The reason why FFXIV is so boring and not fun to play anymore is because

[FlopsyPrince]

Keep in mind that most of the players are the midcore crowd, so 1% players who grind their super duper raids that are 1% of content don't count!

#01 - Easy Encounters
You don't have to position the boss anymore. The boss will always move to the center of the arena. The boss will have a long, 10 second cast of a raidwide (it will never kill you). The hitbox is too big to cater to melee.

<snip>

This has been a complaint against every game I have ever played. Realize some of us don't want a second job or lots of failures while playing.

My challenge is that it takes so long to get to the end game, things are far too focused on the MSQ and it becomes a "walking simulator" with each expansion I get into.

I am in a very nice Free Company now and that is what would keep me in the game in reality.

[Shougun]

May make a post about it later for better examples (and this post may read a little harsh but its coming from a twinge of pain seeing something I've been with for so long feel like "I'm not that interested"), but the quick feeling of what is keeping me away at the moment is that the game feels shallow, and each update tends to make it shallower. When ARR was first started there was depth here and there, some depth was annoying and is probably good it was polished out, but for the time it had to cook it was fine; however, that short cooking time and each expansion afterwards leads to less and less 'depth'.

I think you might place homogenization in there, but to me it is more big picture.. I have poked it at a few angles in other posts but gameplay roleplay is one way I feel quickly describes it. FFXIV had okay gameplay roleplay and each time they update the game it almost, almost, always gets worse. Its not two steps forwards, one step back, but three steps back and maybe one step forward.

To make it a little less nebulous by examples:

- Jobs are more and more similar with less and less unique things (there are pattern differences but its like eating your ice cream with a fork or a spoon and calling it different)

- Zones are very superficial vehicles that move you to the next area, you almost never interact with anything to a unique level to that zone or thematically (like a cheesy example might be, on the moon you should have had your jump be different).

- Quest design is so consistently wrot you can taste the archetype structure

- IF interesting content is made it will be set off to the side in a way that is easy to forget / ignore (fear to make the core itself interesting)

- IF content is added there is a high chance it itself can be superficial (Island Sanctuary, why is it primarily a excel game? Why is there no mini-game to capture monsters? Why do buildings not matter? Etc).

Honestly I don't think its the amount of hardcore content, I don't think you need more. I don't think the game has to be harder, at least in most spaces (I have seen some examples that are not great- but this can be offset with time reward increasing). I don't think its really something that simply MORE CONTENT would solve either. I think its a systemic issue, not a quantity or difficulty slider issue.

If you changed one thing it wouldn't be 'fixed' because its a mindset, imo, that is the problem. The comparison I've used before that I like is they're designing a kitchen in stainless steel, where the floors, walls, tools, and everything else you can imagine is all stainless steel. FFXIV has had to a minor extent, but compounding each expansion forward, a sense of sensory deprivation.

This was normally clouded by fantastic art, music, and story, but through time, worsening of the stainless steel factory, and slippages in any of the first three, imo, the game falters.

Naturally there are perspective biases, so I am sure that changes a bit for some people, but occasionally I question the /true/ reasons listed as I will see people who kindly respond and further example themselves... and so I see "I need more hard content because X", and I think their actual problem was more like they got bored quickly of the content they did do.. or the rewards weren't interesting. Add another primal that took months to make and we got five days of play time, maybe, for that person, some of which they might not have even enjoy..... Having mutations, a increase in unpredictability, etc, could have more time to reward (dev time, to play enjoyment) ratio for that player then than just adding another primal.

There are many things I still think it does very well, the first three definitely being in that list (graphics, music, (art), story (... usually)), but I think they've lacked a sense of childish "what if I was a Dragoon guys?!? How fun would that be? You know what I would do if I was a dragoon!!?" roleplay that drives many games to do things that just feel 'right', and they lose that child more with each year, and are transitioning to operating the game itself like they did the island... its feeling like it's a business model, an excel sheet.

[brinn12]

There is almost no incentive to do anything in Dawntrail zones, outside of hunt trains where mobs melt due to being fought by so many people. In 10 years, all the devs have figured out is rare special fates and treasure maps (which still take you to instanced areas).

Well for Dawntrail this is a blessing, but I wish we had more to do in Endwalker

[Gurgeh]

FFXIV Absolutely has almost no end game content to keep you subbed.

I don't even care about gearing anymore if all the roulettes are synced down , going bis in to regular content don't even make a difference.

PVP doesn't even need gear, stats , builds or whatsoever, only need level 30.

Mount farming? Good luck because they are prohibited in all the cities even in DT once again, also why bother even traveling when you can spam TP.

Raiding? Definitely worth the time so you can have a shiny weapon for you to stand idle in Limsa.

Agreed.
For the love of... why did you not add a a shiny ultimate weapon style weapon to Criterion normal, so draw people in.
Millions of players and you can't afford to subcontract out to some bargain Eastern European top class Graphical Artists for 16 weapons. You don't even have to go full Legendary animation. Just a bit of glow and sparkle would probably do.
It's not going to detract from relics when they come around.

In fact, I actually feel like gearing is punishment. because it just makes my casual game even more boring. I just an obliged to equip higher gear because it's what you do.

[Araxes]

They are creating hardcore content only currently. I really hoped that chaotic would be medium difficulty content for casual players but it was yet again just more content for hardcore raiders.

PvP lacks any substantial rewards. The items you can buy for wolfmarks are worthless and the ranking rewards are literally the Same every season just with a different number slapped on it.

[Jeeqbit]

When ARR was first started there was depth here and there, some depth was annoying and is probably good it was polished out, but for the time it had to cook it was fine; however, that short cooking time and each expansion afterwards leads to less and less 'depth'.

To be completely honest, almost everything they removed was annoying jank and needed to be removed because it wasn't working or was flat out useless. I at least felt that way until Warrior and Samurai's cones got changed to circles, which is when the changes really began to go overboard.

The problem is just that they didn't replace it with things that did work, making the game feel simpler and more shallow.

[Volgia]

I think it's just inflexible in the way it structures it's content, and it was cute in Shadowbringers, but now it's just dull, outdated and boring.

The MSQ is the worst part of it. No matter the quality of the writing, it's just agonizingly slow, dialogue ridden, cutscene bloated, like in every expansion it takes 3 business days to get to press an attack button.

[Voidmage]

In the end it all boils down to the devs seemingly making a game they don't even seem to be interested anymore.
Either that, they don't play it themselves anymore or Yoshidas extreme excel sheet timeline doesn't allow them any freedom.
No one can tell me that they log into the game see Viera not being able to wear hats and go "yes I am proud to be part of that" or Yoshida playing DT and saying "Yes, this is the best story we could have written".

Yoshida and Co should honestly do a "best practice" and play other games like they did in the past.
The only ones who still seem to have fun working in this game seem to be the music and graphics department (the later because of how they handled the feedback and because I can actually see the improvements personally).

At least that's my opinion after how half assed island sanctuary was, the Hrothgar hair debacle (you know the one that deleted the ears and had them smiling on camera only to be able to deliver when getting laughed at on twitter?), the absolute no idea how mmo's work with criterion or how they completely keep ignoring feedback only acting when the media catches up with it (like with the oversimplified EW content).
You can tell that their idea of an mmo is "fight a boss in an arena" and nothing more.

[Lilapop]

You can tell that their idea of an mmo is "fight a boss in an arena" and nothing more.

Keep in mind, this is not an MMO disguised as Final Fantasy. This is Final Fantasy wearing an MMO skin. It's a Final Fantasy game first.

[Jeeqbit]

In the end it all boils down to the devs seemingly making a game they don't even seem to be interested anymore.

It's easy to see their passion when they talk so they are clearly interested. Most likely anyone that thinks otherwise isn't reading their emotions.

they don't play it themselves anymore

They are always clear that they raid and cap tomestones.

However, they want to make it work for a casual audience. To make sure this is the case, they get people who don't normally play the game - such as their marketing team or people from other SE office departments to playtest things like Alliance Raids. If they struggle, they nerf it so that it doesn't give them too much trouble. In this way, it's designed to work for people who don't even play the game or have only just returned to the game after months/years.

or Yoshidas extreme excel sheet timeline doesn't allow them any freedom.

That's obviously part of it but this has benefits because it allows for structure, consistency and certainty (for the developers to know what they are making and for players to know what to expect). If a leader goes in without a plan, it doesn't always go well. Having a plan is, oddly enough, where some "leaders" fail at their job.

No one can tell me that they log into the game see Viera not being able to wear hats and go "yes I am proud to be part of that"

Mostly only Vieras and Hrothgars gonna be thinking that. Realistically it's a competence issue. The models don't need adjusting if they can create a version of each hat with a transparent circle on it for the ears. Technically the ears would poke through the model but not look like they are.

Yoshida and Co should honestly do a "best practice" and play other games like they did in the past.

Clearly they do though. They talk about playing other games all the time. For example, they are fans of games like Monster Hunter, League of Legends, Elden Ring, etc. Yet it doesn't translate into the design, does it? Even FF16 or FF15 design hasn't translated over to this game despite demonstrating through collabs that they can do FF16, FF15 or MHW design. Playing other games doesn't seem to change their course much.

The only ones who still seem to have fun working in this game seem to be the music and graphics department

That seems very silly. I've listened to them at dev panels, live letters, seen interviews and blog posts from numerous of their team. They are all having fun across the board... anyone that says otherwise has not been paying attention to their words, interviews, blogs, dev panels, etc.

At least that's my opinion after how half assed island sanctuary was

That was just a competence issue in my opinion. By which I mean - they were working within the constraints of the engine and produced exactly the kind of stuff we've come to expect of the FF14 engine - click this, go to next NPC, click that, use key item, click to catch, etc. I don't think it had anything to do with passion and if you look at the environment, they worked really hard on it - graphics, models, UI. The concept of catching the animals at certain times was sorta fun.