Thread: Why aren't you subbing to Final Fantasy XIV now that the trial period is over?

Just to add a preface guys, this isn't a troll thread. I'm curious to know what's on other peoples minds about the game, and what has convinced them not to sub to the game now that the free trial period is ending for most of us. If you've subbed, that's fine and dandy, but that's not the point of this thread. Please respect that people who are not subbing may have valid opinions that can better the game for everyone, and improve the retention rate of players as more people hit 'endgame'.

I will start off by saying that I loved the 1-50 experience on my first class. Getting to 50 was a joy. Why? It was well paced with a robust storyline and quest system, with the occasional fate, dungeon, and leve. I thought that Square-Enix had accomplished the impossible. They created a mmo that didn't feel grindy... and I quite loved it. Then, I hit 50.

Currently endgame requires a lot of grinding for upgrades. I feel like the game established a brisk and rewarding pace for the first 50 levels and then suddenly expected you to grind the same stuff repeatedly for a minimal amount of tokens. This wouldn't be an issue if 1. Dungeon Queues weren't so long 2. the dungeons rewarded more tombstones 3. It didn't take forever to get a single upgrade. I started to lose interest at this point. I could kind of understand that a new game might not have a fully fleshed out endgame, so I decided to try working secondary classes.

I messed around with a few crafting classes and I thought they were ok. It wasn't til i started leveling a second class that I realized the game throws out everything it establishes during the first 50 levels of your gameplay experience. It becomes an absolute grindfest with no ideal alternative to leveling outside grinding fates, dungeons, and leves. Sure, I guess you might say that there is variety at least, but there is a clear winner when it comes to leveling speedily, and that seems to be fate grinding.

Fate grinding.. WHo thought this was a good idea? It has to be the most uninvolved, unengaging, boring ways to level in almost any game I've played. Not only is there a sense of urgency because people swarm each fate camp like flies to a fresh turd, but I felt completely disconnected from the game while doing it. Having played Final Fantasy XI for the first 4 years of its NA release, I'm not a stranger to grinding.. so grinding isn't the issue itself. It's just that fate-grinding is mindless and makes the game feel like a single player experience. Even in groups you have people coming and going, ... they just feel like people taking up spots in your group. It doesn't even contribute to the social aspect, because people tended to not even speak to each other. They were just there to pass the hours fate grinding, and grouping made it a bit easier, not more fun.

After getting sick of fates for awhile, I decided to do some dungeoning and use up some of my leves. There are very egregious issues with both of these alternatives. First of all, Dungeons take forever to get into unless youre a healer or tank. Once you are finally in a dungeon.. the experience is quite pitiful even with the 50% bonus. Even with rested exp, it's quite bad ... and pales in comparison to fate-grinding. Why is this the case? I will say that I found the dungeons way more engaging and fun, but trying to level in dungeons is very unideal. I think an exp boost could help dungeons seem more attractive to players who can't stand fate-grinding while helping queue times as well. At least there's some minor strategy involved to them'.

Now to get to leves. Who was in charge of balancing them? They give less than half the exp for a fate of any given level range. You also only get a limited number of them. I did quite a few leves, until i realized.. that choosing to do a leve in favor of a fate in a given zone was an experience loss. Why isn't there an experience bonus to secondary classes for Leves? Why is the exp so low on them?

How about rested exp? 50% application to mob kills/dungeons is too low. If it could somehow be boosted to 100% in dungeons and effect leves, then those alternatives to fate grinding might become viable. For the time being, fates are where it's at, much to the detriment of the gameplay experience. On a related note, rested exp can discourage someone from leveling low leveled classes. I know I personally avoided working conjurer because I had like 2-3 bars of rested that I didn't want to waste on a fresh Conjurer. There should be a way to lock rested for low level classes, so that you can unlock it at a level where it wont be wasted.

Game mechanics aside, me and my friends have been separated since the launch due to character restrictions placed on our server of choice... then secondary server of choice, and now were all scattered. This still hasn't been rectified.. and I think we're all in agreement that we will not pay for server transfers for a restriction placed on servers by square-enix, however good intentioned their reasoning may have been.

With that said, these are the main reasons I will not be subscribing. I really enjoyed the free trial period for the first 30 days or so, but I found that the repetition finally set in and made me realize I wasn't having fun with the way they designed endgame and leveling secondary classes. Making adjustments to these systems can go a long way in reinvigorating the game for me, that seems to have lost its freshness rather quickly, but in no part due to the fundamental mechanics of the game.. just the design approach after leveling your first class, and for a game that has tried to reestablish itself as a 'modern mmo', there is simply too much grinding in the end.

Now this brings me to the question. If you have decided not to renew, why is that the case? Being constructive helps, but no opinion is 'wrong'.

Thanks for reading.