The Negative Impact of Poor Character Writing on the Quality of Dawntrail's MSQ

[noumen0nn]

Thank you for this, genuinely. I don't want to hold ill will toward those who liked the Dawntrail MSQ, but I really worry for what may happen to this game if people continue to be unwilling to criticize it in meaningful ways. So many members of the XIV community fight so hard to make themselves look past glaring flaws out of fear or letting their enjoyment wane; I know because I used to be one of them (granted, Endwalker's flaws are not NEARLY on this level, but the post patches come pretty close). But we need to let Square Enix know that this is unacceptable. I don't know how they can manage to salvage the damage done to the overarching narrative by this expansion, but whatever it is, they have to start NOW, and they can begin by never letting whoever was lead writer this time add so much as a single line of text to the game again.

[Souljacker]

Thank you for this, genuinely. I don't want to hold ill will toward those who liked the Dawntrail MSQ, but I really worry for what may happen to this game if people continue to be unwilling to criticize it in meaningful ways. So many members of the XIV community fight so hard to make themselves look past glaring flaws out of fear or letting their enjoyment wane; I know because I used to be one of them (granted, Endwalker's flaws are not NEARLY on this level, but the post patches come pretty close). But we need to let Square Enix know that this is unacceptable. I don't know how they can manage to salvage the damage done to the overarching narrative by this expansion, but whatever it is, they have to start NOW, and they can begin by never letting whoever was lead writer this time add so much as a single line of text to the game again.

It might not require that level of drastic action, but the direction does need to be reigned back in. SE can't trade on legacy goodwill and laughing at themselves (endless nods) forever, not when other studios are working on real content. They are staring down the barrel of another WoW expac and DAV, both of which have a significant overlap with the playerbase of this game. They needed\need to deliver a more compelling experience to keep people here, and bring them back after the inevitable break to try other those other products.

And right now I don't see a compelling reason to come back, and that worries me. There's so many amazing systems here that other games really should take a lesson from, but SE is its own worst enemy sometimes and can't get out of its own way.