Why do long time players play the game so differently?

[Dzian]

I started playing this game recently, and I noticed that there is a massive difference in the way people who, like me, started playing after the wow death craze, and the people who have been playing since Heavensward, ARR or even have legacy accounts.

1. They don't seem to care about actively improving their gameplay: A few veteran players I know have been parsing and using ACT since 2015 (when it was first released for FFXIV), and they don't seem to have the same drive I and others like me have to continuously improve my rotation and gameplay and to become more skilled. Their job's kit changed drastically since the days they first raided, but they don't make an effort to learn the kit to its fullest, and sure as hell don't care about their parse.

Some of them are parsing green and blue and they only do the savage tier to get BiS and be done with it, even though checking their old logs they had high purples and many of them oranges.

Personally (and a pretty generalized concensus from a good number of friends who currently or used to play) "What's the point??"

When the developers don't take the game seriously and continuously dumb everything the "F" down to oblivion, why should players take the game seriously? Nothing matters anyways, which is why for more years than I can remember the common opinion is that "Glamour is THE only endgame!"..

Why clear a raid teir for the very best super duper gear when the moment a new tier drops you can EASILY craft or just buy gear thats better than all the Super Duper gear rewards you just got from the last tier??
Why even bother with BIS or anything, you can generally ignore EVERY stat that isnt I-level. Just equip the one that has the highest I-Level and you win..

This affects all content... Everything in the game is ultimately just trash.... Incredibly short lived.. Why chase an i700 weapon when next week you'll just get an i710 one with a fraction of the effort.... Certainly not the stats cos they're all dull and boring as stated above.. If its not I-level it doesnt matter....

Also there's just difficulty in general, or lack there of. Most of the time if anyone complains something is too hard it's not because its hard but simply the game does a crap job at explaining what they're supposed to do..

Hardest thing I did in endwalker for example level 90 tank quest.... interuupt that attack,, bam "Shield Bash!" nope, didnt work.. ok cover Kan-E nope, divine viel nope,,, passage of arms nope,,, "well it says interupt so Shield Bash should effin work!! stuns are interupts!!" turns out you need this role skill called interject that most tanks have never used and completely forgotten even existed since the days of coil.. a blms sleep spell has seen more life than interject... had the game explained that better that quest would have been much less of a pain...

Then there's jobs... they're all so homogenized and dumbed "TF" down that they're innevitably unrewarding and boring to play... they're all the same.. pld war gnb drk,,, no real difference all do the same all play the same all basically use the same cool downs at the same times........

healers.... NO COMMENT

DPS.. all the same...

anything a job could do that makes it stand out or feel unique is ultimately useless. blms sleep for example... or ninjas heavy,s binds all useless, all support and utility has become nothing more than things that raise or lower numbers a little bit how dull and uninteresting....

mobs are dull and uninteresting,, hell the generic term trash mob explains how dull they are... bosses too. why does every boss have the exact same defence evasion etc,,, your gust slash hits a level 90 boss for the exact same damage as a level 1 bug outside a starter city.....

Combat is bland and boring everytthing that made it fun gets scrapped hell evens dots are on the verge of extinction.. and generally the bar is set so low it may as well be on the ground.. there are battles in the game you can literally go afk and just leave yourself autoattacking and you will still win...

I could go on for a while but if i had to summarise I'd just say anyone thats played the game long enough basically just knows its a social chat room to interact with friends and very little more... Anyone newer or more recent is still taken in by that new car smell.... just a matter of time before it fades and the truth becomes clear.

This is why the vast majority of newer players never stick around,, because without the social connections to liven the game up its just mundane and dull. which again comes down to the devs dumbing everyrthing down so much that its no longer rewarding to play properly. You can see how much of the playerbase drops the game super quick just looking at how fast the login queues dissappear... one week your stuck in a queue of thousands,, a week later maybe 10... the game bleeds players incredibly quickly because its just mundane and dull..

When the devs don't care, Why should players?

I said years agio only thing that keeps me subbed is the circle of friends I have built up. some dating back 20 years at this point...
I've played mobile gamers with more engaging and rewarding gameplay than XIV... and thats just hillarious.