Trying to understand the negative posts I keep seeing about the Dev Team

[RhonanEastarian]

Would just like to drop in and coment on the OP`s question about why theres so much criticism. Forums are made for feedback, when people are happy they tend to give little to no feedback and just play the game having fun. Its once someone is unhappy about something they go to the forums to discuss it and to try and give feedback to change the game in a way they deem better then the current state of the game.

Thats why you on any MMO forum bords will allways see way more criticism and neggative feedback then possitive posts and praise. Its a natural thing for people who are unhappy to want to have their voice heard while those that are happy stay silent and content.

[Marxam]

For me personally, it's a communication and foresight issue that I have with the development team. I understand that it's not easy dealing with multiple bosses despite being a boss of team yourself, speaking from experience. I also understand that they are a Japanese team dealing with a global community. What I don't understand is the constant copy-paste PR statements that they provide to players seeking answers on things like RMT, bots, PvP cheating, blacklists, unwarranted bans, trolling, ToS loopholes and the list goes on.

Their lack of foresight is astonishing at times too. Example: they release a favorites list for mounts but no favorite mount roulette button and more recently the whale mount, while spectacular, comes with the generic music. They have these great ideas but the execution is always mediocre most times. They have gotten things right but it always feels like they take two steps forward and one step back.

[MatthiasS]

So, I've been playing since 2014.

According to Steam I have 5056 hours logged in the game, probably 2/3 of which are "Active play" as opposed to things like opening the launcher and not logging in, which seems to tick up the Steam clock either way.
I have played pretty much every aspect of the game. I actively raided in Coils, crafted often in Heavensward, and in Stormblood I ended up becoming an FC leader. I've forged an ARR Relic and most of a HW one, till I couldn't be bothered to do another light grind.

Stormblood, especially where we are now, has nothing to keep me coming back, nothing to keep me playing. I only log in most of the time to update FC buffs, and do ventures. Most of my FC is the same. Even previously active members are logging in once a week. An issue is I've had this level of burnout on the game since the end of Heavensward on and off. Sometimes I log in to socialize, but I can realistically do that in any number of ways, particularly with Discord at my disposal.

The problem is, the content. There is just nothing here, to be frank. Every dungeon feels like every other. I actively look for the good in every patch, I TRY to get hyped up, only to find whatever new thing they are offering is just more of the same. I tried Eureka, and found it to be pretty awful.

The two dungeons that came out most recently aren't BAD, but they aren't engaging enough for me to run several times a week. I can't say I haven't gotten my money's worth out of the game. Even Stormblood was worth the price just for the expansion story alone.

I do not feel, though, that there is a compelling reason for me to be paying 15.00 a month right now, other then to keep my house. World PvP, true World Bosses (not 3 minute Faceroll hunts), more in-depth dungeons, random or Rougelike dungeons out in the world, things to really explore, not just VISIT. These all could be reasons to keep the Veteran player engaged.

There are lots of other ideas I have that could keep me coming back, and I am sure there are many others that could be suggest. What WON'T keep my interest is "2 Dungeons, a "raid" (either 8 or 24 man) and a Primal"" every patch.

I have healer, tank, and DPS jobs leveled to 70, and nothing is below 60 except Fisher, and I can't abide fishing. I try to do my part to find the fun in the game. The Devs need to do theirs to earn my continued payments.

[Awful]

I've played the game since ARR (didn't join the forums till 2015 I've always lurked and read everything) and I really did love getting gear and your relic and raiding at that point it was so fresh, so fulfilling, I had a lot of fun bringing my real life friends into the game, starting our own FC and getting a medium house in the Goblet later on. There was content and things to keep you occupied while you either level or do endgame content and hell even helping your friends and FC mates with their relic weapons and what not, ARR was a good time.

I used to spend hours and hours in the game during ARR and HW just playing the game, doing endgame content, crafting, running dungeons and being blown away by the trials but now I'm just not interested as the friends I used to play XIV with left and there's just me and another guy playing and we both say to each other "why are we still subbed?". And I can't even give an answer why I'm still subbed I barely play I play maybe 2 hours a week where I used to play every single day for hours and hours on end the game has just reached that point, at least for me that I just can't justify how SE does content for XIV.

SB has been the most uninteresting expansion for myself I wish I tried Ultimate but my static broke up after reaching Godka but we were all burnt out from the same formula that plagues the game since it always does the same repeated formula with the same repeated 4 floors of bosses that never changes. I know this might offend some people but I miss raids where there's actual trash with mechanics where you have to CC them or silence them or drag them out of puddles that they drop on the floor, I miss gauntlet style boss encounters where adds come in waves and then the boss comes after and you gotta fight them. XIV offers nothing like this it's the same grab all adds > run down hallway > AoE > pop tank CDs > move on, it never changes there's nothing that makes me want to go back into the same dungeons because it's all the same, SE is too safe to introduce a Mythic+ dungeon system where I think it'd help since it'd create more content for people to enjoy.

My other main issue is SE creates all this content that doesn't interact with anything in the game such as Chocobo Races, Triple Triad, LoV, PvP, Eureka, Diadem, they all cater to such different themes and ideas that it detracts from the actual game, you'd never even know half of these existed but they're for such a minority of the playerbase that it makes me wonder why it was created. To go back on Eureka/Diadem I realize there are people who enjoy it but to echo what Hyomin said is that this was content that could last for weeks and weeks but you step in, whack a mob, level up, see a 5 second cut scene and you've honestly seen it all it's like "umm...this is the content?". I find Eureka to be the worst created content at least for me as it has no redeeming factors and is a grind within a grind that has no place being in this game as it wasn't intended for XIV and it's combat system as it becomes stale and boring within the first minute of fighting a mob where it's a spongey mob with a random AoE move every 25 seconds it's nothing new.

All in all the contents stale, this expansion has been lackluster, and the devs ignore the community which is no different than most MMO communities but whatever I'm pretty much done with defending this empty game which was a game I loved and want it to flourish. I think the only answer I can give as to why I'm subbed is to see what kind of previews we'll get for 5.0 and maybe just maybe something new will be done and it'll renew my love for this game that I used to put so much time into. I also wish they'd stop playing so safe they've been riding it since the revival of 1.0 and made ARR it's been 5 years SE you need to start shaking up the formula as it isn't working anymore and the playerbase is getting tired of it very quickly, especially FFXIV veterans.

Sorry for the long post I had to get this out here.

[Hestzhyen]

I think the only answer I can give as to why I'm subbed is to see what kind of previews we'll get for 5.0 and maybe just maybe something new will be done and it'll renew my love for this game that I used to put so much time into. I also wish they'd stop playing so safe they've been riding it since the revival of 1.0 and made ARR it's been 5 years SE you need to start shaking up the formula as it isn't working anymore and the playerbase is getting tired of it very quickly, especially FFXIV veterans.

Same, plus I like having a house... though I'm the only one left and it's lonely now that there aren't FC mates or friends to drop by and visit.

Generally speaking I love this game. Wouldn't be playing for 4+ years now if I didn't. But there are decisions and attitudes from SE that drive me up the wall sometimes. Like the stubborn insistence on doubling down what people hated about Eureka (hint: old-school MMO mob grinds died for a good flippin reason), a huge dearth of midcore content, obviously not investing into big improvements to the game's infra and architecture... the list goes on. The repetitive content cycle isn't even the biggest sin any more though- it's the tone-deaf decisions and infuriating "but did you try hard enough to like it?" replies to player anger that are killing me.

If 5.0 doesn't look good I will probably join everyone else who got sick of SE treading water. Genuinely do love the game but things I dislike are piling up without being addressed.

[Derio]

I dont have that many complaints. I think SB as a whole has been very very bad in terms of content in general. One of the biggest problem I have is Eureka being tied to the relic. Bad content is bad content period.

At this point, I am sick of SB and have put all my faith in the devs to do better with the next expansion. Perhaps why this Fanfest is more hyped than anything.

[Vahlnir]

I dont have that many complaints. I think SB as a whole has been very very bad in terms of content in general. One of the biggest problem I have is Eureka being tied to the relic. Bad content is bad content period.

At this point, I am sick of SB and have put all my faith in the devs to do better with the next expansion. Perhaps why this Fanfest is more hyped than anything.

All they'd have to do is give me a gunblade and they'd have my sub forever. But yeah, I agree for the most part. SB hasn't been all bad but it could certainly be better. If Eureka wasn't brought into the picture at all I think it would be having a more positive reception.

[RareItems]

FFXIV is not that bad, at least it's not a disaster like Black Desert Online xD.

[Awful]

FFXIV is not that bad, at least it's not a disaster like Black Desert Online xD.

That's like comparing a dumpster fire (Black Desert Online) to a burning school house (FFXIV) one is burning hot garbage the other is a disaster that can be avoided.

[Kirsten_Rev]

Personally, HyoMin summed up the details nicely. Boiling it down for me, though, I simply don't trust SE anymore. This is a company that has spent years systematically demonstrating that many of the lessons they supposedly learned from XIV 1.0 were not, in fact, learned. Consider the following statements:

"Developers stubbornly adhere to outdated policies."
"Developers allow past successes to foster a false sense of security."
"We're unable to keep up with changes in user needs."
"Things suffer from longer development periods."
"We're unable to incorporate new technologies."
"Every problem can be patched in a future update."

To me, those statements all ring true about FFXIV now, in 2018. Want to know where they came from? Copy-pasted from the 2014 Game Developers Conference when Yoshi-P was discussing the failure of FFXIV 1.x, and the root causes of its downfall. They've definitely come full circle. Sure, there is less of an unhealthy obsession with graphics quality now. It's also clear that the team is more aware of modern MMOs than when XIV first launched. But these criticisms that Yoshi-P accurately leveled at 1.x largely still apply now, and it feels like each passing update cements the issues even more firmly in place.

So, yeah. I don't trust the development team, nor Yoshi-P. I don't think he nor they have demonstrated an ability to learn from past mistakes, and I think it's long since harmed the quality of FFXIV. That doesn't mean I'm looking to quit, nor does it mean it's a bad game, but the promise of ARR, the foundation laid, has very much been squandered at this point, in my mind. SE will need to produce more than just the occasional 'oh that's nice' moments to earn my trust back. They'll need a sustained run of successful innovation and responsive development.

I'll conclude my post with a parting phrase that was also gleaned from the 2014 GDC. It's worth keeping in mind at this stage of XIV's life.

"Great success can lead to great failure."