Thread: Review of 6.3 Story Content

Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

I didn't really want to get involved in this thread, but I AM going to say this.

I've been playing FFXIV for slightly over a year now. I came here from another MMO, of the F2P variety, that I'd played for over a decade - sadly, said game mutated into a FOMO-fueled, loot-box dependent, mess. It didn't help matters that powercreep ruined the gameplay, and the content drops became more and more infrequent and, last I recall, it was only receiving one or two new episodes (each worth about 30 - 40 minutes play time) roughly every four or five months. The Devs all but admitted that their priority was producing loot boxes and cash-shop bundles (£200) over all else.

My answer to my distaste of that game's business model? I quit playing it.

Do I visit that game's official forum to submit posts expressing my displeasure at what happened to the game? No, I don't. I'll admit, I do sometimes post on that game's Reddit page to antagonize the White Knights who, despite everything, think the game can do no wrong but otherwise? I moved on.
And I can't help but wonder whether the OP should perhaps do the same?

This post is interesting to me, because I also came from a similar game, and before I gave up on it I definitely submitted forum feedback on the direction of the game because I wanted to at least try and get my thoughts out there. Even as the game slipped over a cliff and became a trash pile, the "War" on the forums raged on, with the same 4 or 5 people swearing up and down that the game was fine "in their opinion" and that anyone saying otherwise should just quit the game. We had a thumbs down option there, and I got a lot of them for just criticizing the way the devs did things and warning that if they kept it up, the people who actually played their game would get fed up and leave. In the end, a lot of people quit the game until it finally died. The game was tera, if you're curious. Its entire wikipedia article is in the past tense now, because they pulled the plug on it.

Anyway, when it became clear that the devs weren't even reading the forums, that was when I stopped trying to submit feedback and finally gave up on things. I don't think XIV is in a doom and gloom place at the moment, but when I see things like "item people want being sold in the cash shop during a content lull," or "job homogenization on a massive scale" or "general sense that only the 'home' community is being listened to first and foremost, while other foreign players are listened to second," or "devs stop replying to forum posts," then my red flags start popping up. And those flags are born from years and years of playing now defunct korean mmos that started great, went down this road, and then either shut down or lost so many players that they're irrelevant now. I don't want that to happen to this game, so when I have a concern I'll raise it every time, because I like this game and don't want to see it turn into abandoned trash. That said, I have a hard time believing it matters; I still haven't seen any indication that the devteam reads the english forums. But it's all we have and it's arguably our best shot for submitting feedback. But that, I think, is the difference between aveyond's situation and yours. In your situation, the game was already in a hopeless state. Aveyond and people like him don't see the situation as lost yet, so they continue to submit feedback and return to the game in the hope that things have gotten better.

Broadly speaking now, aveyond threads are always deeply ironic affairs because a lot of the replies to his criticism will accuse him of being stubborn and unwilling to accept other people's subjective opinions. And then in the very same breath they'll tell him to leave the forums forever because his opinions on the game don't line up with theirs. It's stunning. More of you would benefit from rereading your posts before you submit them. Or better yet, don't reread them; it's a lot funnier this way.

Originally Posted by Rithy255

I 100% prefer everything in shadowbringers but I don't think they can always write something as good as that (I know some people will like another FF14 Story expansion story better), I felt a bit underwhelmed by Endwalker, that being said I still somewhat enjoyed Endwalker in general it had really high moments.

With the 6.1-6.3 I've actually been liking it more then the main Endwalker plot (6.0) generally, I feel like it's actually going into a Interesting direction, I personally don't see how it's "going down hill" but others might? I mean we've had A realm reborn and Stormblood which can be considered writing "low points", while I actually think Sormblood was decent people will have differing opinions on what they like, I know a lot of my friends who I've played the game with and talked about the game actually like the recent story.

This is a mmo after all so the story is going to be like a rollercoaster up and down, up and down, then a sudden sharp turn or inverted loop.

Originally Posted by Rithy255

I 100% prefer everything in shadowbringers but I don't think they can always write something as good as that (I know some people will like another FF14 Story expansion story better), I felt a bit underwhelmed by Endwalker, that being said I still somewhat enjoyed Endwalker in general it had really high moments.

With the 6.1-6.3 I've actually been liking it more then the main Endwalker plot (6.0) generally, I feel like it's actually going into a Interesting direction, I personally don't see how it's "going down hill" but others might? I mean we've had A realm reborn and Stormblood which can be considered writing "low points", while I actually think Sormblood was decent people will have differing opinions on what they like, I know a lot of my friends who I've played the game with and talked about the game actually like the recent story.

I'll definitely take Golbez the FFXIV version of the Jailer over Meteion and Hermes any day, at least. No previous expansion story to date has tried and failed to get the point across the way Endwalker did with its botched attempt at philosophical messaging and retroactively damaging the game's foundational lore.

At any rate - I do not believe there is a single EW enjoyer who would really lose out if 7.0 sees us return to the style of Heavensward with a fresh cast that has flaws/growth and yes even death so as to tell a mature enough story without the need for excessive padding with slice of life nonsense and fluff. The Scions had 10 years to make the case for themselves sticking around and although Shb started to make them somewhat tolerable, an entire expansion in EW of stagnant or in some case backwards growth just shows me that they really cannot be salvaged.

Better to have the Ysayles of the game die before they live long enough to become Y'shtolas.

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

I'll definitely take Golbez the FFXIV version of the Jailer over Meteion and Hermes any day, at least. No previous expansion story to date has tried and failed to get the point across the way Endwalker did with its botched attempt at philosophical messaging and retroactively damaging the game's foundational lore.

At any rate - I do not believe there is a single EW enjoyer who would really lose out if 7.0 sees us return to the style of Heavensward with a fresh cast that has flaws/growth and yes even death so as to tell a mature enough story without the need for excessive padding with slice of life nonsense and fluff. The Scions had 10 years to make the case for themselves sticking around and although Shb started to make them somewhat tolerable, an entire expansion in EW of stagnant or in some case backwards growth just shows me that they really cannot be salvaged.

Better to have the Ysayles of the game die before they live long enough to become Y'shtolas.

Did EW fail to get it's messages across or did said messages simply not land with YOU the individual. Cause I can personally say EW hit me on levels no other game has and helped me overcome things going on in my life. Was there some lore changes, sure but thats going to happen to any game which a story so long. Things made years ago are made under a different mindset with a different regard for the future.

Personally with EW going as bad as you so claim, I'd like to see what your perfect script of EW would be. I know one thing you'd have killed off any character you don't like (scions) so that's a bit you can leave out.

Oh yeah I have to ask what's with the character death fetish. You speak of growth n trouble yet the only example given is death. Zero is quite literally what you're asking for in a character but maybe it's because she's not what you'd call a hot woman that she doesn't fit the bill? I remember you saying something like that before. I've seen more growth in game with the Scions than I've ever seen from you here in over a year. You're the same person saying the same things, doing the same things, ignoring the same people.

No previous expansion story to date has tried and failed to get the point across the way Endwalker did with its botched attempt at philosophical messaging and retroactively damaging the game's foundational lore.

In your opinion, which, given past events, amounts to very little.

At any rate - I do not believe there is a single EW enjoyer who would really lose out if 7.0 sees us return to the style of Heavensward with a fresh cast that has flaws/growth and yes even death so as to tell a mature enough story without the need for excessive padding with slice of life nonsense and fluff.

You do not have any idea what i want and dont want, what I like and dont like, so kindly do me the courtesy of not assuming otherwise. DO NOT PRESUME to even try to speak for me..you do NOT.

The Scions had 10 years to make the case for themselves sticking around and although Shb started to make them somewhat tolerable, an entire expansion in EW of stagnant or in some case backwards growth just shows me that they really cannot be salvaged.

Better to have the Ysayles of the game die before they live long enough to become Y'shtolas.

Your opinion has been duly noted, logged and disposed of as is appropriate. I happen to love Yshtola's character. Urianger as well. Thancred, for all his flaws, has grown greatly in the interim.

I also note that you have not ( yet again ), answered my questions posted earlier.

Y'see Aveyond, I have been gaming a VERY long time. Decades. I have been privileged to sit in on a writers conference for an in developement MMO ( as has been said on the STRICT proviso that I didnt open my yap once OR ELSE since I had been permitted to do as a VERY special favour ), I have listened in on podcasts run by a pair of people I doubt you have even heard of..Ken and Roberta Williams..I have again had the privilege of talking to and listening to a man named Al Lowe...those names should be familiar to anyone who knows gaming.

They founded a company called Coarsegold...which is known these days as a gaming giant by the name of Sierra Vivendi. What I learned in that time is a scant fraction of a fraction of one percent on how games writing works...but heres the difference between us.

I dont claim to be an expert on what gaming writing should be, or what others may want. You, on the other hand, seem to be under this delusion that "you know whats best for us all"

The sheer arrogance of that attitude beggars the imagination.

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

At any rate - I do not believe there is a single EW enjoyer who would really lose out if 7.0 sees us return to the style of Heavensward with a fresh cast that has flaws/growth and yes even death so as to tell a mature enough story without the need for excessive padding with slice of life nonsense and fluff.

Here I am one of them who enjoyed EW and would not want to go back to a Heavensward styled expansion. (Not as if that expansion was the definition of dark anyway) I would not want to lose out the fluff and slice of life "nonsense" because that is something which makes the darker parts of a story hit harder. If everything is always just grim dark than the grim dark loses its meaning. Its the nice scenes, the scenes of friends sitting together, enjoying life that makes a tragedy more tragic.

Bascially you want a story that is far away even from real life. Because even in the darkest times, even in war...where its like the end of the world for the people being in the warzone, they find joy in it. That what makes us human. A teenager sitting at a piano playing songs while the people listening are dancing and clapping, always in danger that the next attack will hit them. A little girl sitting in a bunker singing a frozen song. This "nonsense" you speak about is a big part of our humanity. Taking it out of the story is the sign of a bad writer imo!