG3-levels of roleplay here, but there are so many little things that the game could do to help me feel more immersed in my character and the world.
And this is all made worse by the fact the only role you play 99% of the time is tied to combat. That's the "role-playing" XIV offers- go kill this, go beat that. So, if the combat suffers, the small angle I have in terms of roleplaying suffers more.

Comparisons to ttrpgs are a bit silly because those games are much more customizable and offer a breadth of rules for social interaction or explorative, open-ended content. People complain DnD only focuses on the combat pillar (and it's true, 80% of the rules in that system are about combat), but XIV only has emotes, glamour (which is quite limited) and the adventurer plates. Sure, people can role-play by using the game as a medium for improv acting or role-playing, but that can be done in almost any medium... it can even do with no medium at all.
I genuinely think this is one of the most neglected aspects and untapped areas of potential in XIV, and it irks me to no end...