Events need a massive overhaul

[sindriiisgaming]

Events in ffxiv have been underwhelming ever since I can remember as a player. Occasionally there was 1 (like that infamous Halloween event in january) that was giving a full glamour, in an instance duty and could even be done with multiple players. Latley some events have been suffering enormously due to stagnation

A few examples include
- little ladies day ( no new dresses or emotes just some headgear that's underwhelming)
Valentinos - a quest about gender acceptance with genderlocked rewards (...?) And cutscenes thar are a complete chore I wouldnt even be shocked if people auto played them and went afk. A barding that costs my entire cash stack stack and can't be purchased on mog store.
Christmas- best we go was a good choir minigame 4 years ago glamour also has went to die ever since. A mount that is completely underwhelming and nobody uses
Hatching tide- last really enjoyable event was the chicken catching a good few years ago now. Good glamour died with the spriggan event (mount+ cute coat)
Heavens turn - 1 good reward since 4 years ago at least. Last fun even was mochi pounding and tbh it wasn't very interactive
Moonrise faire - while the jump puzzle is a nice return to an old favourite, defaulting on it every year has really been comming off as an excuse to avoid new content, no really good glam since the hawaiian set 3 years ago

In the middle of content luls these events are supposed to breathe life into the game. They don't get treated half as well as the collabs do (armour weapons mounts and titles to farm) and this results in many people saying "nothing for me" this time.

We have had some really good creative events with a lot of love in them.. but those were all ages ago now and we desperately need fun and innovation back. This year we even saw 2 events squished together to avoid having to put in development work.. and I fear soon we'll be seeing more and more events squished or skipped

If you wish you can leave some creative ideas below for future event ideas

[Sacae]

The Valentine's event last year was nice, the two-player instance.
The Rising is usually pretty good.

Not much else to say about the others. Mostly it comes down to if you like the rewards or not. I've kinda been interested in the Papa Gruff storyline over the past few years for All Saints' Wake.

[LyraShu]

I started playing in November of this last year, and events just haven't been fun to me in the game overall. I think there was only 1 (maybe 2) original event during this 6 month cycle...the rest have all been reuploaded content from years prior. While it DOES give me a chance to "catch up" with the player base that has been active for awhile with these events...I can't help but to feel just let down.

I guess it is the feeling of, "Oh, the dev's don't care enough to try for a new event" more then anything. That and, I want to be able to play with friends with things but when events pop it is always "oh I did that years ago" and then I am just stuck being alone. Sure, there are other players catching up with me, but I just feel like I am basically being told "we don't have time to/care for these events" which just seems strange and stupid to me as an idea for a game development studio to adopt but that is just me.

[Sjol]

The only reason I do the events at this point is to avoid needing to pay money for locked glams.

Most of the ones I've experienced aren't well written and are frequently lacking in drama and/or feels.

The one good point with then being bad is that at least they're fast and the story isn't required for anything else.

[Khryseis_Astra]

Other than the crossover events, most of the “story” is just “slice of Eorzean life,” and that’s fine. I’m also fine with the gameplay being fast and easy. But the rewards could be better…

Ideally I’d like to see an outfit for each event, and for them to get more creative! We didn’t need yet another Santa suit for Starlight, and we already have reindeer and snowman costumes. So how about a nice casual winter outfit? Or a fancy holiday party outfit? We have witches, werewolves and pumpkin heads galore for All Saints Wake, but that would also be a good place for some more goth-looking outfits. Even though I didn’t personally care for the Wake Doctor’s outfit, at least it was something different! Moonfire has probably been the best for summer outfits, other than the Phoenix Riser suit I will literally never wear! If they’re running out of ideas, throw a fashion design contest. I’m sure everyone has at least a few ideas of things they’d love to wear!

The emotes in some of the recent events have been really good… I loved the magic wand, and the Valentiones heart emote. As far as mounts go, I loved the Phoenix, but didn’t really care for the pink Goobbue.

Personally I’d want an outfit and a housing item each event. There’s a backlog of furnishing contest winners a mile long! (And failing that, there’s still seasonal decor in the event areas that’s never been made available as housing items.) The emotes and mounts can be less frequent, I’m sure those take a lot more work to put in-game.

[littlehobbit13]

Ideally I’d like to see an outfit for each event, and for them to get more creative! We didn’t need yet another Santa suit for Starlight, and we already have reindeer and snowman costumes. So how about a nice casual winter outfit? Or a fancy holiday party outfit? We have witches, werewolves and pumpkin heads galore for All Saints Wake, but that would also be a good place for some more goth-looking outfits. Even though I didn’t personally care for the Wake Doctor’s outfit, at least it was something different! Moonfire has probably been the best for summer outfits, other than the Phoenix Riser suit I will literally never wear! If they’re running out of ideas, throw a fashion design contest. I’m sure everyone has at least a few ideas of things they’d love to wear!

The emotes in some of the recent events have been really good… I loved the magic wand, and the Valentiones heart emote. As far as mounts go, I loved the Phoenix, but didn’t really care for the pink Goobbue.

But that's the thing: the quality of rewards is a bit subjective to the player. You didn't like the Pheonix Riser suit, but plenty of other players LOVE that thing. And you think Moonfire has the best summer outfits, but personally I can't stand a lot of them because female versions always end as glorified lingerie which I'd never wear. Everyone's tastes will differ, and the very fact that not every reward will please every player is why they vary them.

Personally I’d want an outfit and a housing item each event. There’s a backlog of furnishing contest winners a mile long! (And failing that, there’s still seasonal decor in the event areas that’s never been made available as housing items.) The emotes and mounts can be less frequent, I’m sure those take a lot more work to put in-game.

The problem with housing items is that they breed resentment for any player without a house. If an event gives outdoor items, you're screwed if you don't have a house. It goes into storage to satisfy the "maybe someday" itch (so you don't get stuck having to buy them off the store if you want them later), but then every time you look at it you feel resentful that "someday" is not today. Resentful that you were "rewarded" with an item you legit can't use. You've pitched the idea that emotes and mounts can be less frequent, but those are the rewards any player can use.

The overall problem with providing a whole outfit for every event is how much work that is. There are quite a few events through every year. If you offered outfits for all of them, you'd run the well dry really quickly. That's not even touching on the amount of work it takes to create the glam in the system: designing the look in the game physics, fitting it to each race, styling it for each gender, determining how it will interact with dye colors, etc. That's quite a lot of work to take on in order to do an outfit for every event.

[Yshnal]

Other than the crossover events, most of the “story” is just “slice of Eorzean life,” and that’s fine. I’m also fine with the gameplay being fast and easy. But the rewards could be better…

This. I've always liked FFXIV's take on events because they are small side stories (which somewhat continue from one year to the next, instead of being static and boring) that are fast to complete and usually not grindy at all, so I can finish them without the FOMO preventing me from doing other things in the game (or out of it) if I want to. I hate being stressed doing an event that's supposed to be fun.

And I also agree that the rewards have been disappointing sometimes lately. Not in regards to the quality, which is something that can be a matter of different tastes, but in regards to the quantity or extreme simplicity in several cases.

I could also add another complaint related to how the rewards worked before the cash shop, but that's something that I complained about aplenty and I don't want to get back in the same neverending discussion. But I still haven't forgotten about what you did, SE!

[Tyintheron]

Just as a counterpoint: I think some of the issues you raise are a matter of preference. "No good glams in x years for event x" is a pretty subjective take - though I agree that whenever a seasonal event comes up without a new outfit or mount it can feel like a bit of a bummer.

That said, I much prefer FFXIV's "quick and easy" seasonal events where there's at least some changes to it from previous years. Having to run the exact same event 70 times in a week for a 0.1% chance at the reward you want for 20 years and NEVER GETTING THE REWARD in certain other MMOs has given me a pretty strong and favourable opinion of FFXIV's events by way of that comparison alone.

[TaleraRistain]

Just as a counterpoint: I think some of the issues you raise are a matter of preference. "No good glams in x years for event x" is a pretty subjective take - though I agree that whenever a seasonal event comes up without a new outfit or mount it can feel like a bit of a bummer.

That said, I much prefer FFXIV's "quick and easy" seasonal events where there's at least some changes to it from previous years. Having to run the exact same event 70 times in a week for a 0.1% chance at the reward you want for 20 years and NEVER GETTING THE REWARD in certain other MMOs has given me a pretty strong and favourable opinion of FFXIV's events by way of that comparison alone.

Pretty much this. I'm perfectly content with the more bite-sized events in XIV than having things in other MMOs reoccur but never actually managing to get the reward. I do the little quest here. I get my goodie. I'm happy.

[Kranel_San]

WoW events: At least one event each week + Sometimes introducing time-limited events that are entire playmodes
GW2 events: Full-fledged seasonal events with recurring rewards and multiple minigames to participate in
ESO events: Do X activity daily to earn tickets and get yourself a nice reward

FFXIV events: A side quest that is mostly: "Blah blah blah blah blah" and only one or two rewards are given at its end. And it can be done in less than 5 minutes.