FFXIV's Future

[Voidedge_Ragna]

Every mmo will go downhill, there is just a few factors that it depends on.

1. Other mmos currently on market
2. Their engine, its vastly difficult to make big changes to a game with decades of content that may break if you change your engine.
3. Effort by publisher

1: I think we can agree that right now, the mmo market is not ... amazing, yea there's a few games that can keep you busy but its not on the same scale as XIV at this moment, however a few at least promising mmos are on the horizon.
2: They engine is fine for now, graphically good for another 5-10 years (if you push it), this does not mean that in 5-10 years its considered "ugly" but newer games will outshine it vastly.
3: This is a bit of sour point for me as I feel like SE realised their current market share and is not going all out anymore, content scrapped or cut short, longer cycles.

XIV will go absolutely fine for another 5-10 years unless a new MMO could confidently prove their a valid alternative, if that happens it is possible for a spiral to happen like in wow, most do not want to play an mmo that they consider dyeing, even if an mmo cant really "die" even FFXI is still around and not dead.

XIV is a insane example of how you can reduce content but also increase the quality, which leaves many unhappy about the missing content but many really happy the quality ... and yes ... that quality is mostly of visual nature, a lot of the content is designed with the idea that its dead in 4 months which means its always going to be by the numbers.

It is what it is, in a perfect would you would have 2-3 mmos that are constantly fighting over the crown, one upping each other.

[Absimiliard]

1: I think we can agree that right now, the mmo market is not ... amazing, yea there's a few games that can keep you busy but its not on the same scale as XIV at this moment, however a few at least promising mmos are on the horizon.
2: They engine is fine for now, graphically good for another 5-10 years (if you push it), this does not mean that in 5-10 years its considered "ugly" but newer games will outshine it vastly.
3: This is a bit of sour point for me as I feel like SE realised their current market share and is not going all out anymore, content scrapped or cut short, longer cycles.

Loathe though I am to say it, World of Warcraft currently has a lot more for players to do than FFXIV. Even in its fallen state, it remains the chief competitor and is most definitely of comparable, if not greater scale.
The engine is really showing its age. The gameplay is slower than Christmas, and their ability to implement new things is actively limited by all the spaghetti code they themselves can barely make sense of.
Agreed on the third point.

[True-to-Caesar]

I find myself wondering just what that word is supposed to mean. Playing a Japanese game makes you a "weeb"?

Seriously..?

Super edgy anime style with super edgy story.
Focus on boob jiggle + sexualized female characters to attract coomers.

So no, playing a japanese game doesn’t make you a weeb, depends on what you play though.

I do not see Dark Souls/Elden Ring or even Yakuza as weeb games.

Any other question ?

Do any of those games even actually "Innovate" or are they just exciting because "new toy"?

Its not shocking that something new will turn heads, but the real test and question is, will it last long enough to build a large enough community and sustain itself?

Palia focuses on community, housing, gathering, hunting and chill activities. Much less combat. I do not know any MMO with that focus in mind, some have a few of those features but they’re half baked or badly implemented.

Pax Dei is action combat with focus on community and player generated content (sandbox game, no quests so I imagine a lot of exploration going on there). Will see how it goes.

Ashes of Creation is action combat too, where you can have a main and secondary class like good ol’ Guild Wars 1. Lots of possibilities there, especially with outdoor content and exploration.

I’m mainly saying SE will need to innovate to retain players because a lot of MMOs are coming out in the near future and yes will be both more dynamic gameplay-wise and with better graphics. Just need 1 to succeed and drain players from FF, WoW, GW2 and all the rest.

[Luluya]

I don't think an action mmo or just one that will try with all their might to break the mmo mold can be a true competitor with FFXIV or WoW. All the ones that have tried to do so in the past decade or so seem to have failed and/or died, even ambitious ones. Wildstar, Tera, Aion, and seemingly New World to name a few.

Even FFXIV 1.0 failed despite its fairly unique mechanics (at least from the snippets ive seen), and was rebuilt taking more inspiration from its main competitor(s).

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Super edgy anime style with super edgy story.
Focus on boob jiggle + sexualized female characters to attract coomers.

So no, playing a japanese game doesn’t make you a weeb, depends on what you play though.

I do not see Dark Souls/Elden Ring or even Yakuza as weeb games.

Any other question ?



Palia focuses on community, housing, gathering, hunting and chill activities. Much less combat. I do not know any MMO with that focus in mind, some have a few of those features but they’re half baked or badly implemented.

Pax Dei is action combat with focus on community and player generated content (sandbox game, no quests so I imagine a lot of exploration going on there). Will see how it goes.

Ashes of Creation is action combat too, where you can have a main and secondary class like good ol’ Guild Wars 1. Lots of possibilities there, especially with outdoor content and exploration.

I’m mainly saying SE will need to innovate to retain players because a lot of MMOs are coming out in the near future and yes will be both more dynamic gameplay-wise and with better graphics. Just need 1 to succeed and drain players from FF, WoW, GW2 and all the rest.

FFXIV Does all of those things that Palia does. Probly the 1 edge it has is probly Housing.

Pax Dei sounds cute, but whos knows how long that might last

Ashes I never had an interest in, and I hear mixed things

Many MMOs have come out, and just cause they have these things dont really mean they will be successful, or take away FFXIVs playerbase.
Naturally people will check them out..and its not like you cant play more then 1 MMO

[Neoyoshi]

I think people just need to spend more time living in the moment and enjoy the game while they can; and stop spending so much energy fantasing about things they have no control over.

[VelKallor]

Ashes of Creation

Ashes I never had an interest in, and I hear mixed things

Rumour has it that game will release the same day as Star Citizen....

Many MMOs have come out, and just cause they have these things dont really mean they will be successful, or take away FFXIVs playerbase.

Ashes has been announced as a full loot open world always on pvp MMO......which will be lucky to last six months.

IF THAT.

[Dohmi-Zeiva]

People come to the forums to complain, mostly. Also some people want A and other people want X. Dungeon difficulty being one of your examples. So whatever we don't seem to have, or that which people perceive we don't have, will be the topics you see at the top of the forum.

I love the game, but yeah, I scratch my head at some of the decisions SE make. I just don't post about it. Like 90% of the player base. I do however come here after a patch to see if people are posting what I'm thinking.

[Katashi90]

Things that kills MMOs :

1. P2W gear. Cash shops that offers casual players to experience endgame content without going through a progressive gear upgrade model.
2. Dungeons and old content loses relevance to powercreeping. Every MMO I'd played all went through this, and FF14 is the only one that has syncing system to cap your stats from one-shotting the boss, no matter how high your gear/level is.
3. RNG-based gear upgrade system. A common approach, which a weapon is bound to upgrade tiers in order to max out your stats. These upgrade tiers often give you high failure rates, or worse some may even destroy the weapon for failing. MMORPGs that has this system always put fail-safe upgrade materials, or materials that bypasses that failure rate, in cash shops.

As you can see, these are the things every "dying MMORPGs" share in common. Unlike most people here, I played in Korean MMOs for last 2 decades instead. A dying MMORPG is when the game loses players for good and the publisher re-assigns their developers to create new MMO projects elsewhere while milking current players by keeping servers running for as long as possible. They don't have roadmaps, they don't have plans, they simply keep it running barebones while adding little stuff like events and fancy cash shop items to satisfy what little players they have left in there, until they'd decided that the servers would cease operations. (1/2)

[Katashi90]

(2/2) FF14 is nowhere near that stage. Among the 3 points I'd highlighted, certain aspects of powercreeping probably might still plague FF14(just like how this new Manderville weapon powercrept Flamecloaked weapons in such short time and with little effort), but everything else FF14 has done were pretty on point. For a game developer to tell you to spend your time wisely and not waste them grinding in-game, it's a blessing to have such a developer making your favorite MMORPG.

The problem with grindy setups(like ARR/HW relics) is that while some of you may think it's worth doing now, it's a huge wall for newer players to overcome in later years. Newer players would either chose not to access that content at all, or demand the requirements of that content to be reduced. I'm sure older veterans would disagree on the notion that reducing it tantamounts disrespect to their time wasted grinding for it when it was first released. So, why made it grindy in the first place? Just look at those whom moved from other MMOs to FF14, those players left their favorite MMORPG because newer changes made them felt that the time they'd spent were disrespected, but how does the developer circumvent that without time-gating newer players from accessing it? It's impossible. You cannot expect them to NOT cater to new players and casuals, because its the only thing that makes the MMO grow.

Stop lamenting the lack of grind and go out and touch some grass. Let FF14 become part of your life. FF14 was never meant to be your whole life.