Dear SE: Please listen to actual players, not just content creators

[Easayia]

The issue is not that theres no casual content ..........

like what are we talking about the whole game is casual content the whole story its dungeons the trials ETC are all casual content. you could also add maps to that as well as other stuff.

The issue is

there's not enough NEW mid core stuff
( the majority of the player base)

. Key thing being new as in different or extremely improved with rewards that are worth chasing . And that's the big thing.

"REWARDS WORTH CHASING"

Like the new relic grind zone has some of the best engagements we have ever had but what accompanies that stuff is literally reused loot boxes, no real reason to grind the mobs , no new sleeping dragon or cool mechanics you have to learn to overcome like Eureka no real reason to socialize and learn about things in the zone......

no cool dungeons like bozja had except forked tower that has requirements to enter so I would argue thats aimed at the higher tier players wanting to form a group and learn the mechanics. Like bozja and eureka were both better then the new one except when it comes to engagements......

its just all the same old same old stuff.

I think the game desperately needs horizontal progression its needs a reason for people to keep logging in day after day and it needs its jobs to be more distinctly unique from 1 another as many have said before homogenization has been getting out of hand and not just classes but the entire game just does not really feel like its trying to improve itself its just running the same cycle expansion after expansion. This expansion we got new additions but there's no real reason to do them...... that is the issue!

Edit:
However I will say the raid tier this time around having the Adds phase for an entire boss was nice to see as it challenged my group to optimize that entire phase wipe after wipe and it was chaotic fun to learn to figure out and overcome. This Raid Tier was very good in my opinion.

The story this time around wasn't amazing. looks to be about to take a better turn and improve itself hard to say but I liked the last patches story plot.

Literally the main thing I login for right now is the story on a new patch and 2x a week to continue the Raid tiers with my group rest of the time Im logged out because theres nothing new or unique in XIV and Im not looking to be raiding all the time, thats not what I want! I want something fun to chase that gives enough gameplay variation or surprises to keep things interesting. I want fun outside of my raid tier with my group right now I'm not getting it with XIV.

The developers should feel pressured because its time to change the hamster wheel because the hamsters are not using it!

I don't want to see any responses of "well then just play other games" because we are everyone is........

[TaleraRistain]

Xenosys responded to this thread in case anyone would like to hear his opinion. (He also visited a other thread that was posted recently about scheduling updates, so this is a 2 topic video.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U-ndT9rxUA

Just a heads up, he does not agree with this post and is pretty blunt about it. I just figured people should hear his side of the coin about this topic.

LOL I love all the people in the comments telling him how out of touch he is with normal players and how much his response proves the OP's post.

[Easayia]

The OPs Post is wrong though....

Xenos not completely right but his take of its not casual content and not getting enough of it thats the issue is true.

its mid core stuff. The mid core stuff the stuff below Savage raiding the stuff above Casual content. the middle area the area most people play the game day after day for has no real reason to do it. Even though they added some new mid core stuff this expansion theres no real reason to want to do it.
"
Theres no reason to want to login every day to progress something or aim for any goal its currently missing most MMOs have this in the form of Horizontal progression FFXIV lacks it and thats why people are not logging in.

[FuturePastNow]

I think they're trying to make more "midcore" stuff but just like most players, I don't think they really know what difficulty they want that to be.

[Altina_Orion]

I think they're trying to make more "midcore" stuff but just like most players, I don't think they really know what difficulty they want that to be.

I can answer that. Scalable content harder than normal mode (M+-type, but not copy-pasta). Something that people in the middle and the high end can continue to challenge themself on over and over and something that casual players dont have to be afraid to dip their toes into.

[Easayia]

I can answer that. Scalable content harder than normal mode (M+-type, but not copy-pasta). Something that people in the middle and the high end can continue to challenge themself on over and over and something that casual players dont have to be afraid to dip their toes into.

I mean kinda I think thats the difficulty to hit for sure but also again its about rewards its about the horizontal progression. tbh it would require the devs to touch the gearing process of the game which IDK if they are willing to touch as much as I think they need to. I mean I think your right in saying the players also arent sure what they would want.

but the goals:

Harder then the casual content a bit harder then the mid core content but approachable for the casual players

that offered rewards that made people want to login every day to do the content.

Thinking IDK on Square to figure it out.

[Ranhansha]

LOL I love all the people in the comments telling him how out of touch he is with normal players and how much his response proves the OP's post.

And one of the most upvoted comments just telling him how he's been saying the exact opposite for months.

[MayuAmakura]

If devs listened to players, PvP wouldn't be dead.

[Mawlzy]

If devs listened to players, PvP wouldn't be dead.

I'm not typically one to defend the devs, but the negative reaction to 7.1 PvP changes and the specific player suggestions that followed apparently led to the vast improvements in 7.2.

[Altina_Orion]

I'm not typically one to defend the devs, but the negative reaction to 7.1 PvP changes and the specific player suggestions that followed apparently led to the vast improvements in 7.2.

I'll agree that PVP right now is actually the best it's ever been.