I just realized I have a pattern. Am I alone?

[Lunalepsy]

No, not male pattern baldness...but a pattern with FFXIV. I am curious if anyone else is similar. It generally goes like this:
1.0 Bought it, played for about a month before running on foot through the black shroud became more than I could handle.
2.0 Bought it, loved it, played through all the coils and through 2.55.
3.0 Bought it, loved the story and music, then around 3.1 stopped playing. I started seeing the pattern around this time...
WENT TO FANFEST! STORMBLOOD ANNOUNCEMENT! SO STOKED!
3.5 Resubbed, caught up on story and ready to tackle stormblood!
4.0 Super happy had a great time with story, and was very excited to get back into savage raiding, etc. After first tier of savage...same thing happened. Started to realize that after the first clear of savage, there's generally no point. The gear would be outdated in a few months anyway so desire to play dropped dramatically after initial clear. Unsubbed...until... SHADOWBRINGERS ANNOUNCEMENT!
4.5 Resubbed, caught up on story and ready to tackle SHADOWBRINGERS! YES!
5.0 Super happy had a great time with story, and was very excited to get back into savage raiding, etc. After first tier of savage...same thing happened. Started to realize that after the first clear of savage, there's generally no point. The gear would be outdated in a few months anyway so desire to play dropped dramatically after initial clear. Unsubbed...until... ENDWALKER ANNOUNCEMENT!
6.05 ...and I am back to being just horribly unmotivated. Only this time, I don't even really want to do savage at all even to just get the clear. I wish just for SOME SORT of permeant horizontal progression system that does not become outdated. Something...anything. It doesn't have to be game breaking. Maybe every billion exp you can add one point to a stat permanently. Something...Anything. I really want to play but I need to know that my time is worth it.

Anyway...that's my story. Am I the only one?

The pattern became evident after Heavensward came out. They were building a standard when they abandoned 1.0, and that standard/baseline is A Realm Reborn!

[Sauteed]

I don't savage raid, I don't like gear treadmill gameplay, and don't like the simplicity of the dungeon gameplay mechanics (i.e. hit aoe buttons wee).

The things I enjoy of the game are glam, housing, music, and general freedom to pick and choose what you would like to do with your time. I hate raiding in general, but I can instead choose to log in, where an apron and host an rp event at my apartment turned beer garden and be annoyed with someone using a bot to play bard tunes for them in the corner or whatever. And this game does that better than anything else out there.

I play alts when I get bored, because I like to deco a lot, so I get an apartment with them, deco it, and farm maps to share with fc members or friends and just enjoy the few things I DO like about the game, and compared to the other crap on the mmo market space, I feel like I'm getting enjoyments vs. $ in spades. When that feeling fades, I take a break. I think that gear treadmill mentality is an illness, and the cure is just find some other element of the game to enjoy. I don't into gatcha games either, I tried PSO2, the gameplay is ok, but without dropping a lot of $ monthly, you're not getting access to the deco system, have worse inventory management issues there than here, and just highly unenjoyable crafting system compared to what we get here in XIV.

The cycle I tend to find the most annoying is seeing the rapid increase of "tools" and lying associated with tools and what they do.. then someone taking a comment out of context made by someone as a complete and total justification and vindication to continue using clearly illegal 3rd party programs... and "you're stupid stfu" if you can't accept the explanation. Seeing that spill into the forums also, is quite comical tho.

-- I also not liking that they just remove skills or whatever else that change gameplay a lot, as opposed to changing the other aspects of the game to suit. 1 example being removal of "stance dancing", another aspect of combat being directionals, homogenization of all "roles" into very samey experiences so 1 of each and you're golden. Just very boring on the overall. Part of why I only do things with friends or people that are fun to be around is there's no fun in it for me to just log in, do a roulette with people that can't be bothered to say hi in a dungeon or just say edgelord crap the whole time is that it's just boring af really.

[linayar]

My pattern:

Played Heavensward since 2017 and enjoyed it until the end.
Played Stormblood since early access and enjoyed it until the end.
Played Shadowbringers since early access until 2020 and took a break for a few months for personal reasons and then returned and enjoyed it until the end.
Played Endwalker since early access and enjoyed it up to now.

Everyone can have different patterns. However it goes for you, just have fun.

[TaleraRistain]

No, not really. I just don't play that night if I don't feel like it. I played a game where my game time was never my own and that's not what I'm interested in anymore. I appreciate that we all get normalized regularly on gear, because I've also played other MMOs where the gear gap between solo/casual/whatever and raider/hardcore/whatever was allowed to get far too large and the more casual content was affected because the other half didn't find it challenging enough for them any longer.

[Garnix]

I think your pattern is quite a healthy pattern to have. You should feel satisfied about it to be honest.

[Elleia]

Normally this is what I do. I was playing all the time through ARR/HW/SB. I was really into raiding and ran 3x per week for most of the tiers. When I wasn't raiding I was leveling alt jobs, mount farming, etc..just on the game pretty much all day. Even attempted UWU for a while until the group burnt out.

Shortly after that I got a job, and I have a really weird schedule that if difficult to work around (nights, 12 hr shifts Wed-Fri & EO Sat) so a static is really off the table. I played ShB very casually for a change and took long breaks, came back every few patches when I wasn't really playing other games. It's fine. I don't feel like I missed out on anything. Well, maybe a handle of Eden pieces for glam, but maybe I'll get them someday. Same with some of the mounts.

I did clear p1s today and I'll work through the others when I feel like it and have the time, but I don't really care if I finish the tier or anything.

[Larirawiel]

I guess, i will have a similar pattern. I have started playing with ShB but then i unsubbed because the game has become boring to me and a Classic version from another game was announced. And now i am bored again. I do level some alts and i also do much clubbing. Other activities are not very exciting for me. I do not care about savage raids, collecting mounts, collecting glams etc.


Cheers

[Illmaeran]

The homecoming effect is strong with this game. You're not unusual and there's nothing wrong with it. Play when you want, and come back when you want. Keep up with the patch trailers, though!

I like how you said that, The Homecoming Effect. It's so true!

I agree with the rest too; you're probably in the majority of players who come in for the story expansions, play a little bit of something else, and then go do other things for a while. There's not one thing wrong with this pattern; it's a hobby activity after all and hobbies are meant to be enjoyed. If you're not enjoying it, change how you do it until you do enjoy it or take a break to refresh.



My XIV journey has included extended breaks for various reasons. While I do regret not maintaining my sub to do things like seasonal events, I don't regret taking breaks when necessary. I recently realized that my need for breaks outside of RL circumstances, have been due to me taking the game more seriously than I should have and treating it like a To Do List of things to check off rather than a toy box full of things to play with for a little while when I feel like it. Now that I've started taking the Toy Box approach I'm finding myself enjoying the game a lot more than I used to, which is saying something! I recently decided I want more emotes and have started farming Diadem and doing Ishgard Restoration, something I've barely touched in the past. Once I've got everything I want I'll probably go back to doing Beast Tribes until I've had enough and move on to something else.

I also did something I thought I'd never do; started an alt. When EW got that two week delay and I'd taken a few days off work since it was Thanksgiving here in the US, I decided to see what it was like to go through ARR on a fresh character seven years after starting the game. It was a fun experience and I look forward to seeing HW again. I won't deny it, having a drop-dead gorgeous Femroe has got me spending quite a bit of time gathering/making glamours for my new dress-up doll. <3

Giving myself permission to take breaks or cut back my play time to prioritize other things has improved my gameplay experience significantly. It's only a couple months into my return after a post-5.0 break so we'll see how well it works out, but so far I'm not feeling the urge to put them game down for the next year or until the next content patch I look forward to. I'm hoping this leads to continued activity throughout the entire expansion this time. We'll see how it goes.

[Snorky]

I think it's normal for MMO players to absolutely quit for years and come back. I don't have a predictable cycle myself, sometimes I just quit playing for a few years. Then one day I will be bored and resub and I start playing again. Life catches up to you and time becomes something that needs to be managed more carefully. I think you are normal.

[Sacred-Oblivion]

Just stop doing savage raids. They're too much work for a game and are completely unnecessary. The game is quite enjoyable when you don't treat it like a job and plan your life around it.