Why this Live Letter Matters

[ZephyrMenodora]

I just wanted to pause a moment to provide a list of complaints from OP just this month (May 2023), a month we are 11 days in. I probably have not picked up everything as I am not thoroughly reading, nor do I plan on going further back. It's just possibly why even if there is something of interest to be had in their message, my eyes at this point just glaze over.

1. Estinian’s Ponytail
2. Island Sanctuary not having battle content
3. How SE advertises the game
4. Chinese Magician Emote being in the SE Store
5. Endwalker Storyline, “Worst” being the entire expansion outside Garlemald
6. WoL being overpowered
7. YYshtola having no personality
8. Female characters being “slay queens!”
9. Being stuck with certain characters in the storyline
10. Underwhelming content rewards
11. Lack of Content, in the generic
12. Titania’s cosmetic outfit
13. Devs Ignoring Feedback
14. Combat Design & Balancing of Numbers
15. Healer Gameplay
16. Endwalker Relic
17. Variant/Criterion Dungeons
18. Ugly Allagan weapons
19. How others spend their time in the game (ie, chat lobby)
20. And of course….other posters on these forums who disagree with him.

I did get a chuckle at a post of his I passed where he wondered why people think he doesn't like FFXIV.

[Avoidy]

OP, you're expecting way too much from a live letter. These things are not even worth staying awake for. As others have noted, content roadmaps are designed waaaaaay in advance, so there's no way in hell they're going to be like "sorry you're bored" and switch gears. The only thing we can look forward to from this live letter is once again frantically paying attention to two screens at once, while a discord volunteer live-translates the 2 billion dollar company's presentation for them. And some powerpoint slides confirming more details about the content they've already told us we're getting. And then another 2 weeks of people close-reading fan-translations of Yoshi's off the cuff remarks and guessing about his tone or intention or whether or not he was joking or serious because all we have are discord screencaps of really fast translations done by somebody in their spare time for free because holy shit imagine just hiring an official translator for your most consistently profitable live service game jesus christ

I just wanted to pause a moment to provide a list of complaints from OP just this month (May 2023), a month we are 11 days in. I probably have not picked up everything as I am not thoroughly reading, nor do I plan on going further back. It's just possibly why even if there is something of interest to be had in their message, my eyes at this point just glaze over.

1. Estinian’s Ponytail
2. Island Sanctuary not having battle content
3. How SE advertises the game
4. Chinese Magician Emote being in the SE Store
5. Endwalker Storyline, “Worst” being the entire expansion outside Garlemald
6. WoL being overpowered
7. YYshtola having no personality
8. Female characters being “slay queens!”
9. Being stuck with certain characters in the storyline
10. Underwhelming content rewards
11. Lack of Content, in the generic
12. Titania’s cosmetic outfit
13. Devs Ignoring Feedback
14. Combat Design & Balancing of Numbers
15. Healer Gameplay
16. Endwalker Relic
17. Variant/Criterion Dungeons
18. Ugly Allagan weapons
19. How others spend their time in the game (ie, chat lobby)
20. And of course….other posters on these forums who disagree with him.

I did get a chuckle at a post of his I passed where he wondered why people think he doesn't like FFXIV.

Most (like 16 of them) of those complaints aren't even controversial imo. These forums, like most video game forums, are just deeply divided between people who think the game is perfectly perfect as it is and people who can identify faults and want it to improve. I'm not going to speak for the OP's intentions, but in my own experience coming from such shitshow games like maplestory and bdo, I'll say that it's 100% possible to find a lot of faults in a game, and speak about those faults, but still love the game for what it was before it declined, and for what it can still become. I'll also say that having watched many mmos rise and fall over the years, noticing red flags in a game's life-cycle is really easy for me. So it's out of love for this game that I'll say something if I spot a red flag. Job homogenization was one. The excessively expensive cash shop outfits in a buy to play + subscription game is another. The lengthier periods of time between content cycles with nothing substantial to do in-between, is another. I think for some people, it takes time to notice these faults because just reaching endgame takes like 200 hours, and there's quite a bit of content in the game at this point from previous expansions (how accessible it all is in current year is another matter), so loads of players are still vibing. But if you're caught up, the cracks in the game become really obvious and it often feels like XIV is begging you to just quit until the next major patch, while simultaneously destroying your house if you do, because for some reason THAT'S a system in this game. And if you ever make a thread proposing a better housing system, be ready to fight people who think that system is perfectly perfect and doesn't need to change and blablabla

idk I'm rambling. I don't think OP's wrong for having grievances with an imperfect game run by Square Enix, aka the EA of Japan. If anything, your list just shows that he has more time on his hands than most people, and can be bothered to articulate why my friends list and former FC are both fucking dead

[ZephyrMenodora]

Snip for post length limitations

But when a person posts quite prolifically, has multiple front-page threads all created by that person, and the topics are all negative and nit-picky, and hardly a single positive thing is said about a game in hundreds of posts - it will start to leave an impression that the person simply has little purpose other than to search for things to complain about.

I also think it's quite simplistic to think that people who overall enjoy the game have no criticisms of it, and only negative posters have the critical thinking skills needed to identify faults. I doubt any of us enjoys 100% of the content in this game and has no criticism of it. I criticized the housing system in this game in the past, and YEARS AND YEARS ago that I couldn't even log into FFXIV without buying a subscription to some sort of service that allowed me to connect to the game at all (and I live in California). It was incredibly irritating and am glad that is in the past.

I quit FFXIV back near the release of Stormblood as I found myself at the time hopelessly bored by the MSQ. I didn't return until I was convinced to do so by Shadowbringers. I didn't feel the need to post endlessly for months, I just did something else. More recently, I just quit Lost Ark (again) and didn't post on their forums while they existed or their reddit. I just decided to do something else. I also played BDO and while I used to post regularly in their forums when i did play, I left and don't spend any time there at all since.

[Avoidy]

But when a person posts quite prolifically, has multiple front-page threads all created by that person, and the topics are all negative and nit-picky, and hardly a single positive thing is said about a game in hundreds of posts - it will start to leave an impression that the person simply has little purpose other than to search for things to complain about.

I also think it's quite simplistic to think that people who overall enjoy the game have no criticisms of it, and only negative posters have the critical thinking skills needed to identify faults. I doubt any of us enjoys 100% of the content in this game and has no criticism of it. I criticized the housing system in this game in the past, and YEARS AND YEARS ago that I couldn't even log into FFXIV without buying a subscription to some sort of service that allowed me to connect to the game at all (and I live in California). It was incredibly irritating and am glad that is in the past.

I quit FFXIV back near the release of Stormblood as I found myself at the time hopelessly bored by the MSQ. I didn't return until I was convinced to do so by Shadowbringers. I didn't feel the need to post endlessly for months, I just did something else. More recently, I just quit Lost Ark (again) and didn't post on their forums while they existed or their reddit. I just decided to do something else. I also played BDO and while I used to post regularly in their forums when i did play, I left and don't spend any time there at all since.

I know my earlier claim sounds simplistic, but it's based on the simple level of discourse I see here in general. There's rarely any nuance with a sizable portion of this forum. Whenever anyone asks for even a basic quality of life improvement, they're met with people who are passionately against changing the game at all and I'd say it was weird if it wasn't kind of normal for mmo forums to have people like that. I believe they are called fanboys. In the same vein, some people will only bother logging into their forum account when they want to be critical, for the same reason that Yelp! reviews tend to be about bad experiences. They probably only log in when they have a grievance. It just is what it is. Fanboys against critics in an mmo forum, tale as old as time.

Yeah, there're people who don't fall into one category or the other, but it's really easy to spot the people who play a "role" in this farce, so to speak. This game in particular, holy moly, sometimes it feels like Yoshida could just take a shit in the next LL and say "this is what I think of western players!" in English and the same usual people would write a dissertation on why it was fine. 14 has a rep in other game communities for having really passionate players who defend this game relentlessly even when it's not deserving of it.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I know my earlier claim sounds simplistic, but it's based on the simple level of discourse I see here in general. There's rarely any nuance with a sizable portion of this forum. Whenever anyone asks for even a basic quality of life improvement, they're met with people who are passionately against changing the game at all and I'd say it was weird if it wasn't kind of normal for mmo forums to have people like that. I believe they are called fanboys. In the same vein, some people will only bother logging into their forum account when they want to be critical, for the same reason that Yelp! reviews tend to be about bad experiences. It just is what it is. Fanboys against critics in an mmo forum, tale as old as time.

Yeah, there're people who don't fall into one category or the other, but it's really easy to spot the people who play a "role" in this farce, so to speak.

I think I'm just surprised as this poster has stated that they haven't enjoyed the game since Shadowbringers. My dude, that was a year and a half ago...

I think closing one's ears to all criticism is equally unhelpful, but there are ways to discuss this without risking drowning out your own voice.

[Avoidy]

I think I'm just surprised as this poster has stated that they haven't enjoyed the game since Shadowbringers. My dude, that was a year and a half ago...

I think closing one's ears to all criticism is equally unhelpful, but there are ways to discuss this without risking drowning out your own voice.

Yeah again, not trying to speak for him or anything, idk why he still plays or if he still does even. Personally I'm not thrilled with the current state of things either, but I stay because I enjoy logging in and running 24mans (sb and shb) every so often, I like taking pictures, I enjoy building glams, certain player-driven content keeps me occupied, and I high-key don't want to lose my house. Note that none of those things are related to EW at all, lmao. Like... it could be better, but I've found other reasons to play. Maybe op has, too. idk.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Yeah again, not trying to speak for him or anything, idk why he still plays or if he still does even. Personally I'm not thrilled with the current state of things either, but I stay because I enjoy logging in and running 24mans (sb and shb) every so often, I like taking pictures, I enjoy building glams, certain player-driven content keeps me occupied, and I high-key don't want to lose my house. Note that none of those things are related to EW at all, lmao. Like... it could be better, but I've found other reasons to play. Maybe op has, too. idk.

I'm glad you are still getting *something* out of the game, but I can see if those are the only activities it not being the most interesting game and could desire a lot of improvement to keep your interest. While those things are nice, they do only go so far.

Since I took long breaks, I still have plenty to do. But give me another year when I have everything levelled and nothing to do - I'll be joining you in the chorus haha.

[RyuDragnier]

Like... it could be better, but I've found other reasons to play. Maybe op has, too. idk.

I would like to believe so, but considering he only came back for the free login week (there was a long posting lull from him before that), I don't think he has.