How i kicked the habit (FFXIV).

[Renathras]

I just stopped logging in.

That was the secret to kicking the habit, to just walk away.

Years of pent up frustrations with the direction the game has taken, catering all content to people that want to turn XIV into IMVU, and don't want the be challenged by even the smallest difficulty.

It's been 3 weeks, i am a much happier person. I have explored multiple other games, even picked up some side games to play in the 6 months between content patches that XIV has.

Guild Wars 2, Fantastic MMO, the world actually feels alive, people constantly active in old and new zones alike, actual world content with rewards that makes it worth completing.

Diablo 4, Another good story, although post 70, the game is utter repetitive garbage and I've already stopped playing it at level 92. Hopefully seasons improve the game, or else that will just be dropped in general.

ARAM games with friends on LoL, nothing serious, just messing around having fun.

This is the true way to play XIV and remain happy with the game, and i finally understand that. NOT playing the game is the secret to enjoying the game over a long period of time.

For 9 years i have been blinded by the simple truth that XIV is not a main MMO. it is made to be played a few times per year, catching up with content and then moving back onto other games.

Thank you to whoever told me to go play other games, because XIV will not change regardless of how much feedback you throw at it, and coming to that realization has allowed me to move on and improved my mental health significantly.

That's good for you and I'm happy for you and all...

...but why post here for attention if you're enjoying those other games SO MUCH and have "kicked the habit" of this one?

Seems like you haven't really kicked the habit and aren't enjoying those games, or that they aren't very alive and you're desperate to siphon people here off to populate your otherwise empty games that no one cares about.

.

If you're happy, I'm genuinely happy for you.

But that you're posting here, and posting that indicates you are not.

[Naoki34]

I just stopped logging in.

That was the secret to kicking the habit, to just walk away.

Years of pent up frustrations with the direction the game has taken, catering all content to people that want to turn XIV into IMVU, and don't want the be challenged by even the smallest difficulty.

It's been 3 weeks, i am a much happier person. I have explored multiple other games, even picked up some side games to play in the 6 months between content patches that XIV has.

Guild Wars 2, Fantastic MMO, the world actually feels alive, people constantly active in old and new zones alike, actual world content with rewards that makes it worth completing.

Diablo 4, Another good story, although post 70, the game is utter repetitive garbage and I've already stopped playing it at level 92. Hopefully seasons improve the game, or else that will just be dropped in general.

ARAM games with friends on LoL, nothing serious, just messing around having fun.

This is the true way to play XIV and remain happy with the game, and i finally understand that. NOT playing the game is the secret to enjoying the game over a long period of time.

For 9 years i have been blinded by the simple truth that XIV is not a main MMO. it is made to be played a few times per year, catching up with content and then moving back onto other games.

Thank you to whoever told me to go play other games, because XIV will not change regardless of how much feedback you throw at it, and coming to that realization has allowed me to move on and improved my mental health significantly.

And you needed to brag about it here?
But you need an active subscription to post here, it's a shame to pay for nothing.

[Theodric]

And you needed to brag about it here?

It doesn't read as 'bragging' to me.

The primary purpose of the forum is to leave feedback and the poster in question is doing as much. Whether anyone working for the company will see it and take it into account is a different matter entirely. That being said, the standard response to any concern related to the game is to funnel players here.

[Shinkuno]

GCBTW when people criticize the game: JUST PLAY OTHER GAMES

GCBTW when someone plays other games: good for you i guess bye we dont want you here

[TaleraRistain]

But you need an active subscription to post here, it's a shame to pay for nothing.

Not just an active subscription. You need to log in. I didn't log in for like a week when I was playing a console game once and couldn't post here for a day or so after I logged in until things got updated. OP could have kept the sub and then popped into the game to be able to post here.

To the OP, I think it's entirely possible for XIV to be a main MMO. It's certainly mine. But if the game isn't making you happy and has to be considered a habit to kick, then I'm glad you found other things you enjoy. And when and if you do want to play again, then maybe you'll be able to find something you like about XIV again after some time away from it.

[Renathras]

It doesn't read as 'bragging' to me.

Bragging is probably not the right word, but it isn't "feedback". It's a typical attention seeking post. There's a reason "Cool, can I have your stuff?" is the general response when people go on about leaving things; because most of the time they aren't really leaving and are just making a show for attention, and when they ARE, well, no harm in asking, right?

Notice how they weren't making suggestions about this game, they were slandering it and the player base (that little quip about difficulty wasn't aimed at the Devs). This is one of those cases with "there's feedback, and then there's THIS". Moreover, promoting competing games seems like desperation. Like those games aren't actually that good, or aren't that populated, and the player is trying to get people to jump ship from this one to make theirs look better by proxy and/or to make the one they're trying to leave decline. People used to do this with WoW and the "WoW Killers" all the time; they'd go to Wildstar or Rift or whatever, insist it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, that they were leaving WoW forever, that those games were so much better, so much more activity in the world, so much energy and excitement and new players and rewards and whatever other buzzwords, and that they were leaving WoW, never to return and everyone should join them since they were having EVER so much fun...!

...then that game would fail and they'd come back to WoW, pretending like it at never happened, and the people who just kept playing WoW didn't notice and weren't the ones that bet on the losing horse, as it were.

It's a weird but very powerful impulse of Humans to try and seek validation, and part of that is from people leaving the thing they're trying to leave and joining the thing they're trying to join. The reason the floodgates finally opened in 2020 with WoW was because it was suddenly popular for people to leave it, not for a one-time flirt with some other game, but for serious, and to a specific destination, that being FFXIV. The perfect storm happened, and suddenly WoW's paper tiger was exposed as being entirely vincible. It's a pretty understandable sociological trait, too - if everyone in the tribe is running from the sabertooth tiger pride, you probably should, too, so evolution selected this trait to pass on to future generations pretty heavily. "ape together strong" also carries with it "if ape running, best run way other apes running, too".

Honestly, that might have something to do with trend chasing, too...

In any case, it's happened before in many MMOs, but usually it means the alternatives aren't really all that, and the person posting it is trying to get affirmation and peel off people, it's not simply a "I'm happy" post. If it was, it wouldn't read like a commercial for Guild Wars 2.

.

The primary purpose of this forum is feedback, not advertisements for competing games and endless pessimism and non-constructive negativity.

Look at Shogun's post:

From reading a lot of responses, and a bit of assuming, I think the common issue isn't really content difficulty, people reference things that don't really jive with difficulty, and to that FFXIV does have difficult content- I wish people would explore better that part of their complaints... because it seems like misleading messaging. For example GW2 and D4 are not really difficult either, especially the things I frequently see people complement specifically GW2 are not things that are challenging.

Most often it seems the real issue is a compelling and grounding world space enforced by activities of that world space, the more similar jobs become and rigid structure of FFXIV wears some people down over time and not really "not enough hard content". Of course dungeons are not particularly hard, but they're not really that hard in GW2 either lol, nor D4 to be honest (unless you're over reaching or doing explicitly hard content in those games, but you could do that here too).

Just noting a consentient apparent miss allocation of issues, imo. Reading what people say doesn't appear to be their primary issue, especially helpful to identify when people reference things they do like which helps, imo, demonstrate "challenge" specifically isn't really the core issue. Part of that not only being grounded content, which I feel FFXIV has always had a bit of a struggle with (and part of a constant feedback I have), but also age with the game. Familiarity easily breeds contempt. WoW has had other missteps but I believe people trying to make it their forever game where the game must be a fresh breath of air yet similar enough to what they like leaves an increasingly impossible jump rope limbo (another reason why I take breaks, keep it from being too 'same same').

That said I'm glad you're finding things that enjoyable, no one should be frustrated doing something that is meant to be fun. When big games come out I take longer breaks from FFXIV. Took a small one with D4, waiting for the season before investing too much time again (for effective use of time), FFXVI, Armored Core 6, and Starfield are going to take my time and beat it up in the back. Sleep is going to be limited as I try to juggle the squares of life lol.

That's what feedback/constructive criticism looks like.

GCBTW when people criticize the game: JUST PLAY OTHER GAMES

GCBTW when someone plays other games: good for you i guess bye we dont want you here

what the hell is wrong with yall lmao

you people complain that people dont play other games and that they should just quit, and when they do and they post that they finally took the jump and change to a different game, also thanking people making them understand that it would be better to play something else, yall still shit on them because "ok bye no one cares" "ok but who asked" "stop bragging"

this community seriously

No one cares that she's playing other games. Most responses are "good for you?"

People are asking why she feels compelled to post here to get attention if she's having so much fun with those other games and has "kicked the habit" of this one - keeping in mind you must have a paid account to post here - trying to pitch/advertise/promote those other games.

.

No one cares or minds if OP found other games to make them happy.

Most posts here from the non-perpetually negative usual suspect posters are people congratulating them for being happy and saying it's healthy. The critiques are just "So why post about it if you're so happy?", because most of us, if we left FFXIV and were enjoying another game, we wouldn't be here posting on this forum about it. (Not to mention, as TaleraRistain said, you not only have to have a paid account, but also have to have logged into the game within the last couple weeks otherwise your account is locked until 24-48 hours after you log in again.)

[Ranaku]

snip

The thing is that not every game has to be to your liking, people often talk about criticism but ultimately just want the game to change to their taste. But you can never hit the mark with all people so yeah it is more than healthy to go out there and look for other things to do, especially if you aren't having fun.

That doesn't mean something is bad, it is just not to your liking and that is totally alright.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

GCBTW when people criticize the game: JUST PLAY OTHER GAMES

GCBTW when someone plays other games: good for you i guess bye we dont want you here

Kind of Like

The Forums: SE Doesnt do new things or take Risks

SE & The Devs: ok fine, here you go

The Forums: No Stop, do it the old way, we want more the same

Conclusion: There is no winning XD

[AlexiaD]

what the hell is wrong with yall lmao

you people complain that people dont play other games and that they should just quit, and when they do and they post that they finally took the jump and change to a different game, also thanking people making them understand that it would be better to play something else, yall still shit on them because "ok bye no one cares" "ok but who asked" "stop bragging"

this community seriously

[VelKallor]

(that little quip about difficulty wasn't aimed at the Devs).

\its actually the WOW mentality writ large

"You should WANT to raid you should WANT to do M plus" Whats your excuse for not raiding" and the ultimate classic

"It you wont do HARD content its because you actually cant". Its obnoxious. I saw that earlier with a specific forum troll who sneered "You say you dont want to the truth is youre bad and cant do it"

HOW DARE people do what THEY want instead of what others think they SHOULD DO. THE NERVE of people having choices she doesnt approve of.

This.
Is.
a.
video.
game.

We aint curing cancer, we aint building Mars rockets here.

Years of pent up frustrations with the direction the game has taken, catering all content to people that want to turn XIV into IMVU, and don't want the be challenged by even the smallest difficulty. It's been 3 weeks, i am a much happier person. I have explored multiple other games, even picked up some side games to play in the 6 months between content patches that XIV has.

Thats nice, OP, now tell us what your reasons were for posting this in the first place, aside, of course, from slinging mud at others, and generally making yet another asinine "FF 14 is a bad game because reasons....."

Guild Wars 2, Fantastic MMO, the world actually feels alive, people constantly active in old and new zones alike, actual world content with rewards that makes it worth completing.

I have GW2. it is interesting , has some bad sides as well as good ones, but I can speak of other MMOs that have the same, each has its own appeal for its own reasons.

Your point is?

For 9 years i have been blinded by the simple truth that XIV is not a main MMO. it is made to be played a few times per year, catching up with content and then moving back onto other games. Thank you to whoever told me to go play other games, because XIV will not change regardless of how much feedback you throw at it, and coming to that realization has allowed me to move on and improved my mental health significantly.

I knew that coming into the game April 2019 . i am glad you are enjoying yourself but again I ask:

..why did you post this in the first place?

Thanks, i've been extremely bitter with the game since the launch of Endwalker (And especially the oceanic server release), and it's been a breathe of fresh air to just go out and explore other games.

I agree. You and more than a few others. Me? Im running up some craft stuff right now, then Im going to Skyrim, GW2, chess.

Dixie, if any video game is giving you THIS much heartache then yes, walk away for a while, good idea. Piece of advice, however?

This

and don't want the be challenged by even the smallest difficulty.

is and was unworthy of you.