Is anyone else not really enjoying themselves?

[fioravictorine]

Yeah I can feel everyone's dissapointment here - I did too after finishing the MSQ

I am also very sad because SE and Yoshi-P was lying to us in the face on what this expansion is really about. Every single promo material and ad just shows us adventuring or having fun with the Scions in this new land, with not a single sight of that obnoxious cat...

What we got in DT instead is 40 hours of cheerleading, babysitting and being a walking camera slave for Wuk

[Themarvin]

It must be you, having a good time here as it is...

[chizLemons]

If it helps, the few crafter storylines have been pretty decent. The Weaver/Leatherwork one, in particular, is essentially forklore stories on each of the races we meet told in a concise and genuinely interesting manner. I found better than the MSQ itself, which is sad to say. I've also heard the side quests in Living Memory are rather good but haven't done any yet myself.

Nevertheless, I can certainly understand the sentiment. A friend of mine is basically the exact same way and hasn't bothered to log in since last Friday. In my case, I've mostly focused on my usual stuff like making gil. So that keeps me motivated to play. Likewise, the EXs are some of the best they've released. It is a bit sad though I'm enjoying Dawntrail more as I distance myself from the MSQ.

I did all of the sidequests in Living Memory...the fountain guy in the first zone I thought was good, the rest was...uhhh...

I still plan on checking out the crafter quests eventually, but from your description, it might still fall on the same issue for me. I don't feel like I have a reason to care about the folklore...which is ironic considering they tried to hammer down the "learn other cultures" aspect so badly during the whole story. It's the lack of good character writing for me. I want to care about the characters, and that makes me care about where they live, not the other way around.

I think that's the "bad" part of being too attached to one aspect of the game...it took my enjoyment away from everything else. Which up until the end of 6.0 it didn't feel like a problem at all in this game, but now it seems to be.

[PaleYonder]

I still plan on checking out the crafter quests eventually, but from your description, it might still fall on the same issue for me. I don't feel like I have a reason to care about the folklore...which is ironic considering they tried to hammer down the "learn other cultures" aspect so badly during the whole story. It's the lack of good character writing for me. I want to care about the characters, and that makes me care about where they live, not the other way around.

I think that's the "bad" part of being too attached to one aspect of the game...it took my enjoyment away from everything else. Which up until the end of 6.0 it didn't feel like a problem at all in this game, but now it seems to be.

I'm pretty much the same, I somehow didn't expect the main quest could turn this bad all of a sudden, and since it was the thing I liked the most, now everything's tainted by that. Some activities are still fun, yeah, but it's not the same. I'm basically running a test on myself, "While my sub is still running, is this game still worth it for me in the future?" Like with many people, it's accompanied me through some very rough patches in life, but if it turns out this is it, then that's how it is.

And also same on the cultures. I don't need every character to be a complex multilayered masterpiece of writing, but they need to be the bare minimum of characters, and if I'm going to learn about cultures, I need something cool, something unique, something with at least a tiny speck of originality and depth and something to say. In Dawntrail I just don't care. I need more than "fairtrade and alpacas" or "tacos".
I don't have a crafter on that level yet, but if I get there, I'll check out the quests; I'm now curious if it's so much better, and if it is, it's a damned shame they didn't care about the MSQ enough to swap things out somehow. That's the one that should be getting the first pick of the good stuff.

[Collin_Sky]

If the MSQ was the only thing that you enjoyed, you didn't really enjoy the game to begin with.
You barely played it.

[chizLemons]

If the MSQ was the only thing that you enjoyed, you didn't really enjoy the game to begin with.
You barely played it.

No one said that.
If you read the MSQ like you read forum posts I wouldn't be surprised if you liked it.

[Cynric]

I think for me, I've been playing FFXIV for a long time and usually the MSQ is always something I can count on to motivate me to want to learn more about the world we're put in and the circumstances around it. This time though, while the battle content is really stellar(probably the best it's been in forever) I just can't feel motivated to keep playing. In fact playing kind of makes me sad. Between how bad the MSQ was and the likelihood that the Dev's might screw up Viper which is the job I've had the most fun with for over 6 years. I've kind of lost all motivation to keep playing in general.

I really liked the characters before, and now I dunno, I can't imagine going through anymore of the Wuk lamat show, like just the thought of having to deal with more of how the main quest was written, or having to deal with more of Wuk lamat. It honestly makes me wish I never bought Dawntrail. I've never been more excited for summer vacation to end in my life. Honestly, if the game continues down the path Dawntrail has started, I can't see myself being able to justify the expense of a game I don't enjoy anymore. I'm really hoping the raids are fun and that the story is 100% separate from Wuk Lamat, because after getting through the MSQ , especially the final trial (I will absolutely never do that trial again), I've never been more depressed to be playing a game in my life.

[BakoolJaJa]

I think for me, I've been playing FFXIV for a long time and usually the MSQ is always something I can count on to motivate me to want to learn more about the world we're put in and the circumstances around it. This time though, while the battle content is really stellar(probably the best it's been in forever) I just can't feel motivated to keep playing. In fact playing kind of makes me sad. Between how bad the MSQ was and the likelihood that the Dev's might screw up Viper which is the job I've had the most fun with for over 6 years. I've kind of lost all motivation to keep playing in general.

I really liked the characters before, and now I dunno, I can't imagine going through anymore of the Wuk lamat show, like just the thought of having to deal with more of how the main quest was written, or having to deal with more of Wuk lamat. It honestly makes me wish I never bought Dawntrail. I've never been more excited for summer vacation to end in my life. Honestly, if the game continues down the path Dawntrail has started, I can't see myself being able to justify the expense of a game I don't enjoy anymore. I'm really hoping the raids are fun and that the story is 100% separate from Wuk Lamat, because after getting through the MSQ , especially the final trial (I will absolutely never do that trial again), I've never been more depressed to be playing a game in my life.

I play MMOs because I want to be part of a big, multiplayer, persistent world. Most people do. It's why and how people get so invested in these games and their characters. It's a separate ongoing life of sorts. The MMO experience isn't comparable to single player games in that regard. There you become part of a world for a specific moment in time, both virtual in game time, as well real life time. The world has a beginning and an end, so does the story, so does a character, etc. Not in MMOs though.

While FFXIV keeps getting updates, it keeps on being this other living, breathing world filled with real people. And we all can be part of it.

But if suddenly the world changes, if it becomes unappealing for whatever reason, the feeling of immersion begins to fade. And anything in the "world" can contribute to that change. It can be class balancing, it can be a graphics update, it can be music you dislike, story not being up to par, the community becoming toxic. Suddenly you feel a distance. You feel alienated. You no longer want to be in the world at all, despite the original issue potentially being very minor. I'd compare the effect to how easily immersion breaks in VR vs usual gaming. You can suffer through a million graphical bugs on a 2d screen before you get fed up. But a single tiny hiccup in VR is enough to pull you right out of the experience.

So I don't think anybody is exaggerating or being dramatic. This is in the nature of the genre.

For me, I've been having minor issues with the ffxiv community for a while now, but it sure feels like it came to a head with all this Dawntrail controversy. Not once have I silenced or criticized anyone who is having fun or sharing their positive impressions. But the amount of toxicity I have gotten in return is far too much. And all I have ever shared are rather legitimate and polite criticisms, no personal attacks, nothing overly emotional. The way the playerbase reacts to any sort of complaints is hard to stomach. Aside from feeling like you can never be genuine and truthful, instead constantly having to fake pure bliss, it also feels like this leads to feedback never getting heard. And I want the game to become better. But when so much of the community is constantly pushing back against every attempt to better something I love... Well, it makes me skeptical about the future.

Edit: I see some misunderstanding in the comments. None of what I mentioned has anything to do with the size of in game areas. I am not talking about locations or about whether or not the game has an open world to explore. Not once. I am not talking about the physical aspects at all. This is more of an emotional/mental thing. A world can be persistent and big while being physically small. For example through its community.

[koko-on-da-forumz]

I play MMOs because I want to be part of a big, multiplayer, persistent world.

FFXIV has not been this since 1.0. Any feeling you had that this was the case comes from inexperience with the game and your own expectations with the genre. Even in ARR there really was very little to do in the game outside of very non-persistent instances. It's a visual novel with a raid sim attached.

If you want a big, multiplayer, persistent world, play Guild Wars 2 or Final Fantasy XI. I'd be thrilled to get you started in either because actually playing them in the open world with other people is a lot of fun and not just hand-holding from point A to point B.

[Rayne6665]

Im not. If youre bored out of your mind, go play other games. Take a break from 14.