Melbourne International games week Interview about content

[DivineP]

I have played since ARR so here is my input to Yoshi's "Please don't retire"

I have seen multiple things content wise from overturned stuff in HW to SBs difficulty curve then to SHB/EW/DTs faceroll.

I personally love dungeons, I always have enjoyed playing with others for no reward other than a chance at a minion from a last boss and some green items for GC seals. The Minion aspect was destroyed with the GC minion boxes. I thought that was poorly done. Not only did it crash the minions on the MBoard it took away a little chance of me thinking "ohhh I got x minion amd it's worth x!" And having that little bit of adrenaline rush.

Then we come to Eureka, I LOVED grouping with random in a FF11 style Zone. That got echoed.

Same with TG Cid - loads of wipes, loads of learning, loads on chat about strats. Echoed.

I farmed DR cause I loved it and a chance at a 15M hairstyle in a content lull and the adrenaline rush i got 3(think it was around covid) - Let's put it in Zadnor.. so now noone ques for this chance of rare hair and ppl ask for it to be in a roulette.

EW was the content lull extravaganza for me. I did do IS but it felt like I was playing alone in a MMO! Luckily I had the Mentor Roulettes to do so that kept me busy.

Now we have DT. Seriously, I love the story and have always enjoyed watching cutscenes. I skipped the 1st half with Wuk, 2nd half kept my attention but it was too short.

Now in DT I have done all I wanted to do, I adore the Moogle Events so I was super happy until I saw CT, AGAIN! I'm sorry but if you think I'm running CT/50s/whatever else with 3 buttons for a month while I wait AGAIN for something to do, you have no chance.

I've unsuited, ends in 3 days 7.1 doesn't have any longevity either so I won't be back for that either. I'll be looking at the mew exploration zone but if it's easier than aglaia I'm staying away.

I understand ppl find group content hard especially the msq stuff but I was under the impression trusts were for that?

I really wish CBU3 would deviate from the stale formula they used over and over again and I hope this decline really wakes them up and they realise us veterans are a little fed up. I play a MMO to play an MMO with others not all this solo IS, Trust in option Dungeons stuff.

Just glad I got my PS5 platinum trophy to remember the days that I was actually having fun.

[Brightamethyst]

I really wish CBU3 would deviate from the stale formula they used over and over again and I hope this decline really wakes them up and they realise us veterans are a little fed up.

Yeah. People love to rag on WoW for reworking practically the entire game every couple of expansions, but that's how you keep things fresh, and why so many people still play it this many years later. In FFXIV it often feels like we're still just playing HW part-5, and for the long time veterans, that's super boring.

[Avoidy]

He's only saying this because he sees the writing on the wall. 7.0 to 7.1 has been a stretch of people quitting. The midway content offered nothing but a savage raid tier, which... even if you do raid, this game is designed so that you're only incentivized to do it once a week. Crafting was another thing we got, but bots and undercutters ruined that real quick. God help you if you were casual or (for lack of a better word) "midcore" because what did you even have at that point? The same two extremes we've had since 7.0? Expert roulette? It was pretty dry, and a lot of people left as a result. Someone'll inevitably say "it's always been this way," and you're right, but I guess it's hitting a tipping point.

And now we're getting 7.1 and what's that gonna bring? More of the mediocre MSQ. A single alliance raid... and honestly, if it's made by the same people who did euphrosyne and thaleia, it'll be clearable hour 1 with no wipes and become a joke within a day. Furthermore, timegated loot means you'll probably run it once a week unless there's a glam you're after. It's not a lot. And then they're like, "oh, chaotic alliance raid!" but really it's looking like one alliance raid boss. And the boss they picked for .1 is a boss from the most overdone alliance raid series of all time. We heard you liked crystal tower, so here's some more crystal tower. And that's it, bro! That's it for 4 more months! Please don't retire! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease don't retire.

[Tint]

If they don't want us to retire they should do something to prevent that from happening. They should pump out an ARR / HW style relic quest for starters. Just slap a particle effect on the AF weapons and let us run existing content for it.

That would be an easy emergency solution which could be ready for 7.1 to get us something to do.

[Daralii]

He's only saying this because he sees the writing on the wall. 7.0 to 7.1 has been a stretch of people quitting. The midway content offered nothing but a savage raid tier, which... even if you do raid, this game is designed so that you're only incentivized to do it once a week. Crafting was another thing we got, but bots and undercutters ruined that real quick. God help you if you were casual or (for lack of a better word) "midcore" because what did you even have at that point? The same two extremes we've had since 7.0? Expert roulette? It was pretty dry, and a lot of people left as a result. Someone'll inevitably say "it's always been this way," and you're right, but I guess it's hitting a tipping point.

The counterpoint to "It's always been this way" is that we used to get more content more frequently. They started reducing the number of capstone dungeons per patch a long time ago(it used to be a completely new one and an incorrectly named hard mode), and then have been gradually stretching the patches out more and more.

[MAJRIS]

He's only saying this because he sees the writing on the wall.

Is it truly on the CBU's side or rather than SE itself that keeps holding CBU's budget on short leash?

[ovIm]

Is it truly on the CBU's side or rather than SE itself that keeps holding CBU's budget on short leash?

Possibly both. Seeing how CBU3 has to still ask for budget to use on FFXIV (which, in and out of itself is a travesty already), and Yoshi-P, who is literally on the board of directors apparently not changing that status quo for whatever reason.

This is of course just an assumption of mine based on observations, and should not be taken as a fact.

[Elkanah]

This whole "please don't retire/please dont unsub" reminds me of 1.0 all over again. Gettin nam flashbacks (except the game's actually not on its last leg and damn near broken lol)

[Valence]

Since some have already recounted their own stories, I guess I could indulge, even though no, I am not quitting. I am not quitting because I found a renewed enjoyment in 6.1 pvp and crystalline conflict, and I do wonder what would have happened to me and this game were this not coming out of the blue, unexpectedly. I have a house with months of hard work on invaluable submarines keeping me quietly on a leash, and am seriously invested into some community aspects that are hard to forego. It has taken a big place in my daily life and it's as simple as that, as MMOs can do.

I have started playing at the release of HW. I am part of the old guard and have been progressively and more consistently part of the "hardcore" community of players, which is obviously a sheer minority. I have been involved in the balance that I was offered mentorship, I have seen the casual as much as the high end raiding and have raided since SB. Still, that's how I am, and perhaps it's Asperger or whatever I have, but I can go deep into learning about things. I did enjoyed XIV precisely for what it offered mechanically, even in the most casual dungeons. I even started as a healer, and actually main healed for 9 months until Creator came up, even though I have always had a DPS profile. That we used to have a more varied and interesting kit on healers in freaking Sastasha than we do have at max level today should tell everything there is to tell about healers, and why even this role back then kept me engaged. Managing resources, managing kit interactions, having a more brutal and punishing battle system, tanks taking crits from behind, dangerous autos, MP being a thousand times more interesting and meaningful on every caster, but also rphys, PLD and DRK, actual role identities to play in most content where today everybody is the same with a blue, red or green colour (and tanks are all three). I could go on. That's where part of the meat of the game was. We had a lot of junk and clunky systems that I don't want to see back, but the core RPG system of the game was still there to entertain. Running casual dungeons wasn't that much harder than today because mechanically, they were like the old dungeons are today (for those not reworked), but we had actual depth behind jobs and the battle system where we could express our skill.

SB started something bad there but it was still a great expansion, the nail in the coffin was ShB that nuked everything. That's where the devs started inexplicably to alter their game so much that it became all about DDR mechanics, and more recently visual puzzles everywhere and everything based on memory games and formulaic patterns. There is no creativity mechanically anymore. The encounters don't interact with kits anymore. The jobs are shallow husks of what they used to be. They do have identity, perhaps more than before, but their gameplay and intricacies are gone. It's just about rehearsing the same dance again and again and I feel like I'm playing a game of ballet more than an actual RPG. I can't have fun anymore in casual content, even in dungeons that I loved running as chill content. It's faceroll on the enemies, and faceroll on the keyboard. And also facedesk when I get hit by a stupid DDR mechanic that is trying to challenge me, but it's not about intellectual challenges anymore, it's just attention span and perception or quick reactions. This is not fun to me. Perhaps I'm the only one like that, I don't know, but I feel so alienated by what the game has become those days that I don't know. Pve repells me. It repells me so much that I'm burnt out of raiding, and I honestly can say that I can't take of your rigid, scripted, savage identical bosses anymore. The intricacies I miss have been brought back in pvp somehow, with thrice less bloat on the hotbars to boot.

I never liked exploration areas / fields operations. Diadem was garbo but everyone hated it anyway. Eureka and Bozja were so divisive because while they had interesting concepts they were an utterly tedious, boring grind doing brainless tasks, and the only interesting thing was in between when making groups or tactically socializing, or the occasional gem like CLL or Dalriada (which should be the creative model for every non trial / standard savage pve content with varied environments and objectives, sorry not sorry). Farming mobs over and over or fates over and over is NOT the epitome of fun. At least to me. Relics? Same. I only liked dungeons because I could run some of them on a daily basis without losing my mind. Say what you will about tome relics, but at least you can get tomes through many ways you like (Hildi relics were obviously suffering from not even trying though). But at least in HW/SB I could have fun by running some pve content that was still interesting, even the most casual stuff. And sure, I was a newer player, so there was more things to do to catch up on content, but that mostly lasted HW tbh.

When are they going to make something new for pve? I mean actually new? Not regurgitated glorified fates, mob farm or trial bosses on a circle arena where you can fall on the edges? Are we doomed to eat the same porridge every day, every month, because that's the only thing the team is able to do? Not even trying to even shake the formula, change dungeons here and there, surprise us? I'm sorry but if doubling down on your "modern" encounter mechanics is your answer, I can't be arsed anymore. It's insipid. It's not satisfying. My jobs have been butchered. Even if I have a surplus of new content to run, what good is it gonna do me if the model is still the same bland old soup? How is this even better?

[Avoidy]

Is it truly on the CBU's side or rather than SE itself that keeps holding CBU's budget on short leash?

It's probably both. SE knows that XIV is their moneymaker, but they've always been loath to give it the funding it deserves because it prints money even when you give it the bare minimum... so they're gonna keep giving it the bare minimum. Meanwhile, Yoshida goes out there repping cbu3 and just says whatever he wants with no filter or handler to shush him, so you get these weird candid moments like Yoshida bluntly saying that ff16 sold lower than expected because "nobody owns a ps5" or weird remarks about a "scary lady" in charge of the cash shop who cracks the whip behind the scenes, or moments like these with "pleeeease don't leeeave" lol. In a way it's refreshing, but sometimes he also just says stuff that either isn't gonna happen, or isn't gonna happen even remotely soon, so you get players looking forward to stuff that won't happen until like .3 or .4 at best.