Why do long time players play the game so differently?

[Vahlnir]

Why are we still feeding the various obvious troll?

Yeah. When they said they added additional hot takes as a "courtesy" that was all I needed to see. lol

[SilverObi]

First you're someone who's been playing since 2014 and returned from a long break in 2016, then recently returned in 2021, now you're a newish player. Something isn't passing the smell test here.

[Burmecia]

1. i'm console peasant.
sure, i know passable version of the rotation for the job i raid with. i kinda make it my mission to learn this much at least in every new xpack.
but i never had interest in beginning to file all the tiny rough spots off my gameplay. it's literally whatever for me.
the fact that FIFA World Cup exists doesn't stop me from kicking ball in my local park and enjoying it. read: the fact that we have world racers for savage and ultimate doesn't stop me from trying savage and ultimate with my friends and liking it.
2. atm making gil is probs my fav thing to do in game and always has been in my top 3 things to do. I am very happy with the houses I have, and with my general capacity to spoil my friends. active gil making, passive gil making, I take my profits from both as I can.
3. after you farm your tomes and current raids for the week, what else can you do to increase your ilvl before next week???
better ilvl is the best friend of softcore raider anyway.
farming current ex trials for mounts is the most brains destroying thing for me. did it through better part of SB and for the whole ShB. so taking break myself now, thanks - by enjoying "outdated things".

FF14 since 3.0, semi-veteran at least.

[Shuuli]

there are people who only play mahjong in this game... I seen a vid a bout a guy who just leveled his char, entered the saucer, and never came out xD but has the mahjong achievement. If thats what they wanna do let them.

[hagare]

there are people who only play mahjong in this game... I seen a vid a bout a guy who just leveled his char, entered the saucer, and never came out xD but has the mahjong achievement. If thats what they wanna do let them.

There's Mahjong in FF14 now!?
I really gotta pay golden saucer a visit

[Vesuvias]

I'll bite on this one, I've been playing the game for quite some time. Quit several times, burned out several times. At this point in my XIV "career" if we wanna call it that, I play to enjoy myself and run with some friends when it suits. I no longer bother with raiding as it just has grown old and results in more drama than I care to deal with. They have also taken many of the classes that I have played since HW/ARR (DRK, BLM, and SCH) are no longer the classes I played back when I really was really deep in the raid scene and no im mostly a filthy casual at this point lol.

[Kewitt]

Been here since 1.0 beta.
As a dancer I'm often out pacing other dps.
I know when I'm not playing at my skill level. But my skill I got so much going on I just can't be bothered to improve.
I'm very happy when I see other dancer out dps me. But that is 1 in 10
I also play warrior. I always have my stance on and I know how to use shirk. When the other take wants to main tank or forgets to stance up.
I rarely if ever see dps use lowblow which is supper useful.

Also at 80% effort I can clear all but ultimate content.

[Merrigan]

To respond in a serious manner to a post that is not:

1. Because improving on an MMO... Well, it can seem very redundant. For a result that doesn't bring much. Yes, you will have cleaned the savage / mythical level; you have the honor of starting the BIS race again. Again.

I like to do HL (or try to) from time to time, but I for one never understood people who repeated this race In ALL expansions.

2. Optimization in video games is a very contemporary disease. For the record, I recently started KOTOR 2. I started the games very late, so I have a lot of catching up to do. And my first questions were "how do I optimize the character?" / "what am I missing if I play RP here and don't prioritize influence?"

Questions that I was answered with "but damn it, just have fun. We weren't trying to make the perfect run before."

The two (FFXIV, an MMO; KOTOR, an rpg) are very different games. But I think the desire to optimize, to look for THE right build is something that is becoming more and more common. Even in games that don't call for this kind of gameplay at all (TW3).

Maybe that's another possible explanation, and that our habits have drastically evolved in this respect, while others remained in a pure leisure perspective.

[elioaiko]

Simply put, I play to raid, clear, and gear up.

I like the satisfaction of clearing hard content but over time, you just become less invested because of a 2 reasons.

Burnout and predictablity.

Burnout. Long time players are used to lulls and not having content. Casual players play for social aspect, others want to parse and leaderboard chase, RP, and housing. Typically, most long time players know what to expect and try not to push themselves to doing content so much after release because we'll, that's all they'll have for awhile. I found myself burning out, and picking up another game while raid logging. It's the intention of the devs, they don't want an endless grind and expect players to play other games while they work on the next cycle of content.

Predictablity. The game's content cycle is so predictable, people tend to gloss over them or expect them while looking for crumbs of new content additions. Players get tired of the same routine with the same issues of content never lasting long enough than they can make it.

And lastly, my personal take. For newer players, it's exciting once you get the ball rolling to the endgame and learning how to raid and such. I remember finally pushing myself to the finish of SB when it was relevant. It was a whole new world. I logged on everyday, with the vast content the game has. I wanted to parse and improving my skills to be up there with the pros.

Over time, with those two reasons, you'll just come to the conclusion that everything is always going to be rinse and repeat. I stopped caring about hardcore improving because it's time-consuming. I learn the current xpac rotation and go into raids with the mindset of doing my best but not stressing over perfection. Because at the end of the day, I'm so used to the routine, I can pick it back up with half the effort.

Short answer: Enjoy the game if you're new. But it's you're a veteran, just take breaks. The game will be there and as long as you finish the what you wanted to keep up with the patch, play something else–it's better for your sanity in the long run.

[Novae]

Everything in this game is meaningless. Gear, gil, parse... the day you understand it, you just do the content a few times, collect new glams, level remaining jobs, then unsub until the next patch.
Hopefully, the next pvp update will shake the "meta".