Taking breaks doesnt work for me.

[Minarisweet]

I have come back after 6 months and I still dont feel like playing anything, especially after doing some roulettes and falling asleep again. Playing other games like destiny 2, souls games and some offline games had made me realize how little this game does with the fun and reward factor in any content...

Roulettes are boring but kind of rewarding thanks to gil and tomes.

Extreme trials are kind of fun but very pointless unless you collect mounts.

Savage and ultimate are very stressing during gameplay with rewards that you might not use for other content (since a lot of content is ilevel locked).

Relic weapon farming CAN be fun and rewarding (eureka and bozja have islands to explore, both have ways to earn gil and bozja has very fun fights that you dont need to study for to do good just quick reactions and maybe a broken set of spells)... But I already did most content from both of these and this expansion's relics are tomes... which are VERY boring and only reward you're getting are the weapons.

Deep dungeons are honestly just not for me since it seems like either a lot of repetition or a lot of going slowly cuz im solo and trying to evade traps and you have to be incredibly lucky to make gil out of them.

Maps are VERY VERY rewarding but mostly boring especially since the same formula has been reused forever.

Island sanctuary even after giving it a fair shot it just felt like a really bad farm sim that just so happens you can have a cute character in.

Crafting is the probably the most rewarding thing in this game economically and socially since people are gonna want you to craft stuff... but its not fun at all.

All these issues that are very personally me were not resolved with just taking a break... all a break did was me forgetting my rotations. Im just not sure how to like this game again like I used to.

Dont take it personally if I call an activity you like boring I just need more stimulus in my brain than the usual person but also not too much like savage... I just want to like this game again and I hope someone that has gone through the same can tell me if something has worked for them.

[Miracle_Diva]

Try finding people to play anything with. Sometimes it's about the company and not the activity.
Or maybe take a break from games completely and do something new irl.

[Oizen]

Its okay to not like this game.

And yeah everything about Endwalker has been pretty low effort, and the game has been pretty stale and formulaic for a while.

[Reinha]

What kind of rewards are you after? If it's gil, you can make gil by running the criterion dungeon and unreal trial. Crystalline Conflict gives you another set of skills and a different fight each time.

[Stormpeaks]

Try finding people to play anything with. Sometimes it's about the company and not the activity.
Or maybe take a break from games completely and do something new irl.

To be fair, meeting people in this game, and actually making friends, really seem to be an impossible task most of the time, if not at all the time, I noticed that even more after my relationship ended and I tried to spend time in the game, FFXIV is very clique-y, just like most MMO's really, and its very hard to have a place in an already made group of friends, same as IRL, I have thought about quitting a lot because I just log in and see most people already busy, or doing content and you eventually shrug and log off because there is literally no one to hang out with

[Minarisweet]

Try finding people to play anything with. Sometimes it's about the company and not the activity.
Or maybe take a break from games completely and do something new irl.

I think the issue with this is that then I'd depend on said people to have fun and I have lived through this before, its not healthy for either parties.

I feel like its more healthy to play the game together because you both find it fun, like I do with my gf in destiny 2. I dont need her to log in but feel way better when we play together.

[Miracle_Diva]

To be fair, meeting people in this game, and actually making friends, really seem to be an impossible task most of the time, if not at all the time, I noticed that even more after my relationship ended and I tried to spend time in the game, FFXIV is very clique-y, just like most MMO's really, and its very hard to have a place in an already made group of friends, same as IRL, I have thought about quitting a lot because I just log in and see most people already busy, or doing content and you eventually shrug and log off because there is literally no one to hang out with

When it comes to FFXIV, I have the same experience as you do. But I do play other games and have multiple groups of friends that I've met over time throughout years. So it's a little bit easier for me on this part.

[Jeeqbit]

Unless you collect achievements, mounts or something else, the game is going to be something that you finish in a day after patches. If you have ever watched people's behaviour on Steam before, they play the latest game or DLC for a few days and then move on to the next game and SE is just developing it the way people play.

The other way people stick around after patches is to do social content like roleplaying or FC events.

The game doesn't really have an action battle system like FF16 or something, so if the battle system gets boring then that's just how it's going to be.

[Turtledeluxe]

I have friends to do things in the game with and it just feels like a band aid to this problem. I'm not sure it helps long term.

I was also strongly about concluding the gene witn Endwalker and moving on after thst but it's clear that a huge portion of the players and SE themselves want to hide behind the "it's too hard and this game is already popular" thing.

[Jojoya]

Dont take it personally if I call an activity you like boring I just need more stimulus in my brain than the usual person but also not too much like savage... I just want to like this game again and I hope someone that has gone through the same can tell me if something has worked for them.

If the game is no longer giving you the experience you want, why struggle to find reasons to keep playing it?

My personal experience: any game is at its most interesting and challenging when you are new to it and learning how things work. Once you've done that, perhaps you'll find a comfort zone in the content that remains fun or perhaps you'll just end up bored. We aren't all looking for the same thing and game developers aren't prone to taking content risks with their established ongoing games that might alienate too much of the player base.

If the game is no longer engaging you, better to move on to other games rather than think something will suddenly change here to stir your interest back up. I've got a file drawer next to my desk filled with old game CDs that I kept because "maybe I would want to play the game again some day" but it's never happened.

Do what's in your current best interest instead of clinging to the past.