Disappointed With XIV Direction

[ElysiumDragon]

I like the direction the game's taking, but I recognise that not everyone will, and that's totally fine. People come and go, people fall off as new people join, and that's just how it is. After all, a game that tries to appeals to everyone, ultimately appeals to no-one, and I'm glad the devs have realised this.

Maybe there'll be a day I finally stop playing, but honestly, I don't see that day being anytime soon, at least for me.

[Wolwosh]

Perhaps you are bored of FF14 model after 14 years, take a break unsub. I unsubbed twice since 2013.

But I don't find the need to come forum and inform the player base. This is not an airport.

There are still a lot of things for me to do: collecting glams, housing, 2000 S hunt for that tiger mount. PvP mounts. Island Sanctuary.

Yet here you are INFORMING us about your playstyle, your job levels etc xD

[Aneshda]

I started playing here because of the MSQ, then I started with PvP because it was a nice way to pass the time.
I never skipped Cutscenes. Everything seemed fine until Endwalker, but then a big shift happened.
Yoshi P. and almost the whole Team only had Final Fantasy 16 in mind and spent most of their time working on it.
Final Fantasy 14 fell by the wayside. The time between patches got longer, the Content got less and less, the MSQ got worse and worse.
We're now at 7.1, where there are a total of 7 Quests in the MSQ, 1 Dungeon, 1 bit of a new Raid with 4 Quests. This Raid, is like the Raid before just a Fan service.
Most players and even I can't understand where this came from, because there was absolutely no backstory and both Raid's don't fit into this world at all.
There was also 1 change to the House Layout, 1 couple of new Weapons (which almost nobody knows how to get), a Chaos Raid with 1 Layout, 1 Boss and we've already had this boss twice before.
Then there's 1 Trial with a Boss that we've only had a short time before. Not to mention Byakko, who isn't new either. Oh yes, and because it's so nice to bring back everything old, Ryne and Gaia can't be missed.
There's also a new Armor Set that's super ugly, a new PvP Season with a level 25 Reward that nobody asked for.
Don't get me wrong, Casual / Street Style Glamour is perfectly fine if it fits into the overall picture of the game.
Yes, there are other Final Fantasy Worlds where NPC's and Players walk around ultra modern, super casual, but those Worlds also look different.
This super modern doesn't fit into any of the Areas in our World. We only have one tiny Area where some of this Modern Glamour fits and that is Solution 9.
The little bit of Content will now be stretched until the next Patch in 4.5 to 5 Months (Christmas is in between, so there will be a delay of at least 2 Weeks).
If I just look at myself, then the little that we get costs me far too much real cash. I own 1 FC house, 5 extra Retainers (originally had 9 and have already given up 2).
All in all, I pay 19.49 a month for this Game, with a patch every 4.5 Months a little bit of content costs me 87,705 every few Months for a maximum of 5-7 hours of something new to experience.
In this patch, 80% is combat content, I think Yoshi P. is confusing Final Fantasy with World of Warcraft.
The bottom line is that Yoshi P. has eliminated everything old in the Story and in the Game and then doesn't know what to do next.
Why rush to end a 10-year-old story by eliminating most of it behind the scenes?
Why pack 2 Expansions into one and hope for the best?
Who says that an Expansion can only have a maximum of 120-150 quests in a MSQ? Who says how much Content there can be in an expansion?
I mean, ultimately the player is paying for it, and not a small amount. SE limits every little bit and I wonder why.

[Ardeth]

I'm honestly kinda done.

I couldn't finish the new AR raid. It was just too much flash and too fast for me.

I keep getting less and less as a player. I don't know when I will quit for good, but if it keeps going like this, it will be soon. Over 11 years down the drain.

But it's how it is. I can't change anything as a player, but if I pay them or not. But it's getting harder and harder to justify it.

To qoute J.R.R. Tolkien

"I feel I need a holiday, a very long holiday, as I have told you before. Probably a permanent holiday: I don't expect I shall return. in fact, I don't mean to, and I have made all arrangements....

I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something."

[Kuroka]

I started playing here because of the MSQ, then I started with PvP because it was a nice way to pass the time.
I never skipped Cutscenes. Everything seemed fine until Endwalker, but then a big shift happened.
Yoshi P. and almost the whole Team only had Final Fantasy 16 in mind and spent most of their time working on it.
Final Fantasy 14 fell by the wayside. The time between patches got longer, the Content got less and less, the MSQ got worse and worse.

This so much. People will insist im just burned out, but no, i just dont get much, its less and less substance... not even two dungeons anymore. Every time its "we can give you A or B" while what we need and want is A B and C.

While some things are nice and ill always accept story will be a matter of taste as well, it just feels like gettin less and less, like the recipe for the special sauce got changed and just doesnt taste as well...

Why rush to end a 10-year-old story by eliminating most of it behind the scenes?
Why pack 2 Expansions into one and hope for the best?
Who says that an Expansion can only have a maximum of 120-150 quests in a MSQ? Who says how much Content there can be in an expansion?

Yeah that so much, We travel to other shards, space... yet it feels like 90 of our continent is unknown to us...

[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.

[TBerry]

There is less salt in the Lochs.

[Roda]

Today my allied society content lasted 2 whole minutes.
The only buttons I pushed was right click (steering, make sparkly go away), left click (accept quest, advance confirmation text, turn in quest), and W.

Like, there's respecting my time, and then there's disrespecting my sub time...

[DPZ2]

No, but this is a forum meant for discussing the game and providing feedback. What a pompous reply.

Then you give really lame examples for content. 2000 S ranks, Island sanctuary, housing. A ridiculous achievement that you can't even grind for whenever you want, an area where all you do is run around and press X/left click on things with no meaningful interaction, and a system that we've already been utilizing for over a decade.

You're basically just saying "stfu dissenter" in a roundabout way.

The examples, in your opinion, are lame. Counter to that, your own examples may be lame in the opinion of another. You're basically just saying "because I don't agree with you, you must be telling someone to shut up".

As for feedback, what exactly is a developer supposed to make of the OP saying, for example,

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.

It's the equivalent of "I'm bored" without explaining what excites you. From what I could tell, PvP is out, Criterion dungeons are out, Gold Saucer is out. And a call for "evergreen content" is worse than no feedback at all, since that term is frequently used by Social Media folk to describe how to maintain their subscriber counts. [ For an example of what's discussed, try this link: https://meetedgar.com/blog/evergreen-content-examples ]

[ovIm]

It's the equivalent of "I'm bored" without explaining what excites you. From what I could tell, PvP is out, Criterion dungeons are out, Gold Saucer is out.

What people are asking for, generally, is not content that takes a long time, its content that makes them forget the time spent in the game. Doing the same monotonous task for hours on end can be fun for some, that is true. In the same vein, trying for achievements that will take years to get, and do not net you any real reward will most likely deter even the most hardcore grind enthusiast, as the carrot at the end of the stick is missing.

imho, the things that I personally understood people want (and please note - this may be skewed because I have only spoken to people in chats and ingame, i have never conducted any real analysis of some sorts) is unorganized group content (things where you can join in, not have to coordinate with your teammates too much) as well as a reward system that gives you an incentive to continuously run said content. Specifically - battle content. Things where we push the buttons we work to unlock. The core gameplay of FF14 is damn good, it generally feels nice to play, after all.

Thats the reason people ask for earlier relic grinds, where you not only do things, but work towards an achievable goal. Its why people ask for earlier Field Exploration content, because you can spend hours in there just doing the activities there, or you can simply drop in for 20-30 minutes, do the same activities, and have still contributed to reaching a goal you have set yourself to achieve.

People I spoke to also want something new, something that breaks away from the old formulas and tries different things than what we already did. Luckily, Square Enix does experiment occasionally, just not always with battle content (we got Island Sanctuary instead of a Field Explorations Zone in DT, for example).