Next: Weeklies – ESO, SWL. Previously: Weeklies – SWL, Anti-PAX, Batteries.

FFXIV – End Of Life?

689 words.

I haven’t logged into Final Fantasy XIV for a couple of months now. I hadn’t logged in for a couple of months before that, too. Most times I try to log in, I stare at the screen for a few minutes, then log out. What’s up with that?

To be honest, I think I’ve reached the point I get to in every MMORPG’s lifetime when I’ve consumed all of the endgame content that I’m interested in. Previously, this has happened in RIFT and … well, that’s it, I think. I’ve left every other MMORPG from lack of interest rather than lack of content.

I feel like Square Enix has stopped adding content for players like me, and they’re now focusing on people who like to “live” in MMORPGs, not necessarily doing anything productive, just doing fiddly things that kill time without really altering your character. I’m pretty much all about the character progression, or story progression.

When I think about things I’m looking forward to, this is all I can come up with:

  • Future Alliance Raids, which I will use as the easiest solo-friendly path to upgrade my gear.
  • Future stories in the Main Scenario Quest, which will probably require the above-mentioned upgraded gear.

And that’s about it. Is that worth maintaining a subscription? Well, no, not really. I can (and do) keep myself busy with character progression in plenty of other games … for free.

Add to that the direction FFXIV is going lately.

Eureka. This major new content does not interest me even the tiniest little bit. Not even enough to go in a single time. Or even look at a single video of it. Grinding? No thanks. Alternate leveling system? No thanks. Relic or legendary or super-duper weapons or whatever? No thanks. It’s obviously-so, so obviously-just something to keep the player base busy, to distract them from a lack of meaningful content. Whenever an alternate leveling system is introduced, developers are basically saying, “We can’t think of anything else to do for character progression, so here, just start over on this new thing.”

Emotes. Selling flashy emotes? Really? I’m not thrilled about that at all. I guess it’s my sparkle pony line in the sand. It’s such a blatant “let’s fleece the whales” move that I can’t believe I haven’t seen any backlash over it. It’s what I would expect to see in a free-to-play cash shop, not a subscription game cash shop. It least not an ethical subscription game cash shop. It completely erases the line that separates a free-to-play, nickle-and-dime-you-to-death game from a subscription, we’re-above-all-that-and-here’s-everything-you-need game. I know that’s a completely subjective line that’s different for everyone, but this is apparently where it is for me.

Main Scenario Quest. I said I was looking forward to future stories, but to be honest, I’m not all that interested in [Big Bad dude redacted in case you don’t know] returning (unless they do something to make him interesting this time). I don’t have much confidence that they’ll handle [other Big Bad lady redacted in case you don’t know] well, either. I’m curious about it, but I’m 100% sure it will end in cliche-town. And the new Garlean kid from 4.2 did not resonate with me at all. Of the new characters, Fordola’s story is the only one that interests me at this point, and they ignored her in 4.2.

So the bottom line is that I’ve unsubscribed, so my time will run out in mid-May. I actually unsubscribed in February, but I changed my mind at the last minute and got another three months. According to ManicTime I’ve played a total of 13 hours since that renewal, almost all of which occurred in February. (I’ve played a grand total of 44 hours this entire year so far.) At this point I think what I’ll probably do in the future is sub for a month at a time just to play through MSQ chapters, then cancel again.

Of course, if history is any indication, I will suddenly become very interested in the game again a few days before my subscription runs out and the cycle will continue.

Related

Next: Weeklies – ESO, SWL. Previously: Weeklies – SWL, Anti-PAX, Batteries.

This page is a static archival copy of what was originally a WordPress post. It was converted from HTML to Markdown format before being built by Hugo. There may be formatting problems that I haven't addressed yet. There may be problems with missing or mangled images that I haven't fixed yet. There may have been comments on the original post, which I have archived, but I haven't quite worked out how to show them on the new site.

Archived Comments

Bhagpuss 2018-04-16T19:07:09Z

Not that I want to step in to defend either Square Enix or FFXIV, neither of which I have much affection for, but I do think that the entire and whole point of MMORPGs is to “live in them”. That’s what they’re for - passing time - because they’re not games at all, really - they’re pastimes. I mean, I love leveling as much as the next player - almost certainly more than most - but leveling is either something you do because you like doing it (in which case you just keep making alts (or in FFXIV’s case Jobs, I guess) so you can carry on) or it’s a means to an end(game), not an end in itself.

As for story, I always felt “story” and “MMORPG” were mutually incompatible concepts. Lore, yes. Narrative, not so much.

UltrViolet 2018-04-16T21:55:20Z You make it sound like an MMO is basically just supposed to be one of those busy boxes you give to a baby that has big plastic buttons you push to make noises and cranks and wheels that don’t really attach to anything. I can see that on some level, and some MMOs definitely feel like that (Trove comes to mind), but I need more than that to keep coming back. I can’t quite articulate exactly what though. I’ll have to think about it some more. :)

pkudude99 2018-04-18T14:38:39Z

I hit the same wall with FFXIV toward the end of last year. I was playing it in “maintenance mode” and had gotten to a pretty optimized “cap out my tomes in about 3 hours of play per week” and wouldn’t log in otherwise. I still enjoyed those 3 hours, but nothing else was drawing me back to the game anymore – I have every job to 70 and my gear was “above average” for each job as well, though even on my “main” job I wasn’t “bleeding edge savage trials” but rather had full suits of the highest tome gear I could get, which was still more than sufficient for any content I cared to do.

But that was it….. I didn’t care to do anything. I’ve done every side quest, maxed every job, gear was already more than what I needed, so I the treadmill to accumulate another suit of the tome gear over the course of 2 months for another role just no longer had any pull for me.

Now… I had been happy enough doing the weekly “cap my tomes” play and then playing Civ6 and Stellaris on other days, but the Civ6 expansion ended up being a bit disappointing (to the point that I expressed having buyer’s remorse over it) and Stellaris has never been a game that really called me – it’s more of a “play it for a weekend once every 2-3 months” type of game for me. But the latest expansion/update to that game changed it so dramatically that I’m having a hard time getting back into it.

So I tried out Warframe, and it hooked me good…. but it still took me another 3 months of not even logging in to FFXIV at all before I finally canceled the sub. The latest patch dropped before my sub time ran out, but even the promise of more MSQ and 2 new dungeons wasn’t enough to get me to log back in, so…..

I have nothing but good things to say about it, I just.. well…. for what I like to do… I finished the game.

Sorry, new comments are disabled on older posts. This helps reduce spam. Active commenting almost always occurs within a day or two of new posts.