One thing I absolutely hate, and this might just be me playing old-school MMOs versus modern ones, is how quickly gear gets phased out in this game. It doesn’t hold any meaningful value beyond just glamours. You know how it is in Souls games, or even going back to FFXI? The effort and hours you put in gave you a real sense of fulfillment and pride because you were wearing a piece of armor with stats that could easily carry you through future content. In FFXI, there were armor pieces at level 30 that could still be best-in-slot when you hit level 75. How you got that gear wasn’t something everyone was willing to do because it was hard, but dang it, you were the celebrity and star of the show (Ultimates are a far cry from that at best).

Now it’s like, “Oh yeah, I do savage content,” but in a very short spawn of patches, that gear will be completely useless and replaced by low level tier crafted or dropped armor sets from regular dungeons. How is everyone okay with this? And if you didn’t like the glamour that much, it’s just forgotten, with no sentiment or nostalgia attached. In my opinion, that’s something that really needs to change. I hate how this content is dictated by these super predictable cycles that make the game so boring.

Where’s the excitement, the joy of seeing developers think outside the box and finally step out of their comfort zone? Sadly, we’re partly to blame because we’ve accommodated their lazy development habits. While it’s not terrible, it’s so repetitive that there’s no thrill even in watching live letters anymore, because you anticipate what’s coming next and end up just looking at screenshots posted on Reddit. Our brains have become so rewashed by their patterns that it’s reached a point where development mistakes are very evident. When it’s blatantly obvious they’re cutting corners, it really shows.

Anyway, I don’t expect everyone to understand, but my hope is that this game changes. I love this game, and because I do, I criticize it so it can get better, and the developers will take action. This is not charity, we are paying for a service, and we deserve better.