Things you want SE to keep doing

[Boffy]

I like that they keep old content relevant.
Keep doing that. I still only have MSQ for ARR done and I really like that I can do level 50 content and reliably find people for it.

[TaleraRistain]

I like that they keep old content relevant.
Keep doing that. I still only have MSQ for ARR done and I really like that I can do level 50 content and reliably find people for it.

I really like this, too. I like how veterans aren't encouraged to closet themselves away from new players, but we're all tossed together into the same piles in DF.

[Illmaeran]

Dear CBU3,

Thank you for making the Island Sanctuary, I'm enjoying it and look forward to your additions going forward. If possible, please make some space for people to have gardening plots just like people with houses have. Now that we have individual spaces, everyone should be able to grow their own Thavnarian Onions, Jute, etc.

Thank you for making certain outfits unisex and increasing glamour item storage and plate counts, they're nice QoL improvements. Please do this with all items going forward and increase glamour capacity as you can in the future.

Thank you for working on updating the graphics on the most popular glamour items, I look forward to seeing the new versions. While you're working on that, please consider removing job restrictions for everything except artifact gear. Also, please make all artifact gear storable in the Armoire; even if this means turning them into a Replica version with no stats when put into the Armoire.

Thank you for Tataru's Grand Endeavour, I look forward to seeing new updates as time goes on.

Thank you for disbanding the Scions in an "official capacity", now please start phasing them out of the MSQ. It's time for a new host of secondary characters.

Thank you for the job changes you've made. I've been playing since 2.3 and have never enjoyed them more than I have now.

Thank you for increasing the solo-play capabilities of the game. My wife enjoys the game but wants to avoid the social pressures of multiplayer gaming. I was able to convince her to start playing recently since she can play "alone among many" doing what she wants, when she wants. Please continue working to make the entire MSQ available for solo play.


Thank you for the game itself. I've never enjoyed an MMO more than I have XIV, and enjoy it more than nearly every other game I've ever played.

[Kes13a]

I have to respectfully disagree with the "more solo friendly" direction they are going in.

I enjoy the challenges and the laughs of playing with others. I play mmo's for the interactions, not to be "alone amongst many". I mean I get it. you dont want to feel like you let strangers down and all that, but doesnt seem like there is a lot of growth there. I play with friends, so I suppose its different mindset

[RukoBoshi]

Thank you for the game itself. I've never enjoyed an MMO more than I have XIV, and enjoy it more than nearly every other game I've ever played.

Gonna give them props on that. I haven't been into MMO for a long time, and i only approached this one for the story because i like Final Fantasy.

Thought i would play the story and be done, but this MMO managed to retain my attention as a mostly single player guy.

I like how the approach of the game is story driven RPG first, MMO then.
I also appreciate not having to farm to progress the MSQ, and that i can quit for months without any FOMO in sight.
Being able to log back in, without having to worry about new limiting systems and gated activities is a true blessing.

All in all, i'm really glad that this game is a Final Fantasy first and not a MMO with a FF skin.

As long as they keep staying true to these values, they can have my sub.

[Boblawblah]

Despite not enjoying all of her writing (Stormblood), having just finished the Alchemist 1 - 50 quests recently, please keep letting Natsuko Ishikawa do her thing.

[Carin-Eri]

To be honest, I just want them to continue with their current business model.

Having come to FFXIV from a game with:

- a business model fully committed to FOMO - namely, they create high-pressure events that coerce or funnel players into a specific activity that, in most cases, they hate but feel like they have to put up with in order to get a reward (and then point at the predictably-high engagement numbers as "proof" that players like that activity to justify maintaining said business model).

- Lootboxes, although they justify this aspect of their business model by making it so you buy the means for opening the box from their cash-store rather than the box itself. Box also contains a specific 'currency' of it's own which can be used to buy secondary items (considered by most to be a consolation prize) and which are also used to justify the boxes as 'legally' you're buying the secondary currency.
And needless to say, all the best and most attractive items are put into these boxes as 'grand prizes' - though the odds of winning anything decent are absolutely abysmal.

- a greedy cash store which sells 'bundles' (usually one or two good items and a bunch of fluff to justify the preposterous price tag) of items priced in the region of £250

- Devs who pretty much never engage with the playerbase other than to tell them how insulted they are when said players complain. And one of the higher-up Devs has a habit of blaming players for issues that the studio caused. Also a community manager who, demonstrable through his sloppy work, can't really be bothered (proof-reading blogs is too much effort for this person and who routinely produces copy-pasted, inaccurate, unprofessional nonsense) and is very easily offended.

FFXIV has none of that and I sincerely hope it never does.

[flowerfairy]

PvP rework is fun in concept and I hope they continue supporting it.

Some jobs need reconsideration in their kits, Frontline needs its numbers readjusted, Rival Wings needs its own roulette. I’d also like if CC got more maps that don’t have any weird gimmicks (tornado event… ) and focuses more on its environment structure.

[Illmaeran]

I have to respectfully disagree with the "more solo friendly" direction they are going in.

I enjoy the challenges and the laughs of playing with others. I play mmo's for the interactions, not to be "alone amongst many". I mean I get it. you dont want to feel like you let strangers down and all that, but doesnt seem like there is a lot of growth there. I play with friends, so I suppose its different mindset

Opinions and mindsets are unique to each individual, I respect yours. Personally, I love the multiplayer aspect of the game and started playing it for that reason, among others. This is my wife's first MMO and first fully multiplayer game at all. It seems she's one of the demographic Yoshi-P was talking about when he said many people haven't tried it because it requires multiplayer to complete. I'll be happy because she's happy if the MSQ were able to be done solo. Personally, I wouldn't want anything else to be that way since, like you, I'm here to play with friends and other people.

I'm not sure what you mean by growth though, could you please clarify?

[Packetdancer]

- Lootboxes, although they justify this aspect of their business model by making it so you buy the means for opening the box from their cash-store rather than the box itself. Box also contains a specific 'currency' of it's own which can be used to buy secondary items (considered by most to be a consolation prize) and which are also used to justify the boxes as 'legally' you're buying the secondary currency.
And needless to say, all the best and most attractive items are put into these boxes as 'grand prizes' - though the odds of winning anything decent are absolutely abysmal.

I hate all of the business practices you list, but this one in particular is the fastest way to make me nope out on a game.

When I wandered off from FFXIV for several years, the game I eventually ended up calling home was The Secret World. And yeah, they had loot bags in a cash shop in their original incarnation, though I found it slightly more tolerable than many systems for a couple of reasons. (Mostly the 'party bags', where when you opened one, it gave an item from the loot bag not just to you but to the... 9, I think it was? ...other folks nearest you. It meant people would buy one loot bag each, then go use the theater or get an inn room or whatever, and all open their bag. And sometimes folks would just buy a bag and go to where everyone was idling -- the equivalent of the Limsa aetheryte plaza, basically -- and surprise them by opening it. Free presents!)

But after their reboot into Secret World Legends, they stopped doing that and instead started doing the thing you mentioned: the drops of loot-crates in-world, where you bought the keys to open the crates. And the crates would only drop for X amount of time, so if you wanted anything in the crate you had to grind in-game to get the crate drops before the event ended, then you had to buy the keys to open the crates, and... GNAAARGH. *gnaws on mouse cord*

So despite my love of the game's setting and lore (and grudging tolerance of the pre-reboot combat system; the entire playerbase admitted it was a trash fire, it was just our trash fire), having my inventory constantly get cluttered up with lootboxes I could not actually open and was forced to discard (or else give in and just buy keys to get them all opened) finally drove me away. And back to FFXIV.

I really do appreciate that while this game has a cash shop, you just... buy the thing you want. No gambling, no chance, no 'timed exclusive' stuff to prey on FOMO and get you to open your wallet. Even the timed in-game events aren't super FOMO-y, because with very few exceptions (usually cross-overs or licensed tie-ins, a'la Garo and Yo-Kai Watch), when a seasonal event ends, even if you didn't get the items from that event for the in-game event currency, they'll be available from the cash shop when the event rolls around the following year.

For all that we as a playerbase sometimes like to complain about the prices of stuff in the cash shop, on reflection they're still probably cheaper overall than stuff in the cash shops of games that sell loot boxes; sure, a mount might be $24, but in another game it might've taken you 83 loot boxes to get that mount and cost $200+ or whatever.

This game has startlingly few things to pressure folks into grinding or doing stuff due to FOMO; the majority of required things -- e.g., the MSQ and stuff surrounding it -- are very low-pressure. There's grindy content (relics, Eureka/Bozja, etc.) for folks who want something to do, but no timed "you must engage with this event to the exclusion of ALL ELSE" FOMO schemes; seasonal events are generally ones where you can get the rewards fairly quickly, and even if you miss one, the rewards will be in the cash shop when the event rolls around again next year.

That's breathtakingly rare in modern MMOs, and I think that's something we sometimes forget. I know I've started to take it almost for granted.

(About the only real 'you must stay subscribed' factor I can think of is housing demolition, and I think that's less a "you must stay subscribed" and more an "our housing system is a disaster, we know this, but it's a disaster people want to engage with; if you aren't using that house, someone else may want that plot".)