MMO addiction

[AnotherHighlander]

Let's be real here. Why else are you subbing to FF14 if you think the game is in a bad state?

Break free. Play better games. Let go of your nostalgia. Stop trying to chase that high when you cleared your first Savage tier for the first time all the way back in Heavensward. You'll never get it again. I've done it years ago*. You can too. You'll never be happy in life if you want to see a capitalist firm satisfy your desire to fall in love with their products once again. Save that for your spouse.

*You all know why these alts are still subbed.

[NaoSen]

I agree that if you don't have anything to lose then just move on and come back when the game looks better however its not that simple and I think some of what I say falls into being human and not MMO addiction.

To get this out of the way, Square Enix's "We want you to play other games / Take breaks during down time" is more accurately translate to, "We want you to play other games / Take Breaks but don't unsub or we'll burn down your house and those friendships we encourage you to make? Forget about them".

1. Friends (Personal Experiance)
2. Housing (Personal Experiance)
3. Coping Mechanism (Know multiple people for this.)
4. No alternative

Friends:
There are multiple mechanisms in place to build friendships in the game, be it through Free Companies, Social Venues (RP Cafe's, Clubs, Bars), Communities (Eureka, Deep Dungeons, Gposing), to leave is to neglect/lose at the same time you cannot force people to stay so you are at a situation where you stay and others leave due to content who don't mind tie cutting / maintain friendship out of game or you leave and the same thing. Yes, discord exists, yes other games exist, however "Games we both enjoy that also facilitate the same atmosphere" is not exactly the same. Some are desperately lonely in real life and just cannot make friends there, I know multiple people like this and FF is basically their only social outlet.

Housing:
With such a broken housing system requiring demolition if you do intend to unsubscribe during a content drought then bye bye house since a content drought isn't exactly 6 weeks, so be sure to subscribe at least every 6 weeks to not lose your house. If there was no-lose instanced housing (Like Guild Wars 2 has recently introduced) this wouldn't be an issue.
You are not just dealing with the structure itself but also the location, you're looking at a handful of plots per housing zone that are really premium (and as a result held on to), losing it would mean next to no chance of getting it again.

Coping Mechanism:
I have met multiple people over the years who basically live life through this game, it's not healthy at all to make your first life your character in a MMORPG but we're talking about those with such a raw deal in life be it due to physical, psychological or location that it's their way of living because everything else just sucks, it's the only place they can be close to normal. That's dumbing it down a lot and blanket generalising but I'm not a psychologist and it's a answer point.

No Alternative:
If you were willing to drop your community, friends made (if any), house (if owned), yet still want the same "feel" that FF can give, variety of activities both gameplay and social you don't really have any popular ones at least that come to mind other than pure virtual worlds.

There we go, maybe something in there to think about.

[Mijeme]

When you leave can I have your stuff?

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

I actually still enjoy the game in earnest after 7 years, thank you very much. I simply don't burn myself out everytime a patch launches and I burn through all content within 10 hours and then be like "man what a patch" until the next content drops.

Good brisket is slow-roasted.

[pyxls]

Good brisket is slow-roasted.

Mmmm brisket with pinch of salt, lime and chili.

[Kaurhz]

Personally, I still 'enjoy' this game, but that is more due to the fact I still have friends and connections that play this game quite avidly, that aren't close to having consumed as much content.

If this weren't the case, then I probably wouldn't be subscribed now, and would likely have kept myself unsubbed until 7.35. Even questioning whether to resub at all for that matter.. Achievement hunting in the past has generally been OK with me as an outlet of content between patches, but at this point it's nearing 3 years since the game has had long-term casual/midcore content with some sense of progression with it. On top of the simple fact that hunting achievements has made me realize how badly designed some aspects of this game actually are.

I am inclined to agree with you otherwise though, chasing that high is just pointless... Not even speaking about raids (As I am not aptly qualified to do so) but generally speaking the game just doesn't have that same factor... Whether it's large-scale content, or whether it's crafting content like Ishgard/Cosmic Exploration... Let's face it on that front, between the two, they are largely only going to be reskins of what came before, with the same foundational systems, and even then at the core root of the game, it's still going to be the same recycled systems.

Like, I am sorry but we are etching on to 12 years of the same FATEs, the same hunts (Ohh wow, we got SS Ranks at random), the same master recipe structure. Then nearing onto a decade since HW, where we are still relying solely exclusively on the scrip system (Much wow, they separated it into Rarefieds), and folklore systems... Sooner or later it will be a decade where we're crawling on the same root structure for large scale content, and the same root structure expert recipes.

It's all well and good that dungeons being a step up from what they once were, but I feel like with some of the feedback presented, they are taking the feedback too literally and not actually looking at the 'spirit' of this feedback... Or we wouldn't be in a situation where they think frontloading raid content and backloading all other forms of substantive content otherwise, e.g., large-scale is still a good idea. It's a constant yo-yo identity crisis that the game is having where it doesn't actually know what it wants to be.

I suppose the long story short, is that yes, I agree with you. Chasing that high just ain't happening.

[Gunz_Zbestest]

I can almost guarantee you that every single person who posts on this forum, did so because they had a complaint to make. This forum does not build a positive response from a base of players, it generates eternal victims and pessimists. That's not to say that there aren't good people here, but this forum is not the reason for it. You get out what you put into something and people can feel it on the other side.

[genuine_stranger]

I mean, as far as I know, you can't get a refund for the remainder of an active sub, so I’m just hanging around on the forums when I’m bored.

To be honest, I’m not even playing anymore - I didn’t touch anything in 7.1. The next time I log in will probably just be to dismantle my house.

And no, Majime, you still can’t have my stuff. >.>

[CNitsah]

It's not true, I can stop whenever I want. I just happen to not want to.

[BigCheez]

I think it's more like sunk cost than addiction.

People don't want to lose/let go of all the things they worked for over the years. We're basically where WoW was in BFA except XIV has the additional leverage of housing to keep people subbed.