Post reason why you are stopping/quitting to help the devs improve FFXIV

[Rowyne]

(Thanks for posting this, Reinheart. A lot of companies give exit surveys when someone leaves to improve future conditions. I hope SE uses this info in a constructive way.)

[Reason why you're stopping/quitting FFXIV]

1. Boring melee combat. 1.20 battle system changes no longer give melee any active abilities until you build TP. So, until you get TP, you do nothing but auto-attack and wait. Combat feels slower, non-interactive, and less initiated by the player. Especially in the low-mid levels.

2. Lack of story-driven content. I'm a quester (I have several Loremaster achievements in WoW, if that helps put it in perspective). I just can't get around the lack of lore, story, and traditional quests. Yoshida has stated that "Final Fantasy XIV will gradually shift from being a grind-centric game to one that offers enjoyment for all playing styles and circumstances with its ever-expanding variety of content." And that players will be able to take on "large volumes of quests" that require actual interaction with NPCs. So I appreciate that quests now yield exp, and that they've been adding more of them, but it's still not enough to progress with. I'm hoping this will change with 2.0, but I don't see them bothering with a real effort in this regard before then.

3. The return of the grind. Sadly, despite the new mission statement, the leveling method of choice is now old-school grinding parties. How did this happen? Levequests were repositioned as solo-content because, obviously, repetitive leveling content is not fun. This change was made with the new goal of getting FFXIV away from being grind-centric, but the mistake was doing it before having enough alternatives in place. A few quests, two instanced dungeons, and the beginnings of the Grand Companies were a good start and a step in the right direction, but they are not nearly enough leveling content. So, instead of getting away from the grind, we get back to the grind? Frankly, to me, this is archaic. I haven't played an MMO since FFXI that relied on undisguised grinding as the meat and potatoes of leveling, and I didn't bargain on getting back to that again. I'm not asking for an easy leveling curve. Far from it. I think it should take time and instill the player with a sense of accomplishment. But naked grinding is not the way to do it.

4. Powerleveling. This is a large and complicated issue. I'll state right now that I'm one of the people that is against powerleveling. Changes made to the claim system in 1.19 made powerleveling possible. What really disappoints me is that Yoshida is okay with it, to an extent.

"We plan on implementing end-game content that is extremely difficult, so if assistance is necessary to reach this point I believe that it should be OK for players to help each other out, as long as there are players who are willing to help out. Differences in gained experience points based on the difference between the player’s level and the defeated monster’s level will still exist, and will be adjusted. Our goal is to prevent any kind of extreme behavior. If any loopholes are found, we would like to fix these issues as they are discovered."

Well, loopholes definitely do exist, and they aren't all being fixed. The devs are certainly aware of it, as it's pointed out on the official forums practically on a daily basis. People are skyrocketing to level cap in a matter of days, and can sit /afk on a chocobo and do it. Why is it being allowed? I can't help but think it's because of the lack of leveling content. This way, the dev team only has to concentrate on endgame for the duration of 1.0. So they're willing to break an aspect of their game to 'fix' another. It may sound harmless, but it has a multitude of consequences. The playerbase is becoming prematurely top-heavy, which makes it harder to find low-mid level players to party with. Players/parties expect powerlevelers, so it's harder to find a legitmate party. Plus it creates high level players who don't know how to play their classes, with gimped gear, and people become less trusting of inviting random players. But my biggest regret is this renders leveling pretty much meaningless with no sense of accomplishment.

[Parts you enjoyed about FFXIV]

* The Final Fantasy community (before the mass exodus)
* Single faction (you feel more like players are coming together to face a common enemy)
* Graphics (motion capture and attention to detail makes the characters lifelike and beautiful)
* Music (Final Fantasy games always have amazing soundtracks, and this is no exception)
* PvE focus
* Opening cutscenes (loved the voice acting work in Gridania, Papalymo is hilarious!)
* Behests (public content people can jump in and do are a great idea)
* Achievements (gives people goals and tasks to complete)
* Gridanian lore, Moogles, Kan-E-Senna <3
* Main Scenario quests
* Grand Company quests

[Parts you were disappointed with FFXIV]

* 1.20 melee battle system changes
* Levequests removed as central focus with nothing to take their place
* Not enough leveling options/content
* No feeling of goals or progression (just grind from 1 to 50 in the same zones)
* Too little story, too much grind
* Storytelling is disjointed with large gaps
* Too few traditional quests
* Too few instanced dungeons
* Not enough lore integrated into the game
* UI does not feel like a PC MMO (lack of right-click, proper mouse-look, drag/drop)
* Game overall feels cumbersome and clunky
* Lack of modern MMO elements such as delivery system and proper linkshell management
* Game feels quiet and empty without global chat channels - these help encourage community
* Not enough voice acting in cutscenes
* NPCs feel lifeless - no voice greetings, no roaming
* Eorzea feels vast yet lifeless - no immersion or sense of adventure
* The current state of the FFXIV community (frustration and negativity)

[What kind of changes do you want to see for you to come back and play?]

There must be a bigger focus on content and story for me to return. Content at all level tiers (low-mid level, not just endgame). Leveling options to progress with, not just blindly grinding through them (life does not begin at endgame, the journey is just as important as the destination). Content for all size groups in mind - solo, duo (many of us play as couples!), light party and full party. Give us quests, quests and more quests. The battle system will need to see further adjustments as right now it just isn't fun. Powerleveling must be eliminated or, at least, tightly controlled.

[Gramul]

Get all the "bye" threads in one place and use it to the developers advantage.

5 star topic from a 5 star member.

[Dreadnought]

i wont be stopping but i do have some gripes.

i do not feel this game has a very modern system and is too niche based.

if they made the battle user interface much more like that of other MMOs then it would appeal to a much much greater audience.
also, quest lining for solo XP for when you dont have time for parties is becoming a very in depth feature in up coming MMOs which are currently being praised for but FFXIV is still lacking with no direction to improve it in site.

[Catapult]

[Reason why you're stopping/quitting FFXIV]
ClickandBuy - it doesn't work for me and in Australia I have no other available option.

[Parts you enjoyed about FFXIV]
Most of it.

[Parts you were disappointed with FFXIV]
Very little of it.

[What kind of changes do you want to see for you to come back and play?] (optional)
New billing method that works guaranteed for Australians.

[Last comment]
I really do want to be back soon.

[OJtheLIONKing]

I paid up for now as a show of support, but considering upcoming things in my life (fingers crossed, I might get a job in Japan soon, but I'll need money to move) I may have to cancel. This is something I'd endeavor to avoid if I was fully enjoying the game, but right now there are some issues.

[Reason why you're stopping/quitting FFXIV]

• Payment system is pretty awkward at the moment. I know SE is working on alternatives, but they should probably have only started charging after they were in place.
• Not enough to do.
• Most of my friends either can't or won't play this game.

[Parts you enjoyed about FFXIV]

• Unlike some of the folks here, I quite liked the changes in 1.20. Although I liked the Armory system as it was in theory, in practice it was kind of an impossible to balance mess that often forced people to have leveled every job, even ones they hate playing. Take the mages who were pressured to level Gladiator for Ifrit, or me who had to level mages a good bit just to effectively solo. The new combat system also feels a bit more alive to me than just spamming some poorly differentiated, inconsequential abilities as quickly as possible as in the old system, especially pre 1.18. The abilities are a bit fewer and more specialized but they actually feel like they matter now, which I like.
• The graphics. although I do hope for things like DX11, capes, and better optimization since this really should be running better for how it looks; this is still about the best looking MMO on the market. As a somewhat tangential addendum, I especially love the animation and art direction, and the equipment design and monsters in particular are top notch.
• Although I have a different opinion about a good percentage of people on this forum(note my low post count despite me having joined the day this thing opened), ingame the community has been friendlier than most other MMOs, as with FFXI.
• Cross regional servers. I like feeling like part of a global community, and it does help my Japanese a smidge to chat with some of the JP players even if I'm still useless with Kanji. I don't see too many French or German players on Saronia, but maybe I'm just missing them.
• The story up to now is nice and engrossing, I just wish there was more of it, and less gap between the story missions. Especially for me, who (due to reasons I'll detail below) am not on very often, it can be hard to remember what happened last time, who the characters are and why i should care about them.
• Grand Companies are nice, and I hope they continue to develop, especially if they bring more good content with them.
• The PVE focus is always appreciated in these days where it seems that most games are PVP killfests. I get my bloodlust out of the way in Battlefield 3, I want to cooperate in an MMO.

[Parts you were disappointed with FFXIV]

• THE GRIND. I quit FFXI about a year and a half ago despite some of the interesting things that were being added because I was sick of the grind, and now it's invaded this game too. I still absolutely refuse to do grind parties because they are boring and that's not the reason I pay to play an MMO, but with the changes to leves and the low solo xp rate the game seems to be punishing me for not joining those parties, and I hate that. No game made in the past 7 years has had so much naked grind, and there's a good reason for that. By 2.0 I should never see a shout for a grind party again, because it indicates a failure of the devs to create real content to level rather than just plopping some mobs on a field somewhere for someone to kill repetitively for 6 hours at a time. Despite all the other exciting things coming up in FFXIV, I might quit for good if the grind doesn't go away by 2.0.
• Lack of real content. I know, they're having to make up for years' worth of work on content in months and with half the dev team at that, but that's no excuse for the grind.
• Lack of solo content - I really appreciated Yoshi-P's mission statement to allow me to play how I wanted to, because while I enjoy doing fun stuff like dungeons or missions or big open public battles in groups, I prefer to play in solo or in a 2 man group with my best friend for most things, especially leveling. Since I did not participate in the PL fest of a few months back (refer to above bullets for my opinion on grind parties) I find myself faced with either an epic amount of solo grind to get any leveling done, a slightly less epic amount of grind parties, or what I'm doing right now: playing single player games and hoping the next patch gives me something interesting to do solo.
• Linkshell management still blows. I ended up getting kicked out of my last linkshell because they migrated to a new one just to clean out all the inactives, and I, who was temporarily indisposed because I was hosting relatives for a good amount of the holiday season, missed the window to easily get the new pearl since I was never on at the same time as any sackholders. This wouldn't have been an issue of the LS holder could have just booted people who hadn't come on in a while, to say nothing of the other major issues with LS management.
• Communication is still a bit of a hassle, what with no voice chat, no general/trade channels, and an auto-translate system that I can generously describe as a useful auto-complete and not much more.
• Considering how dynamic the game could (and the dev team clearly want the game to) be, the amount of lag is unacceptable. I'm not going to childishly demand that they fix the lag right now cuz I want it, but I am eagerly awaiting the new engine and I won't hide my frustration with the lag as it is.
• Crafting has improved greatly, but the actual crafting process is almost exactly as slow, tedious and boring to level as it was at launch. When I started the game I really wanted to do crafting since I enjoyed making my own armor in other games, but the system has been so dull and, until recently, ridiculously byzantine that it was impossible for me to stay interested. Considering how big a chunk of the content crafting takes up, it should be accessible to everyone, not just the people with bots or who can actually stand spending hours on end crafting the exact same thing repetitively to get half a level. It should also be more transparent. I saw a post somewhere, either a suggestion by a user or an actual dev statement, to make nq synths instant and HQ synths the same process we have now--that system could work quite well with a few tweaks.

[What kind of changes do you want to see for you to come back and play?] (optional)
Again, I'm not leaving quite yet, but as far as changes I'd probably need to see to stay for the duration:

• Mindless grind gone, replaced by quests, dungeons, dynamic overworld content like Hamlet Defense, you name it. Literally anything else besides mindless grind parties would be better.
• More quests. I mean both the story quests with the cutscenes, and the ones that are more like WoW quests with the huge info-dumps at the beginning. I do like the writing of this game, but the blurbs that they give out at the beginning of those quests should either be cut down or presented better.
• Not as essential for me, but a streamlined crafting process. The recipes and stuff are about where they should be, but the crafting process itself is still cumbersome, somewhat inscrutable and boring.
• The new graphics engine needs to be scalable enough to allow me to invite friends who can't currently play the game due to the system requirements. This includes people who can play almost any other game currently on the market, but this game is currently poorly optimized so it runs like molasses rolling uphill in January for them. I can play tolerably, but without my friends there's not much point for me to play an MMO. Besides that, if I do move, I would have some trouble taking my desktop with me, and my (7 day old) laptop scored an 1100 or so on the benchmark so I probably wouldn't be able to play too well on this either.

[Last comment]
As usual, I wrote a novel instead of a post, but for something like this I think it helps to elaborate. In any case, hopefully I will have the money to stay subscribed during/after the move, but if it comes down to a choice, FFXIV isn't quite engaging me enough right now to choose between that and something else.

[Cape-Freak]

[Reason why you're stopping/quitting FFXIV]
I think, ultimately, because there's just not really enough content for the long term and it still doesn't feel like things are quite there yet, overall, to justify the sub-fee. Things are much improved since release, of course, but there's still a dearth of content, especially for someone who's mostly casual.


[Parts you enjoyed about FFXIV]
I liked many of the original ideas (such as the flexibility of the armoury system and the ability to play primarily as a crafter) even if the implementation of some of the ideas left a little to be desired. I also generally liked the overall world, even if it was overly cut-and-paste in some regards.

[Parts you were disappointed with FFXIV]
Lack of content, especially quest and story related content, as others have mentioned. Over-reliance on an (undisguised) grind with few other options for progression.

While I think that some of the combat changes have been good, I'm still on the fence about some of the more recent changes. I think that some of the class abilities have become too highly restricted; I had thought that restrictions would be mostly relegated to jobs and that classes would remain more flexible and open than they seem to be at the moment.

I like the basic idea of crafting, but it does get rather repetative rather quickly, there needs to be something more to give it more variety. I'm also somewhat disappointed that personal chocobos are restricted to combat classes only.

The UI, while better, is still clunky or restrictive (it would be nice to be able to change gear or do other things without backing all the way out of the crafting interface, for example). Hoping it will be much better in 2.0.

[What kind of changes do you want to see for you to come back and play?] (optional)

• More quests and story related content, preferably without too many gaps or gated behind too much levelling
• More variety in levelling and progression
• Less focus on an undisguised grind
• More content for solo/casual/smaller groups (light parties)
• Improved crafting process to make it more interesting and varied
• More varied content for crafters (aside from basically just grinding leves)
• More content in general at all levels for different playstyles
• Improved UI

[Last comment]
Even though I'm not subbing now, I will probably check out things for a bit after 1.21 is released as there are several things scheduled for that patch that I'm interested in checking out (though that will depend on general reactions to the patch), after which I'll likely take another break until 2.0.

Though I am still hoping that the devs can turn things around, there's still lots of work to be done but I'll be rooting for you from the sidelines, if nothing else.

Best of luck.

[Kiara]

[What kind of changes do you want to see for you to come back and play?]

There must be a bigger focus on content and story for me to return. Content at all level tiers (low-mid level, not just endgame). Leveling options to progress with, not just grinding through them (life does not begin at endgame, the journey is just as important as the destination). Content for all size groups in mind - solo, duo (many of us play as couples!), light party and full party. The battle system will need to see further adjustments as right now it just isn't fun. Powerleveling must be eliminated or, at least, tightly controlled.

Hi Rowyne,

Great post and well-stated reasons why you're leaving. You've provided valuable feedback to the Dev Team time and again and you'll be missed.

I definitely agree with your biggest requests about needing more Story-based Content. In a way, it's really tough for Yoshida-san and company right now...

They're making 2.0 (which is in all new Lands / World Redesigned, with a New Story, after the big "event" that changes Eorzea forever), so I understand why we're not getting lavish, amazing Cinematic Cutscenes and great Story Missions right now (it'd be all throw away work when 2.0 launches), but at the same time, for many players, a great, involving Story *IS* the reason they want to play a "Final Fantasy" game.

If Square delivered an interesting "Chapter" or two of involving Story Missions and Cinematics on the level of "Chains of Promathea" each major patch until 2.0 launched, I'd be far more happy than getting 1 Boss Fight with a Horrible Loot / Drop System each time.

But, unfortunately, it looks like this is where they're at. They're dividing their resources to try and get us some content each Patch until 2.0 hits, and it's focused on a Boss Fight (and a Dungeon once in a while), every few months until next year hits.

Here's to hoping they're completing a slew of interesting, engaging Stories and Adventures with amazing camera work and standout Characters (our own "Kefka" or "Sephiroth" or other standout personalities), that are on par or exceed the best that they did in the past that will be ready when 2.0 launches.

[JGwinters]

I'm not quitting yet but I'm on the brink of stopping, so here goes.

[Reason why you're stopping/quitting FFXIV]
Not enough quests/lore
Not enough solo/duo content
Crafting is boring
1.20 made melee fighting boring. Combined with the above, there's not much left to do that'd be engaging.
Paying for the game is complicated


[Parts you enjoyed about FFXIV]
I much enjoy the lore that is already in the game, the sidequests and class quests as well as what there is of the main quests
Concentration on PvE instead of PvP. I hate PvP
The graphics are quite good to look at

[Parts you were disappointed with FFXIV]
Lack of quests and solo/duo content
The absolute chore that they've made out of player interaction (item trading/delivery, buying items, materia melding if you don't have a high enough crafting class yourself, LS management, able to see but not talk in multiple LSs)
These two are what most disappointed me, see above for other grievances


[Last comment]
While pre-1.20 I've been quite content to sit and wait and play when I could, currently there's not much left for me to do I'd consider fun, especially as I've already done most the quests. If the game didn't have Final Fantasy in the title, I'd be long gone already.

[Sephr]

[Reason why you're stopping/quitting FFXIV]
The game feels corrupted and incomplete right now, in that the economy's pretty damaged (whilst lots of people still hoard gil from the old guild leve rewards etc), power levelling has given made levelling somewhat meaningless and generally the quality of the game just isn't where it should be to justify me paying. If 2.0 is up to the standard of modern day MMOs I'll probably be able to convince some friends to come play with me on a new server, I'm looking forward to that fresh experience already.

Also I fucking hate guild leves, make them more fun or find another way for casual levelling, they make other games' questing manage to look appealing. Bring in GW2 style events for repeatable content to level on or something, hamlet defence is a good start. Some of the new content added (like chocobo escorts and the 'oh-so exciting outposts') really isn't up to par, so that needs to be addressed too.

[Parts you enjoyed about FFXIV]
The lore, the art style, the scale of the world (It's nice to feel like your character is part of a world, rather than a god flying over it on his meta-chromatic-cyber-dragonlord of spacetime). The story missions are something I want to enjoy, but right now the quality isn't good enough, and they're far to spread out.

[Parts you were disappointed with FFXIV]
The story! What the hell, how is this a final fantasy when you get one story mission every 6 levels that involves generally limited and mundane objectives? Why don't I start in an airship crash or some other usual FF-style opening sequence, and then have to travel through some crazy FF environments before getting into the proper MMO scene (evil forest or something?). It feels like this FF MMO has the potential to deliver a true FF experience if the next engine is up to scratch, and the story really needs to be a centrepiece of that.

Also guild-leves and general levelling methods, whined about it before so won't go over that again. Ditch repeatable boring quests, introduce events and spontaneous occurances (giant roaming NMs that attack towns, anyone nearby can get involved without partying up to get xp etc). It's a final fantasy game, exploration to find these kinds of fun events should be promoted!

[What kind of changes do you want to see for you to come back and play?] (optional)
New UI (coming), HUGE reduction in lag (coming?), new mage classes (comingbutTIMEMAGEPLEASE), restructuring of levelling so that it's meaningful to the overall game and fun enough that you don't feel like you're just waiting for the cap. I also want some validation that Yoshida's actually bringing new stuff to the table as well as looking at 1st and borderline 2nd generation MMOs for influence, because new technology is definitely capable of more than he seems to imply (see: recent PvP post for relatively short-sighted idea of how things should be as an example).

Please don't make everything instanced, too. I like instances but I also like the feeling of a world that's active with people travelling about all over the place. Whilst Abyssea wasn't necessarily the best thing for FFXI, it definitely did some things right (not atma, definitely not atma) like the whole spawned NM systems that could be introduced as various levels of filler for gear etc between tiers.
This kind of content can be challenging, and could also contain unusual non-mainstream gear for alternative builds that are reminiscent of FFXI's style (e.g. Different gear sets had huge effects on your character, but you didn't need lots, I'm not advocating gear swaps frequently here).

[Last comment]
I really want this game to do well, I've enjoyed previous online and offline games by Square enix. However, the sheer scale of things that need to be done leaves me skeptical of just how good 2.0 can be. I really hope the devs can pull it off and I'll certainly be back in 2.0 to try everything out!

Edit: I should add whilst reading up that in terms of patches post-2.0, a primal battle can NOT count as 3 months of battle content. I get that this almost certainly won't be the case as they've got a lot on right now beyond just what we're getting in front of us, but if we were getting a whole bunch of different stuff to do each patch I'd be happy to give them my money between now and 2.0 despite the game's engine flaws, but that isn't the case.

Edit2: Just wanted to add; OJtheLIONKing I love your thinking, here's hoping some of this stuff gets added.

Edit3: CAPES!

[KyanaSkye]

[Reason why you're stopping/quitting FFXIV]

• Unfortunately I cannot seem to find a place where I feel as though I fit in with others. So I would say the community in general is a reason I am quitting. I've tried multiple servers and even made a few friends, but as soon as I make a friend they quit or find a larger group of people who they already know to hang out with. I've joined multiple LS's as well, and put forth an effort to get to know people and do parties or missions with others.
  
  Still, linkshells in general are very quiet and cold to newer members as far as I've seen... I tried starting my own social LS and nobody was interested. I tried talking to many new players who you could find running around the beginning areas, or you know, just have that general "new player" look to them. No one wants to talk to each other, no one is interested. It's very strange and new to me to have everyone so cold, and not wanting to deal with other players.
  
  
• Everything keeps changing about the battle system, and it leaves me wishing I could just play knowing everything won't be changing all the time. Of course I understand that the battle system needs/needed massive change and overall the changes are -good-. However, it still is frustrating when random times I would log in after updates and find myself having to re-learn my job I was playing at the time, yet again.
  
  The most memorable time of this was back when you were able to fight monsters much higher than your level. I had been EXPing on Oilbugs on my level 10 Lancer or something, and gotten to level 16. I logged off, and a couple days later the game was updated. Logged back in, tried to continue fighting and though the bugs were only 17-19 or something, I got my butt kicked. There was another Miqo'te nearby having the same issue as me. Had to completely relearn the jobs then, and of course I adjusted and enjoyed it in the end. Then, yet again, in the last few weeks logged in after the big update and saw the complete change to my job and its abilities. I didn't stick around long enough to learn how to play again, though I imagine I will adapt and still enjoy it. However, all of this has left me with a feeling of wishing I could just know that how I'm playing, is the way that I can continue to keep playing for a long time to come. For instance, knowing the job system is not long off leaves me just wanting to stop playing until then, as I'll have to relearn a lot again.
  
  
• The lack of jobs that I enjoy is something that's also making me want to quit. It took me what of two-three weeks to get Lancer to the 40's, and the only other jobs I'm somewhat interested in are MRD and THM. However, I don't want to play THM until it becomes a fully fledged BLM, as I'm more interested in a BLM type job than what THM is now. I could see myself leveling MRD after LNC, but even then the leveling up is so fast, and I'm not sure I'd even be interested in leveling a different job after MRD. Playing different jobs that I enjoy is what hooked me to FFXI, and I feel I'd be much more interested in XIV with new jobs. Even if leveling is still as fast, it would keep me interested in leveling different jobs.
  
  
• The issue I am having with a lack of jobs brings me to the effect of stats, or lack thereof. One of my favorite things in FFXI was gear swapping, and how you knew what type of gear set you could go for to make a huge difference in the damage you do once you get max level. It always gave me a goal to work on. Though I don't think you need to gear swap to make a MMO good, honestly it gave me a lot to work for. I'd see something like a DEX+4 earring for example, and I knew that it would enhance my WS a lot (DEX mod for example) so it really gave me a goal to farm the gil for it, camp an NM, or whatever. I see so little difference in this game if a piece has STR +2 and Attack +10 or something, compared to something with no STR and no Attack. Therefore, if the stats played a higher role in this game, it would make me feel as though I have much more to work toward once I hit level 50 and go for that great gearset.
  
  
• The zones are so large and it's desert scene after desert scene as you travel. I realize this will be changed in 2.0, but it really makes it hard for me to get into the game right now, when after traveling to 5 or so areas, you know you've seen the gist of all there is to see.
  
  
• Misc lag. I don't have a terrible computer, and mainly I am talking about the UI lag. Also something that will probably be changed of course, but it's something that's definitely taking away from the experience atm, making me not want to play. Whenever I see my inventory at like 140/200 or something, I get a huge feeling of dread knowing I have to visit the NPC. Seriously, I have to sit at the NPC for what feels like forever, to get through a list of items I'd like to sell. I have to click on an item 2 or 3 times before the interface finally pops up where I can sell it. Also with the new AH, I notice after I purchase anything from the AH my screen will freeze up for maybe 10 seconds, and when I try to equip something that I bought my character will disappear and everything will be frozen for quite some time. It won't even let me move. It could be my computer, but it only does this if I buy an item off the AH and then try to equip it, it doesn't do that if I just equip something new from the menu some time after I got it from the AH.

TLDR; lack of friends, a constantly changing battle system, lack of jobs, attributes not making a huge difference, huge zones with same terrain over and over, and UI lag.


[Parts you enjoyed about FFXIV]

• Beautiful character design, great graphics overall. The realism of this game actually has me somewhat interested in doing some type of RP, even. You can really get into your character's personality and even imagine a back-story to your character because of how different you look from other's characters and the realism in the graphics. I even love the look of the cities and the terrain, even though it does get boring looking at the same terrain over and over. I can only imagine how awesome the game is going to be with many different types of zones.
  
  
• Fun, fast paced battle system. Overall I do like the changes to the battle system, and I know I'm going to love it when it's eventually finished.
  
  
• Holiday events! I have always liked logging in during the holiday events and going after the holiday armor. I wish I still had my character who had all the swimsuits. >.< I especially love how they added the new /snowball emote also. The emotes in general are awesome. :P
  
  
• The lore and story are definitely interesting. This is the first MMO I've played where I genuinely care about the lore and also what happens to the NPCs in the storylines. I loved playing through the story and each cutscene kept me interested in knowing what was coming next. It's also the first game in which I'm interested in talking to even the non-important NPCs that are standing around.
  
  
• Shposhae. I know that probably sounds weird, but Shposhae was the first really different-feeling thing I was able to do in the game at lower levels. It was fun to explore and find the NMs and the fireflies were really cool. I also loved exploring Toto Rak. I haven't been able to go to the higher level dungeons but I really liked the first two.
  
  
• Sense of humor that is put into quest titles and achievement titles. I logged on recently and literally lol'd at many of the title names of the achievements. It started with unlocking the job achievements and seeing "I Got the Magic Stick" for Conjurer. It also made me interested in looking up online the ones I didn't understand (The Sweet Science for PUG for example.) I also had to laugh when I said out-loud "What do they mean by Strong Lance Arm?" and was like oooh -.-; lol. I know this is something small, but it's the little things like this that keep me wanting to play more.

[Parts you were disappointed with FFXIV]
I guess I pretty much summed this up under reason why I'm quitting.

[What kind of changes do you want to see for you to come back and play?] (optional)
Also pretty much summed this up, would be redundant for me to re-explain everything under "what I'm disappointed with" :P

[Last comment]
I'm sad to be leaving, as I really -want- to like this game. Right now it's kinda love-hate for me and FFXIV. The things I do like, I like so much that I will definitely be coming back when the things I don't like are fixed. Sorry if some of the things I said seem inaccurate or too nit-picky but that's just how I feel right now, and I hope for those feelings to change later on. I'll definitely be back for 2.0, and possibly before if I'm missing FFXIV a lot. Also, I'm sure there's a lot that I'm missing that many others have said, such as having more solo/duo content, more content in general, etc. What I listed above is just what first came to mind.