Genuinely, What am I missing?

[Lizzit]

Hi,

I'm a newer player and have been playing for a little over a year now. I joined the game around the release of patch 6.5. And took a break from the game to finish UNI. Now that I've graduated, I've had a lot more time to run around as my cool cat caster. I am almost done with post HW patch quests and my highest lvl class (at the time of writing) is a lvl 68 whm with a lvl 67 blm close behind with trying to do as much of the content from each expansion as possible (Extremes, Coils, Alexander, relic weapons, unlock all dungeons, etc.). I am greatly looking forward to Stormblood. I would say I'm a fairly casual player but do enjoy the extremes and tougher content. I have been greatly enjoying the game so far.

I like to log on here some mornings at work once and a while to see if I can find any fun tips or strats as I'm exploring through the world of Eorzea. Yet, every time I log on here (or to a lesser extent try to watch anything about the game on YouTube) I see nothing but disdain and very vocal harsh criticisms. I can't see any of it reflected in my own experience. A lot of the criticisms I see appears to be:
boring repetitive content, not enough content, the devs playing it too safe, wuk lamat(?), reminiscing of the glory days, "we need another reboot," (inadvertently comparing the current state of the game to XiV 1.0?), not enough reciprocation from developers, "live letters" being too stale, not feeling heard, current raids aren't rewarding enough, YoshiP actively killing the game, being scared of WoW, unanswered questions, and many others.

Is this all I have to look forward to? Should I just stop playing the game after Shadowbringers? After the peak of Shadowbringers the quality just drops off a cliff? Should I not waste my time and quit now to avoid heartbreak? Maybe I will understand with time? I'm not sure.

I know what it feels like to be so devoted to a game and slighted by it, after pouring so much time and effort into a hobby all for it to be for nothing or to get burnt out. I recently quit playing competitive MTG for this very reason. After playing for 8 years, (as a hobby) letting go felt so good (then i jumped ship to this lol). I invested too much for too little return after realizing the developers were just going to keep making better and better cards and strats that pushed out my favorite cards (*very bad swear word here* modern horizons + universes beyond). Adapt or suffer.

That being said, what am I missing? I want to be filled in as to why the community feels this way. I want a better perspective so I can understand I don't want pointless baseless accusations; I want statements and I want a "i feel x way because of y," or "because of x change from however many years ago." I understand some players have been playing for over 10 years (which is a lot of time!) so I will be taking longtime players thoughts and criticisms to heart the most.

Thank you,
Ms. Emral

[SubmarineAlt]

What you're missing is a chip on your shoulder. Some misguided people played for only the story, and they felt that the most recent expansion's story wasn't up to par, so now their shoulders are in need of repair.

If you're having fun, keep having fun. The opinions of others shouldn't matter to you.

[Basteala]

Most people's complaints come from Dawntrail, whether it's class changes in Dawntrail, or the dip in quality of the MSQ in Dawntrail--and occasionally things like the Blacklist fuckup. Most of this isn't really going to affect you as a new player: the class changes you'll never really know, the MSQ is great *until* Dawntrail.

Some misguided people played for only the story, and they felt that the most recent expansion's story wasn't up to par, so now their shoulders are in need of repair.

Oh you're right. In a story driven roleplaying game, the real meat and potatoes is in the 1, 2, 3, W, S, A, D gameplay. You're right, of course.

[AnotherPerson]

Most people's complaints come from Dawntrail, whether it's class changes in Dawntrail, or the dip in quality of the MSQ in Dawntrail--and occasionally things like the Blacklist fuckup. Most of this isn't really going to affect you as a new player: the class changes you'll never really know, the MSQ is great *until* Dawntrail.



Oh you're right. In a story driven roleplaying game, the real meat and potatoes is in the 1, 2, 3, W, S, A, D gameplay. You're right, of course.

I'd go and add to this saying it really started a couple expansions ago prior to Dawntrail too. For instance, the healer problem started ever since they changed up job design in Shadowbringers and healers who eventually get to max level get more irked with each passing expansion with these job design choices. It's just a bunch of different things that SE screwed up on, and with each consistent screw up, players have been getting increasingly dissatisfied to how they handle and resolve things. Some of that leaks into the forums overtime in small amounts, usually not enough to change the atmosphere of the forums from a positive to a negative one. However, some can be seen akin to a volcano erupting -- where players had enough of it. It just so happened that we had multiple of these happen back to back, so practically every single group of players have been affected in some way and are expressing dissatisfaction as none of these problems really get solved, but swept under the rug. I guess this is mainly why the forums are so negative lately when it was more chill, with players sharing their fun experiences maybe 5 years back?


Anyway, sprouts don't have to worry about the complaints veteran players have as they won't feel the problem until much later on. Most of the problems are only really felt when you run out of "new and shiny" things to do after finishing the story, and that's when players usually start focusing on the problems that the players on the forums talk about.

[Auro_Seldaris]

What you're missing is a chip on your shoulder. Some misguided people played for only the story, and they felt that the most recent expansion's story wasn't up to par, so now their shoulders are in need of repair.

If you're having fun, keep having fun. The opinions of others shouldn't matter to you.

Nice strawman fallacy. I swear, did literally nobody ever take a debate course in HS or college? You're also falling into the "either/or fallacy". There are people, such as myself, who both play for the story AND enjoy the battle content. It's the story that gives that content context, which is important to many people. Regardless of it being objectively up to par, you're trying to divide people into ONLY two binary camps when it's actually a spectrum. This game can have both good battle content AND a good story, and people can enjoy both, or neither. It's not a binary choice. There are people who are disappointed with both, and that's our right to feel that way.

You and I do agree on one thing, though... this is all completely irrelevant to OP, at this moment in their game experience.

There's a ton of things to do in this game and a lot of it is still genuinely fun to experience. The problems discussed in here don't really get felt until you catch up and run out of stuff you want to do (or when they change a job in a way you don't like)

As a ShB baby I recall someone shout chatting in Eulemore one night about the patch cadence during 5.4-5.5 and thinking "don't really see what's wrong with it, dude maybe needs to take a break", but nowadays I get what they were talking about.

The game's probably better as a place to visit, not to live in.

I know we are in disagreement on BLM in that other thread, but honestly... you and I are actually of the same mind here. Sadly... I do now think of it as a nice place to visit, but not to live.

[SubmarineAlt]

Nice strawman fallacy. I swear, did literally nobody ever take a debate course in HS or college? You're also falling into the "either/or fallacy".

Glad I saw this! You clearly did not take a debate class. In order for me to use a strawman, I must be attacking or refuting an argument, which I am not. I'm making an assertion. Additionally, I'm not doing an either/or fallacy simply because I used the word "some."

Please revisit your debate classes. You have no clue you're talking about. And, going off of the rest of your post, you also failed to actually read my post in full. Which is funny, actually. You're attacking an argument I wasn't even making, drawing a conclusion based off a false representation on what I'm saying.

Now, what's that called again? You're the expert. You took a debate class, after all. Go ahead, let me know.

[Illianaro]

Honestly, if you’re having fun, keep having fun! I have a lot of thoughts about the trajectory of the game, but just because I have opinions as a veteran player, that by no means means my feelings about the state of the game should impact yours.

Have fun, and happy adventures!

[Lizzit]

Honestly, if you’re having fun, keep having fun! I have a lot of thoughts about the trajectory of the game, but just because I have opinions as a veteran player, that by no means means my feelings about the state of the game should impact yours.

Have fun, and happy adventures!

I understand that, but I still want to hear about them as to why and get a better perspective. I've missed 10+ years of this game and just want to know more. I'm not letting others thoughts on the state of the game influence my own. I just want more context I suppose.

[Illianaro]

I understand that, but I still want to hear about them as to why and get a better perspective. I've missed 10+ years of this game and just want to know more. I'm not letting others thoughts on the state of the game influence my own. I just want more context I suppose.

Fair! Well I think the gist of what’s happening has been captured in your summary, but for some more context, a lot of the reception to the latest expansion, Dawntrail has been mixed. It has been, from all appearances, a divisive expansion. The expansion before this marked the end of a major storyline for the game and, while that was highly praised, many concerns about the story direction and game design decisions began to arise during the patches that followed - coming to a head with Dawntrail.

There has also been concern in the community over the past few years as the developers extended the time between patches while releasing either less content or, from some people’s perspective, lower quality or rehashed content.

Extensive job and encounter design changes have happened over the years, again often in the eyes of various community folks to the detriment of that job and encounter design.

There has also been a growing perception that the developers are not listening to feedback and haven’t been for years, and that has led to mounting frustration and increasingly aggressive feedback.

Regarding Wuk Lamat - that is the predominant character in Dawntrail. Her reception has, again, been mixed along with the mixed reviews of the story.

I have my own opinions on all of this stuff, but my preference here is to really just give context on where the “vibe” of the forum is coming from. I hope this helps.