Playerbase Mood

[azura84]

With the upcoming expansion on the horizon and the flurry of debates of whether this will be a welcome sight to those in love with the current game or to those stagnating and feel it will just be more of the same.

I am curious where people stand as of right now in their opinion of XIV. I personally fit into the griping category since I tend to gripe about SE not doing enough and since I'm from FFXI I have a natural difference of opinion to the style of MMO that has become XIV today.

1. Where do you come from to XIV? Play WoW, FFXI, GuildWars, ESO, CoD, BF, Space Sim, Mario, etc?
2. Do you like how the game currently progresses? Do you enjoy how the core level and then gear level progression is paced and/or designed?
3. Do you want it to stay that way? If no, what changes would you make?
4. What is your favorite part of FFXIV, what do you appreciate most that the devs have done?

Edit: Getting some decent input with this and think i want to change how i word no.2, Also in the spirit of staying positive and appreciative i'm adding question 4.

[Dzian]

1. Where do you come from to XIV? Play WoW, FFXI, GuildWars, ESO?

Various MMO's namely XI though. 2002-2010 certainly the longest time I spent playing one (quit when they released abbyssea,) everything else I played was dropped in 2-3 months.

2. Do you like how the game currently progresses?

Nope. The progression is so fast that gear and rewards hold no value. There's no real sense of accomplishment in getting it. Nor any real reason to aim for stuff just grab whatever has the highest I level and go.. No point making the effort to tweak stats when all your work will be junk next month.. even titles and things are worthless because end up being easy to get any of them so no prestige or value.

3. Do you want it to stay that way? If no, what changes would you make?

3. Sense of worth. Getting a piece of gear should feel good for more than 30 seconds. Should last a lot longer to..

If that were the case You'd probably see a lot more players invest in it. they might meld the stuff they get cos it won't be tossed in a month. Or they might try harder content to get those better secondary stats or something. Where as now players just don't care. Which i270 piece is the easiest. Oh look that shire has lol parry but it's 270 and it'll be replaced in no time so who cares..

It's kinda weird personally seeing as the game is designed around gear but the gear doesn't hold value or feel satisfying to get. so what the game deems the reward to be isn't actually rewarding (Excluding glamor)

Its also wierd when many players will put in 10 or 20 times more effort into getting a drop because it'd be good glamour or something than they do about getting a drop because it's actually better.

Players will also spend an eternity farming an ex primal for a bird that is exactly the same as every other mount. But they won't ever touch a raid that offers a better piece of gear or an improvement to there stats..

Players will also spend 10s of millions of gil on glamour items like the cashmere ponchos and stuff. But won't spend a 100k on melding there gear cos it's a waste of money when it'll be tossed next month.

Gear needs to last longer and actually feel valuable..

Sometimes I feel we're in a paradox (We as in my friends and I at least). I think the games ok but isn't great. I only really play it because my friends do..
Yet many of those friends also say the games ok isn't that great but they only really play it cos we do..

[Synrin]

1. Where do you come from to XIV? Play WoW, FFXI, GuildWars, ESO?
2. Do you like how the game currently progresses?
3. Do you want it to stay that way? If no, what changes would you make?

1. WoW, ESO, SW:TOR (if you refer to only MMOs)
2. It is the same old rinse-repeat concept. Every couple of months you start the same process. Gear never gets to be relevant, but on the bright side, the gap between best and worst isn't that big like in other games.
3. XIV has so many mini-games, small things and systems that I don't know if devs themselves know what they could change. I am always looking forward to improvement though, not down-grading.

[TaleraRistain]

1. I was playing WoW when I moved to XIV but I've been playing MMOs for nearly 20 years. In my past are EQ, EQII, CoX, Star Wars Galaxies, Champions Online, STO, and WoW.

2. I like the progression. I've played games (EQ among others) that had a very high gap between gear obtained through raiding and gear obtained through other means and they balance it nicely here. I enjoy the story-driven format but I'm not keen on dungeons in the MSQ, mainly because it can really deflate your eagerness when you smack into a roadblock like Keeper or The Vault when they first came out. We'll have to see what taking squadrons into dungeons will do for us.

3. I think they should take forced grouping out and make MSQ about quests and solo duties. Then they can have dungeons as optional.

[Sebazy]

1) UO, EQ, WoW PvP, FFXI, WoW PvE, FFXIV 1.0, ARR primarily with a bunch of random fluff like SWTOR, Warhammer online, GW2 and BnS thrown in for good measure.

2) For the most part yes, I'm a raider that sits in somewhere between hardcore and midcore first and foremost and I've generally enjoyed the end game content that SE have thrown my way over the years. If I had to single out a complaint here, it's that SE should aim to be a little more consistent with the difficulty of the game overall. The vast majority of content is simply too easy approaching the end game and it's quite possible to get right up to savage with very little grasp on how to play optimally. This then causes certain savage/extreme content to be too big a difficulty spike for some since the game made very little effort to educate them along the way.

3) At it's core level, I absolutely enjoy the game as it is. If SE do a good job of refining the combat system, reducing button bloat and bringing the bottom line of player performance up closer to the higher tiers of play then i'll consider it a job well done

They would get bonus points for upping the annoying 1000 char limit on posting here tho! Pls SE this is 2017 =(

[azura84]

They would get bonus points for upping the annoying 1000 char limit on posting here tho! Pls SE this is 2017 =(

RIGHT!????? <--- minimum of 10 characters .....

[Kallera]

1. Ffxi, along with a smattering of free to play mmos like Dungeon Fighter Online and hunting games like White Knight Chronicles and Freedom Wars.
2. No, the turn in system is too pervasive, and stats are either weighed too little or too much, like accuracy. we are supposed to be adventurers, yet the endgame reduces us to old men telling the same story over and over again, hoping for the next short lived piece from the feeding trough of gear(which to add to the thin gruel taste, is always named the same way.) It doesn't feel near as good as the devs think.
3. Gods no, I would take a second look at fighting stats and expand on the materia system. I would modify hunts so that the mob actually can fight its opponents and not be subject to a zerg rush that invalidates it. different but competing value is what this game lacks, and as long as such a heavy hand is used on short lived gear people will only seek to do the bare minimum, because...
A:looks is the only value it truly has. Much like the toothless open world that could easily have tougher and dangerous mobs included.
B: thinking outside the box is punished by the game mechanics.
C. The grind Is. Not. Fun! It could be fun, I've played games where grinds are fun, but this is not fun, it is not varied enough to be fun!

[ToniRomo]

Asheron's Call -> WoW -> FF14
I've played tons of other stuff mixed in there, but those are the three I have stuck with long term.

I have been happy with how FF14 has been progressing. I always have things to do.

I like the things they have been experimenting with HW. I would like them to continue on this path and deliver stuff that is a hit. I think if Diadem and LoV had been on the level of POTD and Aquapolis things would have been a lot better. I don't expect the gameplay formula to be completely mixed up every expansion.

[LandricFrey]

ATM? looks mostly the same with underwater and QoL changes. I'll let you know how I really feel when those specific battle system changes are announced.

[Zojha]

Well, that got more extensive than intended.

1.
Been playing all kinds of games before, during and probably after my stay at FFXIV, including but not limited to WoW, Guild Wars 2, DotA, Dawngate, Smite, LoL, SWTOR, FFXIV 1.0, Path of Exile, Warframe, Warcraft 3, 100% Orange Juice and many, many more, both single- and multiplayer. I'm a gaming polygamist.

2. & 3.
The game as such? The character within the game? Design directions? Question unclear!

Gameplay-wise, I tend to gripe over things. For one, I'd love a barrier-free Eorzea where you can walk to the beach, jump into the water, get carried out into the open sea and die a horrible death to fatigue and drowning rather than being blocked in ankle deep water by an invisible wall already. If I want to jump down a bottomless pit, fade to black and respawn me at my home aetheryte instead of blocking the fall >.>
Jumping puzzles and jump'n run elements in general are a little underexplored IMO. Swimming is a nice start, but it's likely going to be very on-rails as well and restricted to a select few areas.

I'm not fond of the power of tanks and healers either. That's mostly for two reasons: For one, I find the constant debate over the DPS meta tiring, for another, because I really dislike the design abominations SE has to use in order to make challenging content. Insta-kill and insta-wipe mechanics don't file under "fun and engaging" for me. As a result, I find the challenging content in this game annoying and would wish for more solo challenges instead (And ideally, ones that don't require you to farm aetherpool and consumables or bombard you with RNG). That's likely going to continue to be a gripe of mine, since SE has shown no signs of it changing.

Further, I'd wish the combat pace on low levels would be quickened. I find it quite good at max level, but the low levels feel slow as molasses.

Gear progression, I'm fairly indifferent about - I frankly don't care about stats. I get them because I need to, but other than that, I have no interest in them. I've always cared more about glamour/appearance and the current cash shop trend leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Kinda wish I could trade other game content in for the items. I'd get more value out of a pretty dress than Diadem, EX trials, Aquapolis, Hunts, Gathering or Ranked Feast for sure, but unfortunately, the latter, not the prior are included in my sub.

The story, I find daunting. I like that it's there, but I don't like that it's mandatory for just about anything. I'm one of those crazy people that have alts, so I tend to go through it 7 times. Hearing Stormblood will have even more MSQ makes me want to /wrist. It's another gripe of mine: The game is fairly alt-unfriendly. At times it feels like playing more than one character should come with a discount, rather than extra cost. Exacerbates my cash shop issue, naturally.

In spite of my many gripes... I do still enjoy the game. Less so than I used to, which is evidenced by me spending far more time on the forums and less in the actual game, but still enough to justify my sub.