To SE and CBU3, we seriously need to talk about your Seasonal events

[Kranel_San]

I often don't write threads about topics people are already discussing, but I feel like I need to say my piece concerning this particular one. This is because I have already noticed this issue before and explicitly made my opinion clear in private and public on multiple Media, ranging from the in-game chat to the forums here and even Social media.

The state of FFXIV seasonal events and rewards can be described as nothing less than atrocious. If you play other MMOs like WoW, GW2, ESO, etc.. then you'll notice the events over there are focusing on the "Seasonal" aspect of the events, relying on yearly replayability where new & old players alike can obtain both new and old seasonal rewards through various methods. New additions to the event such as new activities are being added slowly throughout the years by the developers, with the purpose of enriching the event itself, giving experienced players more content to look forward to and to engage with. By the end of the event, the only thing they're going to feel they've missed is the event itself but not the reward, where players biggest and only concern is the return of the event again to obtain the rest of its rewards.

Meanwhile, the events in FFXIV are just a single or two time-limited quests with time-limited rewards that can be completed within five minutes and are made by the developers with the purpose of keeping players subscribed to the game and nothing else. There are barely any event engagement or memories to remember it by because there are barely anything to begin with. During the Halloween event, all I did during it was running around Gridania doing chores. During the Valentine's event, all I did during it was running around Gridania again doing more chores. All of these to obtain the event rewards before they're being sent to the cash shop.

In other MMOs, the developers focus on entertainment, event replayability, and event growth. In FFXIV, the developers focus on adding new additions to the cash shop both directly such as the recent Crescent moon mount, and indirectly such as the Gobbue reskin mount from the Little Ladies 2024 event. What's worse is the supposed event mount being a poor quality in comparison to the other mount, even when both are ultimately going to be in the cash shop together. You can clearly guess which mount the developers have taken their time to make, and which one might have been something that was sitting in their files as an unused asset for years before being decided to be used to have a reward for an event.

In a game that requires the player to monthly subscribe and buy expansions, it should give more attention to the game including its own seasonal events rather than slowly shifting its gaze on the players' pockets via the cash shop. The state of seasonal events has reached a point where many players are expecting nothing, but are still disappointed.

This is not how you run seasonal events. What should we have instead is;

1 - Recurring rewards (Mounts, glams, minions, orchesterion, and anything else)
2 - Recurring event activities such as the Halloween manor or the Moonfire jumping puzzle returning to the game every single year as part of the event itself
3 - New mini-games that are added to the event throughout the years, with some rewards requiring you to do the mini-games in order to obtain them
4 - Less focus on time-limited quests
5 - New event rewards with good quality that are not time-limited.

Right now, FFXIV's direction regarding seasonal events is not the norm, but rather the exception. While I know this is almost impossible to happen, I which the developers take events seriously like WoW does, where a single month in WoW has more events than an entire year in FFXIV.

https://imgur.com/a/cqZAHqx

(Apologize but I could not attach the image in the thread itself, and would appreciate if someone can lend me their support in this matter)

Keep in mind, All of these events in WoW didn't have any single event reward being taken to the cash shop, something Blizzard despite being known for its greed for players' pockets, has not done so because it's really, really a low move.

In conclusion, I'd like to say that we deserve better. FFXIV should get more love and attention instead of the cash shop additions left and right.

[Avoidy]

here's the image, probably
also I agree with you op.

[Kranel_San]

here's the image, probably
also I agree with you op.

Thanks pal!

Looking at this image makes me sad. I wish we had weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly events running that keep recurring again and again. Something to make me look forward to the next week rather than just "I can get more tomes now and do weekly activities, yay!"

[Avoidy]

Thanks pal!

Looking at this image makes me sad. I wish we had weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly events running that keep recurring again and again. Something to make me look forward to the next week rather than just "I can get more tomes now and do weekly activities, yay!"

Yeah I mean, especially with all the revenue this game brings in from subs/cash shop, the least they could do is roll out events that are actually decent. Even the moogle one, which is a step in the right direction for sure, doesn't update enough so it feels hella stagnant and if you don't like the rewards then there's never a reason to bother. We have so much side content just sitting there that they could easily do cool scheduled events like that pic themed around the gold saucer, or any of the minigames/side content, but nah.

[Jojoya]

I don't have the experience with all the MMORPGs you listed, just WoW up through end of Legion (and I'll add in that RIFT more or less mirrored WoW when it comes to holiday event design among other things).

Unless Blizzard has changed things in the last couple of years, the WoW seasonal events aren't the amazing thing you make them sound like once you've done them a couple of times. They're the same grind year after year. The same story year after year. At most, they add a new reward or two for players to grind out the currency so they can buy it at the vendors. The only time I can remember them really shaking up the seasonal events was in Cataclysm and most of that was due to changes to some of the areas used in the events.


But I agree that FFXIV would benefit if the developers changed the formula a bit. Having a bit of grind content as part of the events would be helpful. Continue to give us the new story quests each year with the new seasonal reward but bring back the old mini-games to grind currency to purchase prior years' rewards that were missed or that are wanted for alts that hadn't been created yet. I miss the old Haukke manor mini-games for All Saints' and similar activities. There will always be those impatient people with more money than sense that will still buy the seasonal event items because they don't want to wait until the event returns but having reason to repeat activities during the events would make them more lively.

here's the image, probably
also I agree with you op.

But nothing in that screenshot is a seasonal event. Recurring events, yes. But not seasonal. They're not tied to real world holidays,

Gold Saucer is our Darkmoon Faire and we have access to it daily instead of one week each month.

The World Quest event just doubled reputation gained from World Quests. Same World Quests that the player would get even if the event wasn't running. Pointless for those who had already maxed their reputations. I guess SE could create a FATE event day where players get double the XP or gemstones but how many would care?

Timewalking? We've already got the option to run dungeons synced or unsynced as we want (though WoW's syncing is different from ours). The gear rewards aren't special, at most another add to transmog (now that is something we need). The one thing that Timewalking has going for it is the mounts, that can be earned through currency collection or very rare random drop.

Hearthstone? Crossover event. We get plenty of those and we still have the XVI crossover coming before Dawntrail is released.

PvP Brawl? Wasn't that a selected open world PvP area being turned into FFA, last man standing? I don't remember it having special rewards but I imagine a lot of the FFXIV PvPers would enjoy it as a change of pace.

[edit - forget to add in Un'goro Madness - that's a little on the different side as it was a chance to get a couple of battle pets only available while the event is active, similar to others that that had time/weather/seasonal restrictions. I also remember the anger in the player base when the chance to obtain the minions turned out to be exceptionally low. Don't know if Blizzard ever changed that.]

Trial of Style? Okay, that we need with all the glamour fanatics in the game. Fashion Report might have a similar theme but it's not the same as being given a theme and creating your own look for it. The rewards for Trial of Style were terrible when it was first added, though. They were close to bottom of the barrel when it came to demand for transmog. I hope Blizzard has improved them since.

What we're really seeing with the screenshot is the effect of marketing on player perception. Blizzard is far better at marketing than Square Enix is. Blizzard has turned things that are common every day content in this game into special limited time events in WoW. Dig that dagger deep into player FOMO, make them fear they're going to miss on out something special... when there really isn't anything special about it in most cases. Miss one Timewalking event? It will come around again in a few months. If you want an item for transmog now instead of waiting, just run the dungeon unsynced when you feel like it.

The events feel like they exist solely to make future mogstation content.

Though I dont know who's going to buy the pink cheeto dusted goobbue mount.

The same people who buy all the seaonal event items from the online store.

The money doesn't mean anything to them. The look of the item doesn't mean anything to them. All they know is that their collection isn't complete if they don't own it and that's not acceptable.

[Stormfur]

Remember when we got a full costume, a minion, a wall decoration, a tabletop decoration, five different outdoor furnishings, a wallpaper and five different food items plus three different fireworks for just ONE event?

[Swordsman]

Remember when we got a full costume, a minion, a wall decoration, a tabletop decoration, five different outdoor furnishings, a wallpaper and five different food items plus three different fireworks for just ONE event?

Yeah, I sure do. Long gone are those days unfortunately, and we're in maintenance mode until DT.

[LianaThorne]

I've seen more involved events out of indie scam gacha games lol.

14 really needs to figure out how to fit more into their monthly calendar as well...provide people more reasons to log in during the dead periods.

[Astrus]

I'll just cross-post this here

To me it's not that the events are bad so much as they're essentially FOMO content never to be seen again.
I think I might feel different about what content we get if all or at least most of it just made a return on the next year.
Not that the quest-based nature of the events would make a big difference for veteran players who did those quests but it would serve to make the seasonal holiday events seem bigger for new players and could open the door to more replayability in event content.
And I still hate that the only way to get past event rewards is buying them from the cash shop.

They went to the effort (however much that may be) of creating those quests and cutscenes. Just retiring them forever after having them in the game for two weeks seems like a bit of a waste of development resources.

I like the way GW2 does holidays, while there is new content every year it's not a massive amount of it, usually amounting to a short quest and a handful of new skins. Most of the content being replayable and coming back every year is what makes their festivals so interesting.

[SieyaM]

The events in XIV do feel a little bland. It would be nice if it felt like the event was happening in more than just one zone, even the other city states that aren't hosting it are just decorated in one area. If you never visited Gridania you could probably not even know there was an event going on.