FFXIV population decline continues

[ChrysOCE]

The point being missed in comments like this is "quality" as being used here is completely, entirely, 100% each person's own subjective opinion. The quality isn't "low." You personally just happen to not like the current direction the game is going. That's perfectly fine, but trashing the developers, personally attacking them, and trying to act as if one's own opinion is somehow objective fact isn't. It's just immature.

What's "better" for you may be very much worse for me, and vice versa. When people can start stepping back and realizing they're advocating for their personal opinions instead of just labeling anything they don't personally like as "bad," you're more likely to have a productive discussion. But I'm not sure that's what the forum crowd even wants...

You cannot be serious. They even apologized in the PLL over the quality of service we have received. It has been slop.

[Jeeqbit]

You cannot be serious. They even apologized in the PLL over the quality of service we have received. It has been slop.

Context was in reference to the sort of things the emergency maintenances had to fix, such as localization issues or Mech Op bugs.

• In terms of environment design, it's amazing quality.
• In terms of music, the quality is adored and they do concerts.
• In terms of dungeon design, yes it's super formulaic and many people find that boring and lacking in depth. But the quality of that formulaic content is nevertheless good.

I could go on, but the point is that things being formulaic or boring does not mean they are poor quality. It just means they are simple. It is like saying a suit is poor quality because it's pure grey with no patterns or uniqueness to it.

People are spinning quality to mean different things:

• SE probably just means things like mistranslated text or Mech Op bugs.
• Forum users are gonna spin it to mean that simplistic, formulaic, homogenized systems are the quality issue.

[Mawlzy]

Context was in reference to the sort of things the emergency maintenances had to fix, such as localization issues or Mech Op bugs.

• In terms of environment design, it's amazing quality.
• In terms of music, the quality is adored and they do concerts.
• In terms of dungeon design, yes it's super formulaic and many people find that boring and lacking in depth. But the quality of that formulaic content is nevertheless good.

I could go on, but the point is that things being formulaic or boring does not mean they are poor quality. It just means they are simple. It is like saying a suit is poor quality because it's pure grey with no patterns or uniqueness to it.

People are spinning quality to mean different things:

• SE probably just means things like mistranslated text or Mech Op bugs.
• Forum users are gonna spin it to mean that simplistic, formulaic, homogenized systems are the quality issue.

Is not Forked Tower an example of a quality issue? Had SE told anyone here, including you, what the plan was with the entry system and difficulty level, wouldn't nearly everyone say: "no, you're doing that wrong"? Isn't part of a game's quality avoiding really unpleasant friction within the player base, thanks to content like CAR and FT.

I agree with you that assessing the quality of certain design choices is subjective, but I'd suggest Cosmic Explo illustrates a lack of thought and QA in multiple areas. Scaling issues that punished low-pop worlds were completely predictable, and the consequences of fail states bizarrely punishing. The project leveling content is purely a subjective preference, but find me someone who enjoyed running around in triangles clicking things for 40 minutes, and I'll find you ten who were insulted by that design.

[Jeeqbit]

Is not Forked Tower an example of a quality issue?

The raid itself is amazing quality. The atmosphere, textures and music are amazing quality.

The entry system is a problem and can be argued to be a quality issue. But there are people on the forums spinning what SE said to be an admission that every single thing they make is "slop", including models, textures, environments, music and raids. That was obviously not what SE meant and that's obviously what Striker was trying to convey as well.

Really systems design and stories are the most contentious issues people have, but that's only a percentage of the overall development, and saying everything across the board is slop is also saying models, textures, music, animations, sounds, environments are not good quality when they clearly are.

Just like you're spinning every possible angle in the devs favor?

You just seem to assume this about me these days without reading my posts properly.

[Mawlzy]

The raid itself is amazing quality. The atmosphere, textures and music are amazing quality.

The entry system is a problem and can be argued to be a quality issue. But there are people on the forums spinning what SE said to be an admission that every single thing they make is "slop", including models, textures, environments, music and raids. That was obviously not what SE meant and that's obviously what Striker was trying to convey as well.

Really systems design and stories are the most contentious issues people have, but that's only a percentage of the overall development, and saying everything across the board is slop is also saying models, textures, music, animations, sounds, environments are not good quality when they clearly are.

Again, my subjective opinion, but for me dungeon/boss design has been getting steadily worse.

I absolutely loved the ambience of early dungeons and the integrated visuals and music, as well as the variety in combat. CT gets a lot of hate, but LotA is a visually stunning experience with some unique mechanics. The Vault is a masterpiece IMO, not only for the visuals and vibe, but also for the way it sits seamlessly in the story, getting you where you need to go.

SE still does this well in some cases, but is ruining it for me with this absurd visual clutter. I don't want to have to squint or look away from the screen during a fight.

[Altina_Orion]

Again, my subjective opinion, but for me dungeon/boss design has been getting steadily worse.

I absolutely loved the ambience of early dungeons and the integrated visuals and music, as well as the variety in combat. CT gets a lot of hate, but LotA is a visually stunning experience with some unique mechanics. The Vault is a masterpiece IMO, not only for the visuals and vibe, but also for the way it sits seamlessly in the story, getting you where you need to go.

SE still does this well in some cases, but is ruining it for me with this absurd visual clutter. I don't want to have to squint or look away from the screen during a fight.

Objectively, they aren't getting worse. They are exactly the same as they've been since at least SB and that's actually still a problem. It's bland and we're all over it.

[Mawlzy]

Objectively, they aren't getting worse. They are exactly the same as they've been since at least SB and that's actually still a problem. It's bland and we're all over it.

I just gave a specific example in how they differ.

[Jeeqbit]

CT gets a lot of hate, but LotA is a visually stunning experience with some unique mechanics. The Vault is a masterpiece IMO, not only for the visuals and vibe, but also for the way it sits seamlessly in the story, getting you where you need to go.

SE still does this well in some cases, but is ruining it for me with this absurd visual clutter. I don't want to have to squint or look away from the screen during a fight.

It's true that they added more clutter. This began in Stormblood, when they dropped support for PS3. It was easy to notice, because the Ala Mhigo dungeon was full of NPCs fighting, which was unprecedented in prior expansions and tanked FPS on machines that couldn't handle it.

In Shadowbringers, they dropped official support for 32-bit and DX9, so the effects clearly increased a huge amount. You need no greater example of this than the first dungeon, Holminster Switch, which not only had NPCs everywhere but was full of light particles and rays.

Obviously with the release of Dawntrail they did a Recommended Specs increase allowing for even greater capacity and detail in these effects. I haven't personally noticed a difference since Shadowbringers, but I don't have any of the issues others do with eye strains or migraines.

Obviously, they got away with good quality dungeons with the examples you gave, such as The Vault. But I wouldn't say that the visual effects represent lower quality. Given it's a fantasy game, they want to create the vibe of magical effects and particles and things going on in the background, after all.

I can understand that a lot of people may want some settings to reduce such effects or adjust them but as someone with no accessibility needs in this area, I don't really notice any issues myself. Probably the worst issue I have is when a ranged DPS does LB3, but that's been there since ARR.

[Hallarem]

Context was in reference to the sort of things the emergency maintenances had to fix, such as localization issues or Mech Op bugs.

• In terms of environment design, it's amazing quality.
• In terms of music, the quality is adored and they do concerts.
• In terms of dungeon design, yes it's super formulaic and many people find that boring and lacking in depth. But the quality of that formulaic content is nevertheless good.

I could go on, but the point is that things being formulaic or boring does not mean they are poor quality. It just means they are simple. It is like saying a suit is poor quality because it's pure grey with no patterns or uniqueness to it.

People are spinning quality to mean different things:

• SE probably just means things like mistranslated text or Mech Op bugs.
• Forum users are gonna spin it to mean that simplistic, formulaic, homogenized systems are the quality issue.

Just like you're spinning every possible angle in the devs favor? Lack of innovation is lack of quality. Stop latching onto the meanings of words, you know everyone here means the BIG PICTURE as a core point.

[Chasingstars]

Just like you're spinning every possible angle in the devs favor? Lack of innovation is lack of quality. Stop latching onto the meanings of words, you know everyone here means the BIG PICTURE as a core point.

Even I think your kind of misconstrusing that. Its very possible for the art and music departments to make really nice stuff, but the gameplay and writing room stuff has its issues. Like World of Warcraft has had patches and expansions like that. Stuff looks and sounds nice, shame about the actual gameplay content though.