Discuss : is ffxiv in trouble

[DiaDeem]

Game is fine. Skull and Bones is in trouble. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is in trouble. XIV is not.

[Maltothoris]

I would not say that the game is in trouble but the cracks are there that could easily hurt it if not checked I would in maybe 3-4 years.

[ChrysOCE]

Nah, game is not really in trouble. I hate the direction some of the content has gone - EW relics, EW alliance raids, what IS turned out to be, healer (lack of) design, pvp balance, the intensification of solo play in an mmo, the EW Blue Mage lack of actual content update that had Blue relevant for a few weeks and then died out again, the godawful patch story.
I'm not going to cancel my sub over it. And if there's something on the shop I want to buy, I'll buy it.
I don't have anything in particular against Yoshida. But his time has probably come. Put in a succession plan or something. Though, based on patch performance, it's not like the other staff really carried the load while he was off on his FFXVI adventure. I always hated the argument of "if you don't like it, unsub". But I will unsub when I don't like it. Or, probably more accurately, when enough people I know stop logging in.

[Colt47]

The problem with the expansion and the game is the implementation of cross server play. To give a real example of the impact: I am rank 10 in island sanctuary and am just now starting the journey to rank 20, because I literally couldn't enter the sanctuary. Due to scheduling, I was always stuck on Aether to do savage with various groups so it wasn't possible to even so much as come in to check the work schedule. There's no way to catch up on this content since it is a time gated thing like a phone game, so someone starting now likely has to go hit rocks for hours just to make rank 20 in time.

The other problem is the market boards. It created a situation where most buyers of goods are going to one set of servers, while the people who make goods and can sell them are stuck on the same servers they made characters on. Things are way less fluid on Crystal and Primal then on Aether, and a lot of the items that are the kinds of things people who play casually would sell, sell for way more on aether than crystal or primal.

[MistakeNot]

So the context is a little self explanatory but if requested I can explain in detail.

Given the way the game currently works right now using stb/shb and ew as a point of reference. And what we've seen on dawntrail thus far. Do you personally think the game is in trouble or in danger of failing/deing due to it.

No, the game is not in any trouble or in danger of dying any time soon.

Eventually it will of course grow unpopular and die, if only because that's the fate of all games. But it won't happen during the next several years unless the devs screw up really badly.
Is FFXIV perfect? No.
Can it be improved? Sure, but what one person thinks is an improvement might make another person lose interest altogether. So deciding what should be done to improve it is not so easy.

[sindriiisgaming]

Meanwhile, all the newer players have plenty of content to sink their teeth into and don't have some past that they yearn for as if they are Emet-Selch.

this is candle burning at both ends and will eventually expire,
also its a false pretense. it implies i want a return to the past, but its a past i wasnt part of. what i want is innovaton

The majority of people on the forums tend to be... veteran players, who have burned through all the content that they are going to and came here to complain they are bored. Humans don't like change, so naturally, said veteran players will constantly complain about how things have changed from when they started.

So if you go into the game itself it's more likely to be a balanced mix of veteran, casual, returning and newer players.

except thats NOT what im seeing

because humans often don't like change

in this instance, id like change

[Jeeqbit]

You can stop jock riding SE my guy

My intention is just to be reasonable and fair to all sides, and people are rarely fair to the developers of an MMORPG.

We've literally have had people break down WHY the 2 min meta is mathematically bad

While true, it is not the sort of thing that necessarily needs an emergency hotfix, especially when they may design content around it. It's just something they have tried this expansion and they could change their mind on for the next one. At this point I just think they should get rid of party damage buffs altogether so that no jobs are being constricted by them.

we've had people show that the GM system is failed and needs to be reworked

Failed is a big word. It works really well based on the amount of people you can meet who were visited by a GM. But it is fair to say it can be improved, since it is usually fair to say that things can be improved however good they are. It works well for dungeon incidents, not so much for problems that happen outside of them.

we literally are seeing SE show that is cannot manage itself as a company properly and lost 2 BILLION in Value

I'm not an investor. I honestly don't look at that. But I can say I am not interested in the majority of games they put out, which from a distance look like shot in the dark cashgrabs to profit from theoretically good markets, such as mobile games.

if maybe that same inability to manage themselves properly affected this game

SE themselves have made it a point to clarify that there are multiple "business units" that are somewhat independent of eachother, so although it could affect this game, for the most part all the focus goes on CBU3 specifically who mostly focus on FF11, FF14 and FF16.

no one can ever answer if they'd give any other Major Live Service game this much benefit of the doubt

The answer is yes, if they explained themselves in a reasonable way. The situations that I wouldn't is if they did not explain themselves ie. no live letters, no interviews. I try to be understanding, but if they take a stance of not explaining anything then it becomes very hard to.

[Jeeqbit]

Does no one think, "Yeah, it kinda sucks for the players who are getting screwed over every time the developers do a simplification rework." I really don't think the ends of more players playing a job justify the means of ruining that job for the people who loved it, and stuck with it. If people can't handle it, make newer, simple jobs then.

I think that used to be their mindset but by their own confession in live letters/keynotes they decided it would be better to make them all easier to play going forward.

Personally, I think the ideal solution would be just a toggle that makes the job more challenging like Stormblood, where Darkside/Blood of the Dragon/GL4 turn from traits into buffs you maintain, Sidewinder increases in potency from both DoTs, more positionals and other technical differences that reward playing it well.

Do you not feel insulted, that SE thinks so little of the majority that the game needs to be dumbed down?

I don't feel insulted by that but rather I wish they would listen to and collect feedback better. The fact the forums can universally talk negatively of the 2 minute burst, alliance raid ilvl cheesing and other common topics, but there is no acknowledgement of this until a content creator makes a video about it or a rare journalist that isn't out of touch brings it up in an interview, is what I wish would be improved.

Because of how stupid they think everyone is? How absolutely unable they are to do basic actions?

Based on what I've seen in videos and from some players, I can't say they're entirely wrong about the old classes being too much for some players. But improving the default settings would help (such as turning on Legacy movement).

How unengaged and flaky they must be to give up if they don't win immediately and all the time? Doesn't that bother you at all?

It does bother me when there's no consequence. There is hardly any normal or solo content in the game where it feels like there's a genuine risk of me losing.

Sometimes I spawn Nunyunuwi (S rank) solo in Southern Thanalan, because there is a genuine risk I will allow a FATE to fail and have wasted an hour of my time. And it feels like that is almost the only risky content in the game that feels good when I succeed at it. It's clearly not intended for you to do it solo and that's the only reason it's challenging and keeps me on edge.

Exactly, they chose a side when they didn't have to.

Mayyybe. I did see the Tornado kick thing on Monk as not-intuitive, for example. I think another example of a good change was Dancer's flourish buff not overwriting all your procs anymore. I also liked the removal of Heavy Thrust and Impulse Drive. Although I liked the tank stances a lot, 50% of people using only tank stance and 50% of people using only DPS stance wasn't good for the game.

However, I think they went overboard with these changes. DPS stances that work like DRK's could have stayed by being used at the same time and tanks should have double downed on their own unique ways of survival ie. WAR shouldn't shield like DRK, PLD shouldn't regen like GNB. All of these could have stayed:

• DoTs being up buffing an attack on BRD and SMN
• GL4 and Blood of the Dragon
• The removed positionals could have stayed
• Warrior's and Samurai's cones
• Unique versions of stuns and rampart could have stayed

I think the changes have been good, there are just areas they went overboard on. Part of the problem hasn't just been making them easier either, it's been players (even on these forums) complaining "my class can't do what their class can" leading to them being the same.

If they disagree, how about telling us then? Why guess?

As I mentioned earlier, it would be good if they at least communicated enough that an issue brought up on the forums for years doesn't require a content creator to cover it to make it get addressed.

Newer players are easier to please because they don't know any better. They didn't have a game they liked rug-pulled.

That's another way of saying what I said tbh.

Just because something is changing, doesn't automatically mean I'm going to hate it.

True, but over the course of 10 years (which is a long time), the chances are you're not going to like 100% of the changes, and eventually enough of the ones you don't like take their toll on the happiness with the game. Even if you like 95% of the changes, in raw numbers, that 5% you don't like could be a lot.

One of my best friends in this game started in 5.4 (I started in 3.3 for reference), brought all of his friends from other games with him, and they hate the direction the game is going. Why do you have to pigeon hole people in your statements, and not treat them like they are individuals instead of a hivemind? Oh no, the Heavensward players are complaining again!~

I'm not saying that people who started in 5.4 can't be unhappy. It is just plainly obvious that people who played since 3.0 are more likely to be because they have had more of what they once knew taken away, so it's easier to use 3.0 players for emphasis.

Returners don't make the game more fun to play. They are a metric, and a source of income for SE.

True. Although to a degree they make it fun in a dungeon because a first-timer is more likely to die and mess up mechanics and forget stuff, and that makes it more interesting. And that was honestly the case many expansions ago because dungeons weren't exactly that hard even then.

keeps getting talked down to by the developers, and by you.

It isn't my intention to talk down. I'm just having a conversation/debate on the forums tbh.

Why do you need to support them for screwing over me and my friends?

Because it's not night and day for me like that. I can support them whilst making reasonable suggestions and polite criticisms.

[DiaDeem]

Anyway, here's this dude enjoying the game for the first time.

[ChrysOCE]

Anyway, here's this dude enjoying the game for the first time.

Probably an AI generated video. There's no such thing as actual humans on youtube anymore...