Content drought....

[HyoMinPark]

You've done everything else?
Hunt log?
Beast tribes?
Sight-seeing?
Leveled everything up to 70?
Gotten all achievements?

Or is it just that there isn't content you like to do at the moment. In which case, not so much a drought and more a matter of perspective.

Tried leveling crafters or alt classes or something? theres normally always something to do, I would hardly call what FFXIV gets "Content drought" I've played games with ACTUAL content drought and know what that is.

This isn't really content though. And what happens during the next content drought if you fulfill all those objectives now? There's a reason I've been saving a few classes to level in later patches--so that I have something to do. Sure, there's always alts, but some people don't have any interest in alts, and that's also not content; it's just repeating stuff you've already done. Fun for some, not so much for others.

Patch 4.1 was really lacking since they didn't include any Relic grinding. For anyone not interested in raiding or other niche content, there's just not much to do. Even for raiders, a lot have started unsubbing until 4.2 and statics have gone on haitus until the next tier. Because there's just nothing to keep them playing right now.


In terms of the achievements, some are an extremely tedious grind that takes a long time to complete (Centurio Tiger comes to mind), or downright impossible for the majority of players (PotD Floor 200 still hasn't been done and the only job capable of doing it is probably RDM).

Oh come on. It's literally maybe a couple weeks before a new patch.

Except 4.1 in general has been pretty lacking for the entirety of its duration in terms of the more casual/not niche playerbase.

It offered:
MSQ (relatively short and easily done in an evening)
Shinryu Extreme (some people aren't interested)
Ultimate (highly niche content even a lot of raiders aren't interested in)
Rival Wings (PvP community is probably smaller than the raiding community in FFXIV)
Housing (well, we all know how that ended)

The developers screwed up delaying relics until Eureka comes out in 4.25. I know they wanted the relics to be tied to Eureka, but they could have at least gotten the FATE/Dungeon steps out of the way now. It would have given people something to casually work on that isn't niche.



Personally, I've been doing older relics and working on my Centurio Tiger (I'll have that in about another 4 years), but even for those my attention is starting to wane. I've been doing PotD Floor 200 runs with a friend, and considered finally doing my solo runs (actually did a bit of it last night on RDM). But that isn't content a lot of people want to do.

[Xatsh]

XI was not a casual mmo, it was a mmo where you got what you put into it. If you only played a few hours a week or 5-8hrs on the weekend you progressed at a snails pace. But you had the option to play for 50+hrs a week and never get bored as well there was literally that much to do in that game that progressed you endgame wise.

The content issue in mmos is caused by the casual focus. Devs simply cannot create enough content to keep the non-casuals occupied in a game focusing on the casual playerbase. Example FFXIV would be great for all players in its current design... if the devs released literally 15xs the content every patch (Not financially feasible, and honestly the 15xs mark is not that much of an exaggeration of what it would take).

It all comes down to design.

In XI and older mmos, builds were situational, gear was specific for certain things, leveling was slower... no BIS piece for everything. The lvl caps were not constantly risen. There for Endgame content built on itself. in FFXI for example Rise of Ziltart was equally as valid endgame wise as Chain of Promathia, which was equally as valid as Treasures, ect... Each of these also added lower level zones for leveling as well, the expansions expanded the whole game... the never replaced the content before it. This only broke down with the release of abysea.

FFXIV would had absurd amounts of content if everything from release of ARR was still equally as valid endgame wise. Meaning Coil 1-5 gear was still equally good in certain situations as stuff from Neo Exdeath. If stuff from Garuda was still as good as the weapon you get from killing ultimate savage bahamut. Of course the game is not designed this way at all nor will it ever be.

FFXIV is a themepark modeled after WoW... these problem will always exist. The flip side is casuals get more enjoyment out of this design.

In the end FFXIV is not meant to be a main mmo played longterm for 20 to 40+ hrs a week. It is sorta a side mmo you play with other games.

[Ayer2015]

You've done everything else?
Hunt log?
Beast tribes?
Sight-seeing?
Leveled everything up to 70?
Gotten all achievements?

Or is it just that there isn't content you like to do at the moment. In which case, not so much a drought and more a matter of perspective.

Yes, I've leveled everything to 70, aside form crafters which will sit at 60 until a crafting beast tribe is added. Completed a 3.x relic for AST the week since I had little to do.
Most of what you listed is pointless content. hunt logs, sight seeing and achievements aren't really what I personally consider enjoyable content.

[Stanelis]

Yeah, Xi just had a high entry barrier, people like me never made it past level 20, because veterans didn't want to hang out in the dunes, and new people didn't know what to do.

Generally the worst parties in the dune were the ones lead by noobs who though they were hotshots because they had some level 40ish jobs but didn't know what the hell they were doing. They typically went to fight goblins or pugils too early because they were in a hurry.

The content issue in mmos is caused by the casual focus. Devs simply cannot create enough content to keep the non-casuals occupied in a game focusing on the casual playerbase. Example FFXIV would be great for all players in its current design... if the devs released literally 15xs the content every patch (Not financially feasible, and honestly the 15xs mark is not that much of an exaggeration of what it would take).

No, there is a content issues in MMO because companies who run such games nowadays only see these game as a way to sell microtransactions to bored and rich players and do not devote game designer time needed to their games. When you only develop content with poor replayability or try to promote PVP in a game where the gameplay isn't though for this purpose, it is 100 % certain there will be a content issue. And that's not an issue of being "casual" or "hardcore", you can perfectly design casual content with high replayability.

[Nezerius]

Gotten all achievements?

Achievement hunting isn't really content, considering achievements like the Gold Saucer Jumbo Cactpot one exist.

[Squintina]

Most of what you listed is pointless content. hunt logs, sight seeing and achievements aren't really what I personally consider enjoyable content.

Achievement hunting isn't really content, considering achievements like the Gold Saucer Jumbo Cactpot one exist.

Just because it's not content that people particularly enjoy, or they find it pointless, doesn't mean it's not content. It's just content you don't enjoy (like me with pvp, I don't enjoy it, and I do find it pointless, but it's still content, just not content I'd do very often)
Is doing an achievement that requires doing instances multiple times really that different from Wondrous Tails (which generally people do consider to be content), or from doing relic quests?

You're all certainly free to find them pointless and not want to do them, but it's still a form of content.
After all, I've met some people who only do hunts because they want the mount reward. The achievement is giving them a reason to go do something in order to get a reward, it's a form of content.

The problem is the lack of more diverse forms of long term content, and that there needs to be more effort to make older content relevant.

[Ayer2015]

snip

The game lacks systems with real long term grind. Hopefully Eureka addresses this, because It has always been an problem with this game.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

You've done everything else?
Hunt log?
Beast tribes?
Sight-seeing?
Leveled everything up to 70?
Gotten all achievements?

Or is it just that there isn't content you like to do at the moment. In which case, not so much a drought and more a matter of perspective.

If someone has absolutely no interest playing casters, telling them to level BLM isn't going to be fun. Likewise, do tell me how obtaining 20 million gil from Levequests is content. That's merely trying to squeeze every little ounce out of the game, which has a high likelihood of burning people out. Simply put, 4.1 catered heavily towards niche audiences. Outside the standard additions seen in every patch, it included...

Ultimate
Perform
Rival Wings

Considering roughly 7% cleared Neo, Ultimate isn't going to interest even 1% of the overall playerbase. Perform is, likewise, content for a small demographic and won't hold interest longer than a few weeks. Finally, PvP has never been a selling feature of FFXIV. It's nice they keep trying to take it off life support but they shouldn't do so at the expense of PvE, which is what happened with Eureka's delay. Basically, we got content that wouldn't last beyond a month yet it's expected to stretch into three and a half. At least for the non-raiders.

[Iromi]

I would like "Something that never happened in 10 years of FFXI" for 500 Alex

Agreed. Never once had this issue in FFXI, there was always something to do.

In FFXIV, it gets extremely dull and boring..and fast. We have been playing the same game for 4/5+ years now, its the same stuff with a different skin. A recent interview with Yoshida kind of made me give up hope on the game, said something like FFXIV will always be for casual players (aka boring stuff) I mean...uh, my BF has a very low play time, full time student and still manages to do nearly everything in the game. There is nothing to work towards, its just an endless boring cycle.

I don't mind casual content, but there should be something for everyone. Instead of just letting us purchase the carbuncle stuff, why wasn't it put in as drops or something we can farm and work towards? I dunno, whatever.

[Squintina]

The game lacks systems with real long term grind. Hopefully Eureka addresses this, because It has always been an problem with this game.

I feel like there's so much hope with Eureka that everyone's going to be disappointed :/

Of course it's SE's fault for not providing enough diverse content that now so many people are betting on Eureka.

Heck even with the achievements suggestion, not that many were added. So even achievement hunters who've been playing a long time probably want more.