How is anyone fine with the 4-month patch delivery schedule?

[Juun]

Im good, playing Elden Ring right now Im glad the game gives me free time to do other things. Its refreshing to have a developer respecting my time.

[Asrun]

I really don’t understand why are you so understanding and forgiving towards the devs.
Sure they need time to breathe, but they are still paid for their work and more people can be hired to keep things going on.

Maybe 2 weeks it’s not a big deal in general, but still I see them talking about releasing the very same contents, or less of it, slower while we continue to have to pay a subscription.
No, I don't think that "letting us unsubscribe" is equal to respecting our time. Give me fine contents on a decent schedule instead, and let me decide if am willing to pay the subscription or drop it to play something else instead.

I also play to other MMO and online games and FFXIV it’s the only one requiring me to pay a monthly subscription and, sadly, it is one the games I play that receive less frequent and less engaging updates.

Do we really wanna talk about the contents that they are going to delivering to us, now at new and slower rate?

Dungeons over the time have become all the same to the point I can’t distinguish them. They are fancy corridors to run forward to meet 3-4 packs of monsters followed by a boss, then repeat till the end.
Unpopular opinion: I much preferred 2.0 dungeons. They had exploration, interactions, puzzles and bosses that require other than dps and dodging aoes.

The same can be said regarding raids. I can’t even tell the difference between raids and trials anymore. It’s all fighting a boss in an arena, just dodging fancy and fancier aoes.

What about the 24man Alliance raids? They are almost pointless nowadays. The mechanics that require us to split in 3 parties (or actually doing something other than killing monsters) are so rare and often meaningless. Every time I run Rabanastre sewer section i think: was all time and effort spent for making this magnificent area just for us to slip down in 3 parties without having to do anything, not even a single click? Where is the gameplay?

Now they are giving us trusts for old dungeons, a nice add, but they are doing this just to have a new selling point to attract new customers. That content is not for us already paying warriors of light/darkness.

Of course they are also giving us new side quests, pvp, relic weapons, beast tribes, trials, ultimate and all of these will be just a small variation of the same old contents that we already had before. Maybe just criterion dungeons will be something new, I hope.

In the last 2 years they made a lot of money with FF14 they could have used that money for turning back to a 3 months patch schedule, like it was during a realm reborn.
Instead they are planning a much needed graphical update, that is coming late for sure (I am looking to you, low resolution textures). And this update seems tailored to be not really substantial, it will be the more convenient for them to make.

Meanwhile, they are slowly delivering us copycats contents because why not?
The community is so kind, forgiving and most of all willing to pay for toned down content delivered in a 4 month patch delivery schedule…

[Skiros]

In the last 2 years they made a lot of money with FF14 they could have used that money for turning back to a 3 months patch schedule, like it was during a realm reborn.
Instead they are planning a graphical update, that is coming late for sure (I am looking to you, low resolution textures). And this update seems tailored to be not really substantial, it will be the more convenient for them to make.

Meanwhile, they are slowly delivering us copycats contents because why not?
The community is so kind, forgiving and most of all willing to pay for toned down content delivered in a 4 month patch delivery schedule…

100% agreed!

[DPZ2]

Maybe 2 weeks it’s not a big deal in general, but still I see them talking about releasing the very same contents, or less of it, slower while we continue to have to pay a subscription.
No, I don't think that "letting us unsubscribe" is equal to respecting our time. Give me fine contents on a decent schedule instead, and let me decide if am willing to pay the subscription or drop it to play something else instead.

If you are so upset about the schedule and content of this game, why do you still subscribe?

I find the attitude "give me fine contents on a decent schedule instead..." puzzling. I've let my subscription to any number of MMOs lapse for lack of content I enjoy. For me, this game isn't one of those. Since one cannot post on the forums without an active game account, there must be something you get out of this game that makes it worth the subscription.

Perhaps I've been playing MMOs longer than the naysayers here? There were no free-to-play MMOs back when I started shared world gaming in the mid-80s, nor in the 90s, nor in the 20-oughts. (Well, there might have been a few in the 20-oughts, but I don't remember any of their names). You either enjoyed the game for what it was, or you moved on.

There is now an entire sub-genre of MMOs that don't require a subscription. And I find a lot of people willingly play those games. I try those out now and then, and generally don't stick with them because almost all of them have some part of their PvE environment tied up in PvP. (All too well do I remember that level 70 Horde player who visited Darkshore daily back in 2008, decimating every NPC ... it was not the highlight of my day.)

Their story lines are brand new. Their combat system is most often action-based, and the majority of them started their life on the Western Pacific Rim. No subscription required, but also no 'glamour' and very little 'RP'. Linear story line, linear maps, gear progression not necessarily tied to group content. Plenty of 'minimal' rewards simply for logging in each day.

Is this the content you think we're missing out on?

[Asrun]

If you are so upset about the schedule and content of this game, why do you still subscribe?

I find the attitude "give me fine contents on a decent schedule instead..." puzzling. I've let my subscription to any number of MMOs lapse for lacking of content I enjoy. For me, this game isn't one of those. Since one cannot post on the forums without an active game account, there must be something you get out of this game that makes it worth the subscription.

No need to be puzzled. I still have a running subscription and I am waiting for it to expires.
You said you know the feeling, although you don’t feel the same about FFXIV. That’s good for you.
Of course I liked the game and played it a lot, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.

To be honest I waited the recent Live Letters and announcements with high hopes. I am a demanding kind of person and I may be naive too.
With the main quest ending in 6.0 and the closing of an era of the game I was hoping that the devs would have taken the chance to shake things up.
I was hoping for them to step up from the tomestones and roulettes system, maybe just a little, to offer something new, more durable and engaging. I wanted them to address the problems that recent contents had and that I already explained in my previous post. This is the kind of quality content I think we're missing out on.

Instead they “reassured” us they they are not going to change anything (not even what they really should have already as a flawed housing system, one that live up on glitches, or the half-backed armoire/glamour dresser that is going to receive more plates instead of a much needed rework).
And when Director Yoshida shamelessly told us that they can’t keep up delivering the very same contents at the same schedule as before (while we are still required to continue to pay the same subscription if we want to play) and so they need to add 2 weeks… I was looking at him with my mouth wide open in shock.
It was quite the opposite of what I was hoping for…

So no, I will not be kind with them, with all the success of the last years to me they have no excuses anymore.
I will not be understanding anymore towards their attitude of updating as little as possible.
And most of all I am not willing to pay anymore for the same contents, or less of it, now to be delivered in a 4 month patch delivery schedule.

[Miiu]

In the last 2 years they made a lot of money with FF14 they could have used that money for turning back to a 3 months patch schedule, like it was during a realm reborn.
Instead they are planning a much needed graphical update, that is coming late for sure (I am looking to you, low resolution textures). And this update seems tailored to be not really substantial, it will be the more convenient for them to make.

Just want to chime in here and say that yes the patch schedule during realm reborn was mostly adherent to 3 month. During heavensward patches were released around every 4 months. So we're already kinda used to that patch schedule anyways.
Additionally if you check the quality of the content that is being added has been steadily rising. And yes I am also including more cinematic camera angles/camera movement/custom cutscene animations in this statement as well.

The only thing that has really changed here is them officially saying: We're moving the official deadline of around 3 months (which was barely kept after heavensward release) to 4 months instead. So basically the same pace patches came out anyways.