I'm not sure I can do this again.

[Yenyen]

New player here (not max level), I kind of find most of my fun in this game comes from just well, talking and interacting with people, maybe do the same :3,
some 1 said "casuals aren't interesting in raiding", I'm not there yet but... whenever I look at group finder all I see is "static", my impression so far as a new player is ... I need to be good at all this raiding stuff prior to even touching it, that or I'll get griefed by the raiders, so... I'll have an interest but more of a laid back approach.

[Paladinleeds]

some 1 said "casuals aren't interesting in raiding", I'm not there yet but... whenever I look at group finder all I see is "static", my impression so far as a new player is ... I need to be good at all this raiding stuff prior to even touching it, that or I'll get griefed by the raiders, so... I'll have an interest but more of a laid back approach.

Our static is casual and very much fun-focused. If you mess up it's OK, we'll work with you to fix it, not chastise you for it. Perhaps you could create a static of your own for that? Make it clear what you want, and you will most likely get the members for it. My personal recommendation is 1 BRD/MCH, 1 melee, 1 caster, and 1 melee or caster, with NO double jobs. That's how our static worked. It looks like we'll be having PLD/DRK/WHM/AST/DRG/NIN/MCH/RDM for our static. Best of luck out there!

[Shurrikhan]

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.

Oh, no, I didn't mean to say that you had, just that it's rampantly used as such (though more so on the WoW forums), by which I meant to point out that that what can seem fun in concept can easily backfire in practice.

And same. There's just nothing to accomplish or min-max in a button-spam. But gobwalkers and typhon (and... maybe if there were ever a Byakko Savage(?)) certainly have that.

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...

I look forward to it. I can pretty well sculpt out an idea of your thoughts on it at this point, but I don't think I've heard explicitly what makes something "new" from you yet. Ambiguous question context aside, though, I suspect our answers will be fairly close(?).

[Shurrikhan]

I'm not as well versed in PVP so my insight here is considerably less so. I don't care for PVP in either of these games (BNS was king for that IMO). They added templates and completely separated pve from pvp. That's a pretty big change. The brawls and stuff are pretty minor though IMO.

This. I'd argue it wasn't all for the best, but Legion brought large changes to PvP as well. Imagine the Stormblood change, before Stormblood, but without all the over-simplifying. (E.g. gear doesn't barely matters; secondary stats are pre-optimized; and there are now PvP-specific talents atop the regular ones.)

Agreed. They changed professions over the years, but the system is still one of the weaker systems out there. The gathering bit isn't bad, but it's not nearly the standard their other systems are.

And that's slated for massive reform in BFA. Little to no vertical progression, far more horizontal progression. If you've got the mats for it, you can progress any category of crafting, from Dark Iron designs to Iron Horde battlearmor to Naga mail, etc., etc.

[KaldeaSahaline]

I can pretty well sculpt out an idea of your thoughts on it at this point, but I don't think I've heard explicitly what makes something "new" from you yet. Ambiguous question context aside, though, I suspect our answers will be fairly close(?).

My standards aren't super high. Looking at FF14. I would consider Rival Wings "new". Even though it is just PVP content, it is drastically different than the norm and not just a marked "improvement". I would include Squadron dungeons in this as well.

Looking at WoW, I'd classify the artifact weapons as something new even though they can be boiled down to merely just weapons. I'd classify Mythic + as new, even though it's just dungeons.

To me there has to be fairly robust/unique systems newly built to something to be considered new.

Looking at FF14 again, I think they really dropped the ball on "side content".

I look at the gold saucer and I cry everytime. I envision in my head a version of chocobo racing that would be robust enough to be its own game, BUT by putting it in FF14 you open a fantastic world for people to get lost in and be a part of.

There's a game called Crash Team Racing that I have extraordinarily fond memories of. I would have literally copy pasted the mechanics out of that game into this version of Chocobo racing. Maybe I'll make a new thread on that.

I even had a fairly robust "battle arena" concept that would have been cool for light and full parties to mess around with when things are slow, yet everytime I see GS I just sigh at how much of a waste it was. It could have been the cool place to hang out that contained a ton of non-standard content forms for people to mess with when stuffs slow.

[Shurrikhan]

snip

Mythic+ certainly would meet my definition for "new"; it created whole new sectors of gameplay, communities, -between-casual-and-hardcore stratums, time allotments, and in a way whole new paradigms over what content ought to be like.

Squadron dungeons may too, depending on how extensive the resultant changes end up at the end of its development path. If what we have now is as far as they go... then I'm not entirely sure.

Rival Wings is likewise borderline for me; though it was a new combat mode, it actually did very little to change the mindset or meta of PvP, apart from making healers seem even stronger. The difference between Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin, for instance, seems both far deeper and far more apparent than any form of XIV PvP vs. Rival Wings.

I'm judging a bit more critically than I normally would in game, though; even if not exactly what I'd call "new" I can frequently be pleased by all those things I'd here call borderline, at least in terms of their newness. It'll be their actual execution that will matter most to me. My issue with GS when in game, for instance, isn't that it doesn't allow for anything new: it's that what has been provided within is feels inferior to what almost anyone could seemingly imagine with a bit of time and effort -- it often feels like merely a token gesture rather than an earnest attempt at anything. It's almost as if they're too hung up on the idea of creating "new side-content" and not enough on making whatever content they add actually worthwhile.

Taken as a definition, though, my standards for "newness" are probably, as I'd said, abnormally high. For me, for something to be "new" requires not only that it be different, but that it should point at a new or more fleshed out direction for the game; it should show that the game is in growth. That ends up a largely retroactive opinion if production is kept behind tight lips, but I'll tend to make my assumption and revoke it later if need be.

That's not to say that something should feel free to outgrow or leave things obsolete. If so, those things become unable to contribute to what remains; it'd be like a canopy without a trunk. Moreover it'd quickly end up wasted development time. No, growth must extend from what's there towards some goal which will then be foundation for another, and so forth. Only then does something new connote a new extent for the game.

[Cherie]

As someone that was even a beta tester for this game and has played since 2.0 launch (also played during 1.0 some) I find it really hard to find an excuse to keep playing anymore.

Maybe I've just played it out as long as I can. I've always had high hopes for this game and I'm not some "sour grapes" type to assume it's going to die off any time soon. But it's definitely a different game than the one I first started playing. As all games of this type seem to do, it's found its groove now and has mostly stopped experimenting. In the past you might wonder what cool new things might come out next but now with the release schedule you know exactly what kind of content is coming and when it will be here. Even stuff like the new Eureka relic weapon quest and new area isn't all that difficult to figure out what it will be. Even their new experiments fall into basically the same familiar tunes and based on what we've got so far we know what the new stuff will be like. It only makes sense as there are investors to think about so it's pretty clear what kind of ideas are going to go over well, basically more of the same.

In the end, maybe it's just my fault for expecting a game to hold my interest for years and years. In the end, nothing is forever.

[Altena]

Most of my friends that I have played with since 1.0, and formed an FC with quit after playing through 4.0 story.
20+ players reduced down to about 6.

Once those last few stop playing, or play infrequently enough I may find myself heading out the door as well.

[Fhaerron]

Most of my friends that I have played with since 1.0, and formed an FC with quit after playing through 4.0 story.
20+ players reduced down to about 6.

Once those last few stop playing, or play infrequently enough I may find myself heading out the door as well.

Find new people or play solo and just raid with a new static?

Pretty much what I've been doing all this time.