Are we destroying "our own" game?

[Balmung_Griffin]

Considering we have "Trusts" for multiplayer content, just stick a "trust" system in place with three options:

"I want to do this minigame (Cul LV 90 required)"
"I want (NPC name) to do this minigame for me"
"I want (NPC name) to do this minigame (RP)" (Normal/Easy)

Problem solved. Then just write the story reflecting how you both did it. This would at least offer the OPTION to do it, and not just fade to black.

Same with the train in DT, could we not... sit in a gunner seat and fire at targets or something? Like there is an entire minigame in the golden saucer that does this.

Honestly, we should do a thread just to discuss things like this.
We have all those jobs and disciplines and the game treats us like complete juniors.

So many times we could have engaging gameplay and the game completely ignores it.

They want people to try minigames, DoL and DoH, well put some different and optional stuff on MSQ using it.

They had us at MSQ with a village having crop problems.
My WoL as freaking Botanist didn't had anything remarkable to say/try/do?

Same thing with the "cooking" part, my brothers and sisters in Hydaelyn, I'm a five star chef, lemme cook.

[Blazen20]

Although everything else in this expansion is great, we have to remember FFXIV is known for having a great story for a MMO. So i think all this complaint of the story being sub-optimal is a fair criticism. I do think the VA is unfairly taking most of the heat, when it should be who ever did the direction/hiring and writing should be blamed. But that can be discused for a later time.

[Oku-1]

During the Endwalker decline, everyone said that Steam charts didn't matter. Now they do. Ultimately, though, you might be right: terrible games can in fact sell many copies. But that requires the franchise to be extremely popular. And despite common knowledge, I don't think Final Fantasy is like Madden or FIFA in terms of popularity. I don't think FFXIV will continue being the world's most-played MMO (source: forums) when the story is utter dog water.

Oh, and Wuk's English acting is pretty bad and you can do whatever you want with that information.

See this is why people on the other thread were telling you to just cancel your sub and go away. You clearly hate the game and are only here because of sunk cost fallacy. If you think the game is so terrible then why are you here? Go do something you find fun instead.

[Havenchild]

It's not hyperbole if it's true. And take a look at the ratings. The "best" comparison anyone has ever actually managed to make puts it as equal to ARR's ratings in one single category. It is, by all measurable metrics, the worst expansion XIV has had.

That would be false. At best, it is at least on par with Stormblood so far. Very few, you could argue, liked the initial MSQ of SB or Lyse as a character. Many of the complaints now were the exact same then. Suddenly we have people looking back at SB as a fantastic expansion when it was arguably the worst MSQ to date, but it was the battle content that ultimately saved it.

We are poised to repeat the same situation with DT but I would argue DT does the split story pacing hella better than SB did in spades. At least with DT, there's a first half and a second half where as with SB, you get ping ponged back and forth between orthard and ala mhigo and never get situated in either long enough to care about the characters of either region. To say SB was better by that metric would be an outright lie.

[Conando]

I mean, if they keep the casual content engaging I don't see myself taking a year long break from it like I did with Endwalker. Yeah story is important, but only for the first month.

[Isala]

Can't speak for the story/battle content of Dawntrail (far from reaching there), but I *have* experienced the new jobs and... I wasn't impressed with either of them really. And for all that time waiting to play female hrothgar, I didn't even last a month before I fantasia'd back to miqo'te because the race has too many restrictions and borked rigging for gear, which if the hair/equipment issues with male hrothgar are anything to go by, it could be *years* before I see improvements (if ever).

I essentially bought this expansion for nothing aside from a level cap increase and a few new skills, and it's not like I *needed* those things right away.

"New" skills... That are basically just "hit button twice instead of once", because they're all transforming...

[Zakuyia]

Depends if ur hinting towards casuals crying about dt difficulty sure. Dt story sucked and the toxic positivity shows but everyone has their own views so too each their own.

[Merrigan]

It's not hyperbole if it's true. And take a look at the ratings. The "best" comparison anyone has ever actually managed to make puts it as equal to ARR's ratings in one single category. It is, by all measurable metrics, the worst expansion XIV has had.

I'm sorry in advance, but you'd have to be naive or acting in bad faith to think that ratings are good judgment tools.

Ratings depend on a lot of things:
- the absence of trolling. We're all familiar with games that are praised by fans, or on the contrary trashed by the anti-something crowd.
- Context. ARR clearly benefits from the ‘game revival’ effect, which, while laudable, must have raised a lot of people's ratings. DT, on the other hand, follows the end of a story arc that many enjoyed. Expectations were inevitably higher.
- And people's personalities. My ‘8/10’ could well be worth your ‘10/10’. There's no scale on these sites - so there's no effective rating. Some also tend to rate on the fly, after a quest that's delighted them, for example; oh, and let's not talk about those who skip the MSQ and only rate the combat content, or the others who focus exclusively on the MSQ and don't even mention the HL.

So no, ratings mean nothing. At best, it provides a vague indicator of what gaming represents at a given time, for a given culture, and for a given audience.

[NeroFlorence]

The latter half of the story was just soured by the first half imo

By that point I was *sick* of Wuk Lamat’s constant need to be attached to our hip everywhere we go. It was a point where if she was on the screen, I’ll just skim over the text and click through everyone’s dialogue before the voice actors could finish reading.

If the 2nd half had focused on Krile, who had large ties to the Golden City. Or had it focus on Erenville and Cachiua, it would've been much more enjoyable. Wuk Lamat just overstayed her welcome.

[Nothv13]

I'm sorry in advance, but you'd have to be naive or acting in bad faith to think that ratings are good judgment tools.

Ratings depend on a lot of things:
- the absence of trolling. We're all familiar with games that are praised by fans, or on the contrary trashed by the anti-something crowd.
- Context. ARR clearly benefits from the ‘game revival’ effect, which, while laudable, must have raised a lot of people's ratings. DT, on the other hand, follows the end of a story arc that many enjoyed. Expectations were inevitably higher.
- And people's personalities. My ‘8/10’ could well be worth your ‘10/10’. There's no scale on these sites - so there's no effective rating. Some also tend to rate on the fly, after a quest that's delighted them, for example; oh, and let's not talk about those who skip the MSQ and only rate the combat content, or the others who focus exclusively on the MSQ and don't even mention the HL.

So no, ratings mean nothing. At best, it provides a vague indicator of what gaming represents at a given time, for a given culture, and for a given audience.

Ratings on a small scale are indeed meaningless. As the number grows however, it does become a decent gauge on how well the item is being received. Further many of these sites that have user reviews actively remove obvious troll reviews. Metacritic has removed something like 1000 negative reviews for DT and it is still only around a 6.3. Further reviews often also contain (yes even the negative reviews) actual feedback. Plus if ratings actually meant nothing, then the game industry would not be putting such emphasis on them and even pay for higher ratings from professionals.