Why I think FFXIV is coming to a fall.

[Toppy]

Starting off by saying this is opinion. I am not saying this is absolutely going to happen and that I am absolutely right. I'm not trying to start any flames wars or anything of that nature.

Now, I came into FFXIV in the last quarter of ARR and was floored by all the content. I never really ran out of things to do and simply had a blast seeing things and trying new things. It was simply fantastic. And about mid way to the end of ARR is where the game started seeing significant growth and many people saw the same things I did. Lots of stuff to do, lots of neat things.

Going into HW, I was out of stuff to do in about 2 weeks.

I feel as though an issue HW is about to face is that many of its players were expecting mid-end game ARR content levels. In the very least they are used to that. But HW isnt ARR. ARR had time to build. Now going into HW and with the new patch looking to be a little smaller than some of the ARR patches, I feel as though the game is going to start shedding subs in the same way as WoD did: there is nothing to do at the level cap. Many players saw a big raid, they saw many dungeons, and while they understood they were the workings of patches they werent part of the launch of, its hard to keep that in mind when taking part. Its hard to reflect on that when playing an expansion at its start and the content cannot compare in the least with what was seen from a players start of ARR.

Anyone else seeing something similar happening? I've seen the complaint here and there that there's nothing to do, and frankly, I canceled my sub since I don't want to deal with the headache that is savage. My two months of HW were mostly spent grinding my head against dungeons that I found boring after one go, and doing savage normal which, aside from the music, is just bad and monotonous.

[TirielWoW]

Nope.

This is extremely similar to how ARR started. They tend to start small and ramp up.

[Maconi]

I have to say I have already gotten bored of HW (and although I was starting to get bored towards the end of ARR it wasn't bad). I haven't played in a while personally.

Having said that, it's still miles ahead of other games for me (including WoW). I think it's just that the newness has worn off an now I'm back to being bored/jaded with MMORPGs lol.

[Toppy]

Nope.

This is extremely similar to how ARR started. They tend to start small and ramp up.

If you read what I posted, thats exactly my point. The majority of the players weren't around for that. They were around for times when there was content.

[Berethos08]

If you read what I posted, thats exactly my point. The majority of the players weren't around for that. They were around for times when there was content.

Perhaps.

Since you compared it to WoD and having nothing to do so quickly, let me point out a significant difference there - we already have quite a bit of information on more content that is coming in the next month or so, meant to arrive about 3 months after the expansion launched. WoD didn't have that.

They might be seeing a decline (or have already seen one) in the past two months, but we're far from seeing the same kind of drop off WoD experienced.

[Deleted]

Short answer - no, some people will get bored but that's normal, I got bored of Witcher 3 even if I know it's great game, but I still see new people joining so that will even out.
Long answer - your expectations were way too high, no mmo launches expansion that can rival end game content of previous one at the end.
If you think people will mass leave this game because of that you are wrong, it's exactly model we had in ARR and playerbase only grew over time.
You can't also forget SE didn't took year of their game while working on expansion (like Blizzard) but the patches were coming at same pace. I think there was about 4 months between last patch for ARR and launch of Heavensward, Yoshi-P even apolagized about that slight delay.

[taliey]

The last thing we need in the paid MMORPG market is a lack of competition.

[Deleted]

Inclined to dissagree. Sure we may not have as much content as we did by the end of ARR but we have the exact same content model that ARR did and a lot of people like that. We have fast paced patches with heaps of content and stuff to do.
3.1 is just around the corner and with it come a whole new wave of content andd story

EDIT: Also 3.1 a little smaller than other content patches? Whaaaaa?
Just because its cutting 1 dungeon? We re getting airship voyage in exchange.
Other than that the format is exactly the same.

[Graeham]

You can tell when an MMO is doing well for itself by looking at the doomsday scenarios.

On a more serious note, though? FFXIV isn't starved for content. Heavensward added a lot of stuff that people - myself included - are still enjoying. There's also many players who have yet to tackle the expansion for themselves. 3.1 is shaping up to be a pretty meaty patch and will no doubt arrive by the end of next month or perhaps even sooner than that. So I'm not worried.

It's also not the responsibility of the developers to keep players entertained 24/7. I feel like some people have an enviable amount of free time on their hands.

[Toppy]

Perhaps.

Since you compared it to WoD and having nothing to do so quickly, let me point out a significant difference there - we already have quite a bit of information on more content that is coming in the next month or so, meant to arrive about 3 months after the expansion launched. WoD didn't have that.

They might be seeing a decline (or have already seen one) in the past two months, but we're far from seeing the same kind of drop off WoD experienced.

I'd defend that this new content doesn't amount to much yet. Most of it will be done the day of release. The golden saucer stuff is the only thing being added with much staying power, and we'll have to wait and see.

A storyline that'll be done in about 2 or so hours.
A really easy raid
Three new dungeons people will complain are to monotonous fairly quickly like they did with Nevereap and Fractal
Airship stuff does look good, assuming 1. You're FC has one, and 2. Assuming its not just hunts 2.0
Relic quest, which looks good on paper, is just grindy padding in practice
and we 'll see on the golden saucer.

[Graeham]

'Grindy' content isn't unusual in MMO's. It comes with the territory, largely because it has confirmed staying power and no developer can pump out content at a rate where it won't just be consumed by 'content locusts' who rush to do everything immediately and then complain that there isn't anything left for them to do.

It's also been confirmed that you don't need to be in a FC to do the airship related stuff. You can just go to the airship landing in Ishgard, team up with some friends and do them there instead.

[Toppy]

'Grindy' content isn't unusual in MMO's. It comes with the territory, largely because it has confirmed staying power and no developer can pump out content at a rate where it won't just be consumed by 'content locusts' who rush to do everything immediately and then complain that there isn't anything left for them to do.

It's also been confirmed that you don't need to be in a FC to do the airship related stuff. You can just go to the airship landing in Ishgard, team up with some friends and do them there instead.

Aw well thats good! A shame for my FC who was making an airship just for airship content that was coming, but good for most players.

Either way I dont think I'll be returning for a few more patches. I'd be done with 3.1 pretty fast despite being a casual. Especcially considering they'll likely add relic catch up mechanics.

[Deleted]

Aw well thats good! A shame for my FC who was making an airship just for airship content that was coming, but good for most players.

Either way I dont think I'll be returning for a few more patches. I'd be done with 3.1 pretty fast despite being a casual. Especcially considering they'll likely add relic catch up mechanics.

Well if you re aiming to do everything once then yeah you d be done pretty fast with just about every MMO available :P
That's a single player game mentality. The grind needs to be there as long as it rewards you and you also need to look at things like glamour, aesthetics etc etc.
For example, I have my alexander set complete and working on savage and esoterics now so when the new lfr raid come I most likely won't need the gear for it.
I ll still do it for the looks of the new armor or if I dont like the looks of it at all, use it as a catch up mechanic for my other classes!
The new beast tribe is going to take at least a month to complete if the previous ones were any indication.
And you cant call ship voyage hunts 2.0. It makes you explore and find lands in the sky that are not on your map and you do it via airship that ll probably have some form of player command. Even if the rewards are similar you can't call it hunts 2.0 because by that logic everything would be hunts 2.0 if you increased the hunt prizes to be raid worthy loot.
Go there, kill stuff, everything is hunts 2.0 :P
By the way I did not mean any of this in a hostile manner if it seems at all like that I m just trying to deffend the game where I feel like it needs deffending.
I recognize some of its weak points but I don't feel like amount and engagement of content is one of them.

[Jaese]

The devs know and expect players to play in "chunks". This is nothing new and is to be expected.

[TheCount]

I think the game is in a good spot atm.
Do people play in "chunks"? Not all do, but some will.
Personally I find HW very enjoyable and look forward to see what future patches bring

[arisoh]

I'd defend that this new content doesn't amount to much yet. Most of it will be done the day of release. The golden saucer stuff is the only thing being added with much staying power, and we'll have to wait and see.

A storyline that'll be done in about 2 or so hours.
A really easy raid
Three new dungeons people will complain are to monotonous fairly quickly like they did with Nevereap and Fractal
Airship stuff does look good, assuming 1. You're FC has one, and 2. Assuming its not just hunts 2.0
Relic quest, which looks good on paper, is just grindy padding in practice
and we 'll see on the golden saucer.

Whereas WOD's first patch was just more Garrison tweaks, Twitter integration and a SELFIE camera.

[Toppy]

Whereas WOD's first patch was just more Garrison tweaks, Twitter integration and a SELFIE camera.

Let's not devolve into blizz bashing and unfair comparisons.

[Faroth]

Yeah, I've run all four normal Alex and my group isn't up to start tackling Savage. Waiting on some people still. So basically all I have to bide my time is Esoteric farming.

Or, I guess finish leveling botany. And carpentry. And maybe fishing...and the other crafting classes. And I haven't touched another DoW/DoM job yet.
I'm working on going back and doing the ARR Beast Tribe quests atm, though.

And in 3.1 coming soon? Well.....new relic weapon. And 24 man, which is just fun.

- - - Updated - - -

Three new dungeons people will complain are to monotonous fairly quickly like they did with Nevereap and Fractal
Airship stuff does look good, assuming 1. You're FC has one, and 2. Assuming its not just hunts 2.0

2 new dungeons, but I expect they'll be added to Neverreap and Fractal, so at least you'll get 4 in the roulette.
Airship stuff won't require an FC. Solo players will be able to access the feature from Ishgard.

[Thyranne]

Yeah, I've run all four normal Alex and my group isn't up to start tackling Savage. Waiting on some people still. So basically all I have to bide my time is Esoteric farming.

Or, I guess finish leveling botany. And carpentry. And maybe fishing...and the other crafting classes. And I haven't touched another DoW/DoM job yet.
I'm working on going back and doing the ARR Beast Tribe quests atm, though.

And in 3.1 coming soon? Well.....new relic weapon. And 24 man, which is just fun.

This was their biggest mistake IMO. They should have released the relic weapon in 3.0 (or 3.05) so we'd have something to do while not raiding (or farming Esoterics). Except for that it's exactly like 2.0.

Anyone else seeing something similar happening? I've seen the complaint here and there that there's nothing to do, and frankly, I canceled my sub since I don't want to deal with the headache that is savage. My two months of HW were mostly spent grinding my head against dungeons that I found boring after one go, and doing savage normal which, aside from the music, is just bad and monotonous.

Well, this is exactly like 2.0 but this time we have more classes to level up and some PvP but no relic weapon (yet).

2 new dungeons, but I expect they'll be added to Neverreap and Fractal, so at least you'll get 4 in the roulette.
Airship stuff won't require an FC. Solo players will be able to access the feature from Ishgard.

I really hope they do it instead of moving the current expert roulette to high level roulette and adding the new dungeons to expert. I really don't want a new expert roulette with only 2 dungeons again.

Edit: Now that I think about it it'd mean that Nevereap would not be in the roulette again

[arisoh]

Let's not devolve into blizz bashing and unfair comparisons.

You were the one that compared it to WOD, no? I'm not bashing Blizz. Just stating, for comparison's sake that FFXIV's first patch has more relevant content than what WOD had. They're going in different situations, so you really can't compare. HW is tacking onto the story, which may extend interest, whereas WOD didn't have that. And since a lot of the playerbase of FFXIV IS invested in the story, this might not, as you said "start shedding subs in the same way WOD did".

I feel as though an issue HW is about to face is that many of its players were expecting mid-end game ARR content levels. In the very least they are used to that. But HW isnt ARR. ARR had time to build. Now going into HW and with the new patch looking to be a little smaller than some of the ARR patches, I feel as though the game is going to start shedding subs in the same way as WoD did: there is nothing to do at the level cap.