Player Drop Off and Accessibility/Diffculty

[Devotions]

I am a "casual" player. I like housing, and crafting, but I also can skillfully complete all the "normal" difficulty content. I've played off and on since ARR, but have been consistently subbed since SHB-ish.

Yesterday I decided to let my sub lapse, and my houses demo. (FC and personal, on a few different worlds, mostly dynamis where they aren't in short supply. Not that supply is an issue now, with my home world having over 400 empty homes as we speak.) Not because I "can't" do the content, but because I realized doing it isn't FUN. I play games to relax and unwind, but fast paced "gotcha" mechs aren't that. FFXIV was made and billed as an MMORPG, not an action game, and so I think a lot of us who came for an MMORPG experience are sort of losing interest. My class fantasy is being killed off, as we no longer have class quests to explain our new moves, and the fast-paced nature of the fights no longer feel like the game I signed up for.

We can call for accessibility, which is desperately needed, but let's also just admit that this game no longer appeals to the crowd that it was made for. FF as a series seems to be embracing a more "action rpg" feel, and its core playerbase will also change as a result. I'm sad to leave, but if I'm not having fun, why stay?

[Shistar]

I play games to relax and unwind, but fast paced "gotcha" mechs aren't that. FFXIV was made and billed as an MMORPG, not an action game, and so I think a lot of us who came for an MMORPG experience are sort of losing interest. My class fantasy is being killed off, as we no longer have class quests to explain our new moves, and the fast-paced nature of the fights no longer feel like the game I signed up for.

I agree that it's getting faster and faster. I think it's because they're doing less convoluted mechanics (random example: in Amdapor, there was this zombie gobbue that would eat a party member, but he'd taken his sweet time with it. I think they removed it, but you used to be able to give the tether to someone else to avoid being eaten lol) so they consider you need less time to solve them effectively.
However, pretty much none of these mechanics are actually "gotchas" unless it's the very first time you see one of its type back when you start the MSQ. Like some others on this thread mentioned before, the orange aoe has gone from being the "this is the danger zone" marker to a confirmation on whether you solve it correctly or not, and if not, it will punish you as appropriate. Older content mostly relies on castbars and mechanics that interacts with other things that aren't the boss's model, but nowadays they want you to look at the boss/arena for clues on how to solve a mech, stand where you think you will be safe, and see the confirmation on if you were right or not.


Could you please give me an example of a gotcha mechanic that got you? I know there are some still, but I can't quite remember them off the top of my head and Google isn't doing me any favors right now...