Lack of End Game Content

[Xatsh]

Yeeeeeeah, I'm gonna have to cut you off there.

Casuals did not ruin FFXI. Abyssea or the level cap increases didn't "ruin" FFXI, either, despite the frequent claim of such.

I am going to hardcore disagree with you there. At least on the abysea part.

The game was in steady decline before abysea. It dropped from its peak of ~600k active players to around 390-420k over a 8yr period.

After abysea launched within a year it dropped by an additional 60% of that number... and this was at 1.0 not a game that actually was stellar. There was a reason why when XIV 1.0 failed hardcore and people never did go back to XI.

The Game shift away from guild focused content, negating ~25,000 hrs of content that existed in the game before it, Destorying the whole leveling process, ruined crafting, ruined jobs entirely, Literally made you a god ingame by using a stupid abysea potion thing. Abysea is when what FFXI was officially died. FFXI now and what it was Pre abysea is as night and day as 1.25 and ARR. I love how people say other wise. Look at the sub count, look at the reason why people quit. It is not that hard to see.

FFXI was not a nitche game it was mainstream mmo at its launch, and it was one of the most success mmo launched in that era one of the few to ever pass EQ. WoW redefined the genre, shifted it from midcore to hardcore only to allow the casual gaming audience to play. There is no way for a hardcore only game to ever compete with a casual game. Example which game is better Pokemon or Darksouls for example. I would say Darksouls but I bet nearly 10,000x as many ppl play pokemon.

The masses of FFXI did not leave and go to WoW when it was gaining millions apon millions of subs because they wanted that hardcore game, not an easy mode mmo. When SE tried to shift it to a casual game. Well WoW and all those other games were simply a better casual mmo then it so they all left and never came back.


I had a guild of 74 ppl pre abysea doing ~60hrs of guild events a week. Once abysea launched all but 7 ended quitting the game due to how bs the changes were and how little there was to do.

[ElroyDrundan]

I enjoy the game, have for years, but I do wish there was more in the way in the way of lvl 80 adventuring tasks. For me though all the other content makes up for that.

What I would love though would be FF14s take on something like WoWs Mythic + dungeons. I would love this. Take dungeons ramp up the difficulty, have leader boards. And give some kind of reward that makes them worthwhile. Mount, Maybe some kind of item drop on completion that has an ilvl at current tome gear level or 5ilvls lower? It reuses all artwork/dungeons.

This would provide a challenge, enable one to gear up other jobs. And would take minimal development time. just up the damage done, and mob hitpoints, maybe add a couple suffix/affixes. And done.

That is one thing I find frustrating, The "oh you can play/level another job". Sure, that is possible and can be fun, but you can only gear up one job (or related job) at a time given the gating on tomestone gear. Savage raiding solves that somewhat.

[Crushnight]

I will say the devs have repeatedly tried to add more and more hard end game content over the expansions they are trying to do it with the resources SE has allocated them with probably a few mandates i.e don't lose large subs by doing this on top of X.
ARR added savage 2nd coil
HW added PotD challenge floors, resonably difficult 1 to 4 man content
SB added 2 Ultimates, HoH challenge floors, Extreme Rathalos for more 4 man content and lastly Baldesion Arsenal (while not savage difficulty it certainly wasn't 'casual' level of difficulty).

So believe it that the devs do try to add more content tailored to those that like harder stuff just it is never on Launch will never be on Launch because guess what expansion Launches change a lot of jobs up and they tailor difficulty and content around getting used to that, and they also want more content in patches or we would have the WoW model of big burst of content very long dry spells, and based on how everyone was feeling between 3.0 to 3.1 would probably start the downward spiral of subscriptions loss.

[Catwho]

The reason people quit XI is because there were other non PVP centric MMO options, finally. SWTOR, LoTR online, then later on TESO and Wildstar. I dual-subbed XI and XIV 1.0 and even 2.x briefly, but after about a year of attempting to do both, I opted for XIV because it required less of a strict schedule. (I'd already drastically reduced my endgame schedule in XI due to graduate school - hard to get a master's degree and be part of a big HNM at the same time....)

Even then, I didn't consider myself "hardcore" in XI despite running a Dynamis linkshell and being an officer for my HNM shell. That was all project management and paperwork on the back end - nothing like extremely skilled play, especially since I was a bard. Maybe in terms of sheer hours played I was hardcore? It was over a thousand days by the time I quit. (I just ticked over 700 days in XIV. Catching up fast!)

I can't go back to those days. I'm too old now. I don't have 10+ hours a week to spend planning raids and doing data entry in FFDKP for loot and trying to herd the cats. Thankfully, XIV's duty finder system and loot system makes gearing up a lot more equitable. Even as the recipient of a Dynamis relic weapon, I recognize that it was an inherently unfair and limiting system, such that only the chosen few could ever obtain it for years. Maybe that's why my hobby in XIV is picking away at old anima and relic weapons in my spare time. Because I can, and it's limited only by the amount of time I'm willing to invest.

[Saidosha]

I had a guild of 74 ppl pre abysea doing ~60hrs of guild events a week. Once abysea launched all but 7 ended quitting the game due to how bs the changes were and how little there was to do.

Again, Abyssea wasn't the problem. It was the lack of follow through on SE. It'd be like if we were stuck with pre-Eden here in current content cycle with no real clue if anything is in the pipe. But by this point, the more general damage to XI was done with XIV's production being a resource vampire. If you think those same 74 people would do the same 60 hours of stuff indefinitely, you'd be wrong, and more likely look at a revolving door of players.

More principally, I look to the following reasons for people to do content:
1) It improves their character.
2) It improves a someone else's character, usually a friend or guildmate.
3) To kill some time or a change of pace.

I don't shame people for being selfishly motivated in their play choices. If they see no value in a piece of content, that's fine. If the question of what could change that can be answered by a means other than throwing must-have gear into it, great, but I think most of us know things like that isn't magically going to turn PvEers into PvPers, or casuals into hardcore raiders. With these games being so combat-oriented, however, character growth is always the premier option. Lord knows I poked my head into an RP related thread earlier this morning to see people still mock and deride the hobby, so such tells me we still have a long way to go when it comes to some aspects of community receptivity.

The Game shift away from guild focused content, negating ~25,000 hrs of content that existed in the game before it, Destorying the whole leveling process, ruined crafting, ruined jobs entirely

I'm not going to be convince that a shift from alliance-based content was a bad thing. People come with numerous play styles and schedules, which you can't really expect strangers to accommodate if long term investment in a singular piece of content is forced. The very fact so many endgame shells has to have outside point systems to justify who deserved what further hammers home my belief that content rarely favored the individual or those who couldn't legitimately fit in for reasons beyond not being a jerk.

As for the old content, I'll just nod back to my 3 points. The longer someone's character exists and the more they partake, the more #1 and #2 are likely to wane, with #3 being a wildcard. It's safe to say there was a point where things like farming mannequin parts or doing certain BCs died on their own and it was by no means Abyssea's fault. It just mean certain rewards fell out of favor.

I'm not sure I'd call the leveling process much of a loss, either. It shifted over time, sure, from the IT++ grind with a balanced party early on with SCs and MBs be favored. You had MNK burns. RNG burns. Manaburns. Colibri hit and then you get double BRDs, a RDM, a COR, and two heavy DDs. People cheesed Astralburns for a bit. Level sync extended the lifespan of some camps. Basically, whatever the community deemed the most effective, they flocked to. I've never bought into the presumption that leveling the "right way" actually taught people how to play the game, when the endgame content usually had its own niche quirks that went beyond dispelling a crab's buffs or healing a middling ST TP move. Otherwise, I stick to my assertion that the Abyssea process being more inclusive was better for the game than hoping that maybe the players found the next iteration of Colibri in one of the revised zones.

Maybe I'm a salty Alchemist, but XI also never really handled crafting well. (H)NM drops often outshined a lot of gear, with something like the Peacock Charm/Amulet being BiS in the neck slot from the 30s to 75. Profits rarely existed in NQs. The durables market was super grossly saturated. Not all abjuration gear was good, or HQs didn't really change a stat that counted like Dalmatica not getting +2 Refresh. RMT did their number on the economy, while progression further pushed to R/Ex things and the rise of the mercenary market. XIV's crafting may not be perfect, either, but I'm inclined to call it more interesting at the very least.

I don't buy jobs being ruined by the level cap increase, either. BST, for example, gained a fair bit of viability with the increases. However, SE did have to later adjust the range at which you could trigger pet moves because players were treating them like disposable DPS sponges from safe distances. Otherwise, pretty much everyone gained new abilities, and in some cases, new subjob choices. You could argue that maybe not all jobs got it as good, sure, but that was always kind of XI's curse.

[SamSmoot]

Exactly! Take WoW for example.. I never really found farming azerite or world quests to be "thrilling". But i was kept busy and entertained.

I found that just azerite gathering, and a few world quests that offered stuff I needed, anlong with 1-2 raids a week weren't enough. I'd be done playing after 1-2 hours in a day. Here, I can keep going all day, but that may end once I get my professions to 80.

Never bothered with M+ because I played Enhance and refused to use raider.IO = no chance at getting in.

Still more stuff to do here in a day than there was in a week of WoW, and I still haven't tried it all.

[RareItems]

Your doing Endgame content everyday. It's called roulletes lol.

[DavidIven]

i think you guys should stop replying to the guy that doesnt even have a max level combat job and be incapable of reading

[Iromi]

I'm always for more content..but not sure what else could be added. I think the way the gear system is rather linear and the stats are very simple make it a bit limited.

I remember in FFXI it seemed like I never ran out of stuff to do because of gear swapping and well..a lot of other things. There was so much gear to farm and that was fun for me. Anyway what truly made me play FFXI for so long and never get bored was probably the social aspect..but that's a whole diff thread..lol.

Anyway, there is no gear swapping in XIV so that's not really an option. I'm far from creative so I've no idea what else they could add. But again at this point any content they add is fine with me. I'd prefer stuff everyone can enjoy.

With how quickly gear gets replaced in XIV I've come to mostly just play it for the story and when I get very bored of my other games. I've played since 1.0 alpha but eventually the formula gets old after 9 years ^^;

I do like how I can log in and easily play..that is a nice aspect but at the same time I do wish it felt a but more rewarding. I've done progression raiding too since 1.x days but in the end with how the gear is replaced I dont bother anymore. The raid fights are fun for me and I'll do it for that but once it feels repetitive I just stop.

End game almost always turns into end of the game....to me the loot treadmill just isn't fun...I need some form of building my character or I go play something else.

[Aeidis]

Before they add new content, I think they need to go back and revise old content. Like Chocobo Racing, Lords of Vermillion, PVP, make BLU max level and useable in relevant content!