FFXIV draws too heavily on wow

[NegativeS]

Tab-target MMO players when they play a tab-target MMO and it plays like a tab-target MMO

[Shurrikhan]

Tab-target MMO players when they play a tab-target MMO and it plays like a tab-target MMO

Could be worse. It could have better net-code and frame-rate, more enjoyable filler and moment-to-moment variety within rotations, be more responsive, more open to nuance, and have greater diversity in job and encounter profiles, etc. Then what monster would we be?

[Archeron]

The issue with FFXIV isn't that it's attempting to emulate WoW, (It's not.)

The issue is that the FFXIV devs have become arrogant, just like the Blizzard in 2018. They think they can get away with anything, and everything. Oblivious to the rising discontent within their community by simply ignoring and brushing their feedback under the rug. Lower quality content, longer patch cycles, complete absence of communication, and the dev team being COMPLETELY out of touch with the community. There is clearly a slow bleed off of the community and I don't think they care.

Square Enix likely knows that they don't have to introduce much content into this game anymore to boost revenue. They can just put out a mogstation set/mount and all the whales will pay for the subs that have dropped off. Long term consequences be damned, they only pledged to keep this game around another 10 years, longer patches mean less work. And you bet the trashy mobile version is going to be raking in the money without any effort on their part. Welcome to games managed by AAA developers who prioritize profit over your personal enjoyment of their products.

[Larirawiel]

The problem with FF14 is, it is way too much a theme park game. The devs create new creatures and new quests and new areas with new landscapes and ... the players play it through once and that was it. And with a content patch you are easily done in a weekend. It is somehow a huge waste of ressources. And even the "exploration zones" aka Bozja etc. are like this. It has nothing to do with exploration. It is a very simple gated content. And yes, they repeat the errors, which the WoW devs already made. One error was: we do certain formulaic stuff over and over again because it worked in the past. The WoW devs learned from it. I guess, SQEX will hear the wake up call when they start to lose money on this game.





Cheers

[Eyrilona]

I guess, SQEX will hear the wake up call when they start to lose money on this game.

Therein lies the problem. When SE starts losing money on FFXIV, that's.. pretty much it, in their current market position -- none of their other activities are bringing in enough money to offset the combined development costs and overhead of the rest of the company. If they don't see a problem until the main product that has been keeping their game dev company afloat turns into a net loss too, it is too late for them to launch any recovery plan that doesn't involve bankruptcy and selling the IP to someone else.

[Nero-Voidstails]

if it is heavily based on wow why can't I murder my tanks as a DPS?

[Kaurhz]

Drawing inspiration from story is fine as far as drawing from FF goes.

Anything beyond that, not really. Most of those games are turn-based, and none bar FF11 are MMOs. An MMO should not be drawing from single player games in any capacity, IMO.

This is just a misdiagnosis of the actual problems the game is facing. Most of the issues are related to complacency with respect to quality, and if it isn't complacency, then it's the overly rigid patch schedule, in combination with their inability to actually reflect on what content is released and when. It sometimes feels like they are out of touch with not only the community but with the game itself. Surely nobody in their right mind would think that it is healthy for an MMO to go nearly 4 years without a new substantive grind for all players. Too much stock is being put into 1-off experiences with a weekly objective tradeoff, and not enough into long-lasting repeatable content. Old content can only sustain players for so long.

None of the issues whatsoever are due to where they are drawing influence from, bar maybe story, but then you can draw inspiration from a stellar story, but still ultimately get undercut by poor writing and character development.

[Nebelheim]

I recently decided to try wow and ff14 is nothing like wow in wow there are at least talent trees and classes feel diverse and not the same. And every mmo that came out since 2004 tried copying wow. And if ff14 was to copy anything from past ff games combat wise I think ff11 probably be the only best option.

[Valence]

If it is drawing too much from wow, why am I cursed to go through the exact same circular arenas with a single gigantic boss taking half my screen and solving stack, partners, limit cuts and countless chariot/dynamo or cross shaped AoE again and again like Sysiphus pushing that rock, instead of getting actual RPG dungeons and raids?

[Connor]

I mean, I could agree that the devs don’t seem to care much anymore about jobs having ‘FF flavour’ or references. Like, many of them ( *cough* Bard *cough ) have barely any resemblance or similarities to how they appear traditionally in FF. Like, White Mages don’t even use Cure or Cura! It’s a travesty I tell you!

Obviously though this only applies purely in design concept and not in actual practice cuz, you know, MMO lol.

I don’t think it’s ‘impossible’ to try and use inspiration from previous FF games and the way they present/execute their boss fights to inform how they’ll do it here. But in the same way, that can really only apply in purely conceptual terms - one it gets to ‘practical terms’ it then needs to be converted in an ‘MMO’ appropriate mechanic (which apparently means DDR lol)