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.

[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.

[ohmRICE]

7.1 honestly feels like a repeat of 3.1, but it's a bit harder to justify 7.1 being like this. Like 3.1 had the justification of it being the first post-expac patch of the first expac. Some missteps and stumbles were to be expected then, but man, we're 5 expacs deep now how does a 3.1 situation happen again?

idk man if my sub didn't auto-renew I wouldn't be logging in right now that's all I can really say.

Maybe if FF16 was an absolute banger of a game everyone would be more forgiving of XIV taking a quality hit...but it was, well, it was okay I guess.