Why this Live Letter Matters

[aveyond-dreams]

More than a trailer, more than "hype," what some players are looking for now is direct assurance that things won't continue the way they have this expansion. One of the key defining aspects about this game's history is how hard they worked to rebuild the trust that was lost after the initial launch - though sadly the issues with Endwalker's patch content has similarly worn down the faith of many players who enjoyed both gameplay systems and storylines that were done away with this expansion.

The time has come to admit that somewhere down the line, some wrong turns were taken. But as before, this isn't to say that things are beyond any hope of salvation. The promise of the return to exploratory zones for next expansion for instance, restoration content, or similar systems if spoken now would at least give those who lost trust the impression that someone out there is listening and seriously considering peoples' concerns.

Endwalker deserved to be better.

I believe that although imperfect, some short term solutions could include revamping the reward structure for Variant/Criterion dungeon in a massive way, the immediate shift for 6.45 and 6.55 relics to specific content such as those dungeons or other battle content, and adding more appealing rewards to Eureka Orthos such as alternate weapons, gearsets, or even gil rewards. It would be wrong to say that nothing can be done in the near future, which is why I feel it is important to take these decisions sooner rather than later so that there's reasons to stick with Endwalker long term. Because as of now, I struggle to see what I can pursue or do beyond taking a few hours out of patch day to play through 6.4's content and then not returning until 7.0, if the expansion hooks me.

[Thenightvortex]

All I hope for at this point is that patch 6.4 is going to be a fun dumpster fire, unlike 6.3 which was an incredibly boring snoozefest dumpster fire. Trying not to fall asleep during Myths quest was quite a challenge.

[aveyond-dreams]

8-man raid fights will hopefully better than this expansion's alliance raid fights...they are nowhere near as involved as previous ones from NierR or Ivalice. One thing is content made for casuals, but another thing is alliance raids becoming little more than 24man dungeons.

[Ath192]

8-man raid fights will hopefully better than this expansion's alliance raid fights...they are nowhere near as involved as previous ones from NierR or Ivalice. One thing is content made for casuals, but another thing is alliance raids becoming little more than 24man dungeons.

You know what, you are right. These things are identical to 4 man dungeons now. If only the gameplay design of them were as good as the attention to the environment and bosses. At least Aglaia had a bit more fun mechanics, and one team based one. Even if controversial.

[OvernightSiren]

8-man raid fights will hopefully better than this expansion's alliance raid fights...they are nowhere near as involved as previous ones from NierR or Ivalice. One thing is content made for casuals, but another thing is alliance raids becoming little more than 24man dungeons.

Ever since they nerfed the Garlemald MSQ quests I knew that the game had zero interest in challenging casuals at all anymore.

[Thaciscokidd]

It should be the last or penultimate Live Letter before NA Fanfest. This should be the end of Endwalker proper and the next patch should be the road to 7.0.

I hope its hype and gets me to log in more that every other 4 days, but the one thing I am truly hyped for is that this should be the last letter that keeps us in the dark about the future path of XiV.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Aveyond, I really doubt a single LL is going to satisfy what youre looking for at this point.

All the information we already know thats coming in 6.4 from pre-LL interviews and the roadmap they shared a while back isnt going to be the grand overhaul that youd expect within a single patch.

Im gonna be realistic with my expectations and just expect the usual stuff with perhaps maybe some improvements in variant/criterion rewards.

Just like how anyone should take their expectations with anything in life rather than trying to find hype in things.

[Renathras]

The problem is that island sanctuaries, which could have been quite some extensive content, simply wasnt that, its extremely dull and repetetive, and features barely anything to do. Even for those who like gathering, the rewards arent even nearly worth it (effort to value conversion rate is absolutely horrible). If they involved content that required for example combat, and other special events, it could have worked. But it simply wasnt that.

Honestly, it's not even that: It's that it didn't involve gathering or crafting at all, almost. You had the SIDE version of gathering and crafting (completely disconnected with your regular DoH/L classes), AND you can't even craft or gather THE GOOD STUFF. You have to send the Granary expedition out to get the good rare items you can actually sell for the better of the Coweries (the ones that all the items people want have to be bought with), and you can't craft handicrafts to sell even if you want to spend hours doing it - neither as a DoH NOR with the "press one button and wait 2-3 seconds as your character pounds on the sand - literally" crafting. No, you get to be a middle manager of a sweatshop organization and WAIT for your minions to do the work for you over a 24 hour period.

Not only does it not involve combat, it doesn't even involve crafting and barely involves gathering after you've built things. Up until that point, I actually DID enjoy it. But when it became "Office Space: The Game, without the humor or stapler", I was like "Wait, this is what this is?" I generally don't play games to be Thomas Anderson at the beginning of the Matrix working a desk job at a cubicle in some kind of business world middle-management hell. At least the island hub has better views than a corner office, but you can't even log out there, you have to go stay in your hotel room if you want a bed!

I get they didn't want people to grind and burnout, but whose video game fantasy is being a middle manager??

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Yes, I'm a bit jaded over that.

ANYway, that aside, this:

The thing is if they dont respond to anything then their metrics indicate that the problem isn't as big as people make it out to be. They have the tools to track player engagement/retention and if they are seeing decline in aspects they would of looked to the forums or discord or reddit with their teams that are purely there to gather feedback or research the market for what others are doing in the genre. I just can't imagine this Live Letter really doing much to what Aveyond wants and I don't think at the same time they should. Peoples likes or dislikes have shown to be wildly on either side of the fence. It is pretty much the same 3-4 negative posts fighting the same 3-4 positive posters and just butting heads with the odd user here and there.

7.0 matters....6.4/6.5 do not...their content and roadmap was done well over a year ago...whatever is here is set in stone. No wild last minute changes would be happening here is my best bet.

And this:

Aveyond, I really doubt a single LL is going to satisfy what youre looking for at this point.

All the information we already know thats coming in 6.4 from pre-LL interviews and the roadmap they shared a while back isnt going to be the grand overhaul that youd expect within a single patch.

Im gonna be realistic with my expectations and just expect the usual stuff with perhaps maybe some improvements in variant/criterion rewards.

Just like how anyone should take their expectations with anything in life rather than trying to find hype in things.

Are likely correct.

Fanfest is what you're looking for. Even the "acknowledging some people are upset" happens in Yoshi P interviews, not Liveletters.

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Oh, but I don't know what you've been smoking, these 24 mans are fun and most people seemed to enjoy them. A lot of people DIDN'T like NeiR (I started out liking them, but by the end, I kind of didn't like them) since the story had literally NOTHING to do with FFXIV and they didn't even try to give it a tie. It was a NeiR infomercial, not a raid. And so far, I've enjoyed all the raid fights of EW 24 mans. They're just fun to run in and do and that's the point.

I didn't HATE NieR, I hated how it was put into the game. The fights were generally interesting and the first and last raid I liked the environments of (the second was kinda meh), but the story made no sense, had no connection to anything, and I still don't see the point of it. The NieR raids are my least favorite in the game of all raids at this time. I'm sure NeiR fans loved them, but lots of people play FFXIV that have never played a NeiR game. Keep your game in your game unless you're actually giving it lore ties to ours. At least other FF game references make sense as its the same series and many people who play FFXIV have played at least one other FF game, and probably several.

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I agree with you, OP, on some things - not having an Exploration Zone was a mistake, and not having AT LEAST an HW/ARR Relic grind ON TOP of that ALONG WITH patches being 2 weeks longer was a big mistake. The only "grindy" content we have are Criterion and Orthos, both of which require PF premades so aren't "pick up group" in the sense that Eureka/Bozja or even ARR/HW (FATEs) were. You can't just run across people and join them, and you can't DF que them. You HAVE to make a party before you can even access the content passed the base level. That was also a mistake since it's the ONLY girndy content they put in.

As it is, in content lulls, I'm finding things to do...but they're old things that are only so repeatable, like finishing up every sidequest in the game (just 3 zones left...) that can only be done one time on a given Character, so they aren't repeatable content or grindable content once run through.

[hunkygladiator]

Yoshi P interviews

"omg yoshi p sama what is your daily spa routine and which brand of soap and cologne do you use"

"the unnamed au ra from the gegatekj tribe at (X:35.2, Y:17.9, Z:3.2) has a mole that's slightly red in color does this foreshadow anything about Dalamud"

"will there be MSQ in 7.0????"

those interviews are close to useless for actually getting any feedback to him or getting any relevant information out since 80% of it is filled with clueless journalists, who by the way waste 80% of their questions asking the same questions someone asked literally 3 minutes ago

and of the remaining 20%, half of the answers are just

"we cannot tell you yet please look forward to it"

lol honestly the lodestone notices have acknowledged way more issues since ShB than any live letter or interview, mostly when 2ch or jp forums spaz out and erupt and pour lava everywhere

[Renathras]

...

Meh, sometimes we get useful information from them. I'm just saying if there's an "we recognize people are upset", it TENDS to come from those. Liveletters are infomercials for upcoming patches. That's what they've been for most of the game's history and all of its modern history.

The other thing, besides interviews, that does what you're asking are Letters from the Producer (the written ones), like where Yoshi P apologized to basically the world for not having enough servers and outlined their plans to help in the short and long term after the EW launch craziness. So that's a possibility as well.

While I DO think a lot of things people here complain about are likely not shared by the playerbase at large, I do think some things have drawn enough notice they might be mentioned. Particularly, even the generally happy-go-lucky big content creators have been complaining about no grindable content and the Relics being a tomestone freebie.

...don't get me wrong, I don't mind them adding a Tomestone weapon that doesn't require timegating (I'm perfectly in favor of this, in fact), but I don't think the Relics should be that. They should be content for people to really sink their teeth into and spend time working on, especially if they want to collect more than one.

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EDIT:

IDK if people in FF14 realize how bad their reputation is among the MMO players in general.

The reputation is different, not bad.

FFXIV's community isn't as toxic as WoWs was when I left, and League of Legends is FAMOUS for having a toxic culture.

FFXIV's culture is known as being welcoming and generally hyper-happy and friendly. The only "complaint" is people that don't like that complaining it's too happy (this is more people playing games where their fellow players AREN'T and trying to cope/be jealous of another game where players actually enjoy the game they're playing...), or "toxic casuals", which is super rare unless you're being a jerk to people, and is also FAR less destructive to a game than toxic elitism is since it's inclusionary rather than exclusionary.

While people accuse the community of being against any criticism of the game, that's never been true - again, if you're not being a jerk about it. I've long offered various criticism of the game and never been attacked by the white knight brigade because my tone was neutral and hopeful and I wasn't "Yeah, this community sucks and the Devs don't know what they're doing or are just in it for the money". That's "being a jerk about it", and will get you destroyed in ANY gaming community where the players don't all hate the game and developers.

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No community is perfect, but a game known for happy and helpful people that don't want people berated for being casual and just having fun isn't a negative thing, no matter how hard people want to spin it as such.