SE needs to listen, to improve FFXIV

[Raqrie_Tohka]

Most of you have heard of the famous case in statistics of armouring WW2 planes.

Basically, it was first suggested to reinforce planes at spots with lots of bullet holes after battles, as it was perceived most damage occurred in those places.
However, Wald said you should reinforce armour at the places without bullet holes first, as planes hit in those spots rarely returned at all. Especially the engine, which was self-explanatory.

Hopefully this should be my last "sulk" post, but the point I am trying to make is, most of the players posting on forums, especially past the initial boom of a new expansion, are players who have "settled down" into the game. Many perspectives and consequently, suggestions and discussions will be made from viewpoints of players rather content in the game.
Most players who did not care at all for the game would have long left by now and never settled into the forums in the first place. Players who tried, but got frustrated and decided this wasn't worth their time, would also have left by now.

PF is already pretty dead this weekend. Either most players have found statics and settled in, or have gotten all their gear and no longer raid savage at all.
Or perhaps people are smart enough to realize PF savage isn't worth their time, and not so stubborn as to try really hard to make this game work and try to love this game in the end.

SE will never understand why their game is not appealing to more players, of other games, of other infotainment and entertainment, despite trying to make anime commercials and a more generally appealing story. Because they are too focused on pleasing their dedicated customers. Which is not a bad thing per se, but in doing so, they risk disbalancing the game's overall structure to service specific requirements, and tunnel-vision in what they are trying to achieve until one day it's too late.

Expansive improvements, and other features which would have appealed to and serviced "less dedicated" players, ex. people with less flexible time schedules, who don't game this game as their main, and so on; will never come to exist nor be able to coexist with existing structures unless SE realizes the limitations of many of their designs, which in some "outsider" perspectives, can be even borderline unreasonable.
They need to also only think critically, of where the fatal bullet holes are, where players didn't even come back and remained silent in their views. As well as the logical key points of their game, what they themselves dictate as "endgame" and what makes the game sell the most, aka. the "engine of the plane". And truly improve these aspects beyond what is "corporate safe and neutral", so the game can actually stand up to some art, and earn respect, instead of having to pander for the favor of players.

Thank you for everyone's patience who read this.

[Ilenya]

I have to ask...Did you have suggestions here? Like, this is clearly a rant about something, but I can't tell what for.

[ValkyrieL]

What are you trying to convey?
I'm confused what your issues is...
Can't raid because no PF up?

[DenzelVilliers]

I have no idea what you asking for.

[MPK]

This is what happens if you cater to all the casuals tbh.

[linay]

Expansive improvements, and other features which would have appealed to and serviced "less dedicated" players, ex. people with less flexible time schedules, who don't game this game as their main, and so on; will never come to exist nor be able to coexist with existing structures unless SE realizes the limitations of many of their designs, which in some "outsider" perspectives, can be even borderline unreasonable.

This seems like either a complaint about MSQ requirement or a complaint about group requirement in high end duties. If it's the former, I'd say that's part of the game and anyone not dedicated to the game can play through the MSQ at their own pace. If it's the latter, then there's nothing much SE can do as it still wants to offer group-based content. If you have a hard time finding a group, either find a way to be more dedicated or let it be and clear the content in a future expansion when you can try to solo content.

[FedoraTheExplorer]

Okay cool.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

This is what happens if you cater to all the casuals tbh.

Ahh, yes, all the casuals (skill wise, not playtime wise) who get unsynced ultimate clears and can easily do extremes and savage with no issues.


Let's be real, the game would have ended up like wildstar if they didn't cater the the most numerous part of the playerbase.

[Vidu]

I still dont get what your problem is and with each and every one of your threads it becomes more clear to me that you dont seem to understand some basic principles here...

First of all: This game is doing pretty well, subs have been going up, not down over the past years. We've seen a huge influxe of people coming over from other games - especially WoW - aswell. If you care to take a stroll around the forum you'll find plenty of threads either create by or about the so called "WoW refugees". So I'm not sure what brings you to the conclusion that this game isnt attractive to people coming here from other games.
In regards to this though: The main reason people who came here from other games drop the game again is the slog thats ARRs MSQ - something they are adressing and are going to streamline.

Now, to your problems in regards to raiding:
1) The intended way to do this content is in a static, so its not a big surprise that most people are looking for one. That has nothing to do with "settling in" and just getting comfy, it has to do with how people prefer to tackle this content and how the devs design it - with a coordinated group in mind that will progress together, thus allowing for more complexe mechanics than other content.
2) The game offers far, far more than raiding. It doesnt stand or fall with how many people clear E4S, quite the opposite is true: this is a themepark, everyone can stay busy and find something they like to do - even at endgame.
3) They're by far not catering only to the most dedicated people, again the opposite is true: We've gotten alternative ways to gear up, allowing everyone to earn endgame-gear without ever setting foot into Savage-raids. Not even the story is locked behind Savage (aka "the most difficult content", aka Coil) anymore - everyone can partcipate in that! Thats catering to the large, "casual" playerbase who wants to do stuff at their own pace, whenever they feel like it - not Savage-raiders.

In regards to PF being dead... well, you've got a point here in the sense that we're so close to the next major patch that activity is dying down a bit right now. But thats not really a problem - Yoshi himself even encourages people to take breaks because hes very much aware that its impossible to develope so much content that people will be entertained by FFXIV 24/7 forever.
And, again: Savage isnt really meant to be content for PFs and theres nothing wrong with people prefering to do this content with a static. Sorry if you cant comitt to one for whatever reason - but that doesnt mean that theres a problem with the game if you cant get your Savage-clear because you cant find people for it.

I can agree with the general idea of "SE will never know why people leave their game" - but I'm pretty sure the issues you're bringing up arent the reason for it. I do however think it could be a good idea for them to implement a voluntary survey either once in a while or whenever you unsub from the game so they'll get a better idea about what issues their game might have. Again: One of the main issues seems to be the heavy storylocks that they're currently trying to adress.

I'm still not quite sure what your issues with the game are and they mainly seem like missunderstandings in regards to what this game tries and what its main selling points are on your part. Your post comes across as if you have certain expectations (that you cant really phrase?) that the game doesnt meet.
At the end of the day it has always been my understanding that this game mainly tries to tell you a story, while providing a "buffet" of content - that buffet contains a whole lot of different little bits and pieces and anyone who only focusses on one of those will quickly realise that its not to sustain them for the couple of months each patch-cycle lasts. Instead you're either encouraged to try different bits (by them making pretty much every thing in the game accessible to everyone - raids getting NMs, easier ways to level crafters/gatherers; easier ways to level DoM/DoW; dungeons being easy enough for everyone to clear; multiple ways to get endgame-ilvl-gear etc.) or to take breaks.

If you're only here for a hardcore raid experience with random strangers you'll be disappointed because thats not the experience this game wants to deliver - I'd like to point you into the direction of a game who might, but I'm sorry to say I dont know of any... after all... I found a static here and "settled in", the way the game is designed.
I still see certain aspects of the game that coulr be improved, no question about that! And I think some sort of survey would be a good idea too! But the things you seem to consider problems dont seem problematic or worthy to adress to me - specially because I basically have to guess what your issues even are.

[Angellos]

I agree that there are a lot of things that could be worked on such as:

1. Housing (How limited it is on high pop servers is stifling.)
2. Glamour System. (The entire system is overly and needlessly complicated. Implement a World of Warcraft style Glamour System.)
3. Grand Company Updates (There just aren't any. It's a major feature of the game so either get rid of it or update it already.)
4. The needless: Turn in this token, to get this token, to buy this material, to finally be able to get this item. (IE: Gather this collectible. Now turn it into scrips. Now turn those scrips into tokens. Now turn those tokens into a book. Now learn the book to finally unlock the node/recipe.)
5. THE REPORT SYSTEM: We need to be able to report for botting by right clicking their name. You know, those Thaumaturge bots flooding in front of MSQ NPC's and then just hacking away. Those bots don't say anything, the gathering bots don't say anything either. We NEED an option to report them by clicking on them. To further compound on this, we need more ticket options in game besides just 'report harassment'. Maybe change that to: 'open a ticket' and make players feel like they have more options than to just report someone for harassment.
6. Make Party Finder cross-data center. Servers that are notoriously RP servers will have a lot less raiding opportunity than those data-centers who have raiding servers and other normal servers. Leaving the RP'ers with very few options to do content.
7. Make a 'ON ALL' button in dungeons for loot. So I can: Greed on everything, NEED on everything, or PASS on everything without having to click each individual piece of loot throughout the dungeon or make people wait for upgrades because I'm too busy tanking to pour through the loot window piece by piece.
8. Game/Expansion/Pre-Order registration: Trying to register expansions is a bloody NIGHTMARE with XIV. Not only is having to enter a code to get a code, to enter the code, to start the pre-order insane enough but then I have to get a code, from the product I already registered, to get another code, to input ANOTHER CODE once it ACTUALLY goes LIVE??? Lots of people messed that up and it's infuriatingly complicated. Stop it. Just give us one dumb code to register for the Pre-order and one code to register the expansion itself and call it a day.