As a player since 2013 day 1 of this game’s release I don’t think I’ve ever seen this game’s community in such a widespread state of disarray. With tomorrow’s live letter looming on the horizon, this is what I’m seeing:

-Samurai players are angry that Kaiten, an ability core to their class fantasy and gameplay loop was removed with no suitable replacement.

-Dragoon players are terrified that something similar will befall their job.

-Astrologian players are aware that some buttons need consolidating but are afraid that the wrong ones will be taken away and the job reduced further to the state of the other healers that they were driven away from.

-Disdain and disregard for healer gameplay, with previous healer testers apparently having been removed from the role due to becoming too good at it – coupled with the statement that upset healers should consider playing Ultimate.

-A three-way civil war between Summoner players that is unlikely to ever be resolved until the remaining pantheon and associated abilities are added along with a Necromancer/Time Mage job that encapsulates whatever could be salvaged of the previous iteration.

-The perpetual crisis revolving around Dark Knight.

-A severe and longstanding lack of midcore battle content to keep player interest.

-Concern that the initial step of the relic will be an overly simplified quest similar to Shadowbringers until the exploratory zone itself is released.

-Concern that Criterion dungeons will not offer the degree of challenging small group content expected of them.

-The apparent abandonment of Blue Mage, or pushing it down so far on the list of priorities that there is no definite timeline on its updates any longer.

-Mismanaged community expectations regarding Island Sanctuary, with widespread disappointment imminent from people who were led to believe it was the equivalent of instanced housing.

-The complete stagnation of the housing lottery on various servers, with people unwilling to move to new empty servers or making shell FCs to game and get ahead of the unlocking FC only wards to private buyers (with FC only wards themselves being an out-of-touch idea considering the overwhelming greater demand for private housing.)

-Various story concerns regarding the Endwalker MSQ and the future direction the plot will take, with fan expectations of a Heavensward style and scope expansion seemingly dashed with the Void being pushed instead of Meracydia or Ilsabard.

-The utter catastrophe regarding Hrothgar customization, which demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of player expectations of what they want to be able to do with their characters’ hairstyles and the ability to equip hats.

-The cessation of new hairstyles being added in order to catch up on the hairstyles for the limited races, aside from Online Store purchased ones.


How in the world did we end up like this?