Are we destroying "our own" game?

[Iyrnthota]

Browsing through the forum here and watching Youtube videos I clearly see how people seem super unhappy with the new Expansion.
Playing the game for myself and also in my fc and social groups I did not experience that feedback for quite a while.
I never checked this froum in the past and just came here recently to look for the "community voice" but.. is it really that bad? Are people that mad about DT or was it always like that in the forum? Maybe someone that observed the forum for a few years can tell me.

Generally speaking discussions about media online tend towards the negative, because people are more likely to post about it online if they've got something they want to bitch about.

This forum is no exception, and honestly has a reputation everywhere else as the place to be if you hate the game you can't stop playing.

Case in point:

Can't speak for the rest of everyone else, but the only reason I'm posting here is because I hit a point with DT where I was like "This is absolutely dog water!

Yep. I used to proudly go on about how I'm above posting on the forums and I've never had to come here since the game came out
So much for that!

People who actually enjoy DT are too busy playing it.

I'm just here cause I'm a whore for drama

[Cyllia]

The playerbase has been destroying this game since ARR it's nothing new at this point. Either deal with it or go to another MMO or play another game. I've decided to deal with it until another MMO comes out

[KisaiTenshi]

I personally think DT is fine story wise.. sure it may not be peak epic but I feel like it is quite good. I was entertained especcially for the last part of it.

The content imo is great. It is more entertaining than in the past and we now even can wipe here and there, which is often funny. People are saying it is too hard but idk isnt it exciting to have a look at the boss while doing roulettes? (talking about dungeons)

For the raids it is kind of the same. I dont feel like they are particulary harder than - for example - ShB Normal Raids?

Are here any people that actually enjoy the game? And if not.. where are they? I've heard player counts are looking good, and I tbh can imagine why.

It makes me kind of sad hearing all that stuff about "dungeons too hard for me" "raids too easy for me" "story is bad" "bring back stormblood", I have the feeling people are more and more driven into the mindset "Well if everyone says it is bad.. then it must be bad!" until they actually feel that way.

FFXIV players seem to be in two camps:
Ones that like Stormblood, didn't like anything after it.
Ones that didn't like Stormblood, and have liked HW better, and Shadowbringers/Endwalker being better.

Like you can be honest, there is no reason to hate any specific part of the game, but I put DT on par with ARR in terms of story. It's an okay story, but it doesn't really pique my interest until the entire 7 mcguffin quest was done. I literately felt like I was doing the level 30 "Tales from the Tidus Slayer" quest again, you know the part of ARR that everyone complains about because of the fetch-quest shopping list.

What DT needed was a better plot hook. I feel we were given a plot bait-and-switch because we see a hint with Krile during EW, but Erenville says absolutely nothing about wanting to go back home. We're basically just introduced to Wuk Lamat in a "Hello little buddy, I need to get some friends-I-have-never-met-at-all-and-have-no-connection-to-the-country to help me win an unelected leadership position of said country"

Um... yeah. There was no reason to bring Wuk Lamat into the post EW story except to do the Seasickness jokes immediately off the boat. Who is this Lion lady, and why am I being brought into this silly plot?

To to be perfectly blunt, the game really dropped the ball a few times. Why are we doing a "cooking contest" but not actually doing the cooking, if our WoL is already a level 90 Culinarian. It's stuff like this that makes me shake my head and ask why crafting jobs are completely missing from the MSQ of the game. If you have the right crafter, instead of playing fetch quest, why not just craft the thing needed on the spot? Why not have a botanist actually "gather" materials. Like if you're going to include this stuff in the MSQ, actually pop an optional "job quest" for the player to side-step fetch quests. But just the same, the job quests haven't been particularly amazing since they stopped being job-centric. While I understand why maybe they do this, it makes it feel like "crafting" and "gathering" jobs just end at level 70, and then you're just being a charity thereafter. The most interesting "story" stuff involving crafting are actually the tribe quests, and even then, there is nothing job-specific and it feels like the alchemist and the goldsmith are tasked with making the same item which makes no sense at all.

[LilimoLimomo]

I have the feeling people are more and more driven into the mindset "Well if everyone says it is bad.. then it must be bad!" until they actually feel that way.

I recommend asking yourself why you find it so hard to believe that other people would form opinions that are different than yours. People have different opinions on the same thing all the time, especially when it comes to art. Different lived experiences and different preferences lead to different interpretations. People having different opinions is not a new or weird phenomenon that needs a theory to explain it; it is so common as to be banal.

[FuturePastNow]

Imagine caring what streamers think.

[AddictedToWitches]

New expansion releases > people complain > complaints die down as expansion hype dies down > new expansion is announced > new expansion releases > people complain. . .

[Keumjo]

It just feels like there is a noticeable lack of quality with the execution of this expansion.

The story felt weird. While the story isn't always perfect, it at least feels somewhat cohesive and this plot is all over the place, characters aren't acting like themselves, very wild pacing throughout the whole thing (which isn't particularly new but for some reason really stands out this time). Some of the voiced lines sounded lower quality than other voiced lines, and this isn't a complaint about the voice acting, it's about the sound mixing/editing. Some of our new armors just did away with worrying about tails/ears at all when historically it felt like they at least tried, even if they were discriminatory to a third of their races.

For a company and team that has so prided themselves on their quality and care, this expansion just feels so incomplete and unpolished. I'm wondering if the graphics overhaul was maybe more work than they anticipated and maybe that's why it feels this way.

Or maybe I'm wrong!

In regards to who is "destroying" the game? Well, I don't think there is an easy answer for that. FF MMO's tend to follow non-standard MMO structures, for better and for worse.

[Bonoki]

Imagine caring what streamers think.

What they think carries more weight than what we think.

New expansion releases > people complain > complaints die down as expansion hype dies down > new expansion is announced > new expansion releases > people complain. . .

Not sure what this comment is trying to prove.

[EponaTBHSMH]

Feedback is great, it's pretty much the opposite of destroying the game,but we have to just hope that SE filters through all that and picks the good ones

[CidHeiral]

People don't usually come on the official forum to say "great job!" They come here to complain, so it's going to make the feedback on pretty much anything look largely negative.

Dawntrail has its issues but on the whole I'd say it's been a pretty good expansion so far.