patch 7.2 or next expansion

[USAFJerrySo]

The problem I'm seeing with the community is asking for something then being upset when they're given what they ask for. How many of you remember endwalker patch content? How many of you asked for an expansion zone? Now that there's an expansion zone coming, how many of you are complaining it's recycled content? Remember criterion? It was new content, maybe not implemented in the best way, but it got so much hate on release. Remember island sanctuary? Some liked it but overall there were complaints until it was deemed to abandon it. Chaotic is new and fresh, but most of the community refuses to engage with it just because it's deemed hard content. How many of you complained content was too easy, then complained dawntrail content is too hard. How many of you played back in stormblood and claimed it was the worst expansion ever due to the story, even though it was the most innovative expansion ever released. What are the devs suppose to do for you? It seems no matter what they do or try you will complain about it.

This new expansion zone is good for the health of the game, I think it should have been released at launch and maybe the devs can learn from that, but I don't see how you can get your way, then proceed to complain about getting what you asked for. The hate train you're on is getting annoying and it feels like the only reason you complain is to fit in with the community. I've got my own gripes with the game myself and feel there are things that could be done better and try to give constructive criticism when it comes to feedback, but I can also point out when the devs are doing things right, and patch 7.2 is doing things right.

The problem is that the devs are listening to the loud minority, thus why the ff14 in a state the way it is today. People who actually complained that the MSQ for Dawntrail is too difficult are the people I'd want to avoid in real life because they already shown me that they quite at a sight of a little challenge, a quitter, & a lazy human that wants everything to be handed to them.

[USAFJerrySo]

Yes, 7.2 is square last chance to add meaningful content, to have a better story, & such. Because if it doesn't a lot of people will continue to leave the game including myself as we know it won't get better.

[ZXN]

I see a lot of people harping "7.2 is their last chance" "this content is their last chance"

Because for some, maybe it is. I'm not going to join in the "This game is dead if patch X.X doesn't deliver!!!" and "I'm REALLY going to finally unsub if this patch is a flop!!!" crowds of doomposting, but Dawntrail for a good chunk of players has been, to be blunt, dogshit, for various reason that obviously vary between each person. So to those players, 7.2 pretty much is THE deciding patch due to the amount of "big" things we are getting, from the Devil's Triangle field area to Cosmic Exploration for crafters/gatherers to, hopefully anyway, the start of the relic weapons for the expansion and more. If 7.2 doesn't "hit" like the devs and so many players expect it to then some players' frustrations will only grow more.

some of yall need to sit down and think of something that YOU think would be innovating as in a unique never before done idea in X genre or in general (yeah, it's not easy).

That is nobody elses' job but the devs. Sure, we can sit here and come up with ideas and just spit them out, but it's always up to the devs to actually do any of them/come up with it themselves. Them waiting for players to tell them what's wrong and/or what to do isn't a good look since at that point we're just doing their jobs for them as they just wait for problems to arise to actually start solving. Plus while players can identify and tell the devs what we don't like/what should be added, that doesn't mean the suggestions some players give to things will actually be any good or do anything to fix issues. If the devs decide to listen to a "wrong" suggestion then it can just make things even worse.

[Mawlzy]

The problem is that the devs are listening to the loud minority, thus why the ff14 in a state the way it is today. People who actually complained that the MSQ for Dawntrail is too difficult are the people I'd want to avoid in real life because they already shown me that they quite at a sight of a little challenge, a quitter, & a lazy human that wants everything to be handed to them.

I imagine the feeling would be mutual.

[CaptainLagbeard]

People have been saying 7.2 might bring around changes to jobs... If Healers could stop being practically abandoned by the devs, that'd be nice.

[ovIm]

People have been saying 7.2 might bring around changes to jobs... If Healers could stop being practically abandoned by the devs, that'd be nice.

that, unfortunately, has been based on a mistranslation from a gaming magazine. CS3's current plan is to give players a shift in combat encounter design in 7.2 (whatever that actually means has not been disclosed), with jobs being adjusted to that design paradigm on a later date, namely 8.0.
So, if the devs keep their promise, fights from the next patch onward could potentially feel very different to what players gotten used to since Shadowbringers. We shall see if they actually do that and if so, what that entails.

[AnotherPerson]

Yes, 7.2 is square last chance to add meaningful content, to have a better story, & such. Because if it doesn't a lot of people will continue to leave the game including myself as we know it won't get better.

I have to agree with this sentiment, only because their patch cycles are so long. People don't wait around forever. They move on, even if they do happen to look back from time to time. It may take longer for some players over others, but a lot of people have already adopted their "wait and see" approach over the past year or so. A lot of them just decided they have seen enough and left, and with the dissatisfaction in the forums and other social media, I can assume 7.2 might be the breaking point of many players as well if it doesn't live up to the hype. If the sample from Lucky Bancho and Steam are accurate, then FFXIV has been bleeding a lot of players recently, and at a very fast rate. Even after the general hype dies down, previous expansions usually maintain a steady growth rate overtime in the post-patches. FFXIV didn't grow but saw a drastic decline instead. I've been popping in on the forums during the free login campaigns to check if the game's problems are properly getting addressed, but I was mainly spending my time playing other games for the last couple of months and having fun. Most people on the forums are all new faces. A lot of consistent forum posters just stopped posting and playing in general. It indicates these people indeed have unsubbed since the complaints haven't been addressed very well and are still at the forefront of the discussion threads today.

For me, I heard 7.2 was dropping with Exploratory content and was originally going to wait until the patch dropped, but I ended up changing my mind and resubbing early to give a friend a gift for Valentines Day for staying in touch. Great friends really do go a long way in a social game like a mmo.


Still, the new exploratory zone is the main deciding factor for me to see as to whether the game will ever improve its PVE design. On my first day back after resubbing, I did a couple of roulettes and faced the grim reality as to why I unsubbed and made me want to go right back to cancelling my sub for next month. PvE in general (and especially healer gameplay) was so unpalatable and dry compared to what I've been experiencing in the last couple of months. Battles was so scripted and so hallow, devoid of decision-making. Pretty much everything in this game can be boiled down to "dps harder". The feeling did not improve much on tank either because of how ridiculously powerful tanks are and how lacking the interaction with the enemies are. I did not realize how bad this game actually got when I had actual gameplay to compare it to. I can't believe I'm saying this, but a F2P but P2W FOMO MMO I'm currently playing felt like I'm making actual gameplay decisions more than FFXIV currently can do (in both gearing and moment-to-moment combat), even with all the jank I have to deal with in that game. I'm having more fun over there than here as far as PvE gameplay is concerned, because while there's a huge focus to DPS, the developers finally remembered DPS isn't the end-all to a game and subsequently started designing their content to account for these changes.

Here's to hoping Shades Triangle and Phantom Jobs change my mind, because this is what SE considers as going out of their box to make fun design choices they can't do in their usual bland PvE design. If this still ends up letting me down, I won't bother staying around to consider trying out their 8.0 design. The only reason why I might consider staying subbed occasionally is just hanging out with friends because practically everything in the game has not met my basic expectations. If my friends leave as well because they reach a point where they also can't login to the game anymore, then that's that.

[Basteala]

People have been saying 7.2 might bring around changes to jobs... If Healers could stop being practically abandoned by the devs, that'd be nice.

I wouldn't get my hopes up until 8.0, tbh.

[Kandraxx]

This game needs to be playable by kids laying on the couch with a controller so I wouldn't get my hopes up. You'll get more 1-2-3, more arbitrary damage cooldowns that change to 'X to target and 70% less to all around' finisher bloat, more resources that combo into another resource purely to mask the lack of actual game mechanics. More donuts, circles, lines and stack markers to test your IQ 50.000 gaming skillZ in the famed and critically acclaimed Savage and ulTiMatE content. And you will be happy.

They were handed millions of players for free when WoW imploded a few years back, yet they didn't act on it. I personally wouldn't expect anything other than more copy and paste content with their 6 combat mechanics and a bunch of Barbie gear on the store, but that's just me.

[ForteNightshade]

The problem I'm seeing with the community is asking for something then being upset when they're given what they ask for.

Except they weren't given what they asked for but instead a shallow or poorly executed variation of it. Hence the continued complains. You even go on to partially acknowledge that only to promptly gloss over it. So let's review

Exploratory Zone

I'd argue most people are generally pleased with what was shown during the last Live Letter. Yes, it's largely going to be the same as Eureka/Bozja, however that's more or less been the expectation. Those complaining now either never enjoyed that content to begin with, thus were always going to have a negative opinion of it or they're simply frustrated with other aspects of XIV like the stale gameplay. A major complaint even amongst those happy with Shade's Triangle is the content release schedule. It's been nearly a year into Dawntrail's lifespan and only now are we actually getting content with any sort of longevity that isn't raid specific. I suspect a fair number of people have reached that point of "too little, too late" where content they were once excited about they've soured on because it's simply taken far too long to release.

Criterion

They originally advertised Criterion as a split between casual, EX and Savage level difficulties. What we got was a casual version rendered so easy a toddler could complete it, an "EX" in name only that was closer to a lower tier Savage equivalent and a "Savage" mode that was a glorified achievement mode. In other words, they reneged on initial expectations and wound up only appealing to a very small demographic. Not at all helped was the downright horrendous reward structure. It's downright insulting you go through the frustrating difficulty of not making a single mistake only to be given an earring or housing item for your troubles. Even for the hardcore players who enjoyed this, a very common complaint was they found it boring because Savage does quite literally nothing different. They wanted new mechanics to prog, specifically to incentivize doing the actual Savage mode not going into "EX" for practice.

Meanwhile, the midcore to higher end casual players--which make up the overwhelming majority of players who would have any interest in content like this got nothing. Variant is not only comically easy, but is rendered completely pointless after four runs. Which can be completed in a couple hours at most. While Criterion "EX" was simply too difficult despite having the best rewards. Even if they were still pretty mid given the expected difficulty.

All in all, Criterion was hated because the devs pretty much catered to almost no one.

Island Sanctuary

Where do I even begin? Yoshida, in a rare example of terrible PR, widely overhyped what this was supposed to be. He outright stated the dev team was inspired by Animal Crossing, a statement that needed to be walked back several times due to how ridiculously misleading it was. It's truly baffling what they were trying to accomplish here. Who asked for what essentially began a glorified retainer venture? The devs kept insisting this was lifestyle content despite it having less depth than Farmville, a facebook mobile game that released in 2009. Even basic functions you'd expect from lifestyle content is absent. What you feed your animals doesn't matter, nothing you build has any real impact on the "farm" itself, tending to things like crops amounts to clicking on them once a day. Mentioning Island Sanctuary in even the same breath as Animal Crossing is, frankly, absurd.

Nobody, and I do mean nobody wanted anything remotely like what Island Sanctuary ended up being. Even those who did wind up enjoying it to some extent. Complaints were rampant because they didn't listen to a single thing people wanted from this sort of content. A piece of content so shallow they deliberately had to neuter their own gathering system just to give it some form of artificial longevity.

Chaotic

I'd argue the issue here is less the content itself, but the fact it's yet another raid when that's all they've been releasing. Which tends to build resentment when ten months into an expansion there's little else on offer. People are just fed up now.