"Fixing" what isnt broken?

[Daniolaut]

It is possible to complete the A Realm Reborn quest line in 2-3 days.

(via new or preferred world road to 70 bonus, and skipping cutscenes, or just a few weeks watching cutscenes.)




WIth that being stated, I beg to question, if Square-Enix has little interest in keeping veteran players around, vs bringing in more new players.

Sure new players are great, but why take so much away, or ignore existing players, them leaving in droves, just to lure in new players? (this will be addressed down further.)







This can be accomplished by creating a character on a new or preferred world, and skipping cutscenes for free (not using jump potion) on a fresh level 1.

It is also possible to skip all of the story entirely, instantly using jump potions.

Then it takes only a few weeks, if you are going very slow, to complete the story, while enjoying the cutscenes.

Yet, Square-Enix has chosen to "condense" or fix the A Realm Reborn quest line, yet I feel it is not "broken," nor does it "need" condensing.

This uses a lot of resources, time, and recoding. Most importantly changes the story, very likely in a negative way.
They also are talking of removing the second ring slot. This is completely pointless, and only takes more time, resources, and recoding, while also takes away from people glamouring rings.

Meanwhile, things that > do < need addressing are being pushed back.

A list of much more important and impactful issues:

-Housing
-Lack of Male Viera, Female Hrothgar
-Lack of GNB and DNC weapon glamour
-Lack of ability to utilize "purchased" or "rare" hairstyles on Viera and Hrothgar
-Inventory clogging
-Healer balance
-Reporting systems, not only for RMT but problematic players
-BLU still being locked to A Realm Reborn levels
-UI not saving settings
-UI not being fully customizable (looking at you FATE JOINED! Notice, not being capable of being moved from directly in the middle of the screen. As well as all other notices right in the middle.)

The list goes on.

Deleting a secondary ring, and condensing the 2.0 quest line, is completely a waste of time, when these above mentioned issues are very glaring and significantly more important.

To touch on why this is a huge focus on new players versus veterans, here is a list of things that have been taken away, stopped, or no similar incentive for veterans to stay playing the game have been created.

-New subscription/time based Veteran rewards have been haulted (the longer you subscribe, you no longer get new rewards.)
-New Campaigns such as Legacy status have not implemented
-Constant changes to battle jobs, in so much as complete overhauls (many people will leave when their favorite job is completely reworked. Especially when they were not broken to begin with.)
-Any rare and unique items from events or achievements are given out like candy. (Seasonal events put in mog station, rare rewards such as mounts, even the white ravens, being put in events to be obtained much easier and faster.)
-No in-game rewards for veterans, but all sorts of items such as Aetheryte Earring to reward new players. (The longer you play, you arent rewarded with any rare or unique items. Any new ones that are granted, are then given out later for less than half the previous effort.)

In short, new players, with "road to x0" bonus, mog station purchases, events offering older, rare items, Aetheryte earrings, chocobo feathers, so on so forth, are greatly rewarded

Meanwhile

Veterans, have seen the stoppage of new items added for veteran rewards, see all and even their hard earned, unique items given away, have no incentive to stay subscribed, outside of seeing their house destroyed.

So even more sort, new players are rewarded greatly, especially if they spend more money, veterans, are tied to their subscription, or are at threat of losing their house.

Then to top it all off the playerbase encourages this type of approach to the game. Punishing players for stopping their subscription, no rewards for being a loyal customer, and new players seemingly cant be rewarded enough, and "need" an easier time.



The only true reward, I have seen for existing players, that has been implemented, is the anniversary option for bonded characters.




TLDR:

New players are rewarded intensely, exp boosts, items from previous difficult content, so on so forth, for little to no effort.
Veterans are threatened with losing their house if they stop their subscription, and all incentives to stay have been removed/stopped.

Square-Enix now chooses to spend immense resources fixing something that isnt broken, instead of addressing significantly more important issues.

The overall playerbase seems to feel its only good, that rare items be rewarded to new players, new players cant seem to be rewarded enough.