Disappointed With XIV Direction

[GinzoKazama]

I'm glad to see this has gained traction and wanted to point out a few issues I've seen here with some of the replies.

- "There are things to do"

Someone had coined it perfectly by comparing it to a theme park. The first time you go there and it's amazing and exciting, but once you ride the same ride over and over again, it gets stale. The model for MMOs, be it XIV or WoW or any other that'll spring up, they are all notorious for reskinning the same things and just slapping it in the game and calling it new. That is not worthwhile content.

Worthwhile content is Evergreen Content. The only content that is 'Evergreen' in XIV is raiding. That is about it. It persists through every expansion and it is a pillar that keeps the game going. But it is content that VERY FEW by comparison will participate in. This isn't an opinion, this is a numerical fact.

PvP is a pathetic XP grind. There is nothing worth doing for it. There's no enjoyment. There's no skill. There's no gear. Nothing. It's a meatgrinder deathball for the mindless drone. PvP is supposed to be another major staple of an MMO, but XIV has laid it so low that it's worth only a daily roulette for XP.

Criterion Dungeons were supposed to be supplemental to the savage scene with a reasonable equivalent to WoWs Mythic Dungeons. The structure of the dungeons fell flat on its face with how over the top some of the designs were. I'm all for figuring out mechanics, but it's nothing enjoyable to do with a casual group of people. On top of that, materia was the main reward. There is no value in the time spent doing it. Power of friendship and all that jazz aside, it's not a stick worth getting beaten by for the carrot.

- Nothing For the Middle Class

Between the 15%-80%- there is nothing for people to just logon and enjoy at a casual pace. I think some of the best 'midground' content is obviously anything you can do that you can just pop in, grab a few friends and have a good time with a minor to medium degree of difficulty. Content like Bozja, PoTD, and FATEs are all nice examples of this content. But NONE of them are relevant anymore and for some reason rather than releasing content for that BIGGER portion of people to be released first, it's left until midway through the expansion whereas the 81-100% do raids and the 1-14% do ERP, clubs and glamour farm. This is NOT a healthy economy at all even with Yoshi P's idea that 'its not designed to be played all the time'.

[GinzoKazama]

As someone who had been an FC leader for more than 8 years, watching those people fall away because there's nothing to do for them in general is maddening. It is difficult to retain people because they finished this 7.1 patch in a matter of a day and they won't log in until MAYBE Tuesday when it resets and then they'll be gone again. There's nothing enticing to do that they have not already done a million times.

The content is stagnant. There's nothing that MAKES people WANT to get on.

For those who enable this by saying 'Well you just don't like the content'. YES. I DO NOT LIKE THIS RELEASE PATH. I've dealt with it for the last 4 years thinking it might change eventually but SE has doubled down and kept this abysmal release path going because of this player base.

I WANT to do something in the game. I don't WANT to make logging in daily to do beast tribes (which was another stupid thing they changed for no reason), or roulettes or weekly alliance raid lockout, or afking by the Market Board because someone is botting to reduce their sale by 1 gil every time you put something up as "CONTENT" to do.

>_>;;

I saw web article highlighting players being upset over a hair style rather than THIS ABYSMAL PATCH.

- Exit Polls/Questionnaire for Ending Subscriptions

SE DOES ask why you are unsubbing: Here are there reasons -

Why did you decide to cancel your subscription?

- I am simply changing my payment method
- I want to take a break
- I have run out of things I want to do
- I am stopping to play another game
- My friends have stopped playing
- I am no longer interested in playing
- Financial Reasons
- I prefer not to answer

You can only choose ONE of those. I would choose MOST of those if I could.

I am a long time fan of this IP and of XIV and I am absolutely sad and angry that this game has become a vehicle to subsidize SE's OTHER GAME FAILURES and provides LIMITED RETURN FROM ITS OWN PROFITS BACK INTO XIV.

If Yoshi P reads this or if it gets to him, I would want him to know I have LOVED this game so much and made so many great friends over the years. I appreciate the efforts people have put into revitalizing this game from its abhorrent launch in 1.0, but this game has moved full on into mediocrity. I wish they would rethink their content release road map and implement better things for the middle group of people.

Thank you for those who are genuinely interested in the discourse related to this topic and for those who simply want to gaslight you're doing your own game a disservice by disingenuously clouding the issues with the inability to have an objective conversation on the topic.

[sindriiisgaming]

Long time player, first time caller sort of, but I just had to get this off of my chest.

I want to preface this with that I am someone who has dabbled in most content (aside from Ultimates) and have done everything from fishing voyages to some of the harder savage content. Not the best player but absolutely not the worst.

And hear me when I say, the direction this game is going is sad. I know Yoshi P said that the game is not meant to be played all the time, but I just finished what was in this content patch and am floored that there is NOTHING else to do. It offers NOTHING worthwhile to engage my friends or anyone else who I have had to watch fall off this game because it is so empty. I waited 4 months for essentially nothing to do.

"BuT tHeRe iS pLeNtY tO dO"

No there isn't. PvP is an EXP machine. Raiding is for a small sect of people (not knocking but stating the percentage of people who raid is much smaller than the whole). Criterion dungeons fell flat. And Gold Saucer is not entertaining when it's the same things (mostly) since it released in ARR.

The worst part of all of this is the player base enables it. There is no evergreen content that keeps the middle 15-80 percentile wanting to even come back. I played WoW SoD FAR LONGER and enjoyed it (with some qualms) than I did this major patch for two days.

Something needs to change because I am tired of seeing the people who I want to play this game with fade away because there is nothing to keep them engaged. And yet, there are people who say there's plenty to do.

Absolutely reprehensible.

at this point me and my boyfriend are waiting for community riots or streamers calling for mass unsub before i will act. but trust me when i say. i AM waiting for it and when they do. i will happily unsub too
ive had to watch every fc i love die since early endwalker, and 90% of my own stopped logging in because of content desertification. if things dont change soon S.E its gona be too late.

[GinzoKazama]

ive had to watch every fc i love die since early endwalker, and 90% of my own stopped logging in because of content desertification. if things dont change soon S.E its gona be too late.

I am so fortunate to have a lot of the people who I knew back since ARR around in our discord and we do other things together on other games, but so many of us talk about 'man, you know, it would be nice if there was just something to do in XIV together'.

The troops are ready to storm the field, but there's nothing to storm. ;.;

[Hypnotic13371337]

"BuT hAvE yOu GoTtEn ThE aCiEvEmEnT fOr GeTtInG 20,000,000 Gil fRoM lEvEqUeStS?!"

[Zakuyia]

I'm glad to see this has gained traction and wanted to point out a few issues I've seen here with some of the replies.

- "There are things to do"

Someone had coined it perfectly by comparing it to a theme park. The first time you go there and it's amazing and exciting, but once you ride the same ride over and over again, it gets stale. The model for MMOs, be it XIV or WoW or any other that'll spring up, they are all notorious for reskinning the same things and just slapping it in the game and calling it new. That is not worthwhile content.

Worthwhile content is Evergreen Content. The only content that is 'Evergreen' in XIV is raiding. That is about it. It persists through every expansion and it is a pillar that keeps the game going. But it is content that VERY FEW by comparison will participate in. This isn't an opinion, this is a numerical fact.

PvP is a pathetic XP grind. There is nothing worth doing for it. There's no enjoyment. There's no skill. There's no gear. Nothing. It's a meatgrinder deathball for the mindless drone. PvP is supposed to be another major staple of an MMO, but XIV has laid it so low that it's worth only a daily roulette for XP.

Criterion Dungeons were supposed to be supplemental to the savage scene with a reasonable equivalent to WoWs Mythic Dungeons. The structure of the dungeons fell flat on its face with how over the top some of the designs were. I'm all for figuring out mechanics, but it's nothing enjoyable to do with a casual group of people. On top of that, materia was the main reward. There is no value in the time spent doing it. Power of friendship and all that jazz aside, it's not a stick worth getting beaten by for the carrot.

- Nothing For the Middle Class

Between the 15%-80%- there is nothing for people to just logon and enjoy at a casual pace. I think some of the best 'midground' content is obviously anything you can do that you can just pop in, grab a few friends and have a good time with a minor to medium degree of difficulty. Content like Bozja, PoTD, and FATEs are all nice examples of this content. But NONE of them are relevant anymore and for some reason rather than releasing content for that BIGGER portion of people to be released first, it's left until midway through the expansion whereas the 81-100% do raids and the 1-14% do ERP, clubs and glamour farm. This is NOT a healthy economy at all even with Yoshi P's idea that 'its not designed to be played all the time'.

I disagree with that pvp statement. Pvp is fun for us pvpers going for mounts commender uniform trying to go for pvp weapons glams and items to be bought. Just cause you don't like pvp doesnt mean the rest of us who lile it dont.

[Dirwen]

The ff11 raid was kinda meh for me because SE pretty much spoiled all the bosses and zones with the screenshots and trailer before release. Kinda like how a movie trailer spoiled everything and no incentive to watch the actual movie.

Only logging in daily for new society tribe quest dailies and one frontline roulette match to slowly farm the series rank rewards then log off. This will probably be my last expac doubt SE will improve things. I don't play video games anymore and ff14 was my only one too but it's becoming too boring to continue.

[Hallarem]

"Theres a lot of stuff to do"

Theres no gear progression in this game, glam is the only reason you collect gear. Everything is gonna be replaced by some new craftable gear anyway or the next patch with catch-up gear. Why bother when materia is useless and offers no uniqueness.
Gear has no special effects. Every fight is a dodge dance with the same rotation.

"Theres a lot of stuff to do"

I have 250 million gil and no interesting gil-sinks to spend it on. Recoloured BORING gold mounts aint it. At least give gil meaning like super valuable hairstyles, multiseater mounts or something.


"Theres a lot of stuff to do"

"Do 50000000000 pvp matches" achievement aint it. Thats not content.

[Supersnow845]

It’s hilarious this game has basically reached the point of not needing gil sinks because Gil is so utterly worthless in this game that having more of it confers literally zero advantages

Like they could remove the teleport cost Gil sink and it would change nothing because Gil doesn’t do anything in this game. Whether you have 100,000 or 999,999,999 it doesn’t matter anyway

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

[...]PvP is a pathetic XP grind. There is nothing worth doing for it. There's no enjoyment. There's no skill. There's no gear. Nothing. It's a meatgrinder deathball for the mindless drone. PvP is supposed to be another major staple of an MMO, but XIV has laid it so low that it's worth only a daily roulette for XP[...]

The only thing I'd disagree fully is your comment here regarding PvP. The nature of the game mode's dynamic means there are rarely instances of 'samey matches' going to happen like in scripted PvE simply because it has a lot to do with the kind of players you're paired against and matched with. The chaos keeps most runs from getting too repetitive & stale.

My issue with PvP is they don't seem to receive adequate care in general (hello bad netcode and bugs---lmao, current macro/microcosmos bug, they must've tested only in CC environment. FL care, where?) & too scared to incentivize players to actually do better in a game mode where skill difference matters (Winning or losing doesn't have much difference in reward, it's okay. Just queue to keep the roulette rolling dw you died 69 times you'll still get reward lol). But at least they do not suffer from most other contents where everything are very "one and done" thanks to that randomness.