So I'm not seeing how this is them changing things up from 2.0/3.0

[Naoshi]

I don't think the OP is exactly asking for a complete rehaul in the game or anything like that. I think they really just want new and unique content that keeps them interested in playing throughout the expansion. It doesn't necessarily mean having to change the core of the game or redesigning huge aspects of what is established.

I do get that Stormblood being basically a Heavensward 2.0 would be nice for folks who are satisfied with the current formula as it is, but others would want something more. I think Square Enix can strike a good balance, there is a lot of potential there after all!

Personally I'd love it if Stormblood does a lot of cool things that makes me wanna play a lot more from a casual point of view. I feel FFXIV has a lot of room for improvement and changes, as great as the game is.

So you more or less don't know what you want, then. Just that it be different.

I rest my case.

...That is not how I interpreted it, especially when he expressed some ideas earlier but okay.

[Talraen]

FFXI came out in Japan two years before WoW came out at all, but they both came out in 2004 in the US. They aren't actually that far apart. And aside from WoW itself, FFXI was the most popular MMO of its time, equaling Everquest's peak. If it didn't win over the mainstream, neither did EQ. And I think that's accurate; WoW was so huge compared to both of these because it was the first MMO that did attract the mainstream.

The problem with the assumption that having to interact is rewarding is survivorship bias. Yes, the people who played FFXI long-term had a great community, quite possibly better than the one here. But that's because the players who couldn't or didn't want to deal with FFXI stopped playing. A wider community is almost always going to be more flawed by its nature, but they're trying to appeal to as wide a community as possible. Having a good community consisting of people with very narrow desires is no great achievement.

As for the party finder, that's not the only reason FFXIV has better recruitment than FFXI. I spent many a week shouting in town looking for people to do CoP, and never finished it. There was no incentive for anyone who had completed the content to help, and the content was too long and difficult to consistently clear with other people looking to do it, assuming you even found them. The party finder would help slightly with this, but the reason this works in FFXIV is because of the duty finder. Now I can queue for the dungeon, and someone else is incentivized to come because of roulettes. And they can be rewarded for doing an old dungeon because of the tomestone system. If you change these systems, as people seem to want, you risk going back to a system where people have no incentive to help other players. I'm stubborn, so I stuck around in FFXI, but none of my similarly-casual friends did. I only ever finished most of the plotlines in the game because of the increased level cap and Trust system.

TLDR; everything you're asking for is what frustrated me about FFXI, and made all my friends quit. My story is not exceptional.

[KokonoeAiyoko]

FFXI came out in Japan two years before WoW came out at all, but they both came out in 2004 in the US. They aren't actually that far apart. And aside from WoW itself, FFXI was the most popular MMO of its time, equaling Everquest's peak. If it didn't win over the mainstream, neither did EQ. And I think that's accurate; WoW was so huge compared to both of these because it was the first MMO that did attract the mainstream.

The problem with the assumption that having to interact is rewarding is survivorship bias. Yes, the people who played FFXI long-term had a great community, quite possibly better than the one here. But that's because the players who couldn't or didn't want to deal with FFXI stopped playing. A wider community is almost always going to be more flawed by its nature, but they're trying to appeal to as wide a community as possible. Having a good community consisting of people with very narrow desires is no great achievement.

As for the party finder, that's not the only reason FFXIV has better recruitment than FFXI. I spent many a week shouting in town looking for people to do CoP, and never finished it. There was no incentive for anyone who had completed the content to help, and the content was too long and difficult to consistently clear with other people looking to do it, assuming you even found them. The party finder would help slightly with this, but the reason this works in FFXIV is because of the duty finder. Now I can queue for the dungeon, and someone else is incentivized to come because of roulettes. And they can be rewarded for doing an old dungeon because of the tomestone system. If you change these systems, as people seem to want, you risk going back to a system where people have no incentive to help other players. I'm stubborn, so I stuck around in FFXI, but none of my similarly-casual friends did. I only ever finished most of the plotlines in the game because of the increased level cap and Trust system.

TLDR; everything you're asking for is what frustrated me about FFXI, and made all my friends quit. My story is not exceptional.

I think the issue is that you're still thinking of open world content in a very old MMORPG sort of way. You're thinking of FFXI which had unforgiving systems in place, a game that had some of the worst class balance in an MMO (legit some classes were useless or inferior for most content). FFXIV is a far more balanced game by comparison with far more modern UI and match making systems as well as design and functionality. We don't have to do this like FFXI.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I don't want something specific, but in the same regard, I want the content to be different. I've played many MMORPG's over the past decade and generally an expansion will change how you obtain something to a certain degree, and will change the fights to the a certain degree, and will just make things different enough to where it's interesting, but it's still the same game in the process.

I'm not here to shoot direct ideas to them, I'd like to see them invent ideas that surprise me, and honestly, at this point, I'd be easily surprised because their content of 2.0 and 3.0 is too vastly similar that anything that would rock the boat would be enough to wow me.

If I were to ask for something specific, I'd ask them to stop doing the same thing. The gameplay itself will remain as it should, but the container it is in can vary and give us new experiences. That's what I desire.

To be fair, Yoshi has expressed they intent to add something entirely unique to FFXIV by 4.2. They have also leaned towards a third difficulty for top tier raiders.

I don't disagree they could innovate better than what we've seen, however without specifics to chew on, the discussion sort of... ends? Even putting aside the devs cannot possibly know now to please everyone, I fancy seeing various ideas from people for my own curiosity. I don't necessarily care one away or another about set bonuses because I tend to view gear as a means to an end. "Is this better? Yes? That's what I'll use." But it does make for an interesting talking point.

[KokonoeAiyoko]

To be fair, Yoshi has expressed they intent to add something entirely unique to FFXIV by 4.2. They have also leaned towards a third difficulty for top tier raiders.

I don't disagree they could innovate better than what we've seen, however without specifics to chew on, the discussion sort of... ends? Even putting aside the devs cannot possibly know now to please everyone, I fancy seeing various ideas from people for my own curiosity. I don't necessarily care one away or another about set bonuses because I tend to view gear as a means to an end. "Is this better? Yes? That's what I'll use." But it does make for an interesting talking point.

4.2? Perhaps I'll show back up around then. Thank you for informing me of this and I look forward to seeing what this content is.

I could shoot some ideas, but I think in all honesty, I don't feel confident enough coming up with an idea on the fly. I'd want to sit back and think it over for a week or two or something because there are a lot of variables involved here.

[Ririta]

It's certainly not getting harder/more challenging - notice how they intend to make gearing through dungeons easier/less work and give out a free gearbox when you hit 70 on a job

This is good, though. Gearing up to the basic level should be quick.

As for the Tomes, I just want them to be easier to cap. Increase the rewards from other content such as trials and raids, so we don't have "Expert" Roulette as the only (reasonable) way to cap. And stop making weapons such a chore to obtain...

In my opinion, since gear is replaced so quickly it shouldn't be grindy to obtain. So we can actually use the gear to clear things. This is why 2.1 will always be my favorite patch. People complained that there was nothing to do, but I was busy trying to clear T5, crafting, completing gear sets for future glamour, and so on. I want to spend less time grinding for gear and have more time to do things that I enjoy.

I know I kind of went off topic, just wanted to say that while I dislike tomes, there are ways to make them more player friendly.

[Vexander]

If we're talking about things we'd like to see, I don't think I'd mind seeing something like Postmaster becoming an actual kind of class. The Quests were a lot of fun and the idea of being able to deliver a few letters or packages to NPCs per day/week strikes me as fairly intriguing. I wouldn't expect them to be as unique and amazing as the actual post-moogle quests, but they could provide some kind of reward system like Venture, Tomestones, Gil, MGP, etc...

A set of jobs/classes that serve no functional use in a crafting or combat scenario but would open up small rewards feels like it could be innovative and fun, and possible expand the glamour system a little as well. Imagine an Illusionist Job that lets you assume the form of any uninstanced, non-character mob in the game? Or a rancher job that lets you tend to your Chocobo without the need for chocobo stables?

Something that stands out from FFXI for me was a quest to get the spell Aspir. It required a White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage to enter some ruins and stand in circles to open a door. Something similar to that to access hidden areas would be pretty nifty. Like a Ninja using ninjitsu on a specific statue or something to reveal a little hidden treasure cache. Or warriors smashing boulders for the same.

[Moonlite]

Weird I read the live letter stuff and I didn't see anything about any graphical improvements. Pro is getting some support that isn't graphical improvement. Also a lot of that list felt like make players/world better models. Not make some new magical game.

But woo swimming. The greatest thing ever added to MMO's.

[ErikMynhier]

I'm so excited. And regardless of how the forums react the real gadge of success will be the sales numbers.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

You know, this dances upon the cusp of something I said in that asinine Coil thread.

What we need more than anything is not a completely different endgame formula (as in the flow of progression, endgame currencies, and content scheduling, that is). We need the challenge back. Before you grab your pitchforks and torches, I'm not saying everything's got to be super hard, but I alluded before to how awesome it felt when I learned to beat the original Demon Wall, and got my first piece of Philosophy gear. Sure there were people wearing Mythology and Coil gear already by then, but for me personally, I was the champ. And that Darklight Corset of Aiming was a BATTLE TROPHY. It wasn't impossible, but it wasn't easy to the point of boredom and avoidance.

At some point, in pursuit of establishing an "accessible" level of endgame difficulty for the common player, they stopped raising the bar, and people stopped trying to reach for it. Gear became a handout; put enough time in, and a medium amount of effort, and you can gear up effectively. This created the problem of complacency. Run your roulettes, then afk in Idyllshire. Maybe do it for a friend. Cap for the week: Job done. No need to push and try and work on improving, not when the bare minimum time requirement for the week gets you everything. If you wait a bit, upgrade items get unlocked and you'll never need to attempt something as difficult as a raid! The last time the relic was a challenge, Titan Hard was actually hard.

To the person who said it before, I agree now more than ever: "Bring back the bees." Not literally, but the idea of them: Bring back the challenge at the early endgame and midcore level, and make gearing and progression the reason to keep trying, not just the carrot on the stick. That, I believe, is where the biggest change needs to take place, for the benefit of both the game and the players.