Why do long time players play the game so differently?

[Kes13a]

There have been quiet a few, unironically.

There was the 2012 to 2014 era for Mists of Pandaria which, between pandas as a playable race and the long content drought at the end of the last patch which lasted 14 months, created a slow loss of players but we are talking going from like 8 million to 6.4 million players.

Then there was the 2014 to 2016 era one known was Warlords of Draenor, which the only things you could really praise was the dungeons and raiding experience, everything else was barebones. The playerbase briefly shot up from 6.4 million to 10 million players and then the following month lost about as many players, then kept sinking down till it went below 5 million in which Blizzard stopped posting the sub count. Take with a grain of salt from mmo-population, but it dipped well below 1 million. So fastforward for WoW, with Shadowlands, a similar trend happened based on its peaks and valleys and ravines for player count, but it also featured a long content drought from its 9.0 to its 9.1 patch.

fair enough, but they are trying to come across as a "new" player that came with the wave last year...

which zero facts back up. so, basically, just a displaced troll if anything

[TaleraRistain]

If those are the things you like, more power to you. Not everyone likes those things. Some of us are older and have done that drill decades ago other in other MMOs. It really just comes down to people have different interests and different measures of happiness and satisfaction. It would get boring if we all cared about the same things.

[Guilty_Mithra]

tl;dr I have no idea what OP is even talking about, endgame is fun for some but totally not for others and that's okay.

I honestly don't comprehend what OP is even talking about. "Veteran players" are as varied and disparate in their interests and goals as anyone else. What are they even on about? What kind of evidence do they have to make all of these bold and - as far as I'm concerned totally unfounded - negative statements. Seems like they're going off on some kind of unhinged tangent based on nothing.

Is this just some kind of weird troll? I guess?

Also, just for the record, most players don't care about Ex or Savage, or perfecting their rotation. I enjoy some Ex now and again, but out of all the people I know, maaaaaybe 5% of them actively care about anything that's not done through the duty finder. The vast majority of players just want to log on, do some roulettes, maybe craft or gather a little, seek out new glams, maybe rp or just chat it up with people, and that's about it.

Most players in MMOs are ultra casual, and always have been, and that's absolutely fine. No idea why OP thinks that's a sign of being "burnt out". And hell I even know people who are hardcore when it comes to fighting games or FPS or mobas or something, but they couldn't care less about MMO endgame. This is a genre where a lot of people come to chill, and simply don't enjoy the DDR rotation style of gameplay that is MMO endgame these days. I still think some of it's pretty fun. Emerald Ex remains one of my favorite bosses ever. But I sure as heck understand if people don't want to deal with the toxicity that is Party Finder.

Same reason there's a whole crapton of people who exclusively play mobas vs bots. They don't want to deal with people who blame everyone else for their own mistakes, or people who are just flat out mean instead of being constructive. And I absolutely, completely understand that. I mean for that matter, that's how I feel sometimes. If I'm already stressed out at work or with something else, why would I want to deal with jerks in the video game I play to chill out? I mean some people destress by stressing out in a game, but that's not everyone.

[Chie_M]

Only half?

Well, sure. Their female characters usually over-use kaomoji sparkles.

[SeiyaSoiya]

If those are the things you like, more power to you. Not everyone likes those things. Some of us are older and have done that drill decades ago other in other MMOs. It really just comes down to people have different interests and different measures of happiness and satisfaction. It would get boring if we all cared about the same things.

okay so I'm seeing this pattern being repeated across this thread
basically people who have "already done it", i.e. have already parsed and got all hot and bothered about it, don't seem to want to do that endlessly for every single patch, every new savage tier, every new expansion
which begs the question: does parsing really matter when you have to do it all over again every 6 months to 2 years?
it feels like some endless carrot chasing that doesn't result in any long term reward or achievement, and more of a thing that you do when you're new and have something to prove.

[MistakeNot]

2016 is not old, it's already way too late to have enjoyed the game at its prime (HW DRK)

Yes, it is old compared to the age of the game. ARR was launched in 2013. It is now 2022.
If you started playing in 2016 you have been around for two-thirds of the game's lifetime. That counts as a veteran player by most reasonable definitions.

[MistakeNot]

okay so I'm seeing this pattern being repeated across this thread
basically people who have "already done it", i.e. have already parsed and got all hot and bothered about it, don't seem to want to do that endlessly for every single patch, every new savage tier, every new expansion
which begs the question: does parsing really matter when you have to do it all over again every 6 months to 2 years?
it feels like some endless carrot chasing that doesn't result in any long term reward or achievement, and more of a thing that you do when you're new and have something to prove.

Parsing matters if you want to optimize your gear and play as much as possible.
If you are not interested in maxing your dps, but are satisfied with clearing the content you run with a comfortable margin - then you can safely ignore parsing and everything related to it.

If parsing was important one would think the developers would have included it in the game. They didn't. On the contrary, parsers are technically not allowed to be used (though the devs turn a blind eye to those who use parsers for purely personal measurement)

[Hysterior]

Why do Miqote players play the game so differently?

[alex4815162342]

In short, the question is : why some people are different ?

[Loonies]

It is a big plus point in FF14 that there is no rule how to play the game. There is no raid or die, there is no login every day or if not you will stay behind. You like another job (Class), just do it. Your only into crafting, go ahead, no need for running dungeons.
I am not so long playing FF14, but so far what i have seen we have plenty of different play styles in the game and that s perfect as it is.