Things are getting worse.

[Lihtleita]

all of the things you've listed are better now than they have ever been.

[Theox]

I'm convinced that there are people on this forum who, even when they wake up in the middle of the night and see a burglar aiming a gun at them, would say "lol it's not the end of the world guess I'll go to sleep now!"

[Payadopa]

Just seems like everything is falling apart.

Housing.
PVP.
Class design.
Cosmetics/Customizations.

There is a lot good in this game. But the scales are tipping. Hope they get their shit together.

Job design has been bad since SB.
And PvP is fun for the first time since the game's launch.

[Visanis]

HW PVP was best PVP.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

Just seems like everything is falling apart.

Housing.
PVP.
Class design.
Cosmetics/Customizations.

There is a lot good in this game. But the scales are tipping. Hope they get their shit together.

So I went away from the forums for a month or so, it was a good choice.

I come here, and I see posts like this, and it feels like I am not even playing the same game, when comparing the general sentiment and vibe I get from people actually playing the game.

Housing - Never been better. Will probably never be perfect or exactly what everyone wants but more people have housing than at any point in the game history due to the addition of Empyreum. Of course no one likes losing the housing lottery, but most people I see do seem to think it is the "least bad option" right now. Maybe island will help?

PvP - Never been better. I see almost universal praise for recent changes and additions like Crystaline Conflict. Is CC perfect? Of course not but I know many newer and long term players that love it. PvP is side content, and has there ever been an expansion where they focused more on it? It's never going to be like WoW arena, folks, and I don't think most people in game would really want that.

Class design - Here comes #3. where it seems like almost all the complaints I hear are exclusively on these forums. Like the rage about that SAM ability they removed, every single time I heard it mentioned in game or in a Discord with someone, it was pretty much universally agreed as either a neutral or positive change.

Cosmetics/Customizations - Can you elaborate? Coming from WoW about a year ago, this game has amaaaaaaazing cosmetics and customizations. The system itself (glamour dresser) is awful, but it's really not that big of a deal when this game allows you to look so amazing.

I see complaints about bots, and yes bots are bad, but at least on my server I dont think I have ever seen one or heard anyone complain or mention them or know to even look for them. Most players probably dont know the bots exist. What would a bot even do in this game?

[HalinFluffyBuns]

the only thing getting worse is my gpu trying to run limsa during the day

[kaynide]

Guys, OP has a history of trying to stir up emotions/start arguments.

Their last one was a complaint about the ToS which could be summed up as "They simply did not read the ToS".

Try not to take it too seriously, and if you have a strong urge to argue with anyone with strong opinions that are different from yours, that was probably what the OP was aiming for.

Bottom line on all of what OP is talking about is subjective. Some people like easier/more approachable, some people like more crunch/meta involved. For better or for worse, the game is leaning more and more "easy".

[Xatsh]

With housing it has always been bad. I think this comes from the fact originally it was designed for ONLY free companies to be able to purchase them. They were a perk for being in a guild, at the start it was a major thing for guilds to get. When they expanded this to individuals to be able to buy houses combined with increased player base a non-instanced housing system simply is not doable unless they literally add around 10xs the wards they have currently.

PvP. This is not a pvp game and it has always been an after thought. Yea it has always been bad but it was never a focus of FFXIV in any way. Sucked on day 1, still extremely subpar now. It is just a side activity in FFXIV like Chocobo Racing is more or less..

Class design I agree is worse. Especially healers. But this is core game design and philosophy. You CANNOT have near perfect balance, forced lowman content (aka 8 man instanced raids), and 100% 1 shot based scripted fights and have job uniqueness. All healers must be equal, all tanks must be equal, all melee must be equal, all mages must be equal, all physical range must be equal. Or you risk running into issue where certain groups cannot clear content with any form of effectiveness if they have the wrong setup. I honestly believe there is no in-between here you have balanced and homogeneous jobs or uniqueness and specialization.

Cosmetics: Yea I feel armor pieces and design has started to slack. We have a lot more recolored, minor modified pieces now then we use to. This is the one thing I agree with. Everything is a robe of some kind... usually very close to an existing piece atm.

But to be honest the game is not that much worse and the good things more then cover the things that got slightly worse over time. Being here from Alpha Testing I can say the game has not changed that much from ARR to now. Things keep getting dumbed down slightly and the focus is shifting more away from what is considered a generally considered a "MMORPG" game towards more a solo/co-op style hub game.... but I blame the community mainly for this. It is what the majority enjoy and it brings in the most players. So is it bad? depends on your mindset. Can't blame a company chasing the biggest profits and trying to make the majority happy.

[Xaruko_Nexume]

I'm convinced that there are people on this forum who, even when they wake up in the middle of the night and see a burglar aiming a gun at them, would say "lol it's not the end of the world guess I'll go to sleep now!"

and I am convinced there are people on this forum, who could wake up and have a one on one meeting with Yoshi P personally asks them every single change they would want in the game, implement those changes the same day, and that person would still complain that the game was falling apart, dead, dying etc.

[Arkfrost]

and I am convinced there are people on this forum, who could wake up and have a one on one meeting with Yoshi P personally asks them every single change they would want in the game, implement those changes the same day, and that person would still complain that the game was falling apart, dead, dying etc.

Precisely this would happen, and the reason why the game would be falling apart is because all those things that person suggested are hated by 99% of the community.