A Lived in World?

[OgruMogru]

So where is this lobby you feel like you're stuck in?

It's because most endgame content is instanced battle content so by it's nature it is separated from the rest of the game world as a whole. This is why I keep bringing up endgame specifically because the levelling and story progression happens in the actual game world through all the zones etc even if the content itself is still instanced, once you have completed that part of the game the majority of content that is released and expected to be repeatable is all accessed through the DF. So if you've finished with the content that makes you interact with the overworld [msq, fates, hunts, sidequests] you are left with only the DF to access the repeatable long-life battle content that makes up each segment of "endgame" in each patch cycle. because you're waiting on a DF pop [or PF to fill] it discourages engaging with anything in the overworld like fates because you will inevitably be interrupted by the queue popping or are locked out of even doing gates in the gold saucer [not sure if it's all of them but some for sure] so you don't really have much choice than to just stand and wait - the entire overworld just becomes a waiting room. I've done every sidequest in the game, I'm BiS so I have no need for tomes and I've got every glam item that I want [I'm heavily motivated by glam] if I wanna do mount farm it's all through DF and I can do it standing in one spot, the only tie to the overworld is going to the NPC to exchange totems.

Thats why I bought up the way ARR and HW raids [both normal and savage] would at the very least require the party to all travel to the actual overworld location to queue in. The most minimal level of integration with the world. I don't want people to stop what they're doing and seek me out for interaction at all [ever, anywhere as like, a life rule] It's a shame that's how you interpreted that and I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough in what I was trying to say but I was just trying to point out that at the bare minimum when that system was in place there was more integration between people accessing instanced content and the overworld content. The coil entrances were in limsa, just outside of wineport where there would frequently be low level people running through the story that would just incidentally go past people entering the raids so it added the feeling of the world being alive. Believe me forced interaction is the last thing I want and I also would feel extremely uncomfortable just siding up to a load of people idling in towns to start emoting at them like Bill in that episode of King of the Hill where he just stands on the highway for hours so people will beep and wave at him. But idk it's just more....humanising?? to see people milling about doing their own thing and sharing a space as opposed to wordlessly zoning into instanced content where the stakes and social dynamic is more focussed. I could find busywork for myself like gathering mats I do not need [in the same predictable set locations and set times] or levelling jobs I do not enjoy just to fill some time but I feel that does that content a disservice to just relegate it to the equivalent of reading a shampoo bottle on the toilet.

I know I have focussed a lot on specifically battle content for my reasoning but that is because it's the only part of the game I consider to actually be "gameplay" I'm not just being a sniffy snooty raider when I say this - I honestly do partake in all content the game has to offer. I love the story, I love exploring, I've done every sidequest, I read up on lore but all of that stuff is a one time experience. At it's core the game is combat oriented as like I said that is where there is an actual gameplay loop that has replayability and depth. All aspects of the game are equally important but the way everything is segmented off is detrimental to the overall unified experience. People may not enjoy the gameplay loop in bozja/eureka [the tacked on levelling system the elemental wheel thing, the grinding] but the way these pieces of content integrated the story, exploration, levelling, battles, relic, fates and raids is a much better example of how I would like the game to feel as a whole. Not to go on a tangent about this exp relic but even that has been reduced to just sitting in a DF queue completely divorced from the world at large.