Hello everyone. I've been thinking about how to best bring this up. I decided that without a forum post, nothing will change. So, here it goes.
Gear rewards in FFXIV are a punishment.
The Glamour Dresser system turns what should be a joyful reward into a tedious chore. As many of you know, if you’ve ever played World of Warcraft, you’ll know its Transmog system automatically logs any item’s appearance the moment you loot it. You can vendor, trash, or turn the item into crafting mats—and still use its look forever. Meanwhile, in FFXIV, every new piece of gear feels like a burden—something to "deal with" later.
The Problem: Rewards That Punish
When you get a new item in —from a dungeon, raid, or quest—you’re faced with a dilemma:
Meanwhile, WoW’s system: “Got the item? Cool, now do whatever you want with it. The look is yours.” Once an item is "bound" to you, you can now use the look forever.
The Glamour Dresser: Stuck in 2013
Let’s be real—the glamour dresser is functional, but it’s a relic. Storing appearances requires:
Compare this to WoW: Loot a piece of gear → appearance unlocked → done. No hoarding. No stress. The game respects your time. I'm not getting any younger. I really don't want to micromanage a massive chest full of stuff that has no way to preview said items.
Why This Hurts FFXIV’s Core Experience
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Gear rewards in FFXIV are a punishment.
The Glamour Dresser system turns what should be a joyful reward into a tedious chore. As many of you know, if you’ve ever played World of Warcraft, you’ll know its Transmog system automatically logs any item’s appearance the moment you loot it. You can vendor, trash, or turn the item into crafting mats—and still use its look forever. Meanwhile, in FFXIV, every new piece of gear feels like a burden—something to "deal with" later.
The Problem: Rewards That Punish
When you get a new item in —from a dungeon, raid, or quest—you’re faced with a dilemma:
- Store it in your already-bursting glamour dresser (if you have space).
- Hoard it in your inventory/retainers (contributing to anxiety).
- Discard it (risk losing the appearance forever).
Meanwhile, WoW’s system: “Got the item? Cool, now do whatever you want with it. The look is yours.” Once an item is "bound" to you, you can now use the look forever.
The Glamour Dresser: Stuck in 2013
Let’s be real—the glamour dresser is functional, but it’s a relic. Storing appearances requires:
- Manually placing items into a limited, shared inventory (800 slots split across all jobs, with some items being clones of other items but job-limited).
- Using prisms to apply glams (a minor but unnecessary friction).
- Constant management: deleting old items to make room, knowing you might have to re-farm them later.
Compare this to WoW: Loot a piece of gear → appearance unlocked → done. No hoarding. No stress. The game respects your time. I'm not getting any younger. I really don't want to micromanage a massive chest full of stuff that has no way to preview said items.
Why This Hurts FFXIV’s Core Experience
- Players say that ”Fashion Fantasy” is the true endgame! But the system actively works against that.
- Every “reward” becomes a checkbox on a to-do list. It’s not exciting—it’s anxiety-inducing.
- Every cool item is a punishment of time after you pick it up.
- What will I have to delete?
- What does that item even look like? I can't preview it.
Continue reading...