It's wild how indifferent I feel after DT for the first time in 11 years.

[Router]

How could anyone be excited when the game is, for all intents and purposes, in maintenance mode? New "content" is just shit we've done before with all the same rules and mechanics shuffled around. Every expac has the same features on release, with the same shitty outdated FATE system that everyone hates presented as the main post-MSQ gameplay loop. Oh boy, I wonder what the FATEs in this zone will be like? AoE down 10 enemies that barely do anything other than autoattack? How fun! Is anyone really excited about running yet another reskinned DD? Every job change is either completely pointless or actively makes the job worse (catering to that one idiot on the JP forums who does not play the job but complains that it is too "busy"). I am doing the exact same things at launch that I was doing back in Shadowbringers 5 years ago. There's no growth or attempt at growth. YoshiP is a lazy twat who wants to feed us the same content over and over and make an easy profit -- and god forbid we ask for things to be better! He will tell us that it will take a "lot of resources" and that he will "think about it," treating us like we're being unreasonable for wanting the game's quality to match the amount of money it makes. Awful.

[BabyYoda]

How could anyone be excited when the game is, for all intents and purposes, in maintenance mode? New "content" is just shit we've done before with all the same rules and mechanics shuffled around. Every expac has the same features on release, with the same shitty outdated FATE system that everyone hates presented as the main post-MSQ gameplay loop. Oh boy, I wonder what the FATEs in this zone will be like? AoE down 10 enemies that barely do anything other than autoattack? How fun! Is anyone really excited about running yet another reskinned DD? Every job change is either completely pointless or actively makes the job worse (catering to that one idiot on the JP forums who does not play the job but complains that it is too "busy"). I am doing the exact same things at launch that I was doing back in Shadowbringers 5 years ago. There's no growth or attempt at growth. YoshiP is a lazy twat who wants to feed us the same content over and over and make an easy profit -- and god forbid we ask for things to be better! He will tell us that it will take a "lot of resources" and that he will "think about it," treating us like we're being unreasonable for wanting the game's quality to match the amount of money it makes. Awful.

"lot of resources" isn't an argument when there is an NFT project.. spending millions to a product no one know how to sell it and Mr. Yoshi have this non sense excuse

[sharplysurreal]

yeah tbh I think i'm getting off the ff14 train. Starting in ARR it was fun to see how this amazing new game would grow and develop and where it would go but as of now im pretty disgusted if i'm being honest. Dawntrail was an insult to anyone with a brain and the incessant and rampant use of 3rd party sex mods by loser dudes looking at big catgirl booba or some bunny girl with a giant penis being the norm is also kind of a joke.

[Striker44]

When peoples go from anger to apathy, that when game starts to has real troubles. Mao curious though as to how many peoples feel this way. Mao has no idea if this big problem or little problem.

It's a little problem, on the micro (individual) level rather than the macro (playerbase) level. Macro-level data shows that DT is retaining active players at the same rate as every other expansion, and with a population 3-4 times what it was in the HW/SB era and 1.5 times what it was in the ShB era. In-game, hunt trains are still constantly huge even on off-hours, there's typically around 150 High-End duties recruiting, FATE trains running in DT zones every night. Simply put, the game is very healthy right now. But generally speaking, the people who are satisfied and having fun rarely come to the forums to speak about it, so we don't "recognize" them unless we're looking. Instead, we only tend to hear from those who have burnt out.

Take our OP here. He's been playing for over 10 years straight. The typical person will work ~12 different jobs during their career, changing jobs (environments) about every 4 years or so. That's not trying to equate playing a game with working a job, but just pointing out that natural human desire for change over time. Someone could make literally the best video game ever made, and people will still eventually get tired of it. It's just human nature. It sounds like the OP might just need to move on to a different game, at least for now.

How could anyone be excited when the game is, for all intents and purposes, in maintenance mode?

If you want credibility, post credibly. In case you're just throwing around a buzzword you heard somewhere with no clue what it actually means, "maintenance mode" is when a game is no longer actively adding new content. FFXIV just dropped an entire new expansion with 60+ hours of content, plus the Raid tier, plus steady plans for the Alliance raids, exploration zone, successive tiers, etc.. It is "literally" the complete opposite of "maintenance mode." What you're describing is a game sticking with the same formula for designing and releasing content that it has found success with throughout its lifetime. You might find said formula repetitive or boring, while others might find it something they continue to enjoy. And that's okay. But throwing around buzzwords with zero connection to reality doesn't get you listened to by anyone that matters.

[Aneshda]

The MSQ took almost 5 weeks until I could get myself to play through this bullshit. I did the dungeons once and I have no desire to do them again. The same goes for the trials. I did the first 3 bosses of the raid and then I had no motivation to continue. I've always done everything in all the expansions. I even spent days collecting materials for the new armor (God I swear, the new craftable armor is abysmally ugly). This time I can't even get used to starting anything at all. I haven't even collected tokens every week, I've become so indifferent to this expansion. I don't know what to do at the moment. But I'm tired of farming armor that I like in every expansion, only to throw it away in the next expansion because I don't have any more space. Retainers are OK as sellers, but not as storage for almost everything. They have far too few slots and they cost real money. Other games have huge banks, guild banks, material warehouses, glamour warehouses... in this game they always just say "it doesn't work because of..." We players pay so much money every year for disappointments, excuses and promises that are then not kept.

- Big graphics update: Elpis is now really ugly, with this purple grass. Most of the faces don't look nice. The hair and bodies have of course not received an update. Old maps have only received minimal changes. So much for the big graphics update. I know that more is coming gradually, but why advertise a game with a big graphics update when it was just a fart in the wind?

- Yes, we can now release Garlean equipment, the plot is over... we wait and wait and wait... nothing is happening.

- Zenos is not coming back. Great, and where is my minion, portrait, Zenos plushie? While we're at it, don't forget Lahabrea and Elidibus. If Dawntrail is so awful, then I at least want to stare at the wall in my apartment with my stuffed Zenos in my arms, where his picture should hang, which doesn't exist yet. I also want to have Gaius and Nero portraits and a stuffed Gaius and a stuffed Nero. They can then sit at my table with Zenos, having tea and cookies.

[DynnDiablos]

The MSQ took almost 5 weeks until I could get myself to play through this bullshit. I did the dungeons once and I have no desire to do them again. The same goes for the trials. I did the first 3 bosses of the raid and then I had no motivation to continue. I've always done everything in all the expansions. I even spent days collecting materials for the new armor (God I swear, the new craftable armor is abysmally ugly). This time I can't even get used to starting anything at all. I haven't even collected tokens every week, I've become so indifferent to this expansion. I don't know what to do at the moment. But I'm tired of farming armor that I like in every expansion, only to throw it away in the next expansion because I don't have any more space. Retainers are OK as sellers, but not as storage for almost everything. They have far too few slots and they cost real money. Other games have huge banks, guild banks, material warehouses, glamour warehouses... in this game they always just say "it doesn't work because of..." We players pay so much money every year for disappointments, excuses and promises that are then not kept.

- Big graphics update: Elpis is now really ugly, with this purple grass. Most of the faces don't look nice. The hair and bodies have of course not received an update. Old maps have only received minimal changes. So much for the big graphics update.
I know that more is coming gradually, but why advertise a game with a big graphics update when it was just a fart in the wind?

- Yes, we can now release Garlean equipment, the plot is over... we wait and wait and wait... nothing is happening.

- Zenos is not coming back. Great, and where is my minion, portrait, Zenos plushie? While we're at it, don't forget Lahabrea and Elidibus. If Dawntrail is so awful, then I at least want to stare at the wall in my apartment with my stuffed Zenos in my arms, where his picture should hang, which doesn't exist yet. I also want to have Gaius and Nero portraits and a stuffed Gaius and a stuffed Nero. They can then sit at my table with Zenos, having tea and cookies.

To be honest, I dislike the new zones so much I refuse to even go into them except for Solution 9, which is just so poorly designed and empty. I pretty much stay at my house and queue for dailies, then craft/gather etc. The DT story was just so poorly written it sucked the life right out of the game for me.

[Jeeqbit]

I agree that there isn't quite as much to be curious or excited for as in ARR, where I was curious "what is that big castle, will we go there?", the constant teaser of Little Ala Mhigo being like "will we go there?", the constant talk of garleans being like "when will we go to Garlemald?", the constant talk of Sharlayan being like "will we go there?" and the constant reminder of the Allagans and Ascian secrets.

There are a few things though, mainly Meracydia and the new content they have planned (Shades' Triangle, tribal quests, cosmic exploration, FF11 crossover), but it's not quite the uncertainty you had from ARR now that everything has been wrapped up.

How could anyone be excited when the game is, for all intents and purposes, in maintenance mode? New "content" is just shit we've done before with all the same rules and mechanics shuffled around.

There's a difference between maintenance mode and consistency. Maintenance mode would mean no new FATEs or raids or anything; consistency means they will add those things but they follow a consistent formula.

Is anyone really excited about running yet another reskinned DD?

Not even SE is, which is why they discontinued it in Shadowbringers and announced it would work differently in Dawntrail.

treating us like we're being unreasonable for wanting the game's quality to match the amount of money it makes.

Well he has said he will try and also try to unlock more budget. I remember it from the media tour interviews where he addressed this exact sentiment.

[Router]

If you want credibility, post credibly. In case you're just throwing around a buzzword you heard somewhere with no clue what it actually means, "maintenance mode" is when a game is no longer actively adding new content. FFXIV just dropped an entire new expansion with 60+ hours of content, plus the Raid tier, plus steady plans for the Alliance raids, exploration zone, successive tiers, etc.. It is "literally" the complete opposite of "maintenance mode." What you're describing is a game sticking with the same formula for designing and releasing content that it has found success with throughout its lifetime. You might find said formula repetitive or boring, while others might find it something they continue to enjoy. And that's okay. But throwing around buzzwords with zero connection to reality doesn't get you listened to by anyone that matters.

If you want to be preachy about the meaning of words, look up what "for all intents and purposes" means. I am not saying it's literally maintenance mode, but it may as well be since we're only receiving template copy-and-paste content at this point (YoshiP has even admitted to this when discussing how dungeons are made!). It's one thing to list all of the content Dawntrail is "adding", but it's deflated when you realize that the raid tiers aren't doing anything new, the alliance raids won't do anything new, the new exploration zone will be a Bozja reskin, the new DD will be an EO reskin, etc. Sadly the most unique thing we're getting is a 24-man savage, which will probably end up being a DRS clone anyway. I agree that a certain amount of attrition is natural for games, but at some point FFXIV is going to run out of new players to draw in and will need to put in the bare minimum effort to retain players if it wants to survive. Most MMOs put in more effort keep player retention up and add exciting new concepts every expansion, why does XIV feel like it can afford to be different?
Whenever someone claims the game is alive because it's technically receiving new content, I look at FFXI and the fact that it also has received new story and battle content up until last year. But no one will really argue with you if you say it's been practically dead for a long time now. I fear XIV is going in much the same direction.

Not even SE is, which is why they discontinued it in Shadowbringers and announced it would work differently in Dawntrail.

Was EO so bad that we forgot it existed? Lmao

[RinaB]

I feel the same this xpac. Today I got my new helmet and wasn't even excited about it. I used to love getting a new piece and being like "this week I'll have my X", now I'm kind of doing it because I have to? The tome gear costs way to much considering how you need to augmented every piece later on essentially double grinding for the pieces only to replace them in the next patch of content. Yet another thing people have been complaining about that hasn't been addressed. Poetics....don't even get me started. They don't want to change anything and if players like myself aren't burnt out, I think we are burnt out on their formula for gearing. Also, telling players there will be job changes in 8.0 is kind of a slap in the face considering how bad of state some jobs are in right now that don't even require entire reworks to fix. So you're saying I need to pay my sub and go through 2 years of content I may or may not like, buy the next expac, get to 110 and then see if my job is fixed or not? Doesn't take a genius to see how flawed that is.

[Jeeqbit]

Was EO so bad that we forgot it existed? Lmao

No. What I said was correct. They discontinued it in Shadowbringers. They brought it back in Endwalker (EO) due to popular demand. They felt the same way about it, that it wasn't different enough, so they are going to make it different somehow in Dawntrail they said. They haven't been clear exactly how though.