Hey guys, a bit of a different video this time, I wanted to address some thoughts I’ve had after live letter 70 on why I think Endwalker needs to change up the way they develop for FFXIV.
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It's totally cool if you watch this video and wind up disagreeing, just had a lot of (like I said in the video) complicated views about the game lately and wanted to put them in a video, especially because it relates to the kind of content I make for you guys – feel free to share your comments below or in my discord server and I'll read through them and take them to heart, thanks for being supportive towards a new kind of video and I appreciate you guys helping me untangle how I feel about this <3
its fine to be burnt out
I just dont know why no new Bozja/Deep Dungeon.
I think that the trajectory of the game from ARR -> EW was a lot about learning what to modernize or remove that was once considered "traditional MMO stuff". I wouldn't use wow as a good example of getting players to log in. Classic is basically raid logging and retail is notorious for horrendous grind systems that feel awful, are confusing and are just about keeping subs. Daily chores aren't good. However, the 14 teams seems to have gone the complete opposite direction in that in an effort to balance and create a smooth experience for everyone, they've really steamrolled most of the nuance. It sucks, the story is awesome, the gameplay is fun, and they've found a way to make things not feel like a chore, but I wish they just knew how to use a tool other than a hammer sometimes.
The item system is incredibly boring, there's zero personalize of your class gameplay, there's no exciting items to hunt for. The argument is this is supposed to be solved with a robust glamor system, but as you mentioned, there's constant repeated items, they don't implement models from older ultimates for new job's weapons. The item system is supposed to be streamlined, but multi-class tanking has issues where warrior requires different melds (melding is boring af too), and without exploiting a bug, you can't even hold/use a second set of gear.
The community is bad for letting the developers off the hook on things too. Gaming communities can be awful, and attacking devs over a video game is stupid. However, most responses like "I think we should change the item system" or "I was there was more hard content" is constantly met with "this isn't the game for that, this isn't a loot game, this isn't a raiding game". That's just detrimental to everyone though, because it's not even as if catgirl simulator is getting fancy new glamours (that aren't sold on the mogstation, at least).
unfortunately i think a lot of the "dead" feeling going on is because of the hype of the expansion. When shadowbringers came out i took way too much time with the story and did old content at the same time and it felt alive but i think because this expansion was the "final arc" of what we have going on people rushed through, finished the msq to not be spoiled and experience it blind, then ran the small amount of endgame stuff immediately which left people with nothing to do until savage came out.
I think because you've spent so much time doing every single thing the game has to offer you've kinda done yourself a disservice because there is nothing completely new to dive into and spend tons of hours doing. There's going to be plenty to do in this expansion as the patches roll out; maybe take some time to take a break from stuff then come back when there's more content available to spend a ton of time doing.
It's incredibly complicated to make content that lasts long for end-game players.
I could write an essay why it's almost impossible.
But it would be amazing if XIV team found a solution to the problem, to have both casuals enjoy progression as well as end-game players enjoying progression WHILST NOT making casuals feel like they've been left behind.
As much credit as XIV has gotten for it's non-linear progression I do still feel left behind all the time simply because the way the progression locks you into doing 1 thing.
Your feelings about these things are obviously valid. Theres evidence to support all of your grievances. And I like your videos a lot! I’m just going to be honest though, I come to the ffxiv side of youtube to pass time and maybe learn some tips/tricks. When it comes to ffxiv, I just like more positive stuff. Not saying its flaws should be ignored but just more fun stuff. Like tutorials, glam competitions, mount guides, job guides, favorite cutscenes, top 10s, deep dive into the lore, your own characters inspiration, glams, lore (if youre into that).
I play this game for raiding, just got my first legend title in UCOB. I raid savage weekly, and in my downtime I craft, and experience all of the other stuff the game has to offer. I think the pacing is fine, and the great thing about FFXIV is the freedom to play other games. I don't feel bad binging other games and then raid logging. gl.
First video I disagree with you. First of all if you keep waiting anything from Square Enix you will keep yourself disappointed, just need to look at their record with live services. It seems Yoshi-P is trying his hardest to fight that even thought it will ultimately be a lost battle. Now, looking at WoW as an example is terrible. I played WoW since Legion and only quit last year realizing how horrendous Blizzard was treating the game. I don’t know what you were doing there that you think it has any incentive to keep playing because I did everything from Mythic+ to mount and gold farming. This feeling you have now it’s exactly what I had with it and the only thing I can say to you is: go play other games. I don’t see that hurting FFXIV because up until now it never really mattered. It was always obscured, and it was doing fine and from what I see they still have plans to keep going regardless of how much people play 24/7. I don’t plan to ever go back to WoW in this lifetime but funny enough my friend who brought me to FF quit after the story was done and I bet a lot of veterans did too. Maybe this feeling is rubbing on you. Just take a break and then you can go back.
There is definitely something missing in the personal progression department of FFXIV.
I think you made a good point. I've played on and off since September 2010 and feel that the game has definitely expanded the content available to players, but there's a lot more work that needs to be done. It would be nice if they could consider some kind of content that appealed to pre-savage/post-EX difficulty for players. Eventually we'll have this expansion's relic weapon, but I still think there's a gap for mid tier content that fulfils a similar niche/need that savage raiding fulfils at a higher difficulty. SE have the resources to do more so I'm glad to see people pushing SE to do better.
I know people are criticising you but like most MMOs, lots of people are happy to shill for a video game that meets their needs and are happy to shit on other people who are missing out.
While I hate how they are neglecting Hrothgar, and I am hoping those pictures are April Fool's jokes and they aren't actually gonna cut our ears off, and I hate how they could make hats work but don't, if modders can do it in their spare time they can too, but that said……
FFXIV is not going to be the kind of game you hope. Yoshi P., for all that he is a hardcore raider and MMO freak wants a game that is more casual come and go as you like. Anything meaningful enough to incentivizing people to log in every day is gonna punish people who don't want to or can't log in everyday. That is not a good route to go.
These changes to ARR and the graphics are things a lot of people are excited for. They are finally cleaning up some remnants that can turn a lot of people off, especially if you are starting as DPS in ARR, and the graphics have been in need of polish for ages. Even if they will expand their team and expand how much they release eventually, this huge influx is likely still something they have to adjust to. Its not like they just go "our subscriber count is up last month, here's a ton of new money for your team", it doesn't work like that you are HELLA over simplifying it.
Long story short, you are likely not going to see the fundamental changes you want till 7.0 at least. Maybe take a break or look into the HUGE amount of side content you haven't touched yet. Want something to do? Get the BLU achievements. Taking 8 BLU's into endgame is really fun. You have a shit ton of backlog to sink your fangs into, get to it.
Def sounds like burnout. All the stuff you described is how the game has pretty much been designed since ARR. And I’m not going to invalidate you by saying that you’ve only been playing the game for a year and a half-ish and you carry yourself and your points with an experienced tone when you can’t really speak on the x.1-x.2 patch cycles without experiencing it yourself. The devs usually drip feed info in the LLs and leave the patch launches to do all the showing and telling. We got an Alliance Raid (which also has weekly Tome upgrade drops), new Extreme, more MSQ, more side quests that people have been begging for since SB (Hildebrand was completely absent in ShB and it was a pretty big deal for many people). As someone who’s played for nearly 7 years, you have to take breaks from the game, then go back in ready to tackle whatever you want to accomplish, because all the in-game accomplishments are more of a silent victory for yourself. I used to have a similar pleading mindset about how FFXIV needs to change, but you just learn to accept the game for what it is and enjoy it for what it is.
If you started in 5.3 and completed almost all of the content, I think you're probably burnt out. At the end of the day, FFXIV is just like any other game; you can only expect so much from the developers. There are a lot of things to nitpick (as with anything really).. but I've been playing since around the end of ARR and I kinda think FFXIV is the game it always has been and will be. I will say it can be repetitive but I think the best advice is to take breaks and play something else like Yoshi P has said before. To me, launching the game satisfies a particular itch, not really something that replaces all other genres/games. I'm ok with doing the same few things every week and I take original concepts getting added as a gift, not an expectation.
I only log in to cap my weekly tomes atm. I'll play the new content in a few days but it's just an alliance raid, an extreme and 1 dungeon for me. Which I'm sure I'll be done with in a few days even. I have noticed the party finder is kinda quiet now other than weekly savage clears. Even extremes there's barely any everyday everytime I look compared to a few months ago
You are burned out just because you played everything on fast and furious mode. It will sound harsh but get some other hobbies as well. I started when the game was 5.55, that is around 5-6 months ago, I have around 1200+ active hours in the game and still got plenty of stuff to do. Most days I was playing around 2-4 hours a day, rarely I was playing for more then 4 hours. I have a job, I go to gym, I also have some other stuff to take care of, some days I don't play at all.
1200 hours in 6 months its a lot of time spent in a game.
Content will come just wait.
FF14 is really good and is fine just like it is. One of the big reasons I left Wow was because playing 2 hours a day would give me nothing, I have a job, I have a life and I also like to play the game. Making it grindier would kill it for me.
The reason I left after 1 month of Endwalker release was the fact that I had to wait 4-5 hours just to log in, nothing else. I came back 2 weeks ago.
Right now I want to level everything to max and start doing savages, after that I want to do the next hardest content.
There is content, just because you are done with it doesn't mean there is no content or the game is bad. If you play 8-9 hours a day and finish the game in a few weeks, that is on you.
What you are saying is, make the game grindier so that 90% of the community won't have time to play it (and still be relevant in the game along everyone else) just for the sake of you being able to make content.
I felt the same when playing Warframe, I finished everything there, grinded everything and got everything. When there was nothing else to do for me it didn't mean there is no content or the game is bad it meant that I spent too much time on it.
Also the story is really good, what we got is not flaccid. Its just you.
Peace.
Hi Fur Dad, big fan. Wanted to preface that before my comment! You talk about the volume of content for this coming patch and that you think the big influx of players should’ve meant we got more. I think the big issue with that point is that you aren’t considering how budgets in a company as large as SQE actually works. Despite the large influx in players last year, budgets are set or a year or 2 year basis, not instantly after something changes. Additionally, SQE will want to see that the growth and revenue can be sustained before they chuck in a tonne more money to boost content/development speed. That’s kinda just how the corporate world works (I do budget activity for the company I work from a Hr perspective and that feeds into the yearly/bi-yearly recruitment budgets). So I think your expectations are unrealistic at this time. I believe Yoshi has said that with the performance still being strong, they can increase the budget, but we won’t likely see the effect of that until the end of 6.0/into 7.0. So that’s my take at the moment. As someone who has a very busy life, this game is perfect for me. I’ve played nearly every day during 6.0 and had a blast, so perhaps my perspective is just very different to yours.
The curse of being a single game content creator. The dreaded Burnout.
playing everyday makes you have a "burn out"
No, it doesn’t need to change. Just take a break or maybe this isn’t the game for you. 🤷♂️
Very valid arguments and agree with most of them. I think most of us will agree that there are issues and the desire for improvement. Yet, I don’t agree with the sentiment here. I think your perspective is very unique as a content creator, you made playing a job on itself and it’s more easy to grow frustrated with a job than a game. As a content creator is not that easy to “take a break” or “play something else”, specially since your online persona is a character made in this specific game. It’s ok to feel this negative feelings, but I was waiting in the video for your ideas on what a completely new adventure could be, but Hrothgar issues derailed the conversation a bit. In the end this is just a patch and is a bit unrealistic to expect an expansion amount of content in it. Hope you find the inspiration you are looking for, love your content and hope you can keep doing it.
I'm a rather new player with having started on the last shadowbringer patch in august of 2021 and took a break from january till end of march.
I agree especially with the last bits of this video. I don't disagree with the rest of it but as I'm one of the rather casual players that do not thrive in endgame activities such as raiding, I can't really relate. I do agree that ff14 has some very glaring flaws that shouldve been adressed years ago because they make the game seem ancient. they talked so much about wanting to update the graphics and what not but thats not the biggest issue. it's ancient designs, UI's and solutions to problems that are so odd and old.
-The strict limitations to inventory and how its managed
– The way things like fellowships or the chat works (every /tell being the same color and what not)
– Having crafters, gatherers and a whole roster of combat jobs and not even remotely enough glamour slots to have 1 glam per job. And even when you increase that its such an outdated system where you need to jump through so many hoops around every corner to make things work…
-Very sad how alt-unfriendly the game is. yes they do a lot so that people dont need alts but in some cases it is nice to have an alt and doing that is horrifically bad and so much work.
-so many system like mentioned are unintuitive and not rewarding, squadrons, GC, FC's, Fellowships, PvP and a whole bunch more.
I think the game is great but that a lot of things feel so old is really a big hurdle to get into the game and continue playing it long term.
wow player: why do the devs make us log on everyday to do pointless stuff I just wanna raid once a week
xiv player: why do the dev players not make enough content so I can play everyday all I can do is raid once a week…. grass is always greener
You should change the title to "Why 'I THINK FFXIV' Endwalker Needs to Change" though.
Well as a daily player since it came out in 1.0 I see where you're coming from, for me, I maxed everything, cleared everything I want to, capped gil multiple times, MGP is close to cap again, have all the items and cards, rank 9 racing choco, 400+ minions, 177 mounts etc. I did the deep dungeons and all of that, hell I even have a house! I literally cleared things I didn't want to but felt I should as there wasn't anything fun to do but still I log in daily as the community and helping others is super important to me. If I was a content creator, I guess it would be doing gil making, crafting and so on, but for you maybe clears at minimum ilvl would be fun, I'm sure your community will let you know what they like to watch. As for the hats..you know cat girls are the master race, right? 😀
I dont like this because i dont want to knowledge the problems and just be inside in my bubble (read: i totally agree but i just try to ignore it and enjoy of the content i havent done yet)
It's because the MSQ took most of the resources this time around, and that the Itinerant Moogle event is basically a rerun. The only reason to log in is to farm ShB Extreme mounts, clear Savage, and that's pretty much it. 6.1's going to be huge in terms of content.
That, and try to find your long-term niche, the thing that makes you happy to log in. Some people like myself are into roleplay and crafting identities for our characters, other people are masochists and try to get the Deep Dungeon solo achievements, some do G-Posing, others do Eureka, etc.
I'm probably going to try and clear BA this expansion, as I want the Ozma mount.
Bro you sound like you want to play a better game. Go play WoW. It sounds like it would appeal to you more. Because, I think as a content creator, which I think is the main angle you are looking at it, would cater you more. Love your vids though
I say this gently but this doesn’t sound like a ffxiv issue; it sounds like you, personally, are burnt out.
To sum it up in one sentence: “Please don’t turn into WoW”
I agree with parts and disagree with others, however: A game that is built around a more casual experience rather than a hyper-competitive one, will struggle retaining players between patches.
Those who prefer this more casual style, will obviously still stick (generally speaking) whilst others will give the main systems, msq etc a shot, then play something more competitive in-between.
I started in last patch of ShB, around September. Already made 100 mil, finished eureka, several relic weapons etc, and don't feel like I'm even remotely close of running out of things to do. This leads me to believe that the "drought" or lacking content, is mainly affecting those who has been playing for a way longer time(finished most stuff) or those with a more narrow view of endgame
Also worth mentioning is that tons of the feedback remains subjective, I personally have no qualms with the grand company, UI nor free company systems for instance, whilst the bank system could certainly be improved upon. However, I would never prioritize that over more "full fledged" updates if that make sense 🙂
the biggest problem/dissapointment on endwalker launch was that there was absolutely no new content we havent seen before, they only had to put like a little minigame at the goldsaucer for example to make a difference imo, gatherer mains 90% of the tooltip icons are the old ones(shouldnt be too hard to draw some new tooltip pics) crafter mains get reskinns to craft(im a crafter main and theres no fun in crafting an object that you have seen before) and as you said the HAIR situation is unexplainable is like a bug that never got fixed, all your opinions are very accurate so please dont let anybody tell you that you are mentaly ill like wtf xD fan boys should stop and accept that "so far" is an actually mess (an awesome story mess)
im more dissapointed in all the uncutting to be honest
i mostly just do crafting and gathering in ffxiv
i agree with most things he said in this video the game just feels dead and there is not alot to do rn.
As a Veteran Player i can tell you, that there was always the same amount of Content being released.
The Problem for active Players is that since Shadowbringers, there is not much to do anymore. The Content is too short living, because it is meant for people with very little time.
And it will probably stay that way, because it is the majority. Well i don't have plenty of time myself, but i never had any problems to keep up with the 24/7ers, because i sank 3-4 hours per day in that Game after work.
I was playing FFXIV since the BETA for every single day until Shadowbringers bored me out. The Story was good and all, but a MMORPG can't live from the Story alone. Content played always the biggest Part. Raiding is just the Tip of the Content Iceberg. Everyone needs something else between. So the Relic Quests were always a good Content filler which you could do with FC Members etc. In Shadowbringers the Relic was done so quick that it felt like i did nothing. The old ARR or HW Relics were a lot more grindy, but also looked a lot better and you felt good when you finished one.
Because people are lazy, this time is over. You can't bring out content which lasts longer than a Week, because people start complaining real quick. The Community is ruining the Game. Square Enix don't mind it, they just cuddle them and keep them happy, because they are the majority and bring the most money.
I played so many MMORPG's and i saw many fail for different reasons. FFXIV might not fail in the next years, but will lose a lot of reputation and good players. Also those players who kept supporting them all these years.
FFXIV needs more Content for active Players.
Ultimate is one thing for Raiders. It is good to have something rewarding in the Game.
But not every active Players is also a Raider. We need something else for those people.
Content which is not only meant for Casual Players. Casuals should be able to do it, but should also deal with it when it's too hard or too grindy for them.
It's time for them to adapt to it or leave it aside.
RP and just chilling with friends is what keeps the game interesting for me in between the patches.
Can’t craft and do roulettes for months on end.
Finally, a content creator talked about the Hrothgar hair situation. For 3+ years we had been promised this update only to have it horribly handled, those pictures looked like they had been made 10 minutes before the live letter in photoshop. They don't look good or flattering. Heck, they don't even look like hair that would naturally grow on their head. Say what you want about the styles themselves, but on the other races, they at least look like natural hair that grew on their head. This on Hrothgar looks like a bad wig and to have them we have to sacrifice our ears on top of that. No other race has to do so. The lack of quality on these is insulting especially since they were the ones who hyped them up! If they knew this would happen, I would have rather them say that this task is too hard for them and rework the Hrothgar models completely to not have these limitations. You can say that I am angry (cause I am), but when you see that everything else shown in that Live Letter has been given the love and care of the development team, even a parasol, an item that you could only use when in idle animation, was deemed more of a priority than us. It hurts!
And the lack of transparency with female Hrothgar hurts me the most! Cause, and you can call me selfish, I want them to tell us and keep us updated on their development. My fantasy is to play as a beast warrior woman. Call me selfish, I want the option!
This whole ordeal made me feel incredibly upset and neglected by the team. I don't want to change to a different race cause I love Hrothgar. But man…
For me the "to little content" was an issue at first too (i came from wow where you pretty much always have something you could waste your time on) but after a while i realized i can just do what i find fun and not login for the rest of the days. I don't feel compelled to login dayli or i miss out.
Now that might be because i got older and sometimes want to play other stuff but while i wish there was more side content, more golden saucer etc i am fine with how little time investment the game demands to play on a reasonable level. (1-2 days for raid reclears/prog)
But if i put myself in your shoes as someone that makes content for the game, yeah i can see how it kinda runs out of stuff you could talk about or do. Heck i am already at the stage where i farm eureka because i kinda ran out of other stuff. As many of my static would say "content where" before going into rp venues to fill the void.
Personally i look forward to 6.1 and grinding pvp to 25, but i don't expect that to take to long .. the 60 wins for the garo mount will take quite a bit though 😀
I think a lot of your feeling is coming from being a content creator, and I get and respect that. You’ve been prolific and they (seemingly) are not keeping up with you. Especially since you just polished up your rigs.
I would be interested in your follow up opinion once the content starts dropping, though I’m not so keen on rants being a regular part of your deal.
Can you do some content about modding? I’ve never done it for FFXIV, and frankly I’m a little concerned about trying it! But would be interested in how you’re doing things.
Sounds to me like you went into the live letter with wrong expectations. If you're newer to the game (I don't know if you are, but based on what you're talking about here you sound to be) you could have done a bit of research into what kind of stuff they usually talk about in live letters. The last two live letters were live letters based on stuff coming in 6.1, so of course the things they talk about are stuff from 6.1. Expecting, for example, anything about Island Sanctuary was doomed from the start, since we know that's not coming until 6.2 and so won't be discussed until the 6.2 live letters.
That's how they've announced everything for close to ten years now. If you're newer and haven't done research into how things have been announced and discussed by the devs in the past and get your hopes up for something that just never was going to be in this live letter, that's your own fault.