I'm not sure I can do this again.

[Nakaress]

I'm afraid that Eureka has been delayed so long that expectations will be too high. Many are holding out hope that it will be totally awesome and will keep them in the game, if it isn't, I expect a mass drop in subs.

Eureka ('s Castle, lol, sorry) is something that should have launched with the expansion and used as an alternate form of progression from the start . Waiting nearly a year for new expansion type content to be implemented is quite asinine.

I've been playing WoW so much because their Legion content has been excellent (M+ dungeons is one of the best systems I've used in MMOs since 2001), and their new stuff for the upcoming expansion is only adding more cool stuff. Tons of new playable races as well.

If the third FFXIV expansion launches with the exact same Tome grind system, same content release schedule, and no compelling repeatable world content, it might be the first time I take 1-2 years off from the game since it relaunched.

[IllyriaKnotfred]

Yeah the thing about WoW is that every few expansions they do tend to shake up the entire game quite a bit. For better or worse.

[LalafellDown]

Coming back for 4.2 was a mistake, got bored in 1 day. Should of waited until Eureka (probably going to be another fate/hunt grind). The gear grind has no value. Stopped doing the Tome grind in the middle of 3.x. Everything has a gate attached to it (for profit reasons). Not long term value in anything you do since it will get replaced by the next patch. Missed out on the previous patch savage? Tough luck, good luck tying to get a group to learn and grind previous content. Game focuses more on housing and glamor then its dull combat and quests. Side quests are dead boring. Maps/Fates go empty real quick.

[Coombah]

I may have rose colored or tinted glasses but I was eager to play XIV during 1.?? It was fun and exciting. The community seemed more involved and they didn’t spoon feed you every little thing. Before the servers went down for 1.0 you had to deal with the difficulty of primals, dungeons etc. I don’t think I’m ready to give up just yet but I am hoping they make another mmo in the future that goes back to those roots.

[h0tNstilettos]

Burnout is going to happen if you only play the game to progress iLv and do the latest dungeons or raids. There is a massive amount of fun stuff to do in the game. I often times don't get caught up on gear until the last moment because I spend most of the 3 months working on the many other things I work towards. Collecting tt cards, collecting minions, collecting mounts, do gathering and/or crafting endgame, hit gil cap and go around giving random players chunks of gil or earning through contest you make up, collecting every fish entry in fishing log, creating your dream home, collecting orchestrion rolls, collecting chocobo barding, vanity, progress PvP rank, PotD, sightseeing log, breed a top tier race chocobo, challenge yourself to soloing older dungeons or trials, help players farm duties for stuff in PF, help new or returning players, hunts if needed, I could go on and on. I hate the gear treadmill too, but luckily there is so much to do in this game when compared to other MMOs. I'm not saying everyone should like that other stuff, but you can't blame SE if you only care about 1 aspect of the game.

[Aronys]

I'm in the same boat. I was keeping my sub because I had a house... until 2 days ago. I was thinking about getting rid of the old ball and chain that is the house, and just get an apartment for a few months now, and finally did it. I relinquished the house, took my losses, got an apartment and I now know that I can easily stop my sub until the next patch. I have a few friends who stopped playing since 4.1, when I also started thinking about it as 4.1 was soooo disappointing. 4.2 isn't much better either. I dunno, SB started strong, but soon fell flat as we instantly returned to the same old type of content. I was waiting for Eureka since June last year, when it should have been released in the first place, but now it's been over half a year of waiting for it and after the veil of secrecy and hyping it up only to show so little... I'm not even interested in it anymore.

In fact, I returned to GW2 in the past month as that game changed so much since the last time I played it, and I have 2 whole expansions to catch up on, so there's a lot to do and it's actually new and interesting.

[LalaRu]

I play casual and kept my main stopped because I wanted move to a locked server and waiting the unlock.

When unlock happened a couple weeks before today, my main (in its glorious i270) had to catch up to reach the required IL for savage content. TBH, I were able do it in matter of some days, didn't witnessed the hard times OP got. Maybe because I were in a FC with people actually helping me?

I had also time to make Kojin tribe rep from 0 to 6, and some days just doing random things around, because the FC was busy on savages. And all of this, playing just on evenings because I have a job. Maybe a couple times I dare played 2 hours in the afternoon because job shifts. Some days didn't even play because was in a mood to look a movie then go sleep.

I'd suggest the OP to stop a bit and think better at what you want to do for have your fun, rather than following the crowd of people that is burning all content in a day.

[KaldeaSahaline]

And heck, "gimmicks-based" has often enough been an insult in itself, in using the term "gimmick" as a negatively-seen form of a mechanic, such as one which disallows manipulation, control, or mastery, or has negative synergy or cohesion with the surrounding fight. Though new mechanics are generally what can make a fight outstanding in its day, there a many, many ways mechanics can go wrong (or turn into "gimmicks" as per the derogatory term).

I didn't use the term gimmicky in a negative-connotation, but I agree that it could be construed as such quite easily. To me, a gimmick is merely non-standard gameplay. I.e. A2S Gobwalker, Byakko Falling Scene, Shinryu/Susanno ATE button spam, etc.

Out of these 3 examples, IMO only the last one is actually a BAD gimmick. I HATED A2S especially since I was a DRG and forced to do it, but it was a half decent idea. The Shin/Susano one really does nothing to enhance, improve, or change the gameplay. It wasn't fun holding down or mashing a button for 20s. There was no active thought process involved.

This is what I'd love to hear more from the community about in general. At what point in abstraction is something new actually "new". I set pretty high standards, myself, but I've never been able to hear more than vague implications or counterexamples from most XIV players, and it therefore becomes hard for me to really broach any ideas of my own.

You know I'm good for it. More often than not though peoples critical thinking begins at "check this commission out!" and ends at "go play WoW". *Gasp* such brilliance...

[RiyahArp]

I don't think it's burnout, over how shallow most content in this game is. We have a lot of side grinds, but they are almost insultingly simple content. Things like companions boiled down to "send them on missions from a list every day or so" to "do the same dungeons you have done 1000 times already, but with invulnerable partners with bad AI."Beast Tribes are often kill two enemies or click on points on the map three times, and you need to do them once a day for a month or two straight to max them out.

It's odd that side content that is optional is so simple, especially since many are gated behind once per day or once per week timers.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Been enjoying other games lately, with many of the same friends I play this with. Also started featuring other games on my YT channel. Only really PvP when friends ask me to, and still raid, but it's less a want to and more a follow through. Looking forward to trying Eureka, and still sorta hoping they do something about PvP and all its issues they've continued to ignore for half a year, but so long as they want to stick to a tired formula, I can stick to other games and not feel burned out or bored.