Yoshii P wants to know why people are leaving

[DynnDiablos]

Well, I am stuck due to two houses otherwise I'd login on patch day, do the 1 hour of MSQ, run new raid once, then unsub until next patch.

[Derio]

Huge Job identity crisis. Lvl 100 didnt really feel impactful like it should since they chose encounter design over job identity since jobs would be much more effort involved.

MSQ rubbed alot of people the wrong way which was probably way worse than Stormblood. Stormblood people were upset but not this upset with the MSQ so the 7.X content and MSQ has to deliver.

Lack of midcore content at launch of an expansion and sometimes not until the X.25 or X.35 patch. This is the big killer because right now its just savage or nothing. Nothing in the middle to keep players busy and we saw that in EW with the lackluster of content outside of savage and criterion.

For a new player the game is great. But for players who came in during shadowbringers and prior the game may start to feel flat for them.

[OgruMogru]

I will say I'm surprised by how many people claim to be leaving because DT's story was bad. In my experience, for nearly every player I've met, the story is an ultimately negligible part of total play time. Are there that many people out there who a.) basically just do the MSQ then stop playing, or b.) let enjoyment of the story keep them playing long after the story is behind them? Genuinely curious about that one.

I've been playing since 2.4, my priorities in game are not limited to MSQ - the things I actually care about the most is raiding and glam but I have also up until DT cared a lot about story and lore and put a lot of time and energy into being invested in it and the wider context and reasons it gives me for being in the game at all. DT - within a week - undid almost a decade of build-up, interest and good will. I found it so disagreeable that it is literally tainting my opinion of everything else by association. I feel like the presentation, execution and taste level of DT was so poor it has a left a veneer of shit over everything else and no matter where I hold my head I'm catching wafts of poop.

[TemporalFruitsAndVeggies]

I've been playing since 2.4, my priorities in game are not limited to MSQ - the things I actually care about the most is raiding and glam but I have also up until DT cared a lot about story and lore and put a lot of time and energy into being invested in it and the wider context and reasons it gives me for being in the game at all. DT - within a week - undid almost a decade of build-up, interest and good will. I found it so disagreeable that it is literally tainting my opinion of everything else by association. I feel like the presentation, execution and taste level of DT was so poor it has a left a veneer of shit over everything else and no matter where I hold my head I'm catching wafts of poop.

Fair enough. I personally thought Endwalker was even worse than DT, for several reasons, but for me, once I get through the story I usually just whine about it for awhile, then forget about it until the next expac comes out. I only pay half-attention to the patch stories, because they've all been so uninteresting that they barely even warrant commentary.

[Volgia]

I will say I'm surprised by how many people claim to be leaving because DT's story was bad. In my experience, for nearly every player I've met, the story is an ultimately negligible part of total play time. Are there that many people out there who a.) basically just do the MSQ then stop playing, or b.) let enjoyment of the story keep them playing long after the story is behind them? Genuinely curious about that one.

I was surprised too, cuz I find the story to be inconsequential and kind of boring to experience. Little to no gameplay, an overrealiance on cutscenes, a lot of them unvoiced, mindless types of quests, just me wishing to get to the dungeon so I get to feel like I'm playing my character.

But there is a lot of people who like expansions as kind of anime episode bombs, they call 'em MSQ andies I think, and so what has them hooked is on a "What's going to happen next" in the MSQ / Raid / 24 mans, so I think that's where they are coming from.

[CuteBucket]

I will say I'm surprised by how many people claim to be leaving because DT's story was bad. In my experience, for nearly every player I've met, the story is an ultimately negligible part of total play time. Are there that many people out there who a.) basically just do the MSQ then stop playing, or b.) let enjoyment of the story keep them playing long after the story is behind them? Genuinely curious about that one.

The reason I started playing this game to begin with was the story. I previously had little interest in MMORPGs after trying a few in the early/mid 00s and finding their worlds and stories boring and their gameplay tedious, but I've generally liked the Final Fantasy series. I had two friends pester me on and off for a few YEARS to try the game before I finally gave in, because they promised it wasn't as annoying to play as old MMOs and that the world and story was actually really good. So I did the original free trial up to level 30, and was surprised to find myself actually having fun and enjoying Eorzea, so I subbed and kept playing. Then I got to Shadowbringers and realized I was in deep with how much I loved the story. I DEVOURED every side story and side quest, bought the encyclopedias, made a backstory and lore for my characters, started writing again for the first time in years, found a community through that writing of other players, and started doing group content with them. Endlwalker, though it had it's issues, still kept that fascination with the world going. I started doing more and more types of harder content because at the heart of it, I loved the world building and story telling and I wanted to see and experience all of it.

So yeah, for someone like me, Dawntrail's abysmal story is a huge blow to my enjoyment of the game. Yes, I still play for now because I find the raids fun (and thankfully the Arcadion raid's story is already more interesting to me than anything that happened in the MSQ), but the story and the characters and the world were at the heart of why I started playing in the first place and why I stuck around all these years. But because the story and world building of Tural and Solution 9 is so vapid to actively bad, it saps my motivation to log in and play. Every time I get a Dawntrail dungeon in roulettes, it's full of bad memories of the terrible plot that brought me there, vs getting older dungeons where it's full of happy memories of how much fun I was having when I got to that part of the story. I don't go and hang out in the new cities because there's no happy memories there, just annoyance with how many times I had to talk to Wuk Lamat or Lobotomized Interchangeable Scion in the area to progress the boring plot along.

[Altera]

For me, the main reason I would ever quit, is the poor state of BLM. I have played since 1.0 so I can tolerate weak story, little content to do etc. But BLM has always been fun to play for me except how Dawntrail changes are atm. It feels more clunky than ever, and 1.0 BLM played sorta like BRDs. Spam Thunder until proc which activated Thundara, and if that also procced Thundaga and again proc, Burst activated
And when using Burst, you would use Convert which swapped your current HP for MP. The less HP you had, the more damage Burst would hit for. Spend all MP, use Convert from max HP to 1 HP and full MP + Burst before healers freaked out and instahealed you xD
It was a fun and risky if used at the wrong time if a roomwide aoe happen just as you Converted to 1HP xD

I will see if they have any decent BLM changes in the next PLL. If I am happy, I will continue. If not, it will be the first time in my 13+ years with constant subscription to stop it :/

[Jojoya]

Well, I am stuck due to two houses otherwise I'd login on patch day, do the 1 hour of MSQ, run new raid once, then unsub until next patch.

You're not stuck anymore. Demolition on the NA worlds will probably be suspended for at least 3 months. Unsub, go into your house just before your game time runs out and you should be good until almost 7.2. You can do the 7.1 content then just as easily as you'd be able to do it when 7.1 is released.

[Banriikku]

I will not leave but the reason i heard from 2 friends are:

1. Story is not only not their taste it is written for little kids with plot holes and toxic or nonsense behavior that is unbelievable and breaks immersion
2. Very little PVE casual content
3. Almost no replay value and extreme repetition on all fronts
4. QuoL feature only half baked/ unfinished or even in a semi buggy shape
5. Changing design instead of "upgrading" it

That are the reasons and IF anyone in SE HQ would play, they would see this. The repeat in quest design should be a problem in the "prototyping phase" but was accepted for some reason. The replay value of content was reduced to nothing the should be noticed at some point or the fact that classes are reduced to the role and even that is reduced to "pure dps, aggro dps and ogc-heal-dps" should be something they noticed. All Job identity is gone - no exaggeration - and only the diffrent vfx is there. QuoL features are slow and only partly implemented for no reason. The story itself has plotholes - this is not about wukwuk bad, even if this is in my opinion true. The story says "X" only to contradict itself in the next text with or cutscene with the statement "Y" for the same thing/person/plac/ect or the statement "1+1=A" exist besides "1+1=B" as a paradox without explanation. Technical disruptions are the cherry on top to make the decision seemingly easy. All of thet could be avoided and worked on but SE decided "not worth it" it seems.

I will stay until the end of the story, if they do not change i will leave and so probably my FC. This will not change or mean much but i have the feeling many others share the same sentiment. We will see.

Disclaimer: This is my OPINION and how i view the situation and understood what my friends said to me.

[Connor]

It’s easy to know why people are leaving because you don’t even need to ask ‘why did they leave?’, simply ‘what is there to stay for?’.

The answer, sadly, is extremely little, outside of people using the game as a social IMVU type game. Or idk making modbeasts? ( lol ). It sure as hell isn’t the fun engaging content or unique and meaningful job designs