Who is SE developing content for in this game?

[Sigma-Astra]

They're catering to everyone, if anything I'd say the only people they're not catering to is the "tiny portion of the community" who will complain no matter what type of content they release.

Quoted for truth.

[ko_]

I dunno. I play every day and I'm having a blast. Ofcourse everything does and will get old, but they are simply just using a system that works. Is it perfect? No. But that's what happens when you design for everyone instead of just a few people. Also a tiny bite I want to say. I get we are all at different skill levels. But and I say this with no hate. Every game is easy mode now. Remember when you only had 3 lives? Gameovers and no continues? I do. I also remember when games got mainstream everything got babied. So much so we now forget games like devil may cry 3 original mode and praise simple trial and error games like dark souls. Like that's the decade we are in now. Not a rant but that's across gaming as a whole. It's also cause devs dont want crap to be unseen. Its dumb but what're you gonna do? :c

[JCharms]

I severely doubt you've got a full set of 360-370 gear for every single job in the game at this point.
I severely doubt you'll have a weapon for every single class in 2 weeks.

Thats a pretty weak argument, exclaiming running through the same content over and over with alts(jobs) is whats needed to fill out the void left by the devs?

As someone has mentioned more than once in this thread, they do try and cater to a wide amount of player types, so if youre someone that doesnt grind alts for the sake of something to do, and dont do virtually everything in the game, you will find yourself extremely limited in what there is to do.
The wide variety while good in some ways is also a hinderence in that any system they do put in place is extrememely limited, very short lived and very rarely ever gone back to and updated.
Its like they make all the content disposable, so as to appease only one type of player, and the ironic part is, the one that usually doesnt even do that type of content. They need to make the varying content a lot more robust so the people that like that content have something to do for more than a week.

But in saying this, it is what it is, and I cant ever see them changing the formula so you have to make youre peace with it or move along or have plenty of breaks.

[Hasrat]

As someone that started back in the 3.x cycle, and is basically only just caught up to where the game was when I started, I can say there's tons to do if you actually pace yourself. Granted, most of it is a grind, a dreadful one at that. But if you want to be completionist...

That said, when only a certain subset of the content is what appeals to you, naturally very little of any patch/expansion will keep your attention.

Perhaps it can be said the game caters best to the completionists. I'm wrapping up getting combat jobs to 60, but I've still got to loop back around and get my crafting and collecting classes up (finishing off those Moogle tribe quests in the process), I'm working on a second ARR relic weapon (and regretting the decision every step of the way), while starting a HW relic (regret soon to follow). I've almost finished off the ARR sightseeing log. I could craft one of everything just to say I did (damned addictive checkmarks). I think I've still got a set of ARR mastercraft books to get (stupid demimateria requirement). Demimateria! My desynth skills are woefully low. I was abandoned in an FC, I could figure out these exploratory missions. I've been to the Diadem once, that was kinda neat. I've heard there's a special zone I can see from treasure maps?

I've barely even touched PotD! The fact that I can't even get around to that astonishes me. It just comes off as the thing you grind so you can skip all that other stuff and get straight to the small slice of content you think you want. And if you have to do that, then, well, I hope you're getting your money's worth.

[TruebladeNuke]

They're catering to everyone, if anything I'd say the only people they're not catering to is the "tiny portion of the community" who will complain no matter what type of content they release.

There is so much to do in this game, it's unbelievable. It blows my mind that peope think there is no content. Granted a lot of it is part of a boring, repetitive formula now, but by the Gods, appealing to a minority? Come on dude.

Both of these quotes above. And to add to it myself...

IMO, if you were one of those people who felt compelled to do absolutely every little thing in the game that FFXIV has to to offer, there's honestly an overwhelming amount of stuff to do in this game. So much so that I'd rather not even list it all here.

I'm one of those guys who likes to try and squeeze every last drop out of the games (or most of it) that I play. And even I haven't done everything that this game has to offer. Starting with Stormblood, I fell out of endgame gearing for my Crafting and Gathering roles. (Though I do keep them leveled and mildly/respectfully geared at least) I have yet to even start HoH. (Though I did pick up the quest to allow myself entry) I've barely touched the savage trials. (Though I have finished a few of them) I haven't touched any of the savage raids, let alone Ultimate. And I'm not even done getting all the Heavensward relic weapons finished to Lux, which at this point is just glamour. (But hey, we all know that glamour is the true endgame. Right?) And all because in my years of playing this game, I decided I'd like to take breaks every now and then from this game to play something other then FFXIV.

If you decide that the majority of the content in this game doesn't interest you and you're literally only interested in one... maybe two aspects of the game... (Savage endgame raiding, as an example) then yeah, this game suddenly doesn't offer as much. And that's not even taking into account how the release schedule for these recent patches have been going lately. (Which I've just been brushing off as an excuse to get some other games in after I finish the "meat" of the new patch content)

[Ameela]

Thats a pretty weak argument, exclaiming running through the same content over and over with alts(jobs) is whats needed to fill out the void left by the devs?

Huh?
Is that not what it means to have lasting content?
Besides it's entirely dependant on what you consider "lasting" content in the first place, in the end it's all just about what you find the most fun.
I know people who spend their whole day doing HoH, people who do nothing but Eureka, players who barely even touch combat classes and would rather craft and gather, players who spend most of their time in PF practicing optimising their play in extreme primals and savage raids and just players who do a little bit of everything.
Clearly these people find this fun, running this content over and over again is something enjoyable to them, and as long as these people exist you can't say SE isn't thinking of its players.

If you don't like the idea of doing the same content again after you've done it once or branching out to try new types of content which you may have dismissed at first, you're welcome to unsubscribe and try out some different games while waiting for the next major patch release.

[Gemina]

OP, just because you cannot find anything to do does not mean there is nothing to do. This game has a ridiculous amount of content that caters to all sorts of players. It is unfortunate if you have not found anything to keep you interested, or anything new to take your interest. What I always say to peeps in your case is if you can't find any enjoyment in the game then you have to strongly consider continuing to pay the monthly sub. You can always take a break, and check out the official patch notes as they release more content to see if anything grabs your attention then.

[Rufalus]

We have a lot of displeased with the game topics already. If people can suggest something they'd like to see it would be more constructive and valuable feedback. You'll find it's not easy to please everyone though as other people criticise your idea the way you criticise S-E. Coming up with sustainable content ideas under realistic technical and budgetary conditions that covers a wide spectrum of tastes isn't an easy job.

Making pve content stay fun after several playthroughs is especially hard. Everything in life wanes. If it were possible to have sex for 8 hours a day, people would get tired of that and say that sex is boring too. Part of what makes it special is that you're not doing it all the time. MMOs have a very hard task of staying engaging for many hours per week across many years.

They could implement some kind of infinite grind system just to keep you busy for more hours but then people with less time to play will feel left behind. If you don't want to farm mounts, cards, gil, pvp, etc between patches then maybe just take little breaks, a week off here and there, and the content may feel more engaging when you return.

[Vstarstruck]

Both of these quotes above. And to add to it myself...

IMO, if you were one of those people who felt compelled to do absolutely every little thing in the game that FFXIV has to to offer, there's honestly an overwhelming amount of stuff to do in this game. So much so that I'd rather not even list it all here.

No there isn't, ill ask the same thing to you as to that other poster:

list them, and try to leave out "hard content" that will simply be faceroll in 1-3 months.

Or are you going to list insane stuff like owning complete wards as something to do? That is the only thing I can think of that could be a huge enough time sink to warrant such a statement. decorating them all, that is, and earning gil for all that to do so, while being on an empty server.

OP, just because you cannot find anything to do does not mean there is nothing to do. This game has a ridiculous amount of content that caters to all sorts of players. It is unfortunate if you have not found anything to keep you interested, or anything new to take your interest. What I always say to peeps in your case is if you can't find any enjoyment in the game then you have to strongly consider continuing to pay the monthly sub. You can always take a break, and check out the official patch notes as they release more content to see if anything grabs your attention then.

If that was true you wouldn't have a development team desperately trying to lessen sub> unsub turnover by slowly trickling content, artificially extending the life of what they are giving us. If that was not true you wouldn't have these threads keep popping up. (and consistently talked about in other forms)

[JCharms]

then people with less time to play will feel left behind.

I understand what youre saying and I didnt cut out the rest of your statements to dismiss them, but this particular part Im interested in. Do you think this is the reason there is not more robust game features being put in place?
Ive thought about it at times, but its such a complex question and answer as well, that its not something we are ever likely to get any sort legible answer to.(thinking back to so many Q&A's that get it so wrong)