Playerbase Mood

[storm]

Ffxi, wow, guildwars, gw2, aion, sw:tor, tera, blade and soul, black desert.

Im excited for the new xpac, I think the eastern look/feel theyve achieved will be a great addition to ffxiv. Im also looking forward to trying both of the new classes.

The best part of ffxiv imo is it has a lot of quality go into their game, rarely does anything feel like it was rushed and out of place. The story has gotten progressively better too, and Im excited to see where they go from here.

The worst part of ffxiv is the combat system. It's slow with a huge skill bloat and yet your character doesnt really feel like theyre connecting with the foe. You press a skill and a pretty light materializes and the monsters health goes down. In a game like blade and soul, or tera, your skill feels like it connects, and opponents stagger, or get knocked down, or knocked into the air based on your attacks. In ffxiv your main dps objective is perfect rotations while avoiding floor effects, with a slew of skills. In action mmos, you have less skills but they have more visible impact, and you worry more about using them wisely and at the right moment over perfect rotations.

But this is a core design of ffxiv. It will never be an action mmo and I play it knowing that and despite that, because SE's p2p game has far more overall quality than any of the f2ps out there. If both are considered themeparks, then f2ps like tera and bns are local carnivals with one real fun ride, and all the stalls cost and arm and a leg, and ffxiv is disney world. Pay a lot at the gate, but everything inside is quality.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Ya know, I wonder how many people complaining about the current game came from XI. Cuz it seems like 90% of the complaint threads begin or contain "In XI, such and such" And my favorite bit, "I don't like XI anymore cuz they changed it" Which is exactly what they want the devs to do to XIV.

[Tizzy_Tormentor]

FFXIV was my first real MMO, I haven't played many outside of it, although me and my friends have moved to ESO for a nice change of pace.

I am not particularly excited for Stormblood, I mean I will play it but unless it changes things up, I will struggle to keep a sub going, as much as I love the game, I am getting tired of the same old grind, not helped by the fact that its confirmed that the 450 Tomestone grind is confirmed to still be the norm. Heavensward had some neat content (like PotD) but everything else was pretty lackluster.

I am expecting this whole "refining the combat system" will hardly be anything more than fixing and culling a few skills and making the game even more braindead easy to play than it already is, which is a shame, closing the gap in player skill is neat and all, but I can't help they will make the game even more repetitive.

[Risvertasashi]

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

Played various MMOs in bits and pieces. Guild Wars, GW2, EVE, Vindictus, The Secret World... many others I've tried.

2. Do you like how the game currently progresses?

Mixed thoughts. Like the story and the fact that FFXIV gets regular updates is something not all games I've played can lay claim to. Loved potd 150+. I love that FFXIV has an "overworld"/open field area, that seems to be going extinct in the era of instanced MMOs. Also love that it has the trinity, another thing that's been on the chopping block for many games of late.

Gear treadmill? Meh. What I definitely don't like... it can be hard to find a real reason to play FFXIV once you've done certain things. I don't do roulettes because I enjoy them and stop as soon as my gear is caught up. Raids are entertaining to a point but I wish we didn't need statics. Something like 'endless' dungeons with continually increasing difficulty. Erm. Sort of like PotD, except you need a pseudo-static for that too...

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

At this point, more content with continually scaling difficulty seems like it would be the best way to keep me, personally, entertained in FFXIV. I also dislike that you can't really 'binge' play FFXIV. If I have, say, 5 hours to kill... 5~30 minutes in XIV to knock out dailies of some kind or another, then off to another game.

[azura84]

Ya know, I wonder how many people complaining about the current game came from XI. Cuz it seems like 90% of the complaint threads begin or contain "In XI, such and such" And my favorite bit, "I don't like XI anymore cuz they changed it" Which is exactly what they want the devs to do to XIV.

I agree and that's mostly why I asked the first question, I had the same feeling that it was a lot of XI players (including myself) but it tends to be sorta spread out among all players because I think most XI players moved on. It just isn't their type of game.

[azura84]

One of the few that I didn't try.
I don't see leveling as a part of progression. The idea that we 'level fast' isn't a bad thing IMO. Because lets be honest, leveling is effectively a long tutorial.

I wasn't really disappointed about the leveling just that they're gutting more and more of the game when they fast-forward things, if new players have friends that inform them of this, those dungeons will never see the light of day again with the exception of DR Leveling.

I dunno if its a bad thing. Its a powerful weapon that allows non-raiders something to progress over time with. My complaint is the grindy nature of it. Needs more epicness to the obtaining of materials and the like, and less doing the same thing over and over.

I like the grind and also I don't at the same time, if that makes any sense. I continuously have to remind myself "this isn't XI" because I dont feel it's right or fair to do so, but there did tend to feel like there was an epicness to succeeding, but in XI even towards the end if you wanted a Relic or Mythic weapon you spent the majority of it's grind on the first stage (which was about a month of farming in dynamis) and in the earliest days it took a full linkshell to collectively work together to get one for one player, so you can imagine the feeling of fruitlessness it gave most players in the early days. to me it just gave me something to look forward to and that not everyone would just have walking around.

[Jim_Berry]

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

My first true MMO was Final Fantasy XI. Started in 2005 and retired in 2016 when the doors were closing on the console version. During my FFXI days, while I was playing a bunch of other MMOs, such as Neverwinter, Onigiri, etc, I was dominantly playing DC Universe in 2011 and Elder Scrolls Online in 2015 (I was subscribed to all three games).

2. Do you like how the game currently progresses?

At times, I get a little bored of what I'm doing once my goals are reached. When I was reaching for PLD's Anima, I spammed content for Lore and Light. Now that I have the Anima, I think I spend more time standing in town and window shopping that running stuff. However, now that I have Stormblood pre-ordered, my new goal is to get AST to Lv60 and get her Anima while putting DRK's Anima on hold.

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

I adapt to change.

[Freyt]

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. Guild Wars 1 (I tried 2, hated it)
2. Can't say I have many problems with it.
3. I would lock a bit less content behind the story and quests, and let you go to it directly. I'm also hoping for various improvements to the overall system.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

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

Primarily non-MMO games, be it RTS, FPS but mostly single player RPGs. Have dabbled sporadically with Blade & Soul, Black Desert and Guild Wars.

2. Do you like how the game currently progresses?

Entirely indifferent. I view gear as simply an ends to a means. Does it improve my overall performance for the upcoming raid? Yes? Hooray! I couldn't care less if it gets replaced in six month nor do I like systems where I'm expected to have multiple purely situational gear I swap to for only a single fight. Could the tomestone grind be better fleshed out and made less linear? Definitely. But I'll always prefer more intricate boss fights and mechanics over gear progression, mostly because I glamour over things half the time anyway.

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

See above. Perhaps the only change I'd consider if having the previous tier's gear actually have an impact on the new raid. This is purely gear progression though, there are plenty of mechanical and QoL changes I would love to see implemented.

[Huntress]

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: City of Heroes, Runes of Magic, Everquest 2

2: I enjoy the currently progression, even with the grind. I feel like I can still keep up with people, able to do new dungeons when they come out and continue to play with my friends. I know if I miss a few days or a week due to RL that I can still catch up, which I really love. I also enjoy the story so I am always happy when more is released.

3: Can't think of what I would change that would make it better. Everything in the game seems within reach and I love that, I am even doing a second anima weapon. I use to think relic was beyond my reach, due to the stories I heard but now I am like "Lets do this! WEEE!"

I know some want it harder but to me it feels just right. I feel the same toward the pace of combat. Some feel this type of combat is too slow but to me its pretty fast, all the dodging, trying to get rotations off before having to move away from the boss or it suddenly goes into an action... but then again I struggle with issues where my hands aren't the best anymore so probably why to me this is all very fast pace and why to other's its like a snails pace.