MMO addiction

[AnotherHighlander]

Let's be real here. Why else are you subbing to FF14 if you think the game is in a bad state?

Break free. Play better games. Let go of your nostalgia. Stop trying to chase that high when you cleared your first Savage tier for the first time all the way back in Heavensward. You'll never get it again. I've done it years ago*. You can too. You'll never be happy in life if you want to see a capitalist firm satisfy your desire to fall in love with their products once again. Save that for your spouse.

*You all know why these alts are still subbed.

[NaoSen]

I agree that if you don't have anything to lose then just move on and come back when the game looks better however its not that simple and I think some of what I say falls into being human and not MMO addiction.

To get this out of the way, Square Enix's "We want you to play other games / Take breaks during down time" is more accurately translate to, "We want you to play other games / Take Breaks but don't unsub or we'll burn down your house and those friendships we encourage you to make? Forget about them".

1. Friends (Personal Experiance)
2. Housing (Personal Experiance)
3. Coping Mechanism (Know multiple people for this.)
4. No alternative

Friends:
There are multiple mechanisms in place to build friendships in the game, be it through Free Companies, Social Venues (RP Cafe's, Clubs, Bars), Communities (Eureka, Deep Dungeons, Gposing), to leave is to neglect/lose at the same time you cannot force people to stay so you are at a situation where you stay and others leave due to content who don't mind tie cutting / maintain friendship out of game or you leave and the same thing. Yes, discord exists, yes other games exist, however "Games we both enjoy that also facilitate the same atmosphere" is not exactly the same. Some are desperately lonely in real life and just cannot make friends there, I know multiple people like this and FF is basically their only social outlet.

Housing:
With such a broken housing system requiring demolition if you do intend to unsubscribe during a content drought then bye bye house since a content drought isn't exactly 6 weeks, so be sure to subscribe at least every 6 weeks to not lose your house. If there was no-lose instanced housing (Like Guild Wars 2 has recently introduced) this wouldn't be an issue.
You are not just dealing with the structure itself but also the location, you're looking at a handful of plots per housing zone that are really premium (and as a result held on to), losing it would mean next to no chance of getting it again.

Coping Mechanism:
I have met multiple people over the years who basically live life through this game, it's not healthy at all to make your first life your character in a MMORPG but we're talking about those with such a raw deal in life be it due to physical, psychological or location that it's their way of living because everything else just sucks, it's the only place they can be close to normal. That's dumbing it down a lot and blanket generalising but I'm not a psychologist and it's a answer point.

No Alternative:
If you were willing to drop your community, friends made (if any), house (if owned), yet still want the same "feel" that FF can give, variety of activities both gameplay and social you don't really have any popular ones at least that come to mind other than pure virtual worlds.

There we go, maybe something in there to think about.

[Mijeme]

When you leave can I have your stuff?

[Reinhardt_Azureheim]

I actually still enjoy the game in earnest after 7 years, thank you very much. I simply don't burn myself out everytime a patch launches and I burn through all content within 10 hours and then be like "man what a patch" until the next content drops.

Good brisket is slow-roasted.

[pyxls]

Good brisket is slow-roasted.

Mmmm brisket with pinch of salt, lime and chili.

[Emitans]

I actually still enjoy the game in earnest after 7 years, thank you very much. I simply don't burn myself out everytime a patch launches and I burn through all content within 10 hours and then be like "man what a patch" until the next content drops.

Good brisket is slow-roasted.

MSQ: 2 hours. Not repeatable.
Alliance raid: 40 minutes once a week
Pelupelu quests: 5 minutes once a day

Wow! So much to do!

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot the main piece of content this patch, doing the same 10 minute fight 50 times in a row to get a mount.

[TheGrimace]

MSQ: 2 hours. Not repeatable.
Alliance raid: 40 minutes once a week
Pelupelu quests: 5 minutes once a day

Wow! So much to do!

EDIT: Sorry, I forgot the main piece of content this patch, doing the same 10 minute fight 50 times in a row to get a mount.

It is both hilarious and distressing that my problems with 7.1 (and the state of the game as a whole) could be written so succinctly. Well done.

[Kaurhz]

I actually still enjoy the game in earnest after 7 years, thank you very much. I simply don't burn myself out everytime a patch launches and I burn through all content within 10 hours and then be like "man what a patch" until the next content drops.

Good brisket is slow-roasted.

Honestly, there is hardly a burnout aspect when any 'long-term' content is currently exclusively within raids, and where anything outside of that is a 2 hour ordeal at most. There is not enough being produced, unless you're quite literally playing the MMO as little as humanly possible. I could go on any game right now, play it for 30-45 minutes per day and go, "Man, that game almost took me a month to complete".

Doesn't make it any better, all that is happening is an infrequent amount of playing to substitute for content that is stretched thinly as humanly possible, and distributed in the worst way humanly possible.

[Zakuyia]

Honestly, there is hardly a burnout aspect when any 'long-term' content is currently exclusively within raids, and where anything outside of that is a 2 hour ordeal at most. There is not enough being produced, unless you're quite literally playing the MMO as little as humanly possible. I could go on any game right now, play it for 30-45 minutes per day and go, "Man, that game almost took me a month to complete".

Doesn't make it any better, all that is happening is an infrequent amount of playing to substitute for content that is stretched thinly as humanly possible, and distributed in the worst way humanly possible.

Man i wish i could live in the bliss u all live in cause damn Pso2 ngs got this worse than ff14. Anyone who been with ngs knows the only content that game really gets is AC scratch lol aka u gotta spend money on fashion.

[Kaurhz]

Man i wish i could live in the bliss u all live in cause damn Pso2 ngs got this worse than ff14. Anyone who been with ngs knows the only content that game really gets is AC scratch lol aka u gotta spend money on fashion.

PSO2 being worse than FFXIV is frankly an irrelevant whataboutism.