FFXIV is reliable and consistent

[Lium]

Great article over on Massively today about how FFXIV is one of the few MMOs currently on the market that is totally predictable with each new update. And that's a GREAT thing.

From the article:

"Some of this, I think, is just a matter of perspective. A lot of the time, this comes from people who are playing FFXIV and nothing else and don’t realize that five years of content on a clockwork schedule is actually really spectacular."

As an American, I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to have an MMO that is on a reliable schedule of routine and consistency. So many games in the West feel the need to reinvent themselves all the time for fear of becoming stagnant and losing players. But FFXIV does not. What you see is what you get.

I know this type of predictability has its detractors, but I for one absolutely LOVE it, and I hope it never changes.

Super frustrating having to relearn my class and my rotations in other games, or have the lore retconned because of the new flavor of the month content or whatever. The way SE does it, while not perfect is, as the article states, pretty damn spectacular.

Just look at how unpredictable the market is today. Some of you who have never played other MMOs truly do not how good you have it here.

[SenorPatty]

Why can't I have clockwork scheduled patches AND different, engaging fun content once in a while?


I guess that's the privilege you can afford to have when you win by default /shrug

[Vespar]

I love that we get periodic predictable content patches. My gripe however isnt with the predictability. It's with the "gates" on that content.
I want to PLAY the game, not be restricted because I PLAYED the game.

If someone has the time and energy to play, they should be able to play without being gated at 450 tomes/week, or 1 item per week in raids, weekly crafting turn in caps, etc.
They shouldnt be restricted because someone ELSE doesnt necessarily have a similar amount of time to play.

This actually has driven me from the game a lot. With the exception of Eureka for the moment, I rarely play unless its Tuesday and caps are reset. Don't get me wrong I WANT TO PLAY, but I am forced not to because not all content is relevant to me and/or Im capped on the content I do find appealing...
I'd love to gear up and play MORE jobs than the 3 I do, but honestly keeping those 3 geared with the caps in place is hard enough. (again Eureka being general exception to the rule for the moment...) Can I have more Eureka-like content where progression is uncapped??

[KadaRemnant]

Ffxiv is the best mmo to me and i love everything!!! i will always play this game and i know SE will always give us the best! I'm really grateful we have this amazing game! <3

[Anarnee]

The predictability has never been my problem with the game, but over SB, it felt like at patch they were spreading stuff very thinly over mini patches. I never felt that way during HW or ARR~

I don't mind the patch cycle, at all. I do wish that we were getting more, and that they were not splitting the team to do a lot of different things and masking it as if we're getting more stuff though. The more new things we get, it just means they're cutting content else where. But I will say, the quality of stuff has gone up, so I don't feel that the increased budget has been wasted or anything. I just miss getting more dungeons I guess.

Really excited for BLU and seeing how it shakes up the formula.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

If someone has the time and energy to play, they should be able to play without being gated at 450 tomes/week, or 1 item per week in raids, weekly crafting turn in caps, etc.
They shouldnt be restricted because someone ELSE doesnt necessarily have a similar amount of time to play.

They do this out of necessity. Remove these restrictions and players will have full i390 within a week. Some will have i400. At which point, what purpose does normal mode, crafted, Primals and the 24 serve? All that gear is rendered 100% DoA since you can simply spam dungeons or Eureka and buy better gear.

As for the topic in question. I feel FFXIV has already stagnated to an extent. While I can appreciate some predictability, I shouldn't be able to predict an entire expansion's worth of content with 90% reliability. Stormblood is literally Heavensward with a red coat of paint. If Shadowbringers simply dips its brush into the purple can, it'll have an uphill battle keeping me engaged. Granted, I wouldn't mind the repetition so much if I had stuff to do. In many ways, Stormblood has boiled down to either raid, do Eureka or play a different game after a month or so. At least this is a common criticism I see—one I cannot fault people for. It didn't help content was spread out far too thin. Look at 4.3. There was nothing to do outside Namazu, Tsukiyomi and Ridorona once you finished the story... for six weeks. Unless, of course, you jumped into Ultimate.

[Vespar]

They do this out of necessity. Remove these restrictions and players will have full i390 within a week. Some will have i400. At which point, what purpose does normal mode, crafted, Primals and the 24 serve? All that gear is rendered 100% DoA since you can simply spam dungeons or Eureka and buy better gear.

It's not a necessity though... It is only this way because they MADE it that way. Removing restrictions sees people ACTUALLY PLAYING the game...look at Eureka, the instance is pretty much full every time I go in there and folks keep coming back for more to gear out multiple jobs and not just 1 or 2. This doesn't sound like a bad thing to me.
If they removed restrictions on everything, they can still keep crafting relevant by making it so that gear is on par with raided gear or you need items from the raid content (or other types of content) to make said gear. There are myriad ways around this issue... Crafting doesnt have to suffer just because there arent locks on content. The new Farming thing in 5.X for DOL/DOH could easily be a method for getting high end materials that produce materials for gear on par with raid gear...

[Brightamethyst]

So many games in the West feel the need to reinvent themselves all the time for fear of becoming stagnant and losing players.

That's not wrong though. People like to knock WoW for making massive, sweeping changes every expansion, but that's how you keep people things fresh and interesting and why millions of people still play it 14 years later. FFXIV:ARR on the other hand, five years and two expansions later it's almost no different than it was at launch. HW, and now SB have basically just been 2.0... 2.0. XIV's model is much more consistent, but also much less interesting.

I love that we get periodic predictable content patches. My gripe however isnt with the predictability. It's with the "gates" on that content.
I want to PLAY the game, not be restricted because I PLAYED the game.

If someone has the time and energy to play, they should be able to play without being gated at 450 tomes/week, or 1 item per week in raids, weekly crafting turn in caps, etc.
They shouldnt be restricted because someone ELSE doesnt necessarily have a similar amount of time to play.

This actually has driven me from the game a lot. With the exception of Eureka for the moment, I rarely play unless its Tuesday and caps are reset. Don't get me wrong I WANT TO PLAY, but I am forced not to because not all content is relevant to me and/or Im capped on the content I do find appealing...
I'd love to gear up and play MORE jobs than the 3 I do, but honestly keeping those 3 geared with the caps in place is hard enough. (again Eureka being general exception to the rule for the moment...) Can I have more Eureka-like content where progression is uncapped??

Progression caps exists specifically to force people like you to slow down. SE isn't trying to artificially extend your play time. The tome cap is there to keep people from running 100 dungeons in the first week, getting fully geared in a matter of days, and spending the next few months complaining about how there's nothing to do (source: every MMO ever.)

[Derio]

They made it this way. Its great. Every year they add something new or a variation to a mode or system that already exists.

Some people hate it, but you cant hate the fact that it makes the game so popular.

[Vespar]

Progression caps exists specifically to force people like you to slow down. SE isn't trying to artificially extend your play time. The tome cap is there to keep people from running 100 dungeons in the first week, getting fully geared in a matter of days, and spending the next few months complaining about how there's nothing to do (source: every MMO ever.)

Well if Im fast about progression then I feel sorry for everyone who plays daily. Because seriously, I play maybe 2hours every other couple of days if Im lucky (due to having a 9mo old that needs attention), and in 2 months I just finally managed to i380 two jobs and i360 a third (mostly thanks to Eureka). Still working on that third one (accessories). None of my jobs will see i390 until after 4.5. But before I had a kid, I played a lot more and had little to show for it as well because the locks forced me to keep two jobs relevant and forgo all else and then just go play other games anyways....