Xenosys Vex explains how to save the game

[FenyxRising]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kL2MkiaRJY

Basically:

"Stormblood is the best expansion"
And then he talks about a few ways to make content relevant by dropping relevant gear.

By the way, people are going to cry about how I ain't offering my opinion. As I said, I don't say anything if I mostly agree with the video, so why do I need to add to the video ? The video explains my thoughts usually.

But I disagree with Xeno's video so I am going to write my opinion: Patch 6.5 ain't good, the content is the problem, not just whether there is gear behind it. Variant is extremely boring with or without rewards. If you actually tie the relic to Variant that's even worse than the current tomestone weapon because Variant is boring content. The new trials are boring, alliance raids are too easy and boring, and the new deep dungeon is boring. That's because everything other than Ultimate and PvP in FF14 nowadays require no skill and have no depth and they are all copypastas of old content, like there's no innovation. They even admitted that they are letting junior devs and interns make a lot of the content in Endwalker like the 6.x MSQ, which is no wonder there's no creativity. PvE jobs are so braindead you can snooze through it and still do well. Putting rewards behind boring content doesn't solve anything. The problem is the content, not the rewards. You can only argue that the rewards are the problem for one single piece of content in Endwalker: Criterion. Everything else is boring and a snoozefest. You ain't saving the game by putting the gear behind boring content, actually that will destroy it.

How to save the game ? Make jobs complex and fun again and make content that isn't a reskin of the same thing over and over again. Seriously, Eureka Orthos is absolutely embarrassing at this point, there's zero excuse for the total lack of innovation or exciting new designs. Even Criterion is a downgrade from Bozja duels and DRS because in duels and DRS you actually play with actions that make your job feel very different like Lost Blood Rage which totally changes how you play Warrior. What is there in Criterion ? Raise. Oh. Just Raise. And in Savage nothing !

[Noumenon]

Many people, including content creators, seem to be suggesting ways to fix the game that simply require people to grind out existing pieces of content.

Very few are suggesting ways to fix the game that requires the development team to innovate or create new pieces of content or revamp or reimagine existing pieces of content.

A simple 10 ilvl boost to gear from existing pieces of content isn't going to solve the foundational issues plaguing the game right now.

Having not enough content for people to do is bad, but changing the system to incentivize people to grind out extremely boring content is worse.

On the slight off-chance that anyone serious about providing feedback sees this, realize that the primary issue with the game is that the content is getting stale, and we certainly do not need to be incentivizing players to do stale content over and over again. Arthars at least had this right.

[Raven2014]

Many people, including content creators, seem to be suggesting ways to fix the game that simply require people to grind out existing pieces of content.

And I think this is where the disconnect between people, for more than one reason. While I don't doubt Xenos love the games, I think there are cases you love the game too much.* Here are the 3 disconnected points I observe from this video:


- He lives inside a (good) static bubble: his take is not unique, and it's not invalid. But it's one that more common among a section of players who ... we can say "who have it better than the average players?"

- He doesn't seem to care about things like mount or glam, which is a pretty big deal for a lot of people. "Glamour is the true endgame" isn't exactly a meme.

- He doesn't seem to understand what "catch up" mean from outside of a hardcore perspective.


And these difference seem to form the core argument "these contents don't last long and need to be more grindy". And I'm like ... no.

- I like mount, I farm them. Out of all the EX so far I got lucky twice, but all other fights are 100 totems. I don't have a static like him, all of my farming are done with PuG. Some people do it as a sprint, some treat it as a marathon. I'm more on the marathon side, so a new EX is usually a 4-6weeks content for me until I can say "I'm done with it". I think I will be speaking on behalf of a lot of people when I say no, this does not need to be any more grindy.

- Samething with the 24men raid. I'm a glamwhore, it will usually take me 2-3 months, running 2-3 times a week to get all of I want. Again, I think I will be speaking on behalf of a lot of people when I say no, this does not need to be any more grindy.

- And lastly, his take on how these contents are "pointless as catch up content" is also quite off. And it's off because he's looking at this purely as a hardcore, savage/ultimate players who living inside a static bubble. I don't think these contents have ever meant to help people like him to catch up. Rather, it's a way for the more casual population to have access to better , near savage-gears.


So to put it bluntly, I feel this video is bit ... out of touch? In fact, I dare say if the dev take his advise here ... there is a good chance they'll kill off the interest for a lot of other people. That's not saying his points are not valid, but only from his own PoV. If I have to sum up this vid, it's like I don't care about these contents so they don't last long for me. Well yeah, duh? So tittle it as "saving the game" are misleading, but I guess that's what streamers do to push the Youtube push algorithm.


*Go back to what I said above, one common elements among these recent string of vid is all of them claim "they love and play the game a lot". Assuming they're genuine and not just saying for the camera ... then I think that maybe their problem right there. I doubt I love FF14 as much as these streamers (claim to do). But may be that's why I never dislike or feel abandoned or left behind or insert catchy dramatize reason here as they do.

[Aldath]

TL;DR: The guy says the game will be saved by adding more homework without improving existing leglected content and systems.

Last time I checked it worked super nicely for Lost Ark- Oh wait...

[Noumenon]

"Glamour is the true endgame" isn't exactly a meme.

- I like mount, I farm them. Out of all the EX so far I got lucky twice, but all other fights are 100 totems. I don't have a static like him, all of my farming are done with PuG. Some people do it as a sprint, some treat it as a marathon. I'm more on the marathon side, so a new EX is usually a 4-6weeks content for me until I can say "I'm done with it". I think I will be speaking on behalf of a lot of people when I say no, this does not need to be any more grindy.

- Samething with the 24men raid. I'm a glamwhore, it will usually take me 2-3 months, running 2-3 times a week to get all of I want. Again, I think I will be speaking on behalf of a lot of people when I say no, this does not need to be any more grindy.

No offense, but you speak on behalf of a tiny segment of the playerbase.

Most gamers actually want to play video games, not just collect mounts or glamours. Good for you if you're satisfied with grinding EX 100 times, but for the vast majority of players, that is mindnumbingly dull, regardless of the reward behind it. 24-man raids are even duller. Both you and Xeno are focusing on the rewards that the content give you when most of the dissatisfaction people are feeling now is with the actual content. You are satisfied with the rewards, he is not, but neither of you are tackling the fundamental issue that the gameplay in FF14 is now extremely stale.

The carrots only work on a small minority of players - minority because data shows that this game has an insanely high churn rate - more than 20% every single patch.

[Raven2014]

No offense, but you speak on behalf of a tiny segment of the playerbase.

No offense, but I think you missed 99.99% of the point I made.

Hint: I even had it bold-faced.

[Noumenon]

I think you missed 99.99% of the point I made.

What did I miss? You said EX trials are fine because you farm them to get mounts, so they don't need to be grindier. Alliance raids are fine because you literally try to get every single piece of glamour for them, which necessitates a huge ton of grinding.

I daresay the amount of people who grind alliance raids to get every single piece of glamour are rarer than people who complete Savage tiers on content.

He finds the rewards lame, you don't. He chases ilvl and BiS gear, you chase alliance raid glamour. Both of these are rewards. And you can squabble with him about that, about which is more important, while the huge majority of the rest of the playerbase and potential playerbase (those players who have quit FF14 because of how lackluster and dull its gameplay is) are yearning for meaningful gameplay.

While you two are arguing about what is worth grinding for, everyone else is terribly bored about the the game itself.

[Supersnow845]

No offense, but you speak on behalf of a tiny segment of the playerbase.

Most gamers actually want to play video games, not just collect mounts or glamours. Good for you if you're satisfied with grinding EX 100 times, but for the vast majority of players, that is mindnumbingly dull, regardless of the reward behind it. 24-man raids are even duller. Both you and Xeno are focusing on the rewards that the content give you when most of the dissatisfaction people are feeling now is with the actual content. You are satisfied with the rewards, he is not, but neither of you are tackling the fundamental issue that the gameplay in FF14 is now extremely stale.

The carrots only work on a small minority of players - minority because data shows that this game has an insanely high churn rate - more than 20% every single patch.

Despite all its flaws and being built on the same stale combat system EW can at least claim the somewhat dubious title of “expansion where they tried quite a bit of new content”

But then you look at all the content and it all died on patch, nobody runs CV dungeons, nobody interacts with IS besides setting up the weekly spreadsheet, it’s all just there

Meanwhile 2 expansion old field content still has a massive and lively playerbase because there is so many glam and mount accessories locked behind eureka

If people truly didn’t care for mounts and glams eureka would have died on patch on CV would be flourishing, instead it’s the reverse

[Noumenon]

Despite all its flaws and being built on the same stale combat system EW can at least claim the somewhat dubious title of “expansion where they tried quite a bit of new content”

But then you look at all the content and it all died on patch, nobody runs CV dungeons, nobody interacts with IS besides setting up the weekly spreadsheet, it’s all just there

Meanwhile 2 expansion old field content still has a massive and lively playerbase because there is so many glam and mount accessories locked behind eureka

If people truly didn’t care for mounts and glams eureka would have died on patch on CV would be flourishing, instead it’s the reverse

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous - neither of those content are lively nor have a massive playerbase. Most people actually do Criterion in statics, and the amount of people using PF as an indicator is mind-boggling. If you look in recruitment Discords, barely anyone does Criterion, but it's certainly high enough that it's above 100 a day on patch. But the same goes for Eureka - there's maybe one or two BA runs every day or so on Aether. On average, less than 100 people participate in BA every day. It's frankly ridiculous to say that Eureka has a "massive and lively playerbase" when it can barely fill an instance on Aether. And on DCs like Dynamis, it's practically just bots and no real humans.

EW cannot claim to "try a bit of new content". Can anyone with a straight face say that Variant dungeons are innovative? It's three linear corridors mashed into one, with the "innovation" being giving you a paragraph of lore whether you knock a tree down or not. Does that really pass as "innovation" these days? Have our standards got so low?

Island Sanctuary is by far the most unique new types of content they've done in Endwalker, but it's horribly designed and serves only as a case study of how you should not be innovating. Island Sanctuary has a higher completion rate than on-patch Eureka, but the content is even more dull, even more braindead than on-patch Anemos. No one can seriously say that they actually tried to innovate when it comes to IS. Trying implies effort, and IS has none. If I splash paint randomly on the floor, it is certainly unique, but the word "innovative" has a positive connotation, and it most certainly should not be used on that mess of a floor.

If FF14 aims to retain players by satisfying either:

--- the people who want a mindless grind (at the extreme, those achievement hunters who grind for 20,000 Accursed hoards in PotD by repeating Floors 1-20 again and again)
--- the people who want to do next to nothing and get everything they want (extreme casual players who treat this game as Second Life and love the new tomestome weapons)

Then this game is going to die.

Because it was never about them.

Because most gamers care not about the carrots but about the actual meat, the substance of the gameplay. And most of these players have long since quit, which is why we have a remaining echo chamber of players fighting over rewards when players should be debating over how to make the actual gameplay more fun.

The context, for one. Watch his vid again, then read my original post.

Also, you're putting word in my mouth, I literally said NONE of what you're claiming I said.

Also noted that I was very carefully said his point is NOT invalid, rather it's coming from a very narrowed/limited perspective.

Exactly what are you saying then? Why are you bringing up your experience of grinding alliance raids for months to get every piece of glamour and then concluding that you speak for a lot of players and that players don't want it to be grindier?

Glamour = reward.

Hence, you're saying that you're satisfied with the rewards you get from grinding and that it is at an appropriate level of grind for you.

I am saying the debate over what level of grind is appropriate or what rewards should be behind those grinds is far from the primary concern or even the primary issue that plagues FF14 today - the staleness of gameplay. I am saying your disagreement with Xeno completely misses the mark on why this game has a 20% churn rate every patch, and why the vast, vast majority of players who played in HW and SB have long since unsubbed. It's like debating whether a patient dying from lung cancer should be treated with natural remedies or surgery for the fifth pimple on his thigh.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Many people, including content creators, seem to be suggesting ways to fix the game that simply require people to grind out existing pieces of content.

Very few are suggesting ways to fix the game that requires the development team to innovate or create new pieces of content or revamp or reimagine existing pieces of content.

A simple 10 ilvl boost to gear from existing pieces of content isn't going to solve the foundational issues plaguing the game right now.

Having not enough content for people to do is bad, but changing the system to incentivize people to grind out extremely boring content is worse.

On the slight off-chance that anyone serious about providing feedback sees this, realize that the primary issue with the game is that the content is getting stale, and we certainly do not need to be incentivizing players to do stale content over and over again. Arthars at least had this right.

Im happy someone said it.
And I hate I didnt say it myself.

I get bored of hearing about Field Zones / Explore Zones...because thats just a grind. Its something to do and work towards sure. But its not FUN. I want new things that are FUN and have staying power. Not just a soulless grind