I’m on the fence whether or not I want to take a break from Final Fantasy XIV (or even quit the game entirely). TLDR: I’ll give 7.1 a shot and see if I feel any more excited about the future of the game, but right now it feels like more of the same, at too slow of a pace, and with no light at the end of the tunnel.
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I've been playing a lot longer, since late HW, and to say that this expac (really endwalker is included in this too) gets me legitimately annoyed with the state of the game. The game has never been bigger and yet it feels like we've never been slower with content. To me it isn't rose tinted at all to say HW/StB was peak for this game. Shadowbringers is for a lot of people the best expansion but it's because over 70% of the players started during it (according to luckyblancho) so the story and backlog of previous patches and expacs carried it hard, but for players like myself who played when that 'backlog' was current the games been super stale for almost 4 years now.
My tinfoil hat theory is since the surge of players in mid 2021 they are trying to create a wide enough net to catch all the little fish so to speak rather than build a specialized net that catches fewer, but bigger fish (fish being players, net being content). Stormblood was this games height, gameplay wise, because they knew their target audience which were mmo players, all the systems in the game revolved around it but now since so many people's first and only MMO is 14 they are afraid of creating 'MMO' features that incentivize longevity and grind which is why the feeling of nothing to do hangs so heavy over us now. Content cadence and patch release time is also atrocious, 4 1/2 months just straight up isn't acceptable when the content being designed is all beatable within the first week, if not first day. And this is not even starting about the virtual rent that is housing.
14 is straight up my favourite game of all time, toppling the throne that WoW had for me for so long. BUT, the last 2 expacs have really, REALLY tried to sink that ship with buster calls left and right.
I literally just had this happen with wow about 3 weeks ago. I lived for m+ since its come out but randomly after one I was just like what am I even doing on cuz I don't even know if im having fun? im not burnt out at all either it just clicked in my head and now i havent been on in 3 weeks.
The caliber of player makes it impossible for developers to create enough content to satiate those that play for a challenging environment. It's the same way over on WoW. The vast majority of players that progress through mythic raiding relatively quickly all step away from the game until the next tier comes. I went through a similar challenge with worrying that I was wasting my time playing games when I turned 30 too, but then classic WoW released and made me realize how much I love gaming and that it'll be part of my routing forever.
ngl, i took the last month away from the game to play some other games, just logging on to keep my house. other then that, ive not watched anything ff14 related so when i return ill have something to do
Have you played FROM soft games before? I find them a good palate cleanser to MMOs.
I admitted to this after finishing Dawntrail and letting it broil in my head for two weeks, and decided to quit three months ago. As someone else said, when the story is the highlight and the thing to look forward to the most, since content is all the same and predictable- what is there to look forward to when the story goes bad?
Well, after two months, I missed the game a bit, and the modding, but existence of Dawntrail kept me away a little longer, but eventually I decided to return… anew, with limitations, such as no market board- forcing me to craft and gather everything myself. I started a new character that I've been playing each expansion to 100% completions (up to a point, not EVERY relic, just few, that's just asking for burnout- but leveling every class to level cap of the expansion etc.) before moving to the next. It's been great, I also swapped language to japanese to get used to them before Dawntrail, and I even looked into making Wuk Lamat into a miqote, so when I eventually get there, she will sound at least a little better and not look bad. Dawntrail is probably like 5-6 months of gameplay away, so I'm not too worried anymore.
If you're burned out, I also say you should play something new, do something else. If you force yourself then you will resent the game and actively dislike it vs taking a break and maybe coming back if or when the urge to play comes back. Content creator or not, I don't think anyone should force themselves to play a game they aren't feeling because it will hurt whatever content you're making, you won't enjoy it. Sometimes you need time to miss something to get back hype for it.
I totally feel the same way. It gets harder to make content when it also feels like this and people around you are less motivated in general. Im also a raider so maybe that’s why I share the same views.
How you are feeling is fair
I do hope you enjoy the ultimate ❤
You really sound fed up with it all buddy, even the small stuff really bothering you, take a break and forget about the game, look after yourself.
I have played the game since 2.0. I'm an older gamer, and I've enjoyed some of the things they have added in, but overall, I find myself not wanting to play anymore. I was excited for Dawntrail, really wanting to see what happened after Endwalker. However, it was just bad. I was so uninterested in the story, the first time ever. The writing was terrible this time around, everything seems ham-fisted into the game, the forced attempts at cheery motivations, the terrible character development, it's like amateur hour in the writing department. I absolutely hated Wuk Lamat. Her character is irritating, abrasive and just so FORCED into everything. The longer and longer content droughts make me wonder why I bother anymore. Crafting has become more of a chore than anything else, gathering is exactly the same for the last decade, the power creep makes everything you've worked for ultimately worthless. The formula is very old, stale and boring. I'm a casual player, I can't do these super-end-tier raids, I just can't keep up. So none of that appeals to me, as it would only end up frustrating me. The island sanctuary was cool, but it's dead. I feel completely left out of this 7.1 stuff coming. Frankly, I might finally cash in and end my sub forever.
I feel this a lot in my fc. fewer and fewer members are logging in everyday and even fun social events like the halloween trick or treat we do on siren was not enough to get them to come back. I will likely keep playing this game regardless since I am able to keep myself entertained but the lack of content for the more casual player base is hurting.
Its honestly best to move on and just play when the expansions launch. The game never changes, it has been the same since 2.0 and they want to stay on the comfortable spot.
It is sad, boring and predictable.
Take a break! I didn't enjoy Dawntrail outside of the raids. Have been unsubbed since BiS. It will re-energize you for 7.1 maybe.
Do it if you feel it, don't hesitate and become one of those lame YouTube channels that just shits on the game for views but carries on playing…
It is not worth the monthly subscription. Also, thats not burnout, thats straight up boredom
I think that what keeps me going is the various statics that I'm in. Blind progging old fights on min ilv is fun and reprogging ultimates has kept me busy. Also doing dumb shit like trying to clear old raids MINE with an undersized party or trying to beat UCoB with 7 people, getting deep dungeons solo titles, leveling all my crafters in ironman mode, soling stuff as blue mage. If all I did was clear the current savage tier and whatever the newest content is, I would feel the same way.
Im SO bored and for me (mid core casual) 7.1 brings nothing to do outside of one weeks worth of content
I'm only 10 minutes into the video so if you get into this later on, apologies. But how many times do the devs have to say "If you're tired of playing our game, go play something else, and come back when there is something you want to do" to players that burn through content as fast as they can and then get annoyed there isn't more of the content they enjoy? The game is not built to be a mindless grind. If you're finding logging in to be more of a chore, take a break. That is what the people who are building the game (and you're paying) want you to do.
are we supposed to care or something?
i took a break since 2 weeks ago, getting burned out from having to run group contents and trying to find people matching my time for raiding also and bored in general, just playing Black Desert and Metaphor right now and I'm still thinking to whether come back for 7.1 x_x
I feel you brother. I've taken breaks since ARR. I was thinking of trying not take a break during this expac, but that isn't looking promising at all. I'm very much looking at going back to single player turn based games, and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (not a lot of content there tbh, but the freedom and flexibility helps keep things fun for me). I would certainly have to say to NOT limit yourself to XIV on YouTube, Discord, or Twitch (I follow on all of the above). Play what you want and I'm sure a lot of us will follow. If you lose followers that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Those that are still around are around for you, and not whatever you're playing at the moment. Also, changing up games may help those of us that either haven't heard of the game discover it, and/or make up our minds at to if we want to play it ourself if we were on the fence before.
I got burnt out after endwalker 6.08 when the stole Kaiten from samurai But from 6.1 7.0 the story and writing has been terrible on all fronts.
Gunna give 7.1 a chance but if the writing is still as bad then time to quit and unsub. Absolutely love 14 from ARR to endwalker 5000 deep but jesus dawntrail just flopped harder than a 90 year old man without his blue pills.
I can see DEI infesting this company soon anyways so probably a good time to sign out for good
I don't do Extreme/Savage/Ultimate. Basically I just do normal mode difficult and that's it, and honestly even that feels a bit above my skill level. So on patch days I log in, I finish all of the content in maybe 5~8 hours at best, and then proceed to literally AFK for MONTHS. This game just doesn't have anything for me to engage in. I don't even like the game's combat system to begin with.
I'm mostly just here because I'm waiting for the FFXI nostalgia bait. That's about it. Meanwhile… I mostly play FFXI on private servers. That's a game that actually entertains me and gives me a huge list of things I enjoy and want to do. FFXIV doesn't have any of that.
Run in a straight line. Trash, boss, trash, boss, trash, boss boss, dodge touhou mechanics. Real creative Yoshi.
I am just glad FF14 players are finally seeing what WoW players were saying in 2022 or so. And I am not talking about the toxic ones. I am talking about the ones who said there just was not a lot to do and those who kept saying, once you finish and get caught up, you are going to feel the same way you did playing WoW. I am sure there are thousands who play every day and enjoy it regardless of how long they played. Same goes with WoW. But the only reason FF14 was praised so much in 2021 and parts of 2022 was because people had 10 years of content to play and now that content list is drying up for the people who did start playing in 2021 or so, if it already hadn't. If Yoshi P doesn't break down and make changes he doesn't want to make like xp… story skips… a new opening. They are going to ultimately fall into the same exact trap WoW did. And once FF14 starts losing money, Square Enix will kill the funding for it. FF14 isn't like WoW in that aspect. WoW was Blizzard's main money maker and probably still is, so they did everything they could to keep it running. But FF14 is run by a company who doesn't give a crap and as soon as they stop making money with it, it will die.
You are discovering knowledge burnout. When you experience something and it's iterations/variations for to long it becomes boring. Most people only have this with their work which they can muscle through because it makes them money and keeps them alive or they have a midlife crisis and discover new hobbies to keep them busy. People that play video games 8+ hours a day are discovering the same phenomenon. Good news, there is no way to fix this because there is nothing to fix. Bad news, you're already caught in the death spiral. It's not from a specific game, it's gaming in general. You will most likely try to hop around different games to find the joy again but eventually you'll come to a conclusion. Only after a routine change and long absence will you "rediscover" the fun you had because by then it will likely all be new again.
Unlike most things in life, gaming has a lot of transferable skills between games. This is good when you enjoy games, but it actively harms you when you try different games because you're using the same skillset so you're not having a completely new experience you're just figuring out what specific gaming skills you don't have yet that you need to beat the game. There's no reset from gaming except to completely stop. But you won't want to stop because of the time you've already invested.
The "happiest" gamers are usually the ones that play a little bit of everything and are terrible at everything. They always have something to learn because they never learn anything. The fun part of gaming is figuring it out, if you've gotten good at figuring it out then a new game isn't going to be fun for very long.
The reason you are asking yourself "why am i doing this, is this even worth doing anymore?" is because that's what you're supposed to do to prevent boredom/burnout. The conscious mind will hurt itself far more than the subconscious one.
The biggest change that would help is having a relic grind in .0 or .1 instead of waiting until .2 or later. To me thats literally it. I don't really end game raid i've just been leveling up my jobs/crafting/gathering. Only putting in maybe a few hours a day because boredom. A early relic grind would keep more people interested. I thought the story was fine since we are starting a new story. It's all about setup, very similar to 2.0 so i expect story to start picking up with patch content.
Thanks for your honest feedback, i really think the dev team looks at these feedbacks to consider things to change for the future.
I think the game just lacks any content beyond raids that feels worth a sense of investment that isn't niche like fishing or deep dungeons. Bozja and the ShB relic was the last time the game felt like it had something engaging like that before we got the busy work of island sanctuary. I think the devs are just too complacent to mix up the formula that's "good enough" to keep people subbed. My guess is they have their hands full with a new project and underestimated the fatigue the player base feels.
Ultimately, they need to do something about housing. Because people buying a house and then having to stay subbed is going to cause burn out for everyone who owns a house. There is so many people staying subbed just so their house isn't taken away.
As someone who enjoyed taking Summoner into casual content for the combat res, I will say that it's actually become less fun thanks to a number of factors. Buffs being reduced to 20 seconds across the board means that you just always summon titan first, there is no point in getting out garuda anymore. Solar bahamut being significantly stronger than bahamut or phoenix means you MUST use seering light alongside it, where as previously in a dungeon or whatever you could decide to delay seering light between either bahamut or phoenix depending on whether the extra damage was needed.
Solar bahamut also does far less healing than phoenix, which only comes around once every 4 minutes instead of every two minutes. It's literally become a 4 minute rotation again, but far less interesting.
Yeah I’ll be real. You sound burnt out. There was a time where I felt exactly as you did back in stormblood. It took me like 2 entire patch cycles back then when I eventually came back to the game. This game, it’s very important to take time for yourself when there’s no content to do – or no content you want to do. The whole “just unsub and play something else, duh” is actually helpful advice when you’re feeling this way. If you have a backlog of games you’re working through then this is the time imo.
I do hope you come back if you defo leave. Your content is great to watch 🙂
the game just sucks. don't look at this as a major crossroad though. you don't have to choose between quitting forever or staying until you get (even more) sick of the game. and don't just "take a break" either.
just uninstall the game and unsub. if you get the itch to play, or the next expansion looks actually promising, and you're not doing anything else exciting, then maybe you return. maybe you never return. no need to decide now what you'll do in 3 years
ironically, doing just that is how i found your channel. i was looking for reviews of dawntrail to see if things were looking fresh and fun. are people liking the expansion? nope. maybe later? it's fun to keep tabs on the game… but for free and from a distance
Ugh here we go wit this bs
the game is boring, thats all.. ive been taking long breaks since heavensward… ill be gone for half a year and reappear once in every blue moon. thats just how it is lol
I'm on the other side of the fence, I didn't go hard on the game this 7.0 patch… I did msq, got savage week one and geared the jobs I might wanna play for ultimate, and the rest has been helping friends. Now I'm excited for 7.1 cause of FRU, I dig the Eden storyline and also will be the first time I have a chance at doing an ulti on patch, wich I haven't before. Chaotic alliance is a neat plus that I'm not sure I'll get into this patch, but still, it's neat that they are adding a new kind of fight.
You are definitely right on the business model. It's a hella expensive game for what content it puts out.
I feel like my break from it might come after getting FRU cleared, grab reclears if the fight is good and helping some friends with it if they also wanna go at it. And come back for the deep dungeon.
Either it’s burnout, or betrayal; when Yawntrail released, I felt a sense of betrayal, my years of loyalty and subscriptions were thrown back into my face. 😅
Another big thing that you've not mentioned and also something that streamers can't or don't want to talk about publicly is the massive rise of plugins since mid/end Endwalker. Plugins always existed, they were always around, but nowadays it's so normalized to have a crafting bot artisan, have Splatoon, Cammy, Auto Rotation and more. Mare is also bad for the game because most people don't even look like their ingame characters anymore. Everyone can just give themself whatever they want, look cute without any effort. We're at a point where almost every piece of content in this game has lost integrity because of plugins. And there is no policy….
And you are talking from a raiders perspective such as myself, imagine what you would do as a casual playing the game if you dont raid or do social activities/RP etc. There is basically little to do, if you are not new to the game and have a few thousand hours into the game and done most of the content (you want to do). Do your weeklies, max jobs and call it a day. Let that sink in. You could do achievement hunting etc, but that's just if and not for everyone. With all the supposed casual catering etc it's clear the game is even more appealing for raiders, quite funny tbh. Relics as another time sink would be great, but thats also just one part of it.
I've been playing baulder gate 3 with mods on console and dragon age veil guard haven't been playing but I'll come back on Tuesday
I watched your first video and I stopped playing weeks ago. I just got burnt out from the game, they just offer so little and their patch cycle is really horrible.
I agree with your complaints completely. The patch cycle sucks, the rewards system sucks so you don't have an incentive to re do old content, loot system sucks. Gearing sucks so theres no need to grind.
You're at the point I was at mid-EW-patch cycle (I started shortly after ShB launch), the honeymoon phase has ended and you can no longer play the game at the pace you'd like to. You might just need a change of scenery, after all: you can't miss something if it isn't absent. I started going through my backlog of games in my library, checking out the other FF games for the first time, and trying other online games (The Old Republic, and recently started Warframe).
I'm not sure how much you like just grinding out content, but Eureka is worth doing if you don't mind the grind of leveling up and progressing through each zone until you get to the raid at the end… I'm sure you can get a group to go with you and powerlevel you if you wanted to… worth thinking about, the raid is fun (iirc it's somewhere between extreme and Savage, it was their testing bed for the DRS raid later, in Bozja). And you didn't miss the boat on Eureka either, it's still very much populated and active, there are people in the game who exclusively do Eureka, as it's their favorite content. There's also Discord servers who organize weekly groups to go through, get you leveled up and progressed, and then take you through the raid.
The budget issues are definitely glaringly obvious when you've been current with the game for a while… and I suspect a lot of the resources that could be put back into the game are being used to start development of the next MMO, but they just haven't revealed it yet. Of course it's also clearly going into their other IP's and the FF remakes, as you said.
i think its completely fair to feel this way. I didnt care at all throughout endwalker, only did p1 p2 and p9, didnt even touch abyssos. but since dawntrail ive found ways to play every day so ive been loving it more than ever. but yeah i completely understand the feeling you have rn.
Take a break. Come back in 5-10 years.
I've decided to get back into Destiny 2 while I wait for 7.1 personally. Just yesterday unlocked the final subclass (Strand) on my Hunter. Not gonna lie, I was stunned by how easy the Calus boss fight was, since I remember how troublesome he was back when Lightfall launched. I only died once to him since I forgot he had a phase 2 and neglected to kill one of the Tormentors. Definitely instilled confidence in me to play it on Titan once I get a Stasis build and good armor stats on that class.
I'm hoping 7.1 will reignite the spark that went out after Dawntrail but I wish they didn't spread the content out so much. Doing that is the last thing they should be doing considering that this expansion feels less rich in content currently
streamers, friends, random people – they all play other games, this is really the meta.
playing ONLY ffxiv 24/7 makes no sense anymore, unless you really want to or you still have lots of content left.
you dont have to "hardquit" ffxiv, just play it when you feel like it, xiv is not your identity.