Why are you not playing this game?

[Asiragan]

Bad game design and poorly made decision from the dev team ruined the game for me.

Right now I just log in once a week for savage reset and be done with it.

4.3 is probably the first patch I have no hype for. I will just do the msq and unsub for the first time in 3 years.

As it stands now, I don't feel like the game is worth my sub.

[Vhailor]

Bad update cycles are what's driving me away right now. Things are just too stale.

And, honestly, the three pieces of 4.3 that I had the most hope for - the Doman Enclave, Heaven-on-High, and Eureka Pagos - are either coming in 4.35+, looking bad, or both. These three systems all had the potential for some real depth and freshness, in my mind, but the Doman Enclave looks like a glorified GC turn-in system, Pagos doesn't appear to offer Relic Armour upgrades (bad sign), and SE seems to be trying to handle Anemos' fuck-ups (the FATE train dynamic) by band-aid fixes like Challenge Log entries (another bad sign for Pagos). Heaven-on-High, too, appears like it's going to force people into the PF or statics if they want to run above Floor 30, which is an obscenely stupid restriction; it's not like you can't kick someone from a DF group for being bad.

So, yeah, now I'm back to feeling quite pessimistic. We'll see; a lot of this is very early commentary. But SE doesn't appear to be willing and/or able to deliver properly on fresh-feeling content, and that's what's driving me away at the moment.

Edit / Addition:

The story, lore, visuals, music, etc are all amazingly well done and I will die on a hill defending the writing and localization of FFXIV, but these are the only elements keeping me subscribed. The actual gameplay of the game is lackluster.

• Every patch is the same tired formula. Next patch includes linear dungeon number 61, boss who repeats the same attack patterns in a circle shaped arena number 49, daily beast tribe number 11. I would love to see even tiny changes, like the daily quest faction not being beastmen or a trial boss in an interesting arena; let alone substantial changes to the content and formula.
• Such steep vertical progression makes me feel like my time and effort means nothing. Why should I struggle for the best gear when that same gear will be handed out like candy next patch, to be replaced by a new best gear? Likewise, every new piece of content (like those linear dungeons that get added every patch) replace what came before it instead of adding to it. So at the end of the day only one or two of those sixty some dungeons actual means anything, at least for the few weeks until it is replaced again.
• There is no gameplay customization. None. The stats in FFXIV are so boring that they aren't even a consideration to the average player, so there is no way to use stats to customize your character. I have never encountered another MMORPG with so little way to change the gameplay. There are no talent trees, no weapon enchantments, or gear with unique effects. I am identical to all other players.

You really hit the nail on the head. I cannot imagine how excited I'd be to see SE introduce true 3D arenas that incorporated the z-axis into combat mechanics, along with gear rewards that meaningfully altered our character abilities. Done well, I'd be evangelizing about FF to all of my friends who long since stopped playing, and they'd probably come back for those.

Ah well...

[WellFooled]

And, honestly, the three pieces of 4.3 that I had the most hope for - the Doman Enclave, Heaven-on-High, and Eureka Pagos - are either coming in 4.35+, looking bad, or both.

This is more of a side thing compared to other complaints I have in game, but your comment reminded me: I dislike how broken up the patches are anymore. Patch 2.1 included new main story, Hildabrand, Free Company housing, a bunch of side quests with neat rewards, 3 new dungeons, a 24 man raid, five end game trials, wolves den, two beast tribes, treasure maps, and the aesthetician--most of which was brand new content (before the tired formula set in). I logged in after 2.1 was released and didn't know where to start. I could keep myself busy for days or weeks even just doing one or two items on that list. Mind you, this content was likely being worked on for some time before the release of ARR.

Now 4.3 brings us Main Story, 1 new dungeon, a 24 man raid, 2 end game trials (Edit: After reviewing the patch notes again, turns out only 1 of those two trials will be in the main 4.3 patch), and 1 beast tribe. I can have the entire patch's worth of new material knocked out in a day. Heaven on High and Eureka (both reskins of content we already have) won't even be released in the main patch, but we need to wait a month or more for them. It makes the patches feel tiny and less exciting when they drop. I would rather all content intended for 4.3 be released together. Heaven forbid I have more than one thing to do at a time

[Linx0r]

Content has gotten dull ; SB story is too Japanese and not enough Final Fantasy imo; quality of content has gone downhill since ARR and HW; the new content has gotten old quick; new gear sets are meh and toooooo Japanese themed; nothing wrong with Japanese themes but this is way too much and as a western player it just takes away from the entire FF vibe

If it weren’t for keepzing in touch with my fc friends I probably would cancel my sub for awhile

[Uielyave]

Honestly im a shitty person and dont have friends to play with really but I guess I just like making alts and getting pretty outfits.
I don't do content because honestly im just bad at this game.

Content has gotten dull ; SB story is too Japanese and not enough Final Fantasy imo; quality of content has gone downhill since ARR and HW; the new content has gotten old quick; new gear sets are meh and toooooo Japanese themed;

The content is dull, and the outfits are really just.... SUPER ugly. Too many browns and reds and dull mustard yellows, it all just looks bad and...too similar to each other?
I'd love it if we got more side quests or events and stuff dealing with the Steppe and the Xaela tribes. That area was my favorite and the most fun I had while leveling in SB.

[Liam_Harper]

• Every patch is the same tired formula. Next patch includes linear dungeon number 61, boss who repeats the same attack patterns in a circle shaped arena number 49, daily beast tribe number 11. I would love to see even tiny changes, like the daily quest faction not being beastmen or a trial boss in an interesting arena; let alone substantial changes to the content and formula.
• Such steep vertical progression makes me feel like my time and effort means nothing. Why should I struggle for the best gear when that same gear will be handed out like candy next patch, to be replaced by a new best gear? Likewise, every new piece of content (like those linear dungeons that get added every patch) replace what came before it instead of adding to it. So at the end of the day only one or two of those sixty some dungeons actual means anything, at least for the few weeks until it is replaced again.
• There is no gameplay customization. None. The stats in FFXIV are so boring that they aren't even a consideration to the average player, so there is no way to use stats to customize your character. I have never encountered another MMORPG with so little way to change the gameplay. There are no talent trees, no weapon enchantments, or gear with unique effects. I am identical to all other players.

Have to say, I really enjoy the game overall, especially the crafting system, story, music and environmental depth... but this is absolutely bang on. The developers just don't take risks. They revived the game successfully with ARR and it feels like they're just too scared of doing anything at all that might ruin that. So it's the same forumla over and over again, patch after patch after expansion after expansion.

[Tint]

Mind you, this content was likely being worked on for some time before the release of ARR.

yeah and they could have worked on content before SB was released to bring back this awesomeness. but instead Eureka, the new big thing of SB, was delayed. 1.0 was still running while they worked on ARR, so not much different from the situation now. except that ARR itself was bigger than HW or SB.

and the budget for ARR must have been kind of low, considering the failure of 1.0. now they have a game wich prints them money, even more with the cash shop, but somehow they bring less content than back then. why?

[Jellybums]

People get bored of the same thing over and over. Not everyone's into just raiding, housing, glamour. Some like adventuring/creative storytelling/in-game life. I'm hoping the rebuilding of the Doman enclave would be interesting and not grindy or like runnings errands. I'd like to see NPCs moving in, having a life, changing over time and interacting with players. Like hey, I need this rare medicine for my kid's rare allergies. Hero does quest and watches the kid grow up healthy. That creates a sentimental attachment of sorts. Would be cool if that happens to the baby in Idyllshire, the baby that never ages. Little things like that make the game more than just a grind.

[Yeol]

Here are my points (Feel free to disagree with me).

1) Savage gear does not feel rewarding.
When you compare the dps of two good players, one wearing iL370 BiS & the other is iL370 tomestone, the difference between them is very small (Less than 5%). That is like saying someone with BiS will deal 6300 & someone with tomestone will deal 6000. This difference does not matter outside of Ultimate. And to be frank, it is very small given the time you spend learning the fight and then farming content every week for 8 weeks to get BiS.

2) Dungeon gear can be better.
At the moment, I only run dungeons to cap my tomestones. Any loot that drops I'll greed on it for GCC or maybe glamour. The gear it self is useless for content which makes it a bad choice for gearing up. Even old tomestone gear (iL340) is better than current dungeon drops (iL325). Fixing this will make gearing sub-jobs much easier.

I assume the reason they do not want dungeons drop better items than previous raid gear (iL340) is because they want raiders to feel that their gear is useful. Which is not. Because crafted gear (iL350) is released on the same day as Savage. Your iL340 BiS is not going to be better than iL350 crafted.

3) Gameplay customization.

There is no gameplay customization. None. The stats in FFXIV are so boring that they aren't even a consideration to the average player, so there is no way to use stats to customize your character. I have never encountered another MMORPG with so little way to change the gameplay. There are no talent trees, no weapon enchantments, or gear with unique effects. I am identical to all other players.

Basically this.

[MrKusakabe]

Have to get used to this entire game. Coming over from GW2, this is like coming from the very opposite spectrum. Everything's different, and instead of doing an instant 180° turn, I slowly let it go to neutral, then to FF14. Almost like a semi-automatic gearbox.
Right now, I am in the "Goodbye Tyria" phase. When that's over, I will embrace Eorzea again. And while on day 1, it was awkward not to dodge and such, logging on now (day 9 or so) feels already much better.

But else, I just try to enjoy the game as it is. Not to be on top of anything, not to be pushed by anything or anyone. Let's see if I can mix the calm and chilled GW2 attitude (due to no gear treadmill) into this game.
Yes, I pay subscription for just a bit of gameplay, but I can afford that.