Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)

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sleevedraw

Revolver Ocelot
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This is probably the closest to a nadir the game has reached since 3.0/3.1. I have zero desire to play at all right now; only reason I'm subbed is so that I can keep my house.
 
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Chris

Potato del Grande
19,579
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I can't get over how boring the zone design is. Like there's some nice looking areas but it's all open circle and rectangles and has been for a long time. Then you go to ARR zones and it's all way more interesting. And there's very little to do but FATES that all play the same way.

Some of the Eureka and Bozja mechanics could have been in the main zones and build on those.
 
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Chinaman889

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Just think of the DT MSQ as part 1 of a (hopefully) grand new story.

The ARR early MSQ wasn't great either.
 
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Rali

Trakanon Raider
232
376
Just think of the DT MSQ as part 1 of a (hopefully) grand new story.

The ARR early MSQ wasn't great either.

Oh, I get that its the first part of a new story (which was rather lackluster so far), but previously people were more engaged with the game between patches. This time, not at all.
 
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Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
12,710
12,004
Arc A -> Texas -> Arc B

The first arc did not deserve three zones worth and then they should have done something.. ANYTHING that mattered instead of the Texas intermission.

The lack of things to do is also the missing Bozja-type zone in the prior xpac, so there is nothing catch up on and old relic weapons became poetic investments for looks.
 
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Grizzlebeard

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
2,281
2,444
They definitely dropped the ball with this expansion compared to Endwalker. My FC has gone from regularly having 30-40 people online, to..... me.

Let’s be honest here, Endwalker was utter shit tier writing too.
 
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Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
17,173
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I'm in the same boat engagement wise - I log in once a week to do custom deliveries and my island stuff (the gamba boxes can drop pure white/black dye - easy money). I did the fate farming because i knew people wouldnt do that long, I have my raid weapon for running it 7 times. I could level my trade skills more quickly, but I didn't even feel a rush to do that.

In an interview YoshiP had mentioned they threw a bunch of ideas at the wall in Dawntrail and it kinda shows (the only part that felt like Ishikawa was involved with was the gondola ride with Graha - the dialogue/writing felt like hers). JesseCox made a video with a pretty good point: Thinking objectively, Dawntrailwas almost like a retelling of all the prior storyline except Wuk Lamat was the WoL standin. If you look at a lot of the storybeats it makes sense and it also makes sense why the MSQ felt so tiring: It was like a rehash in a lot of ways. Especially the 2nd half: You have a antagonist who you can relate to and ultimately wants to preserve/restore the lives of the dead at the expense of the living (Shadowbringer), then Living Memory is basically like a reverse Ultima Thule with an Endsinger who abandons emotion in place of cold duty.

I still have enough trust they'll right the boat. Stormblood was kind of a fumble for the base story, but they recovered pretty well with all the post-patch stuff. I can almost guarantee that while this upcoming patch story will probably be mostly post-MSQ loose ends (they wouldn't have had enough time to make major changes), I bet the MSQ with the patch will end with a much more clear direction on where we go next. Player feedback seems to have been most positive about the Azem Key mystery, so I have to imagine they will start to lean into that (JesseCox thinks we will get some Azem-vengers outcome eventually where all our soul shards team up to fight some big bad, who I wouldn't be shocked ends up being Ultima or Ultima adjacent)
 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,496
7,170
I've found I always end up taking big break/casual play after the initial X.0 rush for each expansion, though. Aside from leveling alt classes, there isn't much of the planned content put in until at least X.1. If you don't raid, even less to do. Looking forward to see what type of Eureka/Bozja zone they come up with for relics, plus some of the other stuff they'll have going on. Having BLU and Beastmaster content will be nice when that kicks in, too.

Honestly MSQ all to get to The Key. Lot of drag/world building to get there, but now with patch MSQ they have to start unraveling mystery of it and having it go someplace interesting.
 

GuardianX

Perpetually Pessimistic
<Bronze Donator>
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Let’s be honest here, Endwalker was utter shit tier writing too.

It required a ton of suspension of disbelief for sure.

A group of highly, SUPER HIGHLY, intelligent and powerful people forgot to tell their creation not to merc the shit out of all races in existence if they didn't give it a satisfactory answer (If I'm understanding the effect of the endsinger correctly) in an effort to find meaning in life.

The story is certainly the best in the MMO genre but it is still autistic as fuck.

They definitely dropped the ball with this expansion compared to Endwalker. My FC has gone from regularly having 30-40 people online, to..... me.

The thing that blew me away was this info I saw when looking up minipets:

1730306008429.png


To go from 16% to 23% to 5%

And you know every fucking subbed person does these quests.

THAT is a fucking drop off. Even if you don't compare it to Emet-selch and you compare it to a fall-guy pet.
 

Pasteton

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,810
1,957
How’s the non story stuff been this expansion, the raids and ultimate better? Is the graphical update make a big difference? Kinda don’t want to skip an expansion but just have heard awful things and a few of the areas I’ve seen looked kinda blah
 

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,259
2,383
It required a ton of suspension of disbelief for sure.

A group of highly, SUPER HIGHLY, intelligent and powerful people forgot to tell their creation not to merc the shit out of all races in existence if they didn't give it a satisfactory answer (If I'm understanding the effect of the endsinger correctly) in an effort to find meaning in life.

The story is certainly the best in the MMO genre but it is still autistic as fuck.



The thing that blew me away was this info I saw when looking up minipets:

View attachment 555560

To go from 16% to 23% to 5%

And you know every fucking subbed person does these quests.

THAT is a fucking drop off. Even if you don't compare it to Emet-selch and you compare it to a fall-guy pet.
The availability in stores changes this stuff a bunch though. People who missed the event will buy them a year later once they release. I wonder if there's a way to see the data from 2022 or 2023 for these.
 

GuardianX

Perpetually Pessimistic
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The availability in stores changes this stuff a bunch though. People who missed the event will buy them a year later once they release. I wonder if there's a way to see the data from 2022 or 2023 for these.

Can you buy the fallguys bean? and I mean that number got inflated for a second round.
 

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,259
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Can you buy the fallguys bean? and I mean that number got inflated for a second round.
They've done several reruns of that one, including just before the expansion which is often a time where a lot of people resub to prep for the expansion. I'm not saying 5% isn't low, it definitely is, just not sure if it's crazy low compared to the rising normal amounts before it's available in the store.

Edit: Wayback machine has snapshots, it is indeed lower. Ardbert had a whooping 59% in nov 2020 which is crazy and shows how many new accounts were made inbetween since the number basicaly melted to less than half of that %. In nov 2022, Solus had a 22% ownership. This is also interesting because Endwalker launched late in 2021 instead of in summer when the Rising happened, in some previous expansion the Rising would usually happen 1 or 2 months after the expansion so people were likely still subbed, but for 2022 it was a whole 6months later pretty much.

That said you also have to consider the amount of accounts counted, the % are slightly deceptive in that regard. Taking Ardbert example:
2020 archives don't show the values(likely not coded at the time), but in 2022 Ardbert made up for a 26% score with 94k ppl owning it, but currently it's "only" 16% with 138k ppl owning it. Almost 50% more ppl owning it and yet it went from 26% of the overall amount to 16%, meaning there's just that many more accounts being counted. The current amount of owners for the rising reward would be equivalent to a 13% overall in 2022 basically. Still significantly lower though but still worth considering.
 
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Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
17,173
13,739
A group of highly, SUPER HIGHLY, intelligent and powerful people forgot to tell their creation not to merc the shit out of all races in existence if they didn't give it a satisfactory answer (If I'm understanding the effect of the endsinger correctly) in an effort to find meaning in life.

To be fair, it was just one guy responsible doing it in secret and Emet even instantly points out the immediately obvious logical flaw in the whole premise of his project. The Elpis area reminds you multiple times that all creation projects are supposed to be registered with the government and the society is so insanely law abiding and “good of society vs individual” that they became effectively blind to the concept of people deviating from the norms.

Hermes and Athena were aberrations in their society. Venat and to a degree the WoL Azem were sort of aberrations as well - they constantly get called out for unorthodox behavior and actions
 
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GuardianX

Perpetually Pessimistic
<Bronze Donator>
7,180
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They've done several reruns of that one, including just before the expansion which is often a time where a lot of people resub to prep for the expansion. I'm not saying 5% isn't low, it definitely is, just not sure if it's crazy low compared to the rising normal amounts before it's available in the store.

Edit: Wayback machine has snapshots, it is indeed lower. Ardbert had a whooping 59% in nov 2020 which is crazy and shows how many new accounts were made inbetween since the number basicaly melted to less than half of that %. In nov 2022, Solus had a 22% ownership. This is also interesting because Endwalker launched late in 2021 instead of in summer when the Rising happened, in some previous expansion the Rising would usually happen 1 or 2 months after the expansion so people were likely still subbed, but for 2022 it was a whole 6months later pretty much.

That said you also have to consider the amount of accounts counted, the % are slightly deceptive in that regard. Taking Ardbert example:
2020 archives don't show the values(likely not coded at the time), but in 2022 Ardbert made up for a 26% score with 94k ppl owning it, but currently it's "only" 16% with 138k ppl owning it. Almost 50% more ppl owning it and yet it went from 26% of the overall amount to 16%, meaning there's just that many more accounts being counted. The current amount of owners for the rising reward would be equivalent to a 13% overall in 2022 basically. Still significantly lower though but still worth considering.
All fair points, I was thinking about it and forgot you could see story achievements:

 

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,496
7,170
It required a ton of suspension of disbelief for sure.

A group of highly, SUPER HIGHLY, intelligent and powerful people forgot to tell their creation not to merc the shit out of all races in existence if they didn't give it a satisfactory answer (If I'm understanding the effect of the endsinger correctly) in an effort to find meaning in life.

The story is certainly the best in the MMO genre but it is still autistic as fuck.



The thing that blew me away was this info I saw when looking up minipets:

View attachment 555560

To go from 16% to 23% to 5%

And you know every fucking subbed person does these quests.

THAT is a fucking drop off. Even if you don't compare it to Emet-selch and you compare it to a fall-guy pet.

Going to be honest...I don't do all the event quests even subbed. I probably should, but I just forget sometimes.
 

Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
17,173
13,739
To go from 16% to 23% to 5%

One thing that might have contributed - the Rising is always in Uldah, but this year it was in Limsa. If you didn't read the patch notes, some people might have just assumed there was no Rising quests.
 

Chris

Potato del Grande
19,579
-10,646
How’s the non story stuff been this expansion, the raids and ultimate better? Is the graphical update make a big difference? Kinda don’t want to skip an expansion but just have heard awful things and a few of the areas I’ve seen looked kinda blah
The dungeon and raid mechanics are the best ever, there was a nice increase in difficulty but still managable.

The story is bad enough to ruin that, it's WoW Shadowlands tier.

Could be worth waiting for the patch with the Eureka/Bozja sucessor.
 
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Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
17,173
13,739
Good point - the combat content is really good this expansion so far. Shame it was so few and far between during the MSQ.