I guess it's time

[Kaurie]

5. Umm.. what? The devs have live letters every month telling us what's coming in future patches. That, by definition, is communication. The community team does an awesome job getting concerns, feedback and ideas through. But not all ideas on the forums here are good ideas. I don't envy their job of having to sort through it all. Yoshi P has mentioned several times that they monitor the forums and look for feedback.

They do a lot of communication this way for sure, but the communication from devs to playerbase seems to pale in comparison to other games I've played. Here, I find most hot topics are largely ignored, or if they do address them they give a sort-of 1-off answer. Whereas in WoW, Wildstar, Guild Wars 2 etc., the devs will actively discuss these topics with the players. I have a feeling a large part of it is due to the language difference / this being from a Japanese developer.

[NaesakiAshwell]

They do a lot of communication this way for sure, but the communication from devs to playerbase seems to pale in comparison to other games I've played.

They do communicate with us but in terms of the english audience they only seem to care what Balmung wants. :P :l

[Jetstream_Fox]

snip

1. There isn't enough content, I seriously don't know where people keep getting this, each patch cycle isn't keeping people around for the 3 month span as it did in 2.0. Don't even tell new to level up a side job, grab all the minions, cards, or level a craft, because that's not new content, that's running existing content because there is nothing else. When you're 2 weeks into a patch and the content is already dried up, that either means A your content isn't diverse enough or B you're not putting out enough.

2. There are a ton of QoL updates that have come off the forum, obviously not everyone wants the same thing, but when people cry about nothing having a glamour book, better fc functions, joining dungeons with birds out, or the fact when you do a hefty amount of GC turnins the game has the need to spam the completion sound effect. And SE isn't attempting to fix these things and they been out here since 2.0, it's apparent they have a lack a interest, but hey let's add that RP icon instead.

3. I don't really care about Egis since I don't play SMN or SCH to bother, was again merely making a point about something that was asked for a very lengthy amount of time and they kept sweeping it under the rug.

4. It's not just the Diadem they left die, how about ALL of the Gold Saucer content that has failed? LoV and TT have gone no where fast, what about Chocobo racing, where are the updates to that? One update to "fix" the Diadem issue isn't going to fix the fact Diadem NEEDS to be updated EVERY patch just like Palace of the Dead will need to be as well.

5. Live letters every month and you think that's good enough? That's like getting a news letter from your job, but then your bosses don't tell you anything other than "Please look forward to it!" Where are the community polls? Where are the community managers in game hyping up content? Go look at Blizzard, not just WoW but the entirety that is Blizzard, their community managers are active and even do play dates. This game can and deserves a lot better than what we get.

6. FF14 dev team should be the biggest and strongest department at SE. I mean this is the only successful new MMO out on the market currently, and it's not like they only profited about 1.4 billion last year. Looks like they have as decent amount there to back up one of their few successful game teams with some extra help.

[ADVSS]

2. There are a ton of QoL updates that have come off the forum, obviously not everyone wants the same thing, but when people cry about nothing having a glamour book, better fc functions, joining dungeons with birds out, or the fact when you do a hefty amount of GC turnins the game has the need to spam the completion sound effect. And SE isn't attempting to fix these things and they been out here since 2.0, it's apparent they have a lack a interest, but hey let's add that RP icon instead.

you remember how annoying it was to buy cordials with seals? we waited for what,3 years to have that interface work like buying from a materials vendor

[PotatoTree]

I think this type of feeling usually pops up during the "casual" odd numbered patches. If you raid hardcore and have finished alex from the even patches, it might be good to take a break during the odd patches or just sub for a bit to finish the trial they add.

[WellFooled]

I agree with the OP. FFXIV has some amazing world building, story, and aesthetics that I don't want to sell short, but I feel the gameplay side of things is weak and has grown stagnant.

The formula of dungeons, trials, and raids has worn thin. As well designed as they are, they all follow the same template. Every dungeon is a hallway with three bosses in mostly circle arenas (sometimes a rectangle for fun). Those bosses have cool mechanics and the hallways are in beautiful settings, but its still the same concept over and over. The same is true of trials and raids. Even the rewards are dished out in a predictable formula. I'm willing to bet the next trial we get will have a set of weapons themed after the boss.

The Aquapolis was the stand out piece of content this patch for me. It might be simple, but it is a totally new template for battle content and that alone makes it so much more fun than Hullbreaker HM. We desperately need new kinds of battle content. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that The Palace of the Dead is the next big step. I would be thrilled if a patch included no new dungeons or trials or raids if instead it had a series of all new types of battle content.

The stats in FFXIV are too rudimentary to support an MMORPG. Without more interesting gear characteristics (stats, attached abilities, traits, etc), there is no reason outside of glamour to be excited about getting new gear. Its gotten to the point where I don't even look at what stats my gear has, just the ilvl. A sword with 200 STR is no more interesting than a sword with 195 STR. If I get an upgrade, I usually glamour over it and continue my day as if nothing happened. This is not rewarding enough for an MMORPG. This overly simple stat design has two major drawbacks.

• It makes combat boring, because we have absolutely no way to change it outside of what job we're playing and since combat is a huge part of FFXIV, this reduces the desire to play most of FFXIV.
  
• Gear is the main reward for doing most content. Since the gear has boring stats, this also limits desire to play most of FFXIV because the rewards are lackluster. If the latest dungeon offered gear that had some kind of bonus for your job like a shield that included "Shield Bash is now a small AoE" or a chest piece that had a trait "Wildfire now also includes a small percentage of your party's damage". Wouldn't you be genuinely excited to find that armor? Pumped to try it out in combat? Motivated to get back in that dungeon and see what else is there? That's what getting new gear is supposed to be like.

I really feel these two changes would revitalize FFXIV and really make it without rival in the MMORPG market.

[Waterdeep]

"Shield Bash is now a small AoE" or a chest piece that had a trait "Wildfire now also includes a small percentage of your party's damage". Wouldn't you be genuinely excited to find that armor?

Depends on how the gear is aquired. If they lock it behind savage, no thanks. I know raider want to basically get half a game just to themselves and lock everyone else out, but the second such genuinly interesting things are locked away from a big part of the playerbase it is over for me.

But I do agree that it would be nice if they could do something about it. For example if they released a bunch of special Materia that would push the MCH more towards ranged dps or more towards support, leaving it up to the player to decide how to meld his MCH and adjust his playstyle would be refreshing. But you just know people would bitch about that as well.

"Nuuuh why can't I be party support AND damage dealer?"
"People talk shit about my materia loadout..."
"LET US MELD DIFFERENT MATERIA SETS INTO OUR GEAR, HAVING TWO SETS OF GEAR IS JUST TOO MUCH!"
"Honestly, I am burnt out by the game. Always the same, new materia gets released and I have to farm all over again..."

[Cakekizyy]

Gear is just a vehicle to facilitate access to content. If it serves its purpose, stats are meaningless as is the ilvl.

[MoraClaret]

Yeah, I agree with you Caelum. I've felt the same way for a while now.

My guess is it's a combination of funding being dumped into the FFXV spectacle (feature-length movie, anime series, spin-off mobile games, famous voice actors, etc), and the dev team being afraid of doing anything they see as slightly risky.

While the majority don't read anything longer than a tweet, and don't care in general. Some of us do care about the thoughts and experiences of a fellow mmorpg player. Here's hoping something comes along soon that we can enjoy for the long run, take care.

[Evangela]

I'm thinking the same. FFXIV is fun to play but not fun to play everyday. Not just you, I, and a few people in this thread but I think lots of players thought or are thinking the same.

New patch updates are not even make you feel good anymore. You'll get 2 dungeons per patch and some other small things to do but then it'll get old very quick. New patches nowadays only make people feel fresh for a week or so.

It's always the same routine. You do the same thing over and over, old wine in a new bottle. New dungeons, new gears, but they're all in the same old format we've been doing since 2.0.

Logging in daily for the roulettes is like working. Playing game supposed to be entertaining, not working.