The Problem with Yoshi-P | An Honest Critique by Ember's Arcade

[Mawlzy]

That makes streamlining the player's route through the story content far, far more important to keep the playerbase at a healthy level. If a player new to MMOs buys Dawntrail but can't get through Heavensward because more experienced players complain that "things need to be more difficult" constantly, the playerbase will just atrophy - and not in the normal "long-term players get bored" sense, but in the "most new players won't put in the effort to learn difficult 14-year-old content to see the new 1-year-old zones they bought the expansion to see" sense.

That means that having that process streamlined is much, much more vital to XIV's long-term health - you can't easily be one of the types of players whose motivation is just "exploration" because the game actively locks you out of expanded exploration until you ALSO work your way through things that might not otherwise interest you due to their difficulty - dungeons and trials. I don't doubt they have internal statistics to show that every time the MSQ has had an "I failed that tough trial in Heavensward five times, but I bought the game to play Stormblood" difficulty spike, they also get a spike in players who put the game down and never come back.

I swear we'd have more productive discussions if this concept was more broadly understood.

The current compromises employed by SQEX have created a situation in which combat-oriented, highly-skilled players are frustrated with the "braindead" content, whereas less-skilled players who enjoy the host of other facets any MMO offers (even fishing, I am told) get frustrated with MSQ dungeons/trials/duties being an unwanted impediment preventing them from playing the game their way.

In DT I've become increasingly convinced the only way to address this is to introduce two modes for dungeons and trials. "Normal" mode would detune the current dungeons and trials (or add multiple lives or rezzes from NPCs), whereas "Hard" mode would provide a challenge to those who enjoy dodge-ball, but want it faster and more punishing. (The current distinction of normal/easy/very easy in duties reflects what the Director cares about, and is spectacularly out of step with the bulk of the players.)

I see no other way to maintain the player base and address the frustrations experienced by both wings of the combat-skill spectrum. A side effect would be creating an environment in which tryhards had less reason to insult the rest of us.

[Arohk]

The current compromises employed by SQEX have created a situation in which combat-oriented, highly-skilled players are frustrated with the "braindead" content, whereas less-skilled players who enjoy the host of other facets any MMO offers (even fishing, I am told) get frustrated with MSQ dungeons/trials/duties being an unwanted impediment preventing them from playing the game their way.

This is a result of the lack of battle content during the MSQ, in DT you can quest an entire zone and have to fight maybe 3 times against some nerfed mobs for a quest with purple smoke, then suddenly you get to Valigarmanda.
All important Plot Battles are cutscenes instead of playable instances.

I am not saying i want the same quest design as in WoW, where you are made to kill 20 or 40 of one enemy, that wouldnt work in FFXIV because the enemy density also isnt there in the open world.
But there must be a middle ground between an intense bossfight and no combat at all for hours on end.

This is a big problem when the quests are also incredibly boring and nothing interesting happens, Shadowbringers had an amazing story but dawntrail feels like just doing sidequests with no stakes.

[Valence]

The story and pacing of HW also had its fair share of problems, but people don't want to remember them (how literally nothing happens once you're settled past ishgard until you meet Hraesvelgr, and how an entire area, Sea of Clouds, is completely and utter filler that could be cut and nothing would be lost).