Quote Originally Posted by Imapooonu View Post
It is ONLY about trying to understand a perspective and maybe sway someone's opinion through logic (albeit loose logic) and positive reinforcement.
I'll bite. I'm neither a completionist, perfectionist, nor an end-gamer. I'm more on the casual side, but not really fitting in to what that label implies.

I don't mind a grind as long as there is a purpose to it, and I don't mind putting forth effort to get something.

I have not burned through all of the content available.

I did not level my crafting through leves (with the exception of Culinarian, but I only leveled that one for Steady Hand 2).

I did not Fate zerg my pld to 50. Mnk was the only 50 I had from 1.0 and I haven't played it. I leveled Brd just because I wanted the outfit. I've tried every class to at least 15.

I do not want the game to be made easier. (I'm really against nerfing Coil this early on in the game's life-cycle.)

I do not want everything handed to me.

I do not want instant gratification.

I am not dissatisfied with a 'lack of content.'

I am not an MMO hopper.

I played FFXI for about 7 years and only stopped when the Adoulin expansion came out. (That expansion introduced item levels) I was hoping to make XIV my next 7 year or longer game.

I am dissatisfied with the overall re-design of the game and the structure on which it is based.

There is no way to even slightly personalize your job/class. They've removed the flexibility of classes actually being viable for certain content. There is no strategy other than pattern memorization to ANY fight with the way they set up the new combat system. There is no horizontal progression. There is a single skill rotation and gear setup for every job, and no variation is tolerated. There is NO content for crafters (by design), and the only content for gatherers is the Treasure Map system.

The only thing this game offers is a series of instanced, level-capped dungeon runs with the goal being to collect better gear, gear that completely invalidates everything you did before. I've never played games with the desire to just run raid after raid to get bigger and better shinies. From what we've heard about the intended updates, this is not going to change, ever.

If I wanted to play a First Person Shooter, I would. I wanted an MMO with depth, but what they gave me was an FPS cleverly disguised as an MMORPG.

Some suggestions I can think of that may bring back some interest, at least for people like me.

For level 50 dungeons that have medium iLevel requirements, sync everyone down to that iLevel to keep the challenge alive. I didn't want to be carried through AK by 3 people that had relics or relic+1, I wanted to learn it. But, there's no hope of learning the dungeon when everyone has better gear and just facerolls the damn thing. Strategy was useless, and non-existent, and I felt really horrible after our 'win.'

Make crafters useful again. Let me repair my husband's gear again. Let us craft things that are on par with dungeon drops, or make dungeons drop crafting items instead of gear all the time. Give us interesting things to do; bringing back some form of Hamlet would be fan-freaking-tastic. It doesn't have to be the same, but, content that combines disciples of war/magic and land/hand would be fun, interesting, different and keep me logged in. They've created such a robust crafting system, and they just let it rot like a pretty bowl of fruit on their coffee table.

Bring back some open world dungeons for exploration. And/or let us go into lower level dungeons without the level cap for funsies. The timer on dungeons really bothers me too, who needs an additional level of stress added to a new dungeon run. (I understand why it's there, to prevent instance servers from being clogged up, but there has to be a way to extend it.) They've built this huge world that they're so proud of, but it's just a giant lobby.

Unfortunately, it feels to me that with the way they designed the combat and attribute system, they've left no room for horizontal progression. They've completely cut out classes as a viable option, and have given us no room to personalize things or try out different play styles. In trying to make the game accessible to everyone, they've made it kinda bland.

The only reason I am still subscribed is because I upped my sub 1 day before they released the housing prices. If I had waited ONE DAY, I would have canceled when I saw that atrocity.

1.23 was fantastic, and I'd like to think that the same dev team that gave us that, could make this game so much better than it currently is. Unfortunately, as the game is now, it's just not that interesting to me. And that's not referring to the content specifically, it's more about their whole design philosophy.