I guess it's time

[Lorielle]

I actually quite enjoy/enjoyed doing all the things I mentioned. Plus I still log in daily and have a huge "to do" list, that seems to only be added to each content patch. I'm currently sitting on 140 + days of play time on this character alone, and I always have something to do and needs doing. All the content is worthwhile to me, though I suppose some, like yourself, find most of it dull and not worth doing.

The question you should ask yourself is, when you complete all these things, what are you going to do next? 350+ days on my character. While I don't have all jobs to 60(mostly because I eventually got tired of the long grind through the same scenery of dungeons, bored out of my mind in botany and miner because the world itself isn't immersive enough for me to care about it), Relics are pointless to even try because they won't matter in the long run. It's fine to be a completionist, that is a goal you set yourself up for. But know that is different from what the Devs are giving you. That is something you set up yourself to make it lasting. To me, and a few others, just want content that makes it feel like whatever we do actually means something. But this conversation isn't any new. That's what the OP's links are for.

MMOs are all about the hamster wheel. What did you expect?

Then let me rephrase, this particular hamster wheel is very bland and doesn't last long.

In the end, it's all subjective. I particularly before anything, just want to see Eorzea feel more alive.

[Aramina]

I actually quite enjoy/enjoyed doing all the things I mentioned. Plus I still log in daily and have a huge "to do" list, that seems to only be added to each content patch. I'm currently sitting on 140 + days of play time on this character alone, and I always have something to do and needs doing. All the content is worthwhile to me, though I suppose some, like yourself, find most of it dull and not worth doing.

This is me to a "T"... I am at 161d on this character (and I have 2 others with at least one job at 60 and 2 other alts in some stage of the levelling process).

[Masekase_Hurricane]

I honestly can't understand when people say they just stand around with nothing to do. Maybe I'm just a completionist or something. Have you leveled every job to 60, including all hand and land jobs? Have you leveled your companion chocobo up to 20? Have you gotten a pedigree 9 chocobo through racing? Have you gotten every single old (read level 50) and new relic? There are things to do, and to keep you occupied. You just may not want to do them, and I get that. However, just because you wish to ignore content because it doesn't interest you doesn't mean you are out of things to do. So yes, take a break maybe you'll come back and find something that interests you.

Dorander it is more of everything is the same, so far the whole 3.0 patch structure is exactly the same as the 2.0 series.We can work out exactly when next raid, trial, hard dungeon is coming. We can look back at 2.0 and we could probably work out when the next tomes will be added.

So much content they have also left behind guildhests, company ranks, character traits, diadem, roaming primals to name a few. I do agree that the devs are not really trying, only have to look at Hullbreaker Isle (hard) to see that. This dungeon was the biggest let down so far they even hyped it up for some strange reason, I suppose it didn't help that prior to doing it I had done Weeping City, Sohm Al and Nidhogg and I went in totally excited for the hard mode.

[Niwashi]

I watched as the story grew and became better and better, and more and more content was added in the 2.X era. I enjoyed playing nearly daily, defeating each iteration of primals and raids with my friends and having great times and creating good memories.
<snip>
and then I watched as... nothing had changed really, <snip> I found myself asking the question "Is this it?" more and more

If you'd indeed been enjoying the game so much before, I'm just left wondering why you would want it to have changed. Of course new content keeps coming out, but it's still the same game, so is going to remain the same types of content. Any drastic changes in its overall style would leave the new content feeling too out of place.

Maybe it was just me, ...

That's what it sounds like. What you're describing is simple burnout. You've been playing so much that the same things you used to enjoy start feeling like a chore instead.

MMOs try to keep players around for a really long time, because the developers make more money off them that way, but from a player's perspective, it's not really the best way to enjoy a game. Take a break and play something else for a while. Maybe after you've finished or tired of your next game or the one after, you could try coming back and see if you can enjoy this one again.

Or some people find just changing around what they're doing in a game helps to counter burnout. You could try starting a fresh new character where you could play the storyline again and get away from the repetitive grind of endgame for a while.

Playing more casually can help with burnout as well. In my case, I played nearly every day for the first several months the game was out. But once I started feeling too burned out by that, I dropped down to a much more casual schedule, playing on average maybe a couple days a week or so. (Sometimes it's more, sometimes less, but I don't keep up the several hours every day pattern for more than an occasional week or two at a time.) For me, that's been enough to halt the burnout problem for the most part. When I still get burned out anyway, I take a couple weeks off and then I can enjoy it again.

If you're more seriously burned out on the game, though, then you might need a significantly longer break before you can enjoy it again. Or you may simply have reached the point where you've played as much of this game as you enjoy and it's time to decide you're finished with it. Liking a game doesn't really mean you have to spend the rest of your life on it. I really like the original Final Fantasy game, for instance, and have played through it several times, but I'm not currently playing it. The last time I played it was several years ago. It's possible I might play it again one of these years, but if not, that's ok too. It's all right to have enjoyed something but be finished with it. Maybe you're finished with FFXIV. Some people are.

[RyuSaarva]

do more than 1% of the content then you will be busy with the game.

[Morzy]

It doesnt bother me yet, but i agree. Ijust stand around, gather, hang with friends or work on my house.

[DamianFatale]

I think people are just acting salty until the next expansion is out. Honestly for the first expansion do you really think anything over the top and overly new is going to happen? No, its the first. You repeat the content style that you have, except you improve it. Going way out of the ordinary now is just too soon. I'm pretty sure the second will be about more unique conventions, but still the mechanics in 3.0 were really good, and improved compared to before. Some were even entirely different things. Give if time. Im anxious for it too!

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

I've been playing for about a year, and while I'm not particularly burnt out and don't even really agree with most of the conclusions you've come to (or with the other sentiments that this was a lackluster patch),this is definitely something that I've seen affect more and more people as time goes on and the dev team oscillates back and forth between real innovation and digging their core systems deeper into the framework of the game.

I think all three possibilities behind the lack of evolution (so to speak) that you presented are true in some regard:
(1) The dev team is definitely small, and it's not hard to make a case for it being TOO small. I don't know about under-funded, though that's certainly a possibility (FFXIV has always come across as a bit of a Squenix after-thought, when it comes to things like merchandising and promotion), but they seem to have a legitimately limited pool of people to draw from. Not a whole lot of people out there are fluent in Japanese and have the sort of MMO development experience they need to achieve the balance/polish they want on release of content. I'd say it's probably a combination of high standards, low funding, and limited applicants.

(2) I think there's likely a BIT of awareness lacking - one has to wonder just how many staff members play the game and can view it through the eyes of your average everyday gamer - but this is a tricky matter. The dev team has regularly shown (even in the current patch series!) that they're willing to listen and apply concerns about the state of content; they did it with Midas, they did it with Weeping City, they're doing it with Diadem. But it's so much more complicated than just taking dissastisfaction expressed on a forum thread and applying it to the game, especially when you factor in the wide variety of reasons that keep people logging in, the differing priorities of regional players, the overall vision that they may have for the game, and the schedule and resources at the disposal of the dev team. If somebody wants a fundamentally different game, well, the dev team can perhaps be forgiven for not changing, with everything else on their plate. And then you have it compounded by how, right now, by every objective measure, this game is a huge success, and it might be hard for the dev team to agree that the "state of the game" is anything negative.

(3) Impossible to say, but confirmation bias definitely exists on all sides. I think it's just as tricky to say that everybody is universally satisfied with the game as it is to say that the game is in dire and obvious need of fixing. You've seen people quit, and so have I; I've also watched new people come into my Free Company, as well as IRL friends join independently, and fall in love with the game completely. Entire Companies have quit en masse, Gordias Savage all but killed the raid scene, and yet the game marched on and recovered; at the same time, the game has subscription momentum now, and I'm sure that some are logging in just for its own sake. I've spent time playing with friends and randoms who are gung-ho about content, even after playing since the beta. Among these, there are those who are fine with the game, as well as those who think it could use some switching up but are still happy with how it is (this is how I'd best describe myself, actually). The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle.

To answer your key question, though: you aren't the only one, but then, you and those like you aren't the only ones playing, and aren't even necessarily a majority. If the game is wearing you down, take a break; if that break doesn't work and the tricks the devs use to try and make all their content feel distinct have no effect even after coming back, then maybe the game has outlived its place in your life. Sad, but possibly true.

I hope you can find something to keep the game alive for you, and if not, I hope you find something that can bring you a new sense of fun and adventure somewhere else.
_____________________________________________________________________

Sidebar, but regarding story: the dev team is really up against a wall, here. Fact is, an MMORPG is not the ideal method for telling a story. If you make it too compulsory (or too story-heavy), then you run the risk of that alienating the people who play the game for other things; if you shift focus too far from it or make it too divorced from progression in the game, you run the risk of it being pointless and irrelevant. And so, we get something in the middle - a story that takes center stage, but which trims a lot of the fat that is traditionally used to really flesh out characters and narrative. I don't know if I'd call the whole thing a disappointment overall (except for maybe the DSW ultimately lacking the sense of sacrifice implied by Fortemps' narration in 3.1 and 3.2), but it certainly could use more meat. They really do seem to be getting better at storytelling, though, and they have one hell of a world to play with, so I'm relatively optimistic that this is as aspect that will continue improving as time goes on.

[Iromi]

I'm with you OP. Been here since 1.0 and I think I am finally truly bored of the game and realizing it's not going to become what I had hoped for. Ive done nearly everything and I think Yoshidas statement on the interesting stats was the final straw for me. Not getting new egis as promised was pretty bad...but I stuck around because we were told we'd get our stats back.

Noooope. Well...i don't hate the game, it's just too much false promises and same formula over and over

Nothing is going to change and I find myself also logging in, doing moogle dailies then standing around my fc house. I'm tired of this same formula and with nothing to look forward to there is really no point any more

[KeluBehemoth]

TL;DR but I get the gist of it. Ive burnt out too for the same reasons.

Simple answer.

Remove the Tomestone caps, reduce the cost of items. Remove the lockouts. Everyone argues tooth and nail that without lock-outs content would be dead in two weeks. That is a blatant lie. All that it would do is encourage people to play different jobs, and play more, bettering the community as a whole (60 min wait times for tanks in levelling roulette? kthx).

Lets be realistic. They DO have the capability to release more content. Why not release two (actual raids) and more HORIZONTAL gear sets? Its still a grind but hey.. ITS A BIT MORE FUN.

Unfortunately, this isnt a game for hard-core MMO players. Its a game for casuals. Its a new generation of gamers who want instant gratification in everything and want to put in no effort.

This is why we, the few, get this homogenized hamster wheel of content. Sure we're getting things like deep dungeon but honestly, I dont have my hopes up. I had my hopes up for Diadem, it was a disaster, I had my hopes up for hunts, its a disaster.


Since Coil, I havent raided. I absolutely hate Alex. I hate normal mode raids. The only thing that interests me is Primals. I hate this "everyone is equal" crap... you dont need the best gear in the game if you're not raiding. I hate the hand holding. I hate how they encourage bad players to continue being bad. I hate that this game has the lowest skilled players of any MMORPG I have EVER played.

I hate that this game is "trying" to copy WoW but can't even get it right (At least WoW had weapons with special effects like Thunderfury, War Gliaves, Shadowmourne).

But other than that. Its a Final Fantasy game and its online, so I love it. I love the little references from all the other games, I love the graphics and unfortunately the glamour. I love the combat system and the rotations.



To boot, I hate that everything about this is presented and made as a casual game, yet if you miss a single roulette or a week of tomes you're completely f****d and behind every other person in the game indefinitely.

I hate "catch up" patches that turn your hard work into nothing. Making it pointless to have spent that insane amount of time to begin with.

I hate new gear being released every few months, making my efforts pointless. (Horizontal progression PLEASE)



Like... Its hard to admit. I absolutely HATED the level grind in FFXI but I mean... once you got there, it was worth it. From here, its a straight grind from 1-60-i240


Heres another point...

Why the HELL cant I solo Twintania? Like seriously. WHY? Oh right. Insta-kill mechanics... and... I take too much damage, cant put out enough or self heal enough.. Like half the fun of a new expansion is going and facerolling everything in the previous expansion and people are STILL DYING TO TWIN AND NAEL! Thats dead content save for a few glamours and money for crafters... but hey guys... lets wait 60mins in cue for crystal tower because we CANT undersize it. Kthxbai.

I mean.. come on. I can't even Faceroll wanderers palace solo. (Maybe as a WAR).

But guys... at least... we got materia. We got materia

We got materia slots to add materia with the same stats our gear already has, that has LOWER OVERALL STATS than previous gear that didnt have materia!

So like.. HEY GUYS I HURD U LIEK MATERIA SO WE TOOK STATS OFF UR GEAR SO U CAN SPEND GIL TO PUT STATS ON YUR GEAR