tsuribachi: Inside the game with people actually playing the game feels nice for me. Outside of game with some people trying to farm negative "content" is what turns me off social media as a whole.

jessecox: Dude I’m doing so good. Let’s get BBQ.

MrWrightZero: “Honeymoon phase” should be a mechanic for Honey B Lovely.

futurepastnow: The enormous growth this game experienced in 2020-21 was an insane anomaly and will never be repeated. The circumstances that caused it won't exist again in the game's lifetime- a bad WoW expansion while the Blizzard harassment scandal boiled over, during a pandemic when everyone was desperate for games to play. It's not surprising that FFXIV is losing players, because a bubble like that can't hold forever, and it's not really a reflection of the game's quality, either.

That said, the game would benefit from shaking up the formulaic structure of expansions. They need to try new things, and try to be more reactive if those new things flop- and some of them will. Rebuilding the housing and glam systems would be expensive, too, but probably worth the investment.

Armydillo62o: I hate, loathe, and despise the “outrage” content cycle. Just promotes the worst behavior and rewards engagement with purposefully inflammatory “opinions” from the worst people on the internet.

Thanks for being real guys.

KalarMeadia: I'm on break from FFXIV. Not because of the game itself, but because I learned with FFXI to take breaks and earn some distance to regain my fondness. Usually, those who play the game habitually, and are reliant on the game's content to carry their unending desire for entertainment (as opposed to player-driven content which can be unending) - then people are quickly going to be bitter. And that's what's happening here and it's the people's overall mood that affects my desire to play, because part of my consumption and entertainment of the game, is consuming the content created around it. So when the mood sours, my experience sours - I'm less interested in getting into the game because I fear experiencing even more of that bitterness in the game itself or that hearing all the complaints is going to bias my own perception of the content. Its like people pointing out the arrow in the FedEx sign. Once someone says it, you can't not see it - sort of a way of spoiling content through criticism rather than plot points.

I feel like there's a problem with people's expectations on this front. People come in, expecting a single game to carry their hobby, and their interest. But in my experience in gaming, that's just not feasible. Once you're super invested in something, you begin to recognize every pattern, every possible bad habit from the developers - and then it becomes glaring to you every time.

Kind of like living very close to that one relative that's fun to be with normally, but their small flaws begin to grate on you more the more you're constantly exposed to them. Sometimes it's healthier to keep a small distance from it, or take breaks.

But players treat games as addictions, and they become the loudest voices in the discourse because they're the most attached. (They'd say dedicated but at this point I'm questioning if that's the language of justification speaking for them, rather them recognizing they're treating their hobby in an unhealthy way.)

We can talk about individual improvements of the game that the game can do to retain certain kinds of players, but I feel it wont address this underlying issue of bad hobby practices that will both undermine the player's ability to enjoy content, and the developers efforts to improve and provide new content.

That's enough of a novel for me for now. I could write a dissertation on game development and player habits at this point. Thanks for reading if you stuck with.

TipsyTurtle24: I never took the fanfest expansion announcement of new dungeons and stuff as "woah, look at this new unique content." I always took it as an overview of what expansions usually bring. It's always someone's first expansion release. And when something like a new alliance raid is announced, I dont see it as "surprise, we're adding an alliance raid." And instead see it as "oooh, what is this alliance raid going to be about. Here's a super small hint for you all to have fun with."

Avaene: Responding to internet nerd rage with "Are you all ok?" and then launching into a thoughtful, realistic, mature analysis of opinions is exactly

Kasaaz: I'm watching a great blue heron outside my window on the dock. It is a very large bird. I thought you should know. It has nothing to do with this video, but like I said... It's a very large bird. I haven't played much since I finished the MSQ, but it doesn't bother me. I'll come back some day.

BlitzAce987: "People turned on it at the speed of warcraft" considering a not insignificant amount of FFXIV's players are Former wow players who got tired with the game they loved, now they found a new love and are gradually watching FFXIV Make very similar mistakes to those wow made and odd as it is to say, a sense of almost Panic sets in

Ryndenfox: I don't recall Pandaemonium being poorly received, so not sure where exactly that sentiment is coming from. There were certainly a few lackluster fights, some nitpicks, and a slightly overtuned p8s in the first couple of weeks of Abyssos, but my anecdotal experience raiding on-content both in statics and PF was that people generally liked the raids overall.

Churee: I'm gonna give my two cents and I'd be very interested in how you guys feel on this:

The issue is three main things imo:

1) Loot has been basically removed from the game. Everyone has the same set, the same melds, that can be obtained extremely easily,. and if you are not doing ultra endgame content (savage, ultimates etc) you gear doesn't even matter. There is no sense of "HOLY SHIT I FINALLY GOT X WEAPON/ARMOR" that I think is such a big component in MMORPGs.

2) I think that FF14 is showing it's age and the team does not do enough to bring it up to modern standards. The housing system, the glam system, the million small things blamed on the "spaghetti code".

3) The content has become way too same-y. Same amount of dungeons with the same layout, same amount of trials, same amount of raids etc every expansion. The new stuff that are introduced are mostly fine, but I think we need a general shakeup on core battle content design and timings.

genayres: Watching this video just to get this thumbnail out of my recommendations (and also because I love these videos)

Snowmanse: There's just a lot of bizarre decisions they're making lately that I feel like most people would be able to tell is a mistake right away. So I don't know how they aren't realizing it. First half of 7.2 for me was great, loved where the story is going and enjoyed the raids very much. But I was big into Bozja, almost every part of it was a hit for me, and the new zone is just a worse version of that instead of an improvement.

VorAbaddon: My thoughts:

MSQ could have been better. Wasn't horrible by normal MMO story standards, but not up to our normal standards. 7.1 and 7.2 were steps in a better direction.

Dungeons? Mostly fire. Tank busters need to hurt more, but mostly highly enjoyable.

Trials? Fire.

Extremes? En fuego. Literally 2nd best tankbuster in the game, so fun (P10S for those curious takes 1st place.)

Normal Raids? FANTASTIC. I love literally all the fights, M7N is the best normal raid to date. They stick the landing in 7.4 and this competes for best normal raids all time.

Savage? Can't comment either way as I havent run it, but watching it has been fun. Seriously, we haven't had an AOE involved Savage fight since... Heavensward?

Chaotic? Havent tried it yet, but its something new and we wanted new.

Alliance Raid? Awesome. Visually great, fun fights, an AoE fight, the final boss ganks people and has a soft enrage? Great.

Treasure Maps? Great locale, some fire loot, some crap.

If I go through the content outside of story... MOST of its been really really damned good!

XainRussell: My biggest problem right now is that I'm NOT a raider, and I don't like doing the same content over and over again. I don't see the appeal of repeatedly doing fights, either to gear up or to just progress through it, and I'm not here for the uber challenge of Savage, Extreme, or Ultimates. And even if I like a dungeon or a trial, I get annoyed and bummed out if I get the same dungeons and trials during roulettes the day after the last roulettes I did. I don't even necessarily need a "New" thing to do every time I log in, I just want to be encouraged and to have the opportunity to do different things every time I log in.

taranstones1798: My two cents is that I play games too much for any one game to let me play it forever. Sure, when I started XIV, there was a ton of stuff to do. Nowadays I don't have ARR/HW relics I want to get: I already have them. I don't have all the raids and EX trial mounts to do, I have them. I already have every job leveled and can play them decently competently, I have almost every glam I have ever wanted, and I have not that many more goals to chase.

That is how it goes. I still enjoy the content XIV puts out, and I still play whenever new stuff is out, but I play something else once my goals have been achieved. I do the exact same thing with MH Wilds, and am caught up in that game too. I am working through the FF Pixel Remasters now but I know those will be finished eventually too.

I can't play one game forever, and I don't need or want to either. Sure, DT might have issues, but at the end of the day I still enjoy what I play, set goals, and then take a break and work on other game's goals once I am done with XIV things. And most of all, I choose to enjoy what I play, even if it has flaws, and if those flaws are too big for me to enjoy it, I just do something else that I will enjoy.

Daecoth: It does feel like we are getting less while the updates take longer. Sadly, tho, the tension of stuff in and out of game has the player base on edge and it seems the slightest news sets people off, even in certain discord servers.

Crusina: People who think the content is bad never played during HW expansion.

calzonexiv: MMOs, just by their very nature, will inevitably enter phases where people love it, and phases where people hate it. I remember so many people saying XIV was on its last leg when Stormblood came out, but then changed their tune when the .4 patch came out. Will the same thing happen this time? Who knows. But just like how WoW has come back from their Shadowlands era, I have no doubt XIV will also hit their stride again and this will be just another notch on the timeline.

katarh: I also agree that the biggest beef I have with OC is that the story really isn't that compelling. Archive is the only character I give a shit about and he didn't even acknowledge that I was on SCH with my own fairy! We also didn't get any lore to go with each of the Phantom Jobs yet. I would have loved a little mini job quest for each one that unlocked with Mastery, to find out which civilization used it and perhaps how traces of that job are still available in the modern world of Etheirys. (Like how Oracle uses some of the same principles as AST, but without the suicide risk. Or how Geomancer is still a job you can have out in Kugane, it's just not one taught outside of those lands any more.)

iResonate: That legitimate comment was actually definitely legitimate. Points were made. Also, I feel whoever wrote that comment about not wanting to talk about DT in public spaces because of the discourse. It's become exhausting, and if you're actually enjoying DT or excited for its content, you and your voice are beaten down by the community.

rurounikage: I would hope that one thing they do is just shake up the expansion formula.

As an example: The EW surprise of who's the first trial was great, but then we go to DT and we have a known Trial at 93... We learn about Valigarmanda and you think it's going to play a much bigger part in the story..... but no.... it's just there because there's always a trial at that X3 level (73, 83, 93, etc). With the lore they were presenting it felt it was going to have a much bigger cultural impact and worse yet I feel like it just makes motives of the other characters more confusing after all the big spoiler reveals at the end. If you MUST have a trial, throw it in at another level just make it fit the story and don't make it feel shoehorned in.

LaBlueSkuld: I think the problem that Occult Crescent caused is that it's a microcosm of the normal game's issues that have been bugging players for years when it doesn't have to since it's so disconnected from the rest of the game (You can't even use it to level alf Jobs). Issues like how since it's not Savage raiding nor being an Omnicrafter: gearing up is incredibly slow and a little awkward. Or how once again, Tanks (Warriors especially) are the only class that can reliably do anything solo outside of running away. And since Occult Crescent is this little isolated game mode they could have designed it around this but instead continued with their normal philosophies. It's just a bit frustrating to see.

jonathanadkins95: Expedition 33's core dev team was like 30 people, but they had a bunch of outsourcing such as voice actors, musicians, and people to do quality assurance brings it to about roughly 400 people credited.

RyuSaarva: Most XIV English content creators are actually "I only care about raiding" type of people.

holo_val: As a new player in Endwalker, the concept of exploration zones seemed like a waste. A huge piece of content that is isolated from the rest of the game's systems, progression, and forgotten at the end of the expac. BUT..... I wanted to give OC and Forked Tower a fair shake at least despite my feelings. So I tried my hand at hosting the 48-player raid runs and doing callouts for the mechanics. And wow!!! What a cool experience. Met so many fun and friendly players, and when we finally clear there were 33 of us in the 48 group who were clearing for our first time. It's really not too difficult, there's a small learning curve with each boss but they only have about 3-4 mechanics each so its very approachable in bite-sized amounts. It gave me a massive appreciation for a piece of content I was very critical of and willing to dismiss.

If you want I would be incredibly honored to host learning runs for you and the rest of us viewers! I think we could make an entertaining and funny time

Jul 20 2025

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