I need to vent about FFXIV as a whole at this point.

[NegativeS]

Games are at their best when they appeal to a demographic.

Unfortunately, XIV committed the cardinal sin: appealing to demographics that the game wasn't made for.

And now it's made for them, but at what cost?

Gameplay so milquetoast and idiot-proof that there's no substance or engagement, to the point where when the funny MSQ (read: the only thing I see praised about this game outside of circles specifically for XIV) takes a miss-step, it seems like the entire game has fallen apart.

Kinda sucks, unless you're playing Final Fashion XIV instead of Final Fantasy XIV (or worse, Final Housing XIV). Then I guess nothing has changed for you.

[Kaliesto]

Games are at their best when they appeal to a demographic.

Unfortunately, XIV committed the cardinal sin: appealing to demographics that the game wasn't made for.

And now it's made for them, but at what cost?

Gameplay so milquetoast and idiot-proof that there's no substance or engagement, to the point where when the funny MSQ (read: the only thing I see praised about this game outside of circles specifically for XIV) takes a miss-step, it seems like the entire game has fallen apart.

Shame.

This is basically what I was boiling down to if it was just a paragraph.

I'm so tired of it, I wish the developers would please just stop and go into a different direction.

[Musashidon]

Games are at their best when they appeal to a demographic.

Unfortunately, XIV committed the cardinal sin: appealing to demographics that the game wasn't made for.

And now it's made for them, but at what cost?

the game was always made for them. this game was toted as a entry lvl mmo for brand new players to both video games and mmo's.

it's whats always made the game money and will continue to make the game money.

[Villa101]

Games are at their best when they appeal to a demographic.

Unfortunately, XIV committed the cardinal sin: appealing to demographics that the game wasn't made for.

And now it's made for them, but at what cost?

Gameplay so milquetoast and idiot-proof that there's no substance or engagement, to the point where when the funny MSQ (read: the only thing I see praised about this game outside of circles specifically for XIV) takes a miss-step, it seems like the entire game has fallen apart.

Kinda sucks, unless you're playing Final Fashion XIV instead of Final Fantasy XIV (or worse, Final Housing XIV). Then I guess nothing has changed for you.

You are delusional if you don't think from jump the goal of xiv wasn't to allow people to dress their blorbo like the warrior of light and look cool while doing stuff. Nothing changed, they just got more efficient at achieving that goal. Its a theme park mmo. From jump its " Hey remember that from ff, your character is doing that now".

[Yoshihara]

As a player who likes both sides, the raiding content + difficulty AND the story content, I don't mind the casual stuff... usually, because casual content is the story.

The writing from start to finish of this expansion has been abysmal.
The writing of the side quests, in particular the pelupelu tribe have somehow been even worse, so I don't even know how casuals are enjoying this because they certainly aren't playing for any challenge.