Ok, lets do it, WHAT is wrong with this game?

[Asiragan]

The biggest problem I have with the game right now is that it tend to try and appeal to as many people as possible, without the means and the creativity to do so.

- It wants to be a leveling MMO, when leveling, after the first job to 70, is quite dull because the rewards for leveling up are small, the leveling is way too fast for this type of game, and there is not a lot to do when leveling. Plus, the regions are far too small to make this a good leveling MMO. And with Eureka, the devs showed that they had no understanding of what makes this type of MMO fun.
- It wants to be a pvp mmo, but the battle system is absolutely not adapted for this kind of game, and the devs are trying way to hard to prevent it from dying.
- It wants to be a PVE mmo, which is fine since the battle system is great for it, but players will only receive 4 savage fights every 6 months, and two ultimate fight per expansion. Dungeons are just rollface for anyone with half a brain, and since their is so little to do PVE-wise, the difference in skill between players is really showing.
- The developers wants the players to socialise between them, but the game never really encourage you to play with others.

Honestly it's fine that they took after WoW for ARR, but they have clearly no idea where to go from there. They want to please everyone, but without any actual ressources to do it and really no creativity to make up for the lack of means.

To me, what's wrong with FFXIV, is that they're spreading so far to please everyone that they will end up, almost unironically, pleasing a somewhat niche group that enjoy a little of everything but never going to much in depth with it.

If S.E. wants to fix it, they will definitely needs to drop some type of content and focus on others, while they want to define where they want to go with FFXIV as a MMO.

[Freyt]

I'm happy that the visuals have been very dynamic. In some cases since 4.0 the gameplay has also been more involved.

Someone said it already.

If you removed equipment from the game completely, nothing would change. This is the progression that almost the whole rest of the game follows. The game is purely about making numbers go up and playing around gimmicks.

PVP is ruined by bots as well as a lack of incentive to bring players to it. Eureka is just another set of numbers to increase. Deep dungeons are actually quite nice, but take way too long to complete, which is fine on their own but does nothing to fill that void.

Any semblance of horizontal progression has been entirely removed from the game.

[Dogempire]

They need to make it so we can add as many 4 star triple triad cards as we want after collecting x cards. I have zero interest in playing the Stormblood NPCs because their decks are all 5 star cards and there's not exactly much you can do when the AI is easily knocking over your cards with their all 5 star except 1 four star deck and you only have 1 card with a side that's above an 8.

[Genoreaper]

If S.E. wants to fix it, they will definitely needs to drop some type of content and focus on others, while they want to define where they want to go with FFXIV as a MMO.

I disagree, they don't have to drop content. Rather they just need to dedicate teams to whatever content they want to use, pvp and pve can occupy the same game very well, look at wow. Both types of players feel satisfied because there are teams dedicated to helping them feel that way.

Just as you said they spread themselves too thin and everything comes out shallow and unsatisfying. Nothing feels fleshed out, when I used to try to pull people to this game my main praise was that fights were unique and mechanic based rather than dodge only hp sponges. Back in arr and hw fights like bismark and leviathan were amazing conceptually I loved the boat tipping and sliding around. The fear of scanning the water for movement. Even titans ring knock was fun and interesting. Now. .. just everything is round up mobs and melt until you get to savage. Content which ps4 players are at a disadvantage with the Lack of certain tools to monitor their performance.

It's strange going through leveling zones and not encountering anyone, it just feels empty.

The code definitely needs work, you can't tell me the code from vanilla wow to current isn't a completely different beast. They've upgraded to take care of their players.

When I play mobius on mobile, there are tons of "whalers" who spend hundreds of bucks trying to pull cards. I'm sure FfDOO BE and RK bring in quite a bit..and when people complain about lack of content or updates, most have come to the belief that a large chunk of that money goes to this Games upkeep, but where is it? Why are all their games so... underdeveloped for the amount of money they make. It's bled into their single player Games post ffx. They've all felt incomplete, ffxii needed 3 games over years to tell a simpler story than ff7,8, or 9. Ffxv on launch was so gutted that entire chunks had to be added later, key points happened off screen so they didn't cost money. Then they had the audacity to recharge for "royal edition" meaning most people who didn't get season pass for the episodes and other content paid 60 for a beta on release. Only to be charged again, how many times did they expect people to replay the story for a few more moments of content at a time.

This last one is personal but I only get a few hours to play a week, and if by chance they don't line up with my fc being available (who I love being a part of, they are great to interact with in game/discord) and I have to use df, I am lucky to do maybe one pvp game or dungeon with the insane ques.

[Asiragan]

I disagree, they don't have to drop content. Rather they just need to dedicate teams to whatever content they want to use, pvp and pve can occupy the same game very well, look at wow. Both types of players feel satisfied because there are teams dedicated to helping them feel that way.

Sure, the WoW team can do both PVP and PVE, but they are also more experienced with MMORPG (Well, S.E. should be experienced too with FFXI, but they haven't learnt anything it seems) and probably have more budget. WoW also don't have housing, too.

My point is, sure it would be best if they could flesh out everything and make interesting content for everyone. But unless they get a sudden burst of creativity and/or of ressources, it would be the lesser evil to just drop the less played content and concentrate on developing and innovating on the one that works.

[Dzian]

I think the biggest problem is generally the game is so limited by it's very own design. you cannot have genuine long term progression or goals because of the super fast treadmills and that then creates the major content draught because despite the game theoretically having bucket loads of content players still have bugger all to do because 99%of said content is obselete and not worth doing.

everything is ultra repetive and mundane and there's never anything new or inspired.. eureka was apparantly all new content.. but its just a rehashed diadem. HOH is just a rehashed POTD. content is all incredibly static and stale. it's like people have all said dungeons are all the same, raids are all the same trials are all the same.... nothings ever different.

and by the games design it can't change.. it's all designed to be done solo pretty much. which only suceeds in causing problems really. take a look at HOH even in matched parties it causes problems because you might want to be hunting around for all the horde sacks. another guy might not care about horde but only want silvers and then you get guys who ignore everything and just want to go straight to the passage to the next floor as fast as possible. sometimes i find this ironic because thesse players that are trying to go as quick as possible are the same ones that will sit there fully loaded on pomanders of strength frailty petrification. or the same people that stand in the chamber of passage for 2-3 minutes while everyone runing around for silvers.. the whole run would be faster if they helped out and used pomanders. but it's an example of how you can't create new and inspired content when everyone in there is going to have different objectives it just creates a huge clash.

It also does everything it can to force you to play solo or not build bonds. all content is so strictly tailored around 4 or 8 people that it becomes impossible to find things you can do with your friends that you can do together. if you got 5 6 7 9 10 11 people that all want to play together you're screwed there's nothing you can do... you either get some random people to help that might then interfere with your plans. even savage discourages it. if you've cleared it that week. you cannot go and help your friends because they'll be punished and get no loot.. even on the most fundamental story level. "You cannot progress this quest because your in a party this quest must be undertaken alone"..... it's an MMO not a single player game.. people WANT to play with there friends. especially when all your friends are clicking the same npc trying to enter the same story instance at the same time..... WHY the hell cant we just play together....

the combat itself is dull bland and lifeless. as ive said before it's too fast and lacks any form of weight or substance. nothing has any power or impact to it. its just flash bang sparkle.the 1.23 system was much better and had a lot more substance to it. i mean in the current system all your skills are basically just glorified auto attacks that have a few sparkles and buffs attached. I couldn't tell you the dfference visually between gekko and kasha for example 2 of samurais combo finishers and they just look dull and boring. hell most of the time you dont even see them because you're popping an ogcd attack or something else... it all just makes it bland and weightless. even worse in group play because your flashes bangs and sparkles are just masked by everyone elses. you cant actually see anythingthats hapening in the combat.

1.23 also had a lot more depth in its combat with pacifications stuns heavies all of that stuff actually doing something meaningful and even had the incapacitation system. break chimeras tail and now he cant tail swipe the party or crack a mobs head and he cant smack you with gaze attacks or anything. where now combat is just smash buttons while dodging telegraphs what the boss is actually doing is rarely actually matters. slow the pace down add some substance and weight and it'd be much more fun..

I think the player skill arguement is largely down a huge lack of player motivators... basically there's no reason for players to rise up to a challenge when the challenge will be dumbed down and nerfed to them to a point they can face roll it. and the lack of value or prestige in any of the rewards also demotivates many people from bothering. no point in going after that weapon when it'll be a crap weapon and therell be a better one next week... if the treadmill was slower and rewards actually held value or prestige i think a good amount of players would step up there game that little bit to try and strive for them.. but when its going to be crap tomorrow why even bother?

this is the same with things like the materia system where so many players just don't bother melding there gear because why bother melding somehting you'll replace in such a short period of time.. melding gear is see nas a waste of money by many players. especially many who do cap tomes each week and already overgear the content. like 370 players running 335 lighthouse raid...

everything is so oversimplified and dumbed down its ultimately boring and bland. even hunts were meant to be notorious monsters poses a challenge kinda thing but all they are is zerg fests. all you need is to keep throwing bodies at them till you win. stats are pointless and worthless. you could quite easily remove every stat from the game except I-Level and the game would not really be any different. because the rest of those stats are practically worthless. if you look over time for example the average crit rate of a bard hasnt changed at all from having 300 crit to smashing over 2,000 crit.... spell or skill speed is another one. my ninja has 1600 skill speed and still the exact same gcd it had when i first levelled it in ARR. blackmage is the same. doesnt matter how much spell speed i have my flare cast at 70 is no differetn to what it was at 50...there all just meaningless stats..

the game has been simplified so much in every aspect thats its just bland and boring.. the only thing that keeps me playing is the social connection to some of my friends. but hell even the most mundane things are more fun with friends.

The thing i find interesting though is over the years the critisisms havent changed much. even on a personal level everything i say now is the same stuff i said as far back as alpha/beta. and the threads you read on the forum back then are much the same as t he threads you read now. the only thing that changes over time is the amount of people that are opening there eyes and seeing the problems for themselves.. if you made a complainet about the treadmill in ARR for example then you'd probably get a ton of flack for it. yet that same complaint now gets a lot more support and empathy... the more time goes on the more people open there eyes and see the problems for themselves.

ive also said before i think the player numbers show the problems the game has quite well.. they keep bragging about all these mile stones and millions of players they have yet they still have almsot the exact same server capacity they had in 2.0. maybe increased slightly with eu datacentre but thtat was done for latency reasons more than over population... if you combine that with things like the various lodestone sweeps it suggests that very few of all those millions of players stick around because the game just isnt that good

[ko_]

I never understand the whole, it's never changed since its start statements. What did people expect? A different game after one patch? No game changes its flat core like that. What are they posed to do? Cause they DO try new things. Noone likes what they do try. You cant not count the new stuff just cause you dont like it. Dungeons will always be dungeons. Which we get ALOT of. Hell in tera and other mmos they take dungeons out the GAME! Like those dungeons aren't even there anymore. You want to fix dungeons? Make them so they dont care about gear. Make them 10 levels above you all the time. Thats a good way to do it. Least for dungeons.

[Mwynn]

I never understand the whole, it's never changed since its start statements. What did people expect? A different game after one patch? No game changes its flat core like that. What are they posed to do? Cause they DO try new things. Noone likes what they do try. You cant not count the new stuff just cause you dont like it. Dungeons will always be dungeons. Which we get ALOT of. Hell in tera and other mmos they take dungeons out the GAME! Like those dungeons aren't even there anymore. You want to fix dungeons? Make them so they dont care about gear. Make them 10 levels above you all the time. Thats a good way to do it. Least for dungeons.

Has something to do with the Fact that Yoshida himself said that ARR is the fundament of the Game and every Expansion would add something on top of that fundamental.
This hasn't happened so far, not yet, and I'd be damned to say it... but if 4.4 is gonna be the same as 4.3, it does no good for the Game.

Not saying the Game is doomed, that's kinda too far stretched in the end, yet the numbers of People actively playing in uneven numbered Patches speak for itself.

[ko_]

Has something to do with the Fact that Yoshida himself said that ARR is the fundament of the Game and every Expansion would add something on top of that fundamental.
This hasn't happened so far, not yet, and I'd be damned to say it... but if 4.4 is gonna be the same as 4.3, it does no good for the Game.

Not saying the Game is doomed, that's kinda too far stretched in the end, yet the numbers of People actively playing in uneven numbered Patches speak for itself.

Things have been added on top of the game. Last I checked deep dungeon, eureka, the cross over events, lords of v, and many others have been added along with the qol things that's been added since. I'm not saying all that's good but to say NOTHING has been done is purely false. :c

[Mwynn]

Things have been added on top of the game. Last I checked deep dungeon, eureka, the cross over events, lords of v, and many others have been added along with the qol things that's been added since. I'm not saying all that's good but to say NOTHING has been done is purely false. :c

Things the Community hardly wanted and were received negatively, yet they continue to build these things even though... those Features have failed multiple times.
Those Features usually last a few Patches and then are left alone in the dust. Unlike the Features we have like Dungeons and Trials, which they could improve more and more because you will always do Dungeons like Sastasha or Trials if they Reward you.

Instead of adding Content that becomes pointless right away when they are released, why not add stuff on the Core Features? Adding more Options to Dungeons or Trials, Gathering and Crafting.

Let's take a look on how Games have done it in the Past, a Expansion made use of the Core Features and added stuff on top of that which did enhance the Gameplay quite a lot, this is hardly the case here as we have a fixed Rotation.
We can basically Predict what we are getting and that is one of the Issues.

This is like if the Game is over 10 Years old already and still has the same old Core Issues from back then, it just won't work and is unacceptable.