PC Gamer recently put out an article going over FF14’s monthly subscription and I think it was a really good read! But there’s a few things I’d like to add and comment on so I made a video about it!
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In terms of story, I consider Dawntrail only really worth it after the start of the Shaaloani/Heritage Found/Solution9-arc, which is the point where I found Dawntrail became to be fun and interesting (except for that the English voice line during the last trial, you know what I mean). Before that (Wuk's trials) it's a rather underdeveloped gameplay-free plot-hole-driven dialogue-marathon that has barely any relevance during the second half of the expansion. Once Heritage Found/Solution9 is reached, I found it to be extremely entertaining, the new raid series is amazing in both mechanics and story and I can't wait to see the next tiers of it, both story- and gameplay-wise. Personally I wish the main part of Dawntrail was only about Shaaloani/Alexandria (Wuk's trials should have been a post-expansion story while the appearance of the Dome should have been the start of Dawntrail), I found the story and mystery about Alexandria and what happened to it so much more engaging and interesting than the first half ot the expansion.
I'm a 1.0 player that literally only subs to keep my house at this point. The take a break argument is total garbage and always has been. Fundamentally, the content output relative to the requested funds just does not track and the goodwill has run out at this point. Dawntrail's joke of an MSQ and lack of anything outside of raid tier content for the first 6 months is laughably bad by any metric. Expansions should be new systems, features, and stories, not the same trough of fates, same hunts, same treasure maps, same dungeon with a different coat of paint. It's just tired and old.
If jobs were more interesting or the gearing system not quite so aggressively vertical (i.e. every six months launch your gear directly into the garbage for bigger number), we might get away with older content lasting, but their philosophy is akin to a fast food joint. It's single shot, low-investment content that runs it's course and will only ever been seen again on a blue moon roulette run if that.
I sound particularly negative because this is a game I've followed and played since the very beginning. I've loved jobs that have been butchered, I've loved raids that no longer have relevance, I've loved systems that have been left to rot in the dust (Squadrons, GCs, Chocobos, tons of Golden Saucer content), and the sense that this game is no longer for me weighs heavy. I want a reason to play and I want to support CBU3 – FF is my all-time favourite franchise from childhood. They're just not delivering a quality product anymore. It really is that simple.
I won’t disagree things have gotten stale and that the team have played too safe a good deal of the time with the content patches being predictable, but I think it also comes down to how much you value your time and what you look for in games. I find it hard to say your money is being wasted when you have invested hundreds of hours in a game over your time playing it, but I know that’s more short term thinking. I am heavily looking forward to 7.1 for its new editions and the future of Dawntrail with its story patches, dungeons, and future raid tiers, but I have little over 1k hours in XIV with there still being a bevy of content I haven’t done actively from old raids to fishing. It’s easier said than done to tell people to go out and be adventurous, you want to provide incentives that’s more than self satisfaction, and I don’t have immediate answers for that. And I’m not saying it’s bad to want to ask for better, more consistent content, and some people feel disappointed with Dawntrail in its current state. Though, even if every concern was properly addressed every concern every player had, it wouldn’t make everyone happy because people always want different things. Again, I’m not trying to be a white knight for the dev team, or say that people who are complaining are just whining, I still feel optimistic for the remainder of Dawntrail, and I want to spread my wings more and actively engage more in the content I haven’t done, and try out the content of the new patches when they’re ready. XIV has always respected my time and it’d leave a bad taste in my mouth to say it needs to rush out its content faster.
Ah, we're at that point already in the patch cycle.
Dope
I don't need anything else, just solve Ddos.
if you are a current player you reach a point where you feel like you have nothing to gain, I took 3 months off after I did the inital offering of DT and did my BIS and fun but then it was back to old content. I recently got back in with a few ffriends and we are now tackling the VC dungeons and doing other misc stuff. maybe I do that restoration grind after, yes that is how much content I have completed
The only think keeping me from being unsubbed is: a) my house and b) Subscribing 6 months when DT launched. But am I playing? No: I have no energy after work to do something that requires working together with a team of people to solve problems. So I don't do harder content, any more because it feels quite literally the same as work to me. And thus the content drops are really not made for me.
The thing that kills me is them not adding the variant in the x.1 patch. It's the content that I loved the most in EW, and it's weird that something we get three of something so tied to combat, and yet they aren't in line with the raid gear tiers. I could understand in ew since it was new, but I feel like this confirms V&C aren't getting gear.
wait what you guys are not hyped to farm materia from chaos raids?
I think that when the suggestion of doing "evergreen" content, doing "everything" in the game, or "take a break" comes up you know that the game's in trouble, especially for a sub based MMO. 99% of that stuff is mind numbingly boring, unrewarding and pointless for most players. No one cares about the "Collect 50,000 McGuffins for an umbrella", "do boring 8 year old thing for 800 hours to get a title", etc. There is not enough combat content or decent rewards/incentive to do 90% of what's in the game. It's very one and done. I love the game but there are single player games I own that deliver more content at a better pace than 14 does now, most of my friends have quit and PF is dead so I can't even get groups now lol.
Hunts are not content. You cant even see the hunt half the time. How is an invisible mob that dies in 10 secs qualify as content?
No. Go play World of Warcraft I'm actually not joking here. You can LITERALLY PLAY 4 seperate versions of the game all with differing communities and content for a single sub and currently the team has been producing more frequent patches than FFXIV. Its actually that sad
Imagine having to wait a whole ass expansion for a job rework, its insane…
No
I never took a break since starting 14 in 2018 but for the first time, DT killed my interest, from the MSQ and the stagnant jobs/2 min meta. It's been 2 months now I have been away, sad but I am just burnt out. I will comeback in 7.2 for the field zone content.
I made an alt, honestly. I'm having a lot of fun with it, mostly because I'm playing as Ganondorf but it's still pretty great.
In regards to people just playing old content if they don't have anything to do, I don't actually like that. While I think it's always great to have a backlog of old content to do, reasonably I should be able to enjoy a new patch for more than a few days… I don't raid anymore, and I shouldn't have to do the same four fights week after week to get my BiS that will immediately become irrelevant the next patch JUST so that I have something to do. I want grinding content. I'm playing an MMO, I expect MMO content. Eureka was great. Bozja was fine. Give us that earlier.
I want to believe Yoshi P is aware of the state the game is in and is trying his best to course correct it. Encounter-wise, I read of much high praise when it came to the Dungeons and raids. Yoshi P saved the game once before, he can do it again, can't he?
I said it before and I'll say it again: All they had to do to make Island Sanctuary relevant was to make it so you could purchase/move your personal plot there (with available size upgrades, of course) and add a marketboard in it. Congratulations, you just made literally everyone who plays in populated servers happy to have their own house and opened up a ton of plots for FCs from people who moved their existing personal plots to the island.
You can already visit a friend's Island Sanctuary, so you wouldn't even miss on the social aspect of it.
People are mostly just feeling the effects of EW's content being lacking. There's not much to go back and work on, unlike the start of EW. You could go back and work on Bozja, relics, etc. There really isn't much now worth going out of your way for or even has an active community around it. Good luck trying to get folks to do criterion, or have fun doing variants by yourself I guess. Once we get the content that EW lacked, people will be just fine.
Honestly though, doing a 40 hour rpg story with tough post game bosses and then whining that there's nothing to do only three months later is legitimately insane to me. What I don't want is the devs to try to appeal to gacha crack addicts with constant events and grinds. My interest in the game would plummet, and those people they're trying to appeal to are terminally unhappy anyways, so everyone would lose.
Given the success of the game you would think they would invest into adding game content. But they just shuffle the cards around like less dungeons but you get island sanctuary. I should be excited to log into a massive mmo to see what they have for us next. Instead on the contrary many forms of content have become worse over time like dungeons, alliance raids, field exploration zones, events, deep dungeon and even savage at this point. Joined in endwalker and the game still feels contentless already. I love lots of parts of the game but squenix has realized they can produce no content and still people sub. Until people start unsubbing, the game will start feeling more and more like logging in to facebook to talk to friends (which the friends list is a disaster too). And its our fault in the end, they speak money and we keep giving it.
If your a new player then yes it’s worth the massive amount of content to catch up to dawntrail. If you’re a vet then no it’s not worth it going forward.
There needs to be change but unfournatly these journalist would rather glaze yoship instead of grilling him with hard questions about the concerns of the players
Am a free trial player and am having a blast. I dont see why I should pay the sub.
Once I got my savage gear for FRU, I am now trying to clear TOP, only real reason while I am still subbed.
Dawntrail got so bad it had me playing WoW again, and honestly it felt like being given a pitcher of cold, crisp water after I have been parched in a desert for a week. For all its faults, and there are many, WoW actually has a lot of shit to do for many facets of gameplay and it's regularly cycling events to keep things fresh throughout even without the evergreen content.
A video I could not disagree more with. While you make some good points, the vast majority of it is downplaying/dismissive to a lot of actual issues this game is facing as an MMORPG. It is this exact same attitude that has gotten us to where we are today with the game. You can play devil's advocate, that is your right. But saying that "evergreen" content is there to enjoy when most of the time that content is dead(even when it's alive, it's not THAT alive) or it's one and done doesn't sit right with me.
Doing an DT A-rank hunt train with a single 8-man party is really fun, those bosses have actual mechanics.
Unfortunately its a rare treat, since hunts are so popular. I experienced it during the DDoS' because almost the whole train disconnected then slowly people left. But a small team of us troopered on!