Disappointed With XIV Direction

[Ritsugamesh]

This creeping sense of hollowness in both multiplayer and single-player experiences is undeniable. For all the game's talk of being a vibrant, dynamic world, it feels like the soul that once drove it is slowly slipping away.

This is the most important line there. What makes this MMO vibrant or dynamic? Literally everything is copy/pasted timelines and exact mathed out 'this is the best statistical dungeon layout so EVERY dungeon is the same design'. There's literally no moving parts in the world outside of hunts/fates (no thank you, I've done more than enough mindless fates and hunt trains for a lifetime) - everything else is as static and regimented as can be. Even the fight design is the epitome of static and unyielding, do the dance the right way and win. I know fights are only beat with the right strategy in every game, but imagine playing FFIX and the only way to win a fight was to sequence the perfect combo of attack/spell/attack/attack/defend/back row/etc. - it's hyperbole, but you get the concept.

There is just no room for anything other than the designed scope. Jobs have no identity and have been boiled down to the bare essentials. No room for expression, I mean even look at things like AST cards - the long vaunted discussion I know - but like, they're not even cards anymore. They're just additional crap oGCDs that are worse than other AST oGCDs.

FFXVI unfortunately felt exactly the same. The combat was flashy but was ultimately pointless, not challenging, and the whole effort lacked soul. I'm no longer sure this dev team have the creativity to escape the tightening of the noose.

[Kaecilius]

Literally everything is copy/pasted timelines and exact mathed out 'this is the best statistical dungeon layout so EVERY dungeon is the same design'.

At this point I'm BEGGING them to take another look at the old ARR dungeon design where you actually had to do things in the dungeons, and they were not just a long hallway. I understand that this might not be possible in the standard dungeons because of Roulettes, since you are expected to beeline for the next boss, but they have variant dungeons where they could get even more experimental with the branching labyrinthine paths and do interesting puzzles.

[Daralii]

At this point I'm BEGGING them to take another look at the old ARR dungeon design where you actually had to do things in the dungeons, and they were not just a long hallway. I understand that this might not be possible in the standard dungeons because of Roulettes, since you are expected to beeline for the next boss, but they have variant dungeons where they could get even more experimental with the branching labyrinthine paths and do interesting puzzles.

They'll look at them, but only to turn them into trash -> trash -> trash -> boss hallways for trusts.

[Jeeqbit]

it feels more anti-social than ever

I agree that finding social interaction in FFXIV is hard at first. It was for me when I started. But once you find the social spaces you realize it's massive.

• RP FCs, linkshells and CWLS. There are places listing RP events too.
• Venues (I separate these from RP, despite being connected, because some people enjoy these without necessarily being RPers).
• FCs that run events like map parties and extreme farms (but as you said these are a needle in a haystack). Like in any MMORPG, if everyone you see on the server is in that FC almost, it's probably the FC to be in for noise and activity. Often a good way to get an Eternal Bonding invite which are also community events.
• Hunt spawning and conducting communities are often small, close-knit and social on all worlds.
• Joining map parties in PF tends to be pretty social, since maps themselves are boring so you spend time just talking.
• Joining unsync farms is similarly social if the content is braindead to farm at that point, because all you have left is to talk while taking 2% damage.
• Really even content that requires focus in PF like Blue Mage clears or high-end raids can be social, depending on the party, because of talking while waiting for people to join, sometimes getting into discord and laughing together.
• Despite people's disdain for FATEs, completing Shared FATE ranks in PF is often social as well - being easy to fight them lends itself to just chatting with eachother between FATEs.
• Any large-scale content can feel social if people are chatting - Frontline, Field Operation shout chats, Alliance Raid chats, hunt train and S rank shout chats, occasionally city state shouts.
• To help people find social circles, SE created Fellowships. Despite the memes, people often advertise CWLS or discords for likeminded people in there - such as people who speak the same language, people from a certain region, people who want to do specific content (deep dungeons, MINE content, raids, etc), to advertise RP groups and events. Just got to scroll past the memes in there.
• A bit niche, but there is social interaction in Novice Networks too for those in there.
• Outside of the game, discord is massive for FFXIV. I'd say the easiest ways to find small FFXIV discord servers is to PUG raids or other content and you end up in small friend servers over time. Same if you join FCs - you end up in FC discord servers that way. But there are also hundreds of large FFXIV discord servers with social channels you can hang in.
• Another social area outside of the game is youtube and twitch. Lots of small and medium youtubers and twitch streamers grow from nothing if you look at the FFXIV categories or your homepage to see recommendations, and they create discords that grow over time and, often, people make friends in those. The FFXIV community team also stream sometimes or do PvP events.
• Though I don't use it myself, social media is also rather big outside of the game for FFXIV - reddit, ex-twitter, blogs, because people like to post their screenshots, art and crafts. The game is full of creative types so art and crafts are absolutely everywhere and etsy is full of people's FFXIV-inspired creations. Though it's not personally my thing it seems a very social space to me overall.

Party Finder is overrun with what can only be described as businesses masquerading as community activities

Only if you look at the Other category. I ignore that part of PF so I don't notice it.

Social platforms like Twitter/X and Reddit don't help either. Instead of fostering discussion, they're dominated by echo chambers where you're either fully aligned with the hive mind or silenced for fear of stepping out of line.

I suppose that can feel the case there, but fortunately it's not your only option.

Statics fall apart when content is cleared, leaving behind a trail of burned bridges.

I'm not gonna disagree that statics often fall apart. It's part of human social interaction, unfortunately. Even in real life you can burn bridges with people you worked with, get fired or fall out with friends and this is far more common when you do something that "relies on eachother" such as forming a band (I was in a few and fell out with all of them, despite being friends with them for years prior). It tests to the limit if you're really, emotionally, on the same page.

But when you find a team that doesn't fall out, it's great. Alternatively, it can be great in the time before it falls apart. If you all had a blast for a year, or a few years, before it went south, then at least you had a few years of joy?

story, once the game's crown jewel, is starting to falter

To me personally, it feels like what we've always got, it's just not my thing... this whole cyberpunk thing isn't really hitting for me. I do hope it'll move a bit back from the technology to traditional fantasy. The whole thing was great until Heritage Found where the technology just overdid it for me.

Jobs? They're being gutted and oversimplified, stripping away the depth and complexity that once made them engaging to master. This isn't just a gameplay issue; it's an identity crisis.

I don't particularly disagree with their identity crisis and uniqueness issue. My hope is they'll address this in 8.0 as promised with the ideas they mentioned such as skill trees.

Take Extreme Primal mounts, for example: why should I bother grinding them now when I know that by 8.0, the drop rates will increase, unsync will make it trivial, and patience will reward me more than effort ever could?

You're right and many people choose to wait and unsync, but here is why I do it when it's current: for the experience and the memories. Once the content is old, the mechanics have no punch and it's not the same. I want to be able to say to sprouts "in my day, it was like X" and after 10 years, I can and do exactly that.

[Ephremjlm]

I feel a similar sentiment that most others do in this thread and idk I don't plan on renewing my sub until 7.2 after it runs out (idk maybe ill stick around for starlight). But truthfully, I think right now they are biding time. For what? The exploratory zones. Here's to hoping they nail it and don't crap something out to "appease" the crowd (us) who complained last time.

And I feel like it shouldn't need to be said but idk how people still crap on older MMO's when they solved these issues. The short of it is that they were paced the way they were because 1. yeah they wanted that sub money, but 2. because they knew constant development for live service was an issue. If you don't want your players getting bored then they NEED things to do that THEY like. It blows my consumer and business mind that this game feels like it PUNISHES paying customers who WANT to continue paying for their service, and even worse telling them to unsub. It's dumb. Let the players decide what they want to do, you aren't their mom.

And furthermore this specific issue is compounded by the fact that FFXIV isn't catered to MMO audiences, but general gaming audiences. It's not a bad thing per say, but as a long time MMO enjoyer, sorry I played FFXI, OSRS, Diablo, etc. and "galm" isn't my end game, nor do I care about island sanctuary, the gold saucer, the insane amount of random story fetch quests, and honestly i'm about over one off instanced raiding where most of the time we AFK in a hub city like a mobile game. Not to say having variety is bad, but the other stuff wasn't made for me. And the same can probably said from someone who came from Habbo Hotel who loves the housing and glam system but plays battle content ultra casually. Neither of these are bad but now SE has dug themselves into a hole where they need to produce enough NEW content for EVERY kind of player, or they will be frustrated, and likely leave because they feel like their needs aren't being met (because they aren't).

We'll see what happens but SE, this team, and Yoshi P specifically really need to start taking these things more seriously. FFXIV is NOT World of Warcraft, and it is NOT OSRS, and there are plenty of new MMO's on the horizon that will likely make this game look outdated, and if SE isn't prepared their money well will run dangerously low, or worse dry.

[Reimmi]

For how much players in their hugbox like to parrot yoship they always forget when he said the most important players are the silent ones who leave

Posts like this are way more important than some thread about a hairstyle or a face being 1 pixel misaligned

[GinzoKazama]

I'm glad to see this has gained traction and wanted to point out a few issues I've seen here with some of the replies.

- "There are things to do"

Someone had coined it perfectly by comparing it to a theme park. The first time you go there and it's amazing and exciting, but once you ride the same ride over and over again, it gets stale. The model for MMOs, be it XIV or WoW or any other that'll spring up, they are all notorious for reskinning the same things and just slapping it in the game and calling it new. That is not worthwhile content.

Worthwhile content is Evergreen Content. The only content that is 'Evergreen' in XIV is raiding. That is about it. It persists through every expansion and it is a pillar that keeps the game going. But it is content that VERY FEW by comparison will participate in. This isn't an opinion, this is a numerical fact.

PvP is a pathetic XP grind. There is nothing worth doing for it. There's no enjoyment. There's no skill. There's no gear. Nothing. It's a meatgrinder deathball for the mindless drone. PvP is supposed to be another major staple of an MMO, but XIV has laid it so low that it's worth only a daily roulette for XP.

Criterion Dungeons were supposed to be supplemental to the savage scene with a reasonable equivalent to WoWs Mythic Dungeons. The structure of the dungeons fell flat on its face with how over the top some of the designs were. I'm all for figuring out mechanics, but it's nothing enjoyable to do with a casual group of people. On top of that, materia was the main reward. There is no value in the time spent doing it. Power of friendship and all that jazz aside, it's not a stick worth getting beaten by for the carrot.

- Nothing For the Middle Class

Between the 15%-80%- there is nothing for people to just logon and enjoy at a casual pace. I think some of the best 'midground' content is obviously anything you can do that you can just pop in, grab a few friends and have a good time with a minor to medium degree of difficulty. Content like Bozja, PoTD, and FATEs are all nice examples of this content. But NONE of them are relevant anymore and for some reason rather than releasing content for that BIGGER portion of people to be released first, it's left until midway through the expansion whereas the 81-100% do raids and the 1-14% do ERP, clubs and glamour farm. This is NOT a healthy economy at all even with Yoshi P's idea that 'its not designed to be played all the time'.

[GinzoKazama]

As someone who had been an FC leader for more than 8 years, watching those people fall away because there's nothing to do for them in general is maddening. It is difficult to retain people because they finished this 7.1 patch in a matter of a day and they won't log in until MAYBE Tuesday when it resets and then they'll be gone again. There's nothing enticing to do that they have not already done a million times.

The content is stagnant. There's nothing that MAKES people WANT to get on.

For those who enable this by saying 'Well you just don't like the content'. YES. I DO NOT LIKE THIS RELEASE PATH. I've dealt with it for the last 4 years thinking it might change eventually but SE has doubled down and kept this abysmal release path going because of this player base.

I WANT to do something in the game. I don't WANT to make logging in daily to do beast tribes (which was another stupid thing they changed for no reason), or roulettes or weekly alliance raid lockout, or afking by the Market Board because someone is botting to reduce their sale by 1 gil every time you put something up as "CONTENT" to do.

>_>;;

I saw web article highlighting players being upset over a hair style rather than THIS ABYSMAL PATCH.

- Exit Polls/Questionnaire for Ending Subscriptions

SE DOES ask why you are unsubbing: Here are there reasons -

Why did you decide to cancel your subscription?

- I am simply changing my payment method
- I want to take a break
- I have run out of things I want to do
- I am stopping to play another game
- My friends have stopped playing
- I am no longer interested in playing
- Financial Reasons
- I prefer not to answer

You can only choose ONE of those. I would choose MOST of those if I could.

I am a long time fan of this IP and of XIV and I am absolutely sad and angry that this game has become a vehicle to subsidize SE's OTHER GAME FAILURES and provides LIMITED RETURN FROM ITS OWN PROFITS BACK INTO XIV.

If Yoshi P reads this or if it gets to him, I would want him to know I have LOVED this game so much and made so many great friends over the years. I appreciate the efforts people have put into revitalizing this game from its abhorrent launch in 1.0, but this game has moved full on into mediocrity. I wish they would rethink their content release road map and implement better things for the middle group of people.

Thank you for those who are genuinely interested in the discourse related to this topic and for those who simply want to gaslight you're doing your own game a disservice by disingenuously clouding the issues with the inability to have an objective conversation on the topic.

[Zakuyia]

I'm glad to see this has gained traction and wanted to point out a few issues I've seen here with some of the replies.

- "There are things to do"

Someone had coined it perfectly by comparing it to a theme park. The first time you go there and it's amazing and exciting, but once you ride the same ride over and over again, it gets stale. The model for MMOs, be it XIV or WoW or any other that'll spring up, they are all notorious for reskinning the same things and just slapping it in the game and calling it new. That is not worthwhile content.

Worthwhile content is Evergreen Content. The only content that is 'Evergreen' in XIV is raiding. That is about it. It persists through every expansion and it is a pillar that keeps the game going. But it is content that VERY FEW by comparison will participate in. This isn't an opinion, this is a numerical fact.

PvP is a pathetic XP grind. There is nothing worth doing for it. There's no enjoyment. There's no skill. There's no gear. Nothing. It's a meatgrinder deathball for the mindless drone. PvP is supposed to be another major staple of an MMO, but XIV has laid it so low that it's worth only a daily roulette for XP.

Criterion Dungeons were supposed to be supplemental to the savage scene with a reasonable equivalent to WoWs Mythic Dungeons. The structure of the dungeons fell flat on its face with how over the top some of the designs were. I'm all for figuring out mechanics, but it's nothing enjoyable to do with a casual group of people. On top of that, materia was the main reward. There is no value in the time spent doing it. Power of friendship and all that jazz aside, it's not a stick worth getting beaten by for the carrot.

- Nothing For the Middle Class

Between the 15%-80%- there is nothing for people to just logon and enjoy at a casual pace. I think some of the best 'midground' content is obviously anything you can do that you can just pop in, grab a few friends and have a good time with a minor to medium degree of difficulty. Content like Bozja, PoTD, and FATEs are all nice examples of this content. But NONE of them are relevant anymore and for some reason rather than releasing content for that BIGGER portion of people to be released first, it's left until midway through the expansion whereas the 81-100% do raids and the 1-14% do ERP, clubs and glamour farm. This is NOT a healthy economy at all even with Yoshi P's idea that 'its not designed to be played all the time'.

I disagree with that pvp statement. Pvp is fun for us pvpers going for mounts commender uniform trying to go for pvp weapons glams and items to be bought. Just cause you don't like pvp doesnt mean the rest of us who lile it dont.

[ohmRICE]

7.1 honestly feels like a repeat of 3.1, but it's a bit harder to justify 7.1 being like this. Like 3.1 had the justification of it being the first post-expac patch of the first expac. Some missteps and stumbles were to be expected then, but man, we're 5 expacs deep now how does a 3.1 situation happen again?

idk man if my sub didn't auto-renew I wouldn't be logging in right now that's all I can really say.

Maybe if FF16 was an absolute banger of a game everyone would be more forgiving of XIV taking a quality hit...but it was, well, it was okay I guess.