FF14 has a quantity problem

[Theox]

I mean, I do think the EW MSQ quality is astoundingly high. But the fact that they decided to push it back two weeks to absolutely polish the MSQ (which could also just be a lie to buy them time to figure out server infrastructure) speaks volumes of their overzealous pursuit of perfection to the detriment of efficiency.

This is not a single player game though. I do get that it's story-driven, but money and time spent on unique animation for one cut-scene in the game could be used elsewhere. I much rather prefer your regular nods in cutscenes if it means we're actually getting some meaningful quality gameplay.

[Skiros]

This is not a single player game though. I do get that it's story-driven, but money and time spent on unique animation for one cut-scene in the game could be used elsewhere. I much rather prefer your regular nods in cutscenes if it means we're actually getting some meaningful quality gameplay.

I definitely agree. The budget to create stuff like custom animations for eating hamburgers could have been spent elsewhere.

[Waterscape]

I'm sorry but the game doesn't have enough content overall and that is just a fact ...idk why people are defending this company so much

Sure if you are a new player you have a tone of content to do but for a regular player who have been playing this game for years now its misery.

[Yeol]

I don't know about that. There are a lot of things to do, you're just not interested in doing them.

I'm working on getting the Big Fish title during the days I'm not raiding or gathering/crafting.

[TaleraRistain]

Sure if you are a new player you have a tone of content to do but for a regular player who have been playing this game for years now its misery.

Only if you let it be. I'm going into my 8th year and I'm not miserable at all.

[Miiu]

Been playing since ff14 1.0 (beta) and I still enjoy my time with FF14. Sure I am not subbed 100% of the time and have phases where I concentrate more on my job or other games. But that is the majority of players.
The people who play 1 game religiously do all the content they can in the shortest amount of time is a very minor part of each mmo community. And while it sucks for that part of the community it is definitely not the focus when it comes to production planning.
As someone who works in game dev myself I can't tell you how happy I am about the FF14 team's approach to development. It's a quick enough pace to keep things fresh but not quick enough all the content they introduce feels rushed an unfinished.
Obviously that doesn't mean that I agree with all the design decisions but that is okay.

[Thoosa]

Ff14 is a very front-loaded game, it feels like there’s a tonne to do (and there is) but by the time you reach max level on all jobs you find there is a very small endgame and that it’s usually just about grinding for glamor, endlessly crafting to make Gil on the MB (which has no real in game value), rp and housing - and it’s not really about character progression and power gain.

At this point I would say it doesn’t really have a defined focus - many mmos focus on endgame power gain and grind, ff14 has several things - how interesting it is depends on your definition of content.

You do see a lot of ebb and flow in the signed on population, like shortly after launch of an expac, FCs have many people playing, but as time goes on, they get quieter and quieter.

I think personally the game needs more battle content loops with unique rewards and a reason to do them (like a feeling of character progression and noticeable power increase) - luckily I can do M+, but it would be nice to have something similar here…

[Gemina]

I'm sorry but the game doesn't have enough content overall and that is just a fact ...idk why people are defending this company so much

Sure if you are a new player you have a tone of content to do but for a regular player who have been playing this game for years now its misery.

Not having enough content that interests you is not the same as not having enough content. I honestly don't know how someone could possibly do everything this game has to offer, and still have any kind of meaningful life outside the game. This is already the case for people who devote the majority of their time into a smidgen of the game's content, let alone all of it.

If your experience in the game is self-described as a "misery", why are you even still playing it? Contrary to popular belief, masochism isn't a badge of honor. It's a weakness.

[MidnightEquinox]

Misery. Misery. Misery. Amount of content in a game causes you misery.

Surely a person who writes like this is just stating, uhh, facts, yeah.

[Lunalepsy]

I'm tired of the team's unrelenting focus on quality above all else, to the point where so much of the budget is spent on squeezing that last bit of perfection out with diminishing returns. The fact that they promised to invest more into FF14 doesn't excite me at all when I feel that they are just going to pour more and more into the "Final Fantasy" part of the equation rather than the MMO part of the game. Or, even for the latter, more of the budget is going to be spent on making awesome scenes like riding on a whale or flying through Pagl'than, both of which are cool the first time but quickly lose their flavor, rather than actual gameplay.

I hope this game will expand the amount of content that it offers, because ShB felt like it offered almost nothing. Systems like New Game+ are not content, they are systems that recycle existing content. This game's quality is already pretty good and I honestly don't have many complaints with the game. But this game is not something you can even play for more than a week each patch. 6.05 barely lasted a week, for example.

They really should start thinking about quantity, and not just quality. I completely disagree with their blind focus on quality above all else. It takes more and more budget to increase quality past a certain point that could be way better utilized for quantity.

Yeah... this game is a fanservice simulator already!