Rewards are Punishment. Yes.

[Ysera_Brynat]

Hello everyone. I've been thinking about how to best bring this up. I decided that without a forum post, nothing will change. So, here it goes.

Gear rewards in FFXIV are a punishment.

The Glamour Dresser system turns what should be a joyful reward into a tedious chore. As many of you know, if you’ve ever played World of Warcraft, you’ll know its Transmog system automatically logs any item’s appearance the moment you loot it. You can vendor, trash, or turn the item into crafting mats—and still use its look forever. Meanwhile, in FFXIV, every new piece of gear feels like a burden—something to "deal with" later.

The Problem: Rewards That Punish

When you get a new item in —from a dungeon, raid, or quest—you’re faced with a dilemma:

1. Store it in your already-bursting glamour dresser (if you have space).
2. Hoard it in your inventory/retainers (contributing to anxiety).
3. Discard it (risk losing the appearance forever).

Meanwhile, WoW’s system: “Got the item? Cool, now do whatever you want with it. The look is yours.” Once an item is "bound" to you, you can now use the look forever.

The Glamour Dresser: Stuck in 2013

Let’s be real—the glamour dresser is functional, but it’s a relic. Storing appearances requires:

1. Manually placing items into a limited, shared inventory (800 slots split across all jobs, with some items being clones of other items but job-limited).
2. Using prisms to apply glams (a minor but unnecessary friction).
3. Constant management: deleting old items to make room, knowing you might have to re-farm them later.

Compare this to WoW: Loot a piece of gear → appearance unlocked → done. No hoarding. No stress. The game respects your time. I'm not getting any younger. I really don't want to micromanage a massive chest full of stuff that has no way to preview said items.


Why This Hurts FFXIV’s Core Experience

• Players say that ”Fashion Fantasy” is the true endgame! But the system actively works against that.
• Every “reward” becomes a checkbox on a to-do list. It’s not exciting—it’s anxiety-inducing.
• Every cool item is a punishment of time after you pick it up.
• What will I have to delete?
• What does that item even look like? I can't preview it.

I'm not thinking about my cool new glam item, I'm thinking about how I'm going to have to rob myself of something else to keep it.

[Ysera_Brynat]

What FFXIV Can Learn from WoW

I’m not saying we need to copy-paste Transmog, but the philosophy is key: make rewards feel rewarding.

1. Unlocking appearances on binding (no manually storing it in the dresser required).
2. A catalog system (like the Mounts/Minions menu) for gear.
3. Let us discard physical items without needing to manage every single one.

Anything, even a hybrid system would be a massive QoL win. Why do you add new item sets that don't use the new Outfit Set feature? I don't understand.

The dev team has made strides (see: more plates, increased dresser slots), but it’s not enough. The current system is a band-aid on a bullet wound. For a game that’s otherwise so player-friendly, this feels like an archaic oversight.

I don't want to do anything in the game with this massive burden against joy looming over me.

If this isn't acknowledged in a serious way soon, I can't play anymore. I want to collect all the cute items & not be punished for it.

P.S. – Square Enix, if you’re reading this: We’d gladly take fewer new hairstyles in a patch if it meant a glamour system overhaul. Just saying.

[Astronema]

The dev team worships the software monster so nothing will change.
https://www.spaghettimonster.org/

[Ysera_Brynat]

The dev team worships the software monster so nothing will change.
https://www.spaghettimonster.org/

Not funny enough, and not a valid excuse.

The system in WoW was added in 2011. Square has had since 2013 to do work on the engine.

They chose graphics over improving other more dire elements of the game.

[Astronema]

Not funny enough, and not a valid excuse.

The system in WoW was added in 2011. Square has had since 2013 to do work on the engine.

They chose graphics over improving other more dire elements of the game.

Nothing will change.... The game will be in maintenance mode because the devs don't get a clue and the suits in corp decide the game needs it's budget fixed and not since they leech funds to make puke like forspoken.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

Nothing will change.... The game will be in maintenance mode because the devs don't get a clue and the suits in corp decide the game needs it's budget fixed and not since they leech funds to make puke like forspoken.

You have no idea what maintenance mode is and it absolutely isn't a top to down graphical overhaul that is going to take another three years.

[Gyson]

WoW uses the same cosmetic system that DC Universe Online used, which is not surprising as the latter came out a year earlier and Blizzard has no problem copying good ideas. I do wish FFXIV would simply their cosmetic system. I suspect nobody on the FFXIV team wanted to have a limit on the number of glamours that could be stored, but they are instead bound by the limits of what their engine can accomplish.

[Arohk]

WoW uses the same cosmetic system that DC Universe Online used, which is not surprising as the latter came out a year earlier and Blizzard has no problem copying good ideas. I do wish FFXIV would simply their cosmetic system. I suspect nobody on the FFXIV team wanted to have a limit on the number of glamours that could be stored, but they are instead bound by the limits of what their engine can accomplish.

i am pretty sure storing an actual item+ dye is a lot worse than a simple checkbox of the armor pieces you accquired already.

[CCheshire]

Agreed I feel the suffering as I only have around 200 open slots left over, even throwing away gear I'd never use, and I can't bring myself to re-buy hats if I can't wear them either way to make outfit sets. Also, the overall exp is rough since I like to collect glams, so I've been struggling to make space for new ideas, often not to mention we get new cash shop outfits, but they contain extras like hats and gloves doubled like the Belted set b/c of reasons.

[Gyson]

i am pretty sure storing an actual item+ dye is a lot worse than a simple checkbox of the armor pieces you accquired already.

What I'm trying to say is their frustrating approach is probably based more on what they were able to do and less on what they wanted to do. I could certainly be wrong, but that is sometimes the case in these scenarios.

As a more well known example, players wanted more stash space in Diablo 4, only to find out that the reason Blizzard was reluctant to provide it was because their existing setup loaded (into memory) the entire inventory and stash contents of every player you encountered. So it wasn't that they didn't want to provide more storage, it was that they couldn't provide it for performance reasons.

I think it's well known that FFXIV is a bit of a coding nightmare. I think there are a lot of things they want to do but can't without much, much more work than players probably assume.