Twiddling thumbs

[Nora_of_Mira]

Anyone else feeling that the delay for new content is taking you away from the game? I know there’s tonnes to do, but in 4 years of playing I have never felt this disinterested in content. Is it just me?

that's how the content is designed. Yoshi doesn't want you playing this same game every day/week/month until a new expansion. They plan on having mid-hardcore players leave in lull periods between patches and come back when the patch hits. thats why 24 man raids exist, so they can get "catch-up" gear that they didnt feel bothered to get by grinding tomes.

[Vhailor]

The fewer aspects of the game you enjoy, the sooner you'll lose interest in the few things left. Naturally, once you're at the end of any game, it's up to you to come up with ways to continue enjoying it, or move on to another.

FFXIV isn't boring because people are focused on relatively few aspects of the game. It's boring because SE has taken an insanely conservative, lazy approach in regards to content development, while monetizing the shit out of cosmetic content in an effort to make up for the subscription irregularity said approach has created.

Obviously the ultimate responsibility is on the player to move on to another game if they no longer enjoy FFXIV, but MMOs have multiple holds on people beyond the content itself - primarily attachment to one's character and a social component. SE is abusing this, knowingly or otherwise, via their approach to content generation. Case in point, if FFXIV were a series of single-player games (ARR, Heavensward, Stormblood), sales would be dipping significantly right now due to a lack of innovation. It's happened across literally every other franchise with such limited evolution from title to title.

that's how the content is designed. Yoshi doesn't want you playing this same game every day/week/month until a new expansion. They plan on having mid-hardcore players leave in lull periods between patches and come back when the patch hits. thats why 24 man raids exist, so they can get "catch-up" gear that they didnt feel bothered to get by grinding tomes.

You know, the more time passes, the more I look back at this statement as essentially an in-advance excuse for shitty development practices. It was a genius move, really: it was so unexpected that it sounded refreshing, sounded honest. But really, I have to ask, why on earth would FFXIV's director want you to not spend your money consistently on their product? And why would we view this as an acceptable thing? Call me crazy, but I want a company to work hard to earn my dollars every month; Yoshi-P essentially admitted they were going to half-ass it here and there.

As an aside, there's a difference between accounting for lull periods within the game structure and guaranteeing lull periods by almost exclusively focusing on lazy content re-skins. Using 24-person Raids as an example, I have no issue with where they fit into the reward structure of FFXIV. I do have an issue with the fact that fundamental dungeon mechanics (big concentrated boss fights; occasional large trash groups; split out alliances for a phase; have alliances handle individual regions of the battlefield) haven't advanced since the release of Labyrinth of the Ancients in December 2013. That's pathetic. Rabanastre in 2017 should not feel like a re-skin of content released nearly four years prior, even if it fills the same role in regards to current gear progression.