7.31 instantly feeling like a breaking point :(

[MsBunnyBuns]

:(I wanna preface this with saying I've enjoyed a lot of Dawntrail so far, but I think there's either something shifting about me personally and wether or not certain aspects of the game are even *for me* anymore, or the game itself has nothing interesting up it's sleeve but meaningless grind and rng slop.

My motivation got completely stunted by frustrations with awful rng. This obviously isn't the game's fault but since it wasn't turning around, I lost the drive to play altogether.
The bad luck just infested every piece of content I did, from high end to casual, and nowadays constant showering of useless items in cosmic and OC.

Coming back to the game after a break, I'm having the opposite issue.
For the sake of enjoying myself more, I focused on content less reliant on rng.
I was hoping that 7.31 would bring something fun to do with new relic quests. I was let down by the last step just being tomes again but this time you gotta grind atmas! Yay!

The steps this time around really irked me even more and seeing the insultingly low rate of light gain from roulettes, I looked up to see what the last step will be and of COURSE it once again is 1.5k tomes per weapon. Seeing how long farming roulettes would take after that, just gave up. It doesn't fix the problem Endwalker introduced at all.
It made it worse by just adding obnoxious arbitrary steps instead of replacing the "1.5k tomes per weapon" issue with something actually fun that's tied to OC or a fun activity.

I realize now I'm not really getting anything out of grinding either. I feel 0 motivation to do constant roulettes, or deal with rng, and I just don't think there's much to enjoy anymore.
I'm not having fun outside of DTs banger fight design. The rest is just a chore. Nothing interesting, unique or fun here, and Phaenna is just more of the exact same content for cosmic.

Stuck between rng and long boring grinds, with nothing actually interesting for frankly insulting rewards, boring glams and ugly mounts, relics that are same item level as content released several months ago, and an honest lack of any heart or soul put into the content. It feels bland and vapid instead of exciting and new as many patches have been for me
These grinds weren't NEARLY this frustrating at any other point in my experience with both other expansions and even THIS very one.
I'm likely to reinstall and resub when beastmaster and zone 2 of OC release, but at the moment I think my time with this game is slowly approaching a PERMANENT end.

Its either me just not having the time or energy to keep up with this, or the way this content is implemented that just has me feeling my passion and drive that kept me here for 10k hours is slipping away.

What do you think about my predicament?
Do you think content design and the manner they implemented grind is at fault? Or am I just growing tired and should move on to different games cause it's a *me* issue?

[Crafoutis]

I am happy about this Phantom weapon acquisition so far.

You say you're likely to reinstall and resub when Beastmaster comes out, and that's always what the devs recommended as a course of action: If you're bored, burnt out? Step away and come back when you feel like it.

[Halivel]

I'd second what Crafoutis said.

10k hours is a lot of time. I don't know for how long you're playing, but I have played 10.5k hours in 11 years. And I definitely took some short breaks during those years, sometimes for irl-related reasons, sometimes because of burn-out (in my case the content that burns me out the most is Savage and, back in Stormblood, very specifically Pagos).

When you play something for this long, you're bound to get tired at some point, especially if you also have a lot going on in real life. Regardless of MMO you're playing, most of them ultimately can be shortly described as "grind and rng, rng and grind", just in different forms. Some of them will feel engaging for you more than others. I'm yet to encounter any MMO that doesn't become a "routine" at some point.

And yes, if you feel like you're way too burnt out - rather than forcing yourself to go on, it's better to take a break. Especially if you don't have a hourse, there's no discouragment against simply unsubbing for a bit and coming back later.

There's plenty of constructive criticism to have with the game, but I feel like in a lot of cases people would benefit from simbly taking a break instead forcing themselves to push through when they're clearly tired.

[MsBunnyBuns]

I am happy about this Phantom weapon acquisition so far.

You say you're likely to reinstall and resub when Beastmaster comes out, and that's always what the devs recommended as a course of action: If you're bored, burnt out? Step away and come back when you feel like it.

Definitely more than fair that you enjoy it.
Having time to think back, I was more annoyed by having failed to craft the mats on the first step and that added a lot of salt.

Either way, yeah. It's a break for me.
The blu/bst update I just know is something I'll at last be able to enjoy without a doubt, so that would be a good time for me to return and see wether or not the burnout sets in this fast again.

[MsBunnyBuns]

I'd second what Crafoutis said.

10k hours is a lot of time. I don't know for how long you're playing, but I have played 10.5k hours in 11 years. And I definitely took some short breaks during those years, sometimes for irl-related reasons, sometimes because of burn-out (in my case the content that burns me out the most is Savage and, back in Stormblood, very specifically Pagos).

When you play something for this long, you're bound to get tired at some point, especially if you also have a lot going on in real life. Regardless of MMO you're playing, most of them ultimately can be shortly described as "grind and rng, rng and grind", just in different forms. Some of them will feel engaging for you more than others. I'm yet to encounter any MMO that doesn't become a "routine" at some point.

And yes, if you feel like you're way too burnt out - rather than forcing yourself to go on, it's better to take a break. Especially if you don't have a hourse, there's no discouragment against simply unsubbing for a bit and coming back later.

There's plenty of constructive criticism to have with the game, but I feel like in a lot of cases people would benefit from simbly taking a break instead forcing themselves to push through when they're clearly tired.

Well my 10k hours have been across roughly 6 years.
I've definitely hit burnout a few times, the issue here being that it's never really been this sudden or full of immediate rejection for a grind i see in front of me.
As I said it's very likely that I'm just kinda changing in terms of my personal tastes and what I enjoy in games, and perhaps stepping away is regardless the best option for me right now.
I was curious to see what others thought of the update and so far it seems it's just me at the moment.
As I said in the post, I'll definitely come back for the blu/bst patch and to check out zone 2 of oc, but that will have been a huge break by the time it's out so maybe I might be able to take a second crack at the relic grind then.

[Jukadojensen]

7.31 bringing all the excitement of a 9 - 5 office job!

[MayuAmakura]

I am happy about this Phantom weapon acquisition so far.

You say you're likely to reinstall and resub when Beastmaster comes out, and that's always what the devs recommended as a course of action: If you're bored, burnt out? Step away and come back when you feel like it.

Gotta love how people are still using this phrase to cover up that the game is lacking content and in a bad state. It's always same excuse: "bro you are just burnt out, go play something else". This isn't the case with the player. The PLAYER NEVER said that they are tired or burned, they said that they feel that yawntrail isn't going anywhere good as they have hoped for. Clearly they want a better game but devs love to make excuse with "just play something else".

Stop telling yourself that excuse its pretty tiresome.

[brinn12]

There's nothing wrong with your post. These are all common feelings that players have been expressing since Endwalker. CBU3 designed FFXIV so that most of the playerbase only needs to sub for about 3 months a year, maybe 4 in new expansion years. It would be amazing if the new relic step came with fresh content, maybe an update to the Occult Crescent. Of course, that's asking too much. Instead, they tied the new relic "grind" entirely to old content. We don't even need to touch OC.

At least in 7.25, the playerbase still had new PvE content to enjoy if they weren't into the relic grind, but now there's nothing. Even for raiders, 7.3 is abysmal, and it can be fully completed by just subscribing for a single month in 7.35.

[Kewitt]

As soon as you realize if it takes me a few hour grind vs random stuff I do over a week it's a much more peaceful step.

My hubby and I both need about 12 to 15 stones to finish every endwalker relic even if there are 4 jobs I can't even get the item for

[caffe_macchiato]

We really need an unsubscribe button built in to the game itself. If unsubbing really is such an integral component of Final Fantasy XIV, I should be able to unsub just as easily as logging out. Maybe there'd be a checkmark when you log out saying "Also unsubscribe me from the game". Yoshi-P would be so proud.