Overall thoughts from a returning player

[rwyan]

My sub has been active throughout all of 1.0 and since the launch of 2.0. I stopped playing around Christmas and recently returned to see if I would keep my sub active or cancel all together.

The following are just some thoughts, feedback and observations of my experiences over the past couple months.

A Casual Player's Endgame Experience
I don't have nearly as much time to burn as I'd like, but at the end of the day, with all my other time commitments and hobbies, I feel like I can only truly dabble here and there. In 1.0, this made it very difficult to enjoy the game. Logging in and having to put together a full group of 8 players to tackle any potential endgame anything was painful. Simply, often times, by the time I'd have a group together, my play time would be up. Many complain about the RNG, but I felt like my 1hr here, 2hrs there was simply not enough to enjoy even just a bit of what 1.0 offered.

2.0 offers many options. The Duty Finder makes it simple to run through Main Scenario instances and not getting gated simply because you've fallen behind. The Duty Finder combined with Roulettes make it progressing through the iLvL grind pleasant. I can progress a little one night and a lot tomorrow. It seems to work to my gaming schedule, which is awesome. I appreciate that each patch has either iterated on poor designs of earlier releases and/or exposed additional methods of acquiring endgame currencies.

I have also only recently started the Atma grind. While I am all for goals that take quite a bit of time to achieve, I don't like goals where time is left mostly to the RNG. In the future, I would prefer a system that is more engaging in some way or at least broken down in such a way that I can reliably measure and determine progress. I don't mind spending lots and lots of time on something.... I just prefer it to be fun and not so much mindless.


Currencies, Currencies Everywhere
The great thing about any currency/token/tome system is that you usually have a way to easily track, manage, and forecast progress. I know running dungeons X, Y, and Z will reward quantities of A, B, and C. Depending on what my goals are for the day or week, I have a very good idea as to how long or at least how much time I'll have to invest to get what I want out of it.

The thing I find less and less immersive however is currency bloat. I understand a patch already removed one form of currency, but as it stands we have Company Seals, Allied Seals, Myth, Soldiery, and Wolf Marks. With all these varied activities in the game... and more to come, it would be preferable to keep these currencies down to a minimum. For example, were Allied Seals really necessary? Could the rewards bought with Allied Seals not be rolled into the rewards bought with Company Seals?


And then there's this thing called Community
For the most part, I have been happy with the community. I have noticed some toxicity on the forums and have been Dutied with the occasional jerk. But at the end of the day, I can truly say I have had some fun times with some of you folks. Unfortunately, as many have noted, Hunts have really brought out the worst in our community.

While I have only casually engaged in some hunting, such as I stumble upon the hoard of hunters preparing to pull a mark, I have found some really interesting thoughts and behavior. I find it peculiar that some folks feel that they are entitled to every mark spawn that they hear about during their play session. What could've been a fun feature has been gutted by the zerg/horde/entitled mentality. I do hope SE revisits these to make them engaging, challenging and ultimately more fun now. As it stands, there is nothing fun about stumbling upon a mark and then having to wait for what seems like the entire server to get there.

At the end of the day, it is awesome to run around and be dutied with folks who are clearly here for either their love of FF or MMOs or both. You folks my play sessions fun and occasionally memorable (such as being dutied with all newbies to Amdapor - that was the best duty ever!)

Too Much to do, Too Little time
You know, many MMOs, especially new ones, promise all sorts of content updates with certain frequencies. FF14 so far has been the most consistent and most plentiful. Each patch brings a lot of new things and iterates on old things. It has been very fun to simply follow updates.

I find myself enjoying every facet of FF14... gathering, crafting, adventuring, pvp... Too many things for me to attempt to do. I admittedly sometimes find it overwhelming, but at the end of the day, I hope SE continues to evolve each aspect of the game over time. I hope aspects such as Hunts get re-addressed so that they become meaningful, engaging parts of the game (as opposed to just a "quick" way of grinding certain endgame items). I also hope SE doesn't neglect any one facet as each one does bring something to the game.