Is there a point in caring about the game?

[Avoidy]

The MMO genre as a whole is just screwed. Rotted from the inside out by terrible developers, greedy corporate decisions, and stupid short sighted players who wouldn't boycott the bad shit when there was still a chance to turn it around.
For XIV in particular, it's truly dire, because it offers nothing particularly exceptional anymore. If you want a good story, you won't find it here; you're better off opening literally any book, or just blindly opening some slop on Netflix. If you want engaging gameplay, you're better off playing a single player game. If you want a community, you're better off helping your local crackhead with his dailies in real life, because at least he won't report you for being like "aw, shit" when things go wrong.
The parallels to when Blizzard was screwing up WoW are pretty interesting. In both cases, we have developers sort of resting on their laurels and thinking they can slack but keep their numbers up based on past success. If Yoshida gets caught with a bottle of breastmilk like that Blizzard exec a while back, we'll basically be proving that time is a loop.

But yeah. I like this game because I don't mind running the same slop over and over again, and I enjoy being a bizarre gremlin, but I don't "care about" this game anymore like I used to. When it goes down for maintenance, I'm not jonesing to log back in. When I'm at work, I'm not wanting to go home to play more XIV. And I'm like that about all MMOs now, where before I used to be quite addicted. But once you see how content sooooooooo many mmo studios are to just take advantage of player trust, it becomes difficult to invest into the genre. In my first MMO, maplestory, I played the crap out of it and spent a worrying amount of time in it. Probably addicted. But the company running it made a ton of greedy decisions and ruined the game over time. The next one was tera. Great gameplay loop. Fun hard mode content. I actually progged in that game, even helped build a guild where we taught newer folks that game's savage equivalent and got them into raiding. I hate raiding in this game and don't do it, so people tell me I'm a casual, but I used to do that shit all the time. I just don't in this game, because raiding in XIV is shit. Anyway, Tera fell apart for the same old reasons. Shitdevs and bad corporate decisions chipping away at a game we all loved. then came bdo, which -- LOL. If you know, you know. That game promised to be a fair experience since it was b2p, but then they had p2w shit on day 1. That was the real unveiling moment for me, idk. There are only so many times you can dive into something and be ripped off/cheated before you just stop caring. Then came XIV, which I enjoy casually, because I genuinely don't have the time or the patience or the inclination at this point to dive any deeper into something that, ultimately, doesn't even matter at the end of the day. Every expac I thank god that the savage glams don't appeal to me, because it means I won't feel compelled to dredge up old habits and actually build a small group to prog with in a game with a boring combat loop, scripted fights, and mechanics that penalize the shit out of you because one guy in your team is blind and dumb as hell.

But man I'm digressing hard. MMOs are screwed. Every studio realizes that it's easier to just half ass a mobile game and make way more money. Enjoy what you will, but there's no future here. Even WoW, on a long enough scale, will get comfy again and start sipping breastmilk like nothing happened.

[TeresaFortell]

The MMO genre as a whole is just screwed. Rotted from the inside out by terrible developers, greedy corporate decisions, and stupid short sighted players who wouldn't boycott the bad shit when there was still a chance to turn it around.

But man I'm digressing hard. MMOs are screwed. Every studio realizes that it's easier to just half ass a mobile game and make way more money. Enjoy what you will, but there's no future here. Even WoW, on a long enough scale, will get comfy again and start sipping breastmilk like nothing happened.

While that is quite true, the whole MMO genre is in decline, partly because social media has supplanted MMO as the primary place of social interaction. Initially, MMOs were the only places where one could virtually interact with each other, because there were no other avenues. Nowadays, with the widespread use of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the importance of MMOs has substantially shifted and reduced. MMOs these days focus more on gameplay and story than the social aspect it once championed.

[Avoidy]

While that is quite true, the whole MMO genre is in decline, partly because social media has supplanted MMO as the primary place of social interaction. Initially, MMOs were the only places where one could virtually interact with each other, because there were no other avenues. Nowadays, with the widespread use of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the importance of MMOs has substantially shifted and reduced. MMOs these days focus more on gameplay and story than the social aspect it once championed.

Yeah I could sit here and talk everyone's ear off about how things have changed since 2004 or whatever. You're right about that part though, absolutely. Back in the day, MMOs felt really exciting because online communication was still very novel and fresh. Now, though, we just sort of take it for granted. Hell, we do it for our jobs. It feels like work.
There are probably 1000 reasons the genre is cooked. We could make a whole new thread about just that. I'd be down for it tbh. I love this kind of discussion. MMOs are my favorite genre of video game, so it makes me sad to say it, but I've gotta just call it what it is: Absolutely doomed.

[Kaurhz]

Not really, no...

Far too much in the game is devalued and abandoned for it to feel either fun or meaningful in any capacity whatsoever.

Even some of the grinder stuff I've done in the game, e.g., Pteranodon... It just feels like a shallow experience/achievement, because it's like... Cool, I have 1 mount among 196 others which cannot really be shown off or showcased because the overworld is utterly barren. I have 22,300 or so achievement points, and it's like, so what? Game has no means of showcasing it, the rewards suck, and the achievement tokens are just 1 of many many abandoned systems, only introduced as a substitute for veteran rewards, or in the case of many other systems only there to serve as a feature quota and not to actually enhance or complement gameplay like they used to.

The list goes on and on..

[Llamalass]

Coming from someone who began in ARR alpha, quit before 2.2, returned sometime in 6.0~, and I doesn't even own EW or DT... and has just finished Shadowbringers...

Yeah this game has gone in the opposite direction of up.


More fanservice and weeb-favoring than actual worthwhile content the last so many years.

[bic12]

While that is quite true, the whole MMO genre is in decline, partly because social media has supplanted MMO as the primary place of social interaction. Initially, MMOs were the only places where one could virtually interact with each other, because there were no other avenues. Nowadays, with the widespread use of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the importance of MMOs has substantially shifted and reduced. MMOs these days focus more on gameplay and story than the social aspect it once championed.

The thing about MMOs is that it's a nice place to enjoy the feeling of successful teamwork. That's just been shredded over the last decade.

[kentribal]

There is a video with a guy who goes to Yoshi and thanks him for the game and the ultimates etc. content because it helped him get back on his feet after a difficult situation in his normal life. Imagine how many others there are out there who might have approached Yoshi at some event and told him the same thing. That is, from the above alone, he doesn't see, he doesn't feel,What good has the game done for anyone out there and then comes back and tells you to go play other games? Very selfish of him.
I left WoW 5 years ago because I was tired of the same old thing and nothing changed, and I came to FF because I found a game that improved my psychology (I should note here that I suffer from generalized anxiety disorder) and calmed me down without medication. Then came Dawntrail and I was blown away because I felt like I was playing WoW in an anime version.