Quitting ffxiv for good

[Hasrat]

I think I wasn't clear on this, but I never said to not cater to newer players. Churn is inevitable and cannot be denied, but you do need to take some measures to limit the number of established players lost to churn instead of not doing anything at all, which was how I interpreted the prefaced argument.

It may not be an entirely accurate assessment, but, I do feel the idea of established players being "hooked" already is what leads devs to not needing to spend much consideration on their needs. They already know the churn is going to bleed players. Addressing their concerns is an investment, and one that might not see adequate pay-off. They might stem the flow, but will such actions retain enough players to justify the expense? As well, once they've got these players in the game and established, one of the biggest things keeping them hooked is that sunk cost feeling. Devs know even without doing anything, many players will continue playing just because they've already played for so long.

It's brutal, but it's business. Money spent trying to keep some players around a few extra years before the churn claims them can be put to better use developing something to hook a new batch of players that might stick around for several years longer.

And, frankly, all of this is a rather optimistic outlook. As has been pointed out elsewhere, gaming trends as a whole are in flux. Where we are now is a far cry from where we started. There's no going back, and even adapting to "today" sets you behind if you can't get yourself ahead of "tomorrow"s trends.

[Espon]

I'd say goodbye but looking at your post history this isn't the first time you've quit.

So uh, see you in Dawntrail.

[Myrany]

It may not be an entirely accurate assessment, but, I do feel the idea of established players being "hooked" already is what leads devs to not needing to spend much consideration on their needs. They already know the churn is going to bleed players. Addressing their concerns is an investment, and one that might not see adequate pay-off. They might stem the flow, but will such actions retain enough players to justify the expense? As well, once they've got these players in the game and established, one of the biggest things keeping them hooked is that sunk cost feeling. Devs know even without doing anything, many players will continue playing just because they've already played for so long.

It's brutal, but it's business. Money spent trying to keep some players around a few extra years before the churn claims them can be put to better use developing something to hook a new batch of players that might stick around for several years longer.

And, frankly, all of this is a rather optimistic outlook. As has been pointed out elsewhere, gaming trends as a whole are in flux. Where we are now is a far cry from where we started. There's no going back, and even adapting to "today" sets you behind if you can't get yourself ahead of "tomorrow"s trends.

Let me add one more thing to the why Devs don't cater to existing characters list. They have our money. We already paid for the game and many have already grabbed why we want from the cash shop. Yes we pay a sub but that is true of any paying player new or old. New players are fresh cash cows both in purchasing the game and cash shop purchases. They make more money off of them.

Cynical ... probably but as you say it is business

[Darty123]

Wow, so I still have an active subscription until next Friday after canceling it yesterday and I didn't expect so many replies to my post. I see a lot of mean-spirited comments towards each other in the post I made and it's unfortunate because I thought the ffxiv community prided itself on being one of the friendliest and welcoming to one another however I also understand what a keyboard warrior is. My post isn't to encourage others to quit but give feedback to the development team that not only myself, but many veterans are saying as well as my friends who also left. I truly do not have any intention to come back to Dawntrail come 7.0 because the development team has not shown me a reason to with the fan fest's I have seen.

Again, my biggest complaint was that the casual content or midcore content got WAY to easy and didn't require any mental agility that the previous expansions did. The last two alliance raids that were released had fights not even threatening compared to previous expansion's (on launch). Healers and tanks are not pressured in content to preform and the encounter design has not utilized " adds" or additional enemies for damage checks, positioning, debufs as previous dungeons, trials and raids have. The encounter design is getting really lazy outside of savage and even in savage , fights are becoming body checks now.

If i am only savage raiding 4-5 hours a week and doing casual content 10+ hours a week I believe the majority of my experience will be negative with the lack of social content, rewards and engaging roulettes.

Expert roulette should feel like an expert dungeon meaning you should have a minor level of high play to do it. This is a final fantasy game There should be some level of threat imposed on a player thats short of an extreme trial. I dont know any other final fantasy game 1-16 that babies its player base to the extent 14 does.

I am not saying we need to go back to heavensward for job design but if you all dont see the encounter design getting too basic and lazy I am assuming you have not experienced previous expansions on or near min i level sync during release.

I truly wish you all the best and hope you have fun !

[Boblawblah]

I dont know any other final fantasy game 1-16 that babies its player base to the extent 14 does.

Huh, I definitely don't see Final Fantasy as a difficult series in any sense. In fact, it's quite an easy one imo. The first 5 games are only hard in that their old school jrpgs, which means the grind/random encounters can be an issue. FFVI - VII were extremely easy, you basically had to try to struggle. FFVIII's difficult was in the weird system, FFXIV was easy as well. I could go on but Final Fantasy has never pushed it's players to get better really at all. Even FFXVI, the 'action' child of the series seems terrified to let the player lose, and tries to lead them down a nice, safe path the whole time, with very few exceptions (this is not using the cheat accessories btw).

idk, I'm just not seeing it. FFXIV is par for the course imo, it's trying to get players to experience a story.

That said, none of this matters, as you're moving on. I also wish you the best and hope you find games you love

[Jojoya]

Expanding the lifespan of each customer is a good business strategy.

How would you propose doing that when customers aren't of a single mind about what they want?

There's a point where most people get bored with something, no matter how good it is, simply because they've done it too much. They need a break to try new things. Sometimes they'll return to the old, sometimes they won't.

Investing money trying to keep long time customers ends up a waste of money when they quit anyways. That's why so many business have special introductory offers for new customers but won't extend any special offers to their existing customers. Either the existing customer is still satisfied with what they're getting and will stick around, or they aren't and will leave.

How many of us are still actively playing one or more of the online game we were playing a decade ago and enjoyed? Of those games we're not still playing, why did we quit?

FFXIV will not be any different in the long run. There will come a point where we lose interest for whatever reason and move on. We owe no loyalty to a game as it is a business arrangement. We pay for access to the service because we're happy with what we're getting, or we don't pay for access to the service because it no longer suits our wants and needs. It's rare for the changes to a game over time to stay in sync with the changes to what a player is looking for. Eventually they're going to diverge and part ways.

The best thing to do is move on instead of trying to deny and fight the divergence. Sticking around won't accomplish anything. The developers are going to make the game they want to make, not the game that players think they should make.

Again, my biggest complaint was that the casual content or midcore content got WAY to easy and didn't require any mental agility that the previous expansions did.

But it never did require any "mental agility". All it required was experience. Once I figured out the differences between the WoW content style and the FFXIV content style, the casual content here became easy since a lot of my WoW experience could translate.

You're making the same mistake others have made. The new content additions are not easier than the older ones (not by a long shot) though design has changed. The difference is your mastery of the game. You got good. The challenge is no longer there.

If the game no longer offers the challenge you want because you've mastered it, then you're making the right decision to leave so you can find a game that will offer you new challenges.

But honestly, leave the petty insults like you used in your initial post out of your feedback. You're only tearing yourself down by using them because now you've made yourself look small and petty instead of looking like someone making a considered decision about what is in their best interests.

[Myrany]

The best thing to do is move on instead of trying to deny and fight the divergence. Sticking around won't accomplish anything. The developers are going to make the game they want to make, not the game that players think they should make.

Which is why I have walked away from one of the games I have been playing for years and am seriously testing to see if I want to walk away from 2 more. The Devs vision and mine no longer agree. I will give the changes a fair shot but if it goes as I expect I am out.

FFXIV is not one of those games yet for me.

[SailorCeti]

Hey, Darty, here's another take on the issues you listed. Have you ever considered that part of the reason things seem so easy now is because you learned the mechanics and have done it all? I'm not sure what you're on about regarding the duty finder, though. I'm on Diabolos and am leveling my fourth job, currently NIN-58, and get my roulettes done every day with a wait time of five minutes on average. Anyway, perhaps it's less about any real or perceived changes in the game's direction but the fact you've simply gotten bored. And, that's okay! No game is meant to be played forever, or in long stretches.

[ty_taurus]

Huh, I definitely don't see Final Fantasy as a difficult series in any sense. In fact, it's quite an easy one imo. The first 5 games are only hard in that their old school jrpgs, which means the grind/random encounters can be an issue. FFVI - VII were extremely easy, you basically had to try to struggle. FFVIII's difficult was in the weird system, FFXIV was easy as well. I could go on but Final Fantasy has never pushed it's players to get better really at all. Even FFXVI, the 'action' child of the series seems terrified to let the player lose, and tries to lead them down a nice, safe path the whole time, with very few exceptions (this is not using the cheat accessories btw).

idk, I'm just not seeing it. FFXIV is par for the course imo, it's trying to get players to experience a story.

That said, none of this matters, as you're moving on. I also wish you the best and hope you find games you love

The problem with this comparison is that other Final Fantasies have difficulty determined by grind. You can enter any given fight at any particular level, gear setup, and party combination, and those factors can lead to completely different experiences and levels of difficulty. XIV on the other hand does not let you enter a fight under-leveled, either literally or in terms of encounters having a minimum item level. I would also say that while past Final Fantasies aren't that difficult, I would say they generally do a much better job of pushing your resources and pushing you closer to the cusp of defeat. It's almost like many fights are designed specifically to make you feel like you're being put into a dangerous position while giving you time to recover, and there are absolutely surprisingly brutal bosses. Garuda in FFIII, Seymour Flux and Yunalesca in FFX, Bahamut in FFIV... All fights that notoriously give players a lot of trouble.

[Ath192]

The best thing to do is move on instead of trying to deny and fight the divergence. Sticking around won't accomplish anything. The developers are going to make the game they want to make, not the game that players think they should make.

This is actually not true though is it? Most of this games decisions have been driven by player feedback historically, maybe less so now. And they are only revamping the graphics because we asked for them, not because it was the easy thing to do. With the developers personally thanking the players for staying through 1.0 and apologizing to them how can you reconcile your words with so much evidence to the contrary?

I feel like your statements are more about silencing the negativity instead of listening or understanding it simply because you don't like it. But negativity has a place, and its that very same negativity in regards to this games difficulty that made it so easy. That was all player feedback. So hopefully that very same negativity will balance the game back to an interesting state again.

You certainly have no grounds to claim the devs won't make a game players want. Not when it comes to this one.

I distinctly remember Yoshi P asking in a keynote for Endwalker if it was okay to add weeks to the patch cycle and him getting a positive response because the players believed the Devs deserved some more breaks. Unfortunately, we did not realize this was going to make this games stale formula extremely obvious and make the game feel stagnant. As such, hopefully they'll step up efforts again and hire more people to keep content up instead of overworking their employees.

I have my resentments for sure, but despite criticizing them for not caring about a lot I can't say they don't take feedback.