Are we destroying "our own" game?

[Daralii]

Personally i liked the story a lot, up until we hit the Heritage Found. From there on, it is a mess that is full of plot holes that has been shoehorned into too little time, it should have been it's own expansion, or maybe at least 2 content patches. Plot holes like this are also the reason why i'm not such a fan of Endwalker as most other people seem to be.

The pacing in Endwalked sucked, but DT is much worse. They condensed two continents and what we now know(only thanks to a Yoshida interview) to be the 9th shard into one X.0 patch.

[Moerser]

Dont let the Interwebs make u think weird.
These forums r a tiny bit of the community, most r here to complain or just fight.
Utube is nice but also just a tiny bit of whats goin on.
Sometimes u may think it must b this and that cause u feel like "I only c this kind of complain...".
Its all bubble talk.
Millions of ppls and u only c tiny bubbles.
Dont loose ur head about it.

Greetz o/

[Stizzle]

I put the game down for a bit i literally got bored of the story. There isn't anything to keep me going on what happens next.

Definitely felt that - Endwalker had an "Avengers:Endgame" vibe and DT coming in like The Eternals really didn't sell me on the threat or characters.

I'm no conspiracy nut but there's a tinfoil hat part of me that can't help but believe the devs intentionally make things braindead & destroy jobs via some strange homologation just to keep us (peasant common folk player base) distracted. Spending our time creating job tiers, arguing, and ranting over XYZ so they can milk our accounts while they make adjustments all year only to break them again in another xpac. Job security 101

Ok tinfoil hat off =)

[CuteBucket]

My tinfoil hat is that they moved all the veterans who made FFXIV good in the first place over to the two other games that Square is apparently making CS3 work on, hoping that they can strike gold two more times, and leaving the game that makes them all their money in the hands of a bunch of overworked newbies who barely get assigned a budget to do anything with. Seems like the kind of stupid corporate decision a company like Square "we love crypto and shitty live service games that close in a year" Enix would make.

[Layte_Aeon]

- How do the Hanu² not know about their festival and why is there someone that knows in the village and tells nothing?
- How do the the moblin don't know that putting people to work just next to the fire is wrong and do not know what food tend to suit each race if that system has existed for 80 years. It's supposed to be a working system, not a trial one.
- How do the Yok Huy suddenly agree to let strangers on their sacred mountain... because one was saved from a big bird? I'm sorry, but how can I believe it's a tradition that existed for hundreds of years if they throw it away like that.
- How can the Pelu² race trait can be limited to trading and drinking, and the Hrothgar one be limited to one dish. It feels shallow.
- The Mamool ja is definitely one of the better ones, but still how can they throw their tradition away like that? and if it was not as deeply rooted in their culture and so many wanted to change it, why did it has to wait you arrive for it to happen. There should have already be a shiism to be believable.

The Hanuhanu festival thing is just the meaning of a tradition getting lost over time, not exactly an unheard of event. And Wuk Evu I think mentions that it seemed awfully rude to go to a people and lecture them about their own traditions.
With the moblins its ultimately a point of pride. If they can't navigate the needs of their pact people without bothering them constantly then they've failed. This is just showing that the system still needs improving and adapting.
On the Yok Hoy and the sacred mountain, do you mean the dungeon or the trial. Because the dungeon we were given permission, but one group didn't like that, and the trial again we were given the go ahead by one group and had to convince the other that actually Valigarmanda is going to be a big problem if left alone.
The Pelupelu as a race and culture got freedom through mercantalism and that coloured their culture, which is actually quite young. And the Hrothgar aren't limited to one dish it's just that one has special meaning.
And the Mamool Ja of Mamook changing their tradition of relying on Blessed Siblings, much like Limsa Lominsa they didn't do that because it was fun or intriguing, they did it because they thought it necessary. However events have shown a path that may well be better for them, so perhaps it is time to let that part of their history go. That and Mamook specifically was filled with most of the conservative elements with most of the rest moving to Tuliyollal, there was a schism it just happened much earlier.

There were answers to these. You may not like them and that's fair, but they are there.

[Adamantini]

Browsing through the forum here and watching Youtube videos I clearly see how people seem super unhappy with the new Expansion.
Playing the game for myself and also in my fc and social groups I did not experience that feedback for quite a while.
I never checked this froum in the past and just came here recently to look for the "community voice" but.. is it really that bad? Are people that mad about DT or was it always like that in the forum? Maybe someone that observed the forum for a few years can tell me.

I personally think DT is fine story wise.. sure it may not be peak epic but I feel like it is quite good. I was entertained especcially for the last part of it.

The content imo is great. It is more entertaining than in the past and we now even can wipe here and there, which is often funny. People are saying it is too hard but idk isnt it exciting to have a look at the boss while doing roulettes? (talking about dungeons)

For the raids it is kind of the same. I dont feel like they are particulary harder than - for example - ShB Normal Raids?

Are here any people that actually enjoy the game? And if not.. where are they? I've heard player counts are looking good, and I tbh can imagine why.

It makes me kind of sad hearing all that stuff about "dungeons too hard for me" "raids too easy for me" "story is bad" "bring back stormblood", I have the feeling people are more and more driven into the mindset "Well if everyone says it is bad.. then it must be bad!" until they actually feel that way.

Changes only come from feedback, whether you like it or not, negative feedback. Honestly, why would a company bother to change a product when everyone says, "Okay, I like your product"?

That said, no, no one is "destroying" the game. These are just people unhappy with a range of issues, from the game's story to how their class no longer satisfies them. And if they're giving this feedback, it's because they still like the game but something is bothering them. If they didn't like it, instead of continuing to pay a subscription to "destroy" the game, they would just stop playing and look for something new.

This is a forum where people come to discuss their points, regardless of the post's title. If you're enjoying the game, great! But getting upset with someone who isn't and is expressing their dissatisfaction is as silly as someone doing the opposite. If seeing opinions contrary to your own makes you sad, this isn't the place for you (sorry for being so direct and harsh, but I couldn't find a better way to express myself).

I know you're new here, but there's a lot in this game that only improved after a series of "drama", and just as I know that if you ever get bothered by something, you'll come here to try and point out to the company where changes are needed, others are doing the same today.

[CaptainLagbeard]

- The Mamool ja is definitely one of the better ones, but still how can they throw their tradition away like that? and if it was not as deeply rooted in their culture and so many wanted to change it, why did it has to wait you arrive for it to happen. There should have already be a shiism to be believable.

The Mamool part is definitely the most reasonable bits of the story... A lot of their traditions and ways came to be because of the area they lived in.

Gonna have to goto spoiler territory for more in depth noted

The Mamool Ja living in that forest, which for some reason, possibly the meteors which wouldn't really make sense that they would have that massive of an effect... But it had an absolutely terrible balance of the elements which caused almost every type of plant to be completely incapable of growing in the forest area.
As such they were unable to grow their own food, they had to had to get it from somewhere else and with nothing to give in return, they had to resort to taking it by force which lead to their war with the Hrothgar.

I don't remember the specifics on why they ended up mixing the different Mamool Ja types, but because of it eventually the first two-headed one popped up and because of how powerful he was, they started purposefully recreating that so they would have someone who would win the war for them. And that's kind of how that tradition formed.

And as for breaking that, or at least starting to break it, the solution was to bring in new types of crops that could actually grow there and make them able to be self-sustaining.

[Aldath]

The pacing in Endwalked sucked, but DT is much worse. They condensed two continents and what we now know(only thanks to a Yoshida interview) to be the 9th shard into one X.0 patch.

I remember I decided to skip cutscenes and just watch a video resume of the events up to the last area when I had to escort a Loporrit with epic music in the background while the whole world is burning.

The few hours (yes, hours) I've played of DT, it's been the Loporrit thing but extended to infinity. I've probably advanced a level and I've seen more cutscenes than in ARR. It just made me weight whether I'll skip the cutscenes, or stop "playing".

[Destati]

I got really late to starting the expansion due to IRL circumstances so I'm still not completely through the MSQ yet (lvl 98). I went in being well aware of the criticisms of the expansion and Wuk Lamat in particular. I'm not particularly bothered about not being the main character because for how little agency we have over the course of the story I've never really felt like we're the main character anyway.
Even so, I do feel like there's been a common occurrence this expansion of the camera panning to your character in cutscenes almost as if to remind you that you're still there, which I find amusing. On the subject of cutscenes, this is the first time since ARR where I've begun to physically wince when the screen fades to black to initiate one. Normally, I will go out of my way to read every single text box in the game, I am very interested in the worldbuilding and lore. HOWEVER, while that mentality hasn't really changed here, I do feel like certain cutscenes would have been better as normal dialogue exchanges, if only to cut down on the time it takes for characters to go through their animations. A bunch of scenes feel dragged out when the point could have been conveyed through a couple text boxes. It's a shame because I am interested in learning about what this new world has to offer, but the way things have been written makes it tedious.

As for Wuk Lamat, I don't believe she deserves nearly as much hate as she's been getting. I'm not going to say that Wuk Lamat is a flawlessly written character, I feel her presence in the story is far more meaningful/impactful than Lyse's, and I find her far more likeable. I do see how people might not be a fan of her archetype, but I've also seen a bunch of bad faith criticisms especially with regards to her voice actress (of which I am immediately suspicious of with the use of "Woke Lamat". :/) Either way, I'm praying that they won't pull a Lyse with her and write her virtually out of existence.

At the end of the day, I was expecting SE to really lower the ante for this expansion so I went in with equally low expectations. But I'm gonna see how the MSQ ends here before having a final opinion on everything.

[Alice_Rivers]

I had my issues with SB but Lyse wasn't really one of them. Wuk Lamat on the other hand I find completely insufferable, she omnipresent at the direct expense of other characters and times the story itself, she's forced into everything fun or that could be considered the player character's moment to do... Anything and she has no character growth at all. Obviously there are people who like her and it's a mystery to me, I really wish she'd never darken my screen again.