Engaging Content is at an All-Time Low

[Yodada]

Well, good Job design (doesnt matter if Combat or Crafter) would make every content automatically more engaging.

Unfortunately Square seems to die on the hill of simplification. This only makes the problems that have plagued the content since Heavensward even more apparent.

[Kaurhz]

I'm just kind of stagnating after finishing Shadowbringers (which its self was ridiculously over-hyped) because apparently Endwalker was also "the worst expansion ever" until Dawntrail came along apparently.

I know this is somewhat strange to say, but they are honestly the worst expansions for different reasons...

Endwalker just outright gave very little content, on any measurable scale.

Dawntrail has given a decent volume of content, but to varying degrees, there's not much in the way of substance that we haven't already seen, and there's very little reason to actually care about the content in any meaningful capacity unless you aim to raid... Like OC is irrelevant to me, for the simple fact that as soon as I've completed the base content it offers nothing to me.. Courtesy of the fact that all of the relic steps are just one-time-steps before being tomestones.
So yeah, I personally think they are both the worst expansion, but for different, key reasons...

[CCheshire]

As someone who is a super casual player, I actually liked OC's release because it had decent rewards and I collected all the PJ stones along with leveling a few to max level despite knowing how I'd never do FT1 because of lack of my personal skill for high-end content. Then I liked the novel exp of wandering around the locations and teleport spots and finding random personal chests was fun for a few hours even if most rewards had been recycled from other Field ops too. The new map itself was colorful and diverse mobs were entertaining more than Eureka and Bozja too, even if it's p boring after a few days but I was an tank so nothing could kill me out of the blue too during CE was useful.

Also, the next part I first tried the Cosmo Exploration despite not really into crafting in-game at the 3rd new planet so I did as many gold missions as possible, joined the Red Alerts, Mech ops, and even made it on time during an upgrade mission for the base by chance and helped. It was not that compelling exp for me so I gave up grinding the Cosmo tokens since I was p bored and you needed so many of them for the shop glams that I bought them the mp along with any affordable tradable items. I mean, I accept it's not for me, but it was a creative and interesting experiment for everyone and I found it worthwhile to unlock it and farm tokens for the 3x exclusive frames.

There're all kinds of new content that I'm not really interested in, like the CC/PVP, IS, fate farming, and high-end content, so I'm more open to lifestyle content which I find is much more accessible to casual players like I am too.

Finally, I'm slowly grinding for pastes by doing 2x EXDR and 1x Capped rous instead of going mad and doing like 10 Leveling rous daily because honestly the latter is super miserable and not worth the suffering if I didn't also need the exp for alt jobs.

[Xapapetsu]

I would say try savage but healers are at an all time low, I've been in PF for the last 5 hours only finished M9S and M10S, with a total of 3 parties because it takes an hour for a single healer to join.

[Supersnow845]

Can’t imagine why the role that plays like cookie clicker when things go well and gets yelled at when the DPS presses feint 1 time in 14 minutes is unpopular

[Valence]

It was still worth having both Cosmic and Occult because Endwalker felt like it had too much solo content. At least I feel like I'm playing an MMORPG again in Dawntrail, doing these large-scale events (Red Alerts, Mech Ops, Progression FATEs, CEs) regularly with hundreds of players there. It feels "massively multiplayer".

I don't know, I'm not interacting with those hundreds of players. They're just background noise unfortunately.

[theunhappypotato]

i think the content in DT is leagues above the snoozefest endwalker was, OC is still abit eh but i hope they fix it with north horn but overall fun whise DT is pretty awesome, when it comes to narrative, the slog that was ARR and HW burned me out so much i ended up skipping through the entire story so i can play with my friends so no comment there

[Aidorouge]

I know this is somewhat strange to say, but they are honestly the worst expansions for different reasons...

Endwalker just outright gave very little content, on any measurable scale.

Dawntrail has given a decent volume of content, but to varying degrees, there's not much in the way of substance that we haven't already seen, and there's very little reason to actually care about the content in any meaningful capacity unless you aim to raid... Like OC is irrelevant to me, for the simple fact that as soon as I've completed the base content it offers nothing to me.. Courtesy of the fact that all of the relic steps are just one-time-steps before being tomestones.
So yeah, I personally think they are both the worst expansion, but for different, key reasons...

I do sometimes feel like I joined FF14 "too late" because apparently mid/late-Endwalker was the worst possible time to start playing and its been downhill since then according to most. Everything was bad because its too easy, now everything's bad because its too hard, and everybody seems to hate everybody else based on their personal skill level.

But at the same time, I hear about all of these supposedly "great" things from the ARR through Shadowbringers era and I can't really say I would have enjoyed them (TP alone would have made me quit early), culminating in how Shadowbringers, the supposed peak of the game's lifetime was actually... kinda mid compared to ARR/HW/STB. Gameplay and even storywise, it was just a generally deflating experience not just in my confidence as a player when I'm getting constantly murked in normal content (even solo duties), but I felt like the most useless character even from a narrative point (which started in Stormblood actually, but Shadowbringers REALLY wanted to rub it in that I had no business being the protagonist anymore).

I'm already not renewed for March, and this also marks the first time I've unsubbed while NOT having houses to deal with so I don't have to show back up every 45 days anymore. So much of my time has been hearing about a great game and community and then struggling for years to actually find it, where even moving data centers didn't help and I feel so worn down.

[ovIm]

Quite frankly, Dawntrail marks the first time in over 10 years that I have unsubscribed from the game. The raids this game has to offer have changed into something I dislike playing years ago by this point (the way the fights are designed is boring to me.). Occult Crescent, which I was really looking forward to, since Bozja managed to capture me for a long, long time, turned out to be a bust, as we all know. Expert Dungeons got reduced from 3 every patch to 1 over the years, the new Deep Dungeon failed to keep me engaged, and I can't even bring myself to enjoy PVP any longer because the netcode makes a lot of it more frustrating than it needs to be. Most of the people on my friend list have quit by now, too. The world feels empty, and unless you enjoy the Shadowbringers Raid design paradigm, there is little to no meaningful endgame content for you.

I'm most likely still going to check up on the devs announcements for 8.0 during the fan fests, see if there is something there that catches me again.

[Kaurhz]

I do sometimes feel like I joined FF14 "too late" because apparently mid/late-Endwalker was the worst possible time to start playing and its been downhill since then according to most. Everything was bad because its too easy, now everything's bad because its too hard, and everybody seems to hate everybody else based on their personal skill level.

But at the same time, I hear about all of these supposedly "great" things from the ARR through Shadowbringers era and I can't really say I would have enjoyed them (TP alone would have made me quit early), culminating in how Shadowbringers, the supposed peak of the game's lifetime was actually... kinda mid compared to ARR/HW/STB. Gameplay and even storywise, it was just a generally deflating experience not just in my confidence as a player when I'm getting constantly murked in normal content (even solo duties), but I felt like the most useless character even from a narrative point (which started in Stormblood actually, but Shadowbringers REALLY wanted to rub it in that I had no business being the protagonist anymore).

I'm already not renewed for March, and this also marks the first time I've unsubbed while NOT having houses to deal with so I don't have to show back up every 45 days anymore. So much of my time has been hearing about a great game and community and then struggling for years to actually find it, where even moving data centers didn't help and I feel so worn down.

I would say this very much depends on what kind of player you are, really, and how you struggle with the content... Like, mechanically for me these latter expansions (Endwalker/Dawntrail) are much easier... But I tend to find them a little more tedious just for the simple fact of visual bloat more than anything.... If I joined after Shadowbringers I probably would be a worse player than I am now, just because ARR/HW gave me an appreciation for smaller things (Which the game doesn't do enough of)

You are probably way too harsh on yourself to be honest.. A lot of players struggle, and to be honest if you aren't passionate about the combat side of things then you won't get as good as what you can be.. That's just natural.. Wouldn't really let it get to you, when there's a lot this game does wrong, e.g., accessibility (actual accessibility and not ease of access)

Many people will tell you the community used to be worse, but IMO the experience was quite contrary... People used to be very inclusive, and honestly even though the game was smaller then than it is now (probably), it feels much smaller now because everyone is so insular and don't really go beyond their immediate clique... I met tonnes of friends doing the OG Diadem (supposedly worst content in the game btw).. Many of them I am still close friends with to this day (But most have quit).... It's difficult to say it has such a great community now, just for the simple fact that the community is so insular.

Edit: The above is why the content feels so flat.. For the most part you aren't really doing anything with anyone... You're just in the same space. So it feels very hollow. You may see hundreds of players, but like Valence said it's just background noise these days.... Maybe it's the natural progression of things.. But a lot of design decisions have pushed people away from the game, and into external spaces like Discord.