Maybe I’m just an old head who doesn’t get it anymore, maybe this same predictable rinse-and-repeat formula that’s been going on for almost 11 years now is exactly what the player base actually wants?
Within the official forums and even in-game, I’ve started noticing something: Yoshi-P seems to be losing some of his strongest long-time supporters, the players who used to accept anything he presented because, for them, he could do no wrong. Ironically, that very vocal group might have been one of the biggest obstacles to real change. Maybe their unwavering support made the dev team too comfortable, leading to these increasingly shallow updates and event contents that can be cleared in 20 minutes for a quick cosmetic or mount.
Was this really the goal of the game?
The same can be said for many FFXIV streamers who came from WoW and monetized their time here. A lot of them milked the hype for as long as possible, and once that dried up, they jumped ship and started criticizing SE and the dev team. Of course, there are still some around who won’t speak up honestly out of fear of burning bridges with SE just to stay in good standing and keep their audience entertained.
I’m genuinely trying to understand why this mindset exists how this game drifted so far from its foundation and became what feels like a WoW clone. And how we, as players, allowed this to continue for so long.
Before anyone jumps in with the classic “this isn’t a WoW clone” response there’s literally an interview where Yoshi-P told his team to study and play WoW, since it was the top-selling MMORPG at the time. And sure, I get the logic behind that. But here’s the thing: shouldn’t whatever you create still be unique?
People often bring up the argument that FFXI borrowed ideas from EverQuest, and that’s true but FFXI still managed to stand on its own. It had its own soul. It felt like Final Fantasy. FFXIV, on the other hand, feels more like a generic MMORPG with a Final Fantasy skin layered on top.
Countless times I’ve seen new players in the Novice Network say things like, “Oh, this job reminds me of [WoW job].” And sure, comparisons are natural both are MMORPGs but no one plays Mortal Kombat just because it reminds them of Street Fighter and picks Scorpion because he “feels like Ryu.” They're both fighting games right?
That logic just doesn’t hold up yet it’s become normal here.
In my honest opinion, Dawntrail’s writing has been quite poor. A lot of it feels rushed, scattered, and emotionally flat. The expansion didn’t introduce anything truly new either. These days, FFXIV feels like a ghost town people don’t socialize, don’t chat, and many just log in to maintain their houses.
This game should offer us so much more than that.
Most of us 1.0 players also came from FFXI. None of us wanted FFXI 2.0, but we definitely didn’t sign up for Final Fantasy: A WoW Clone Reborn either.
Continue reading...
Within the official forums and even in-game, I’ve started noticing something: Yoshi-P seems to be losing some of his strongest long-time supporters, the players who used to accept anything he presented because, for them, he could do no wrong. Ironically, that very vocal group might have been one of the biggest obstacles to real change. Maybe their unwavering support made the dev team too comfortable, leading to these increasingly shallow updates and event contents that can be cleared in 20 minutes for a quick cosmetic or mount.
Was this really the goal of the game?
The same can be said for many FFXIV streamers who came from WoW and monetized their time here. A lot of them milked the hype for as long as possible, and once that dried up, they jumped ship and started criticizing SE and the dev team. Of course, there are still some around who won’t speak up honestly out of fear of burning bridges with SE just to stay in good standing and keep their audience entertained.
I’m genuinely trying to understand why this mindset exists how this game drifted so far from its foundation and became what feels like a WoW clone. And how we, as players, allowed this to continue for so long.
Before anyone jumps in with the classic “this isn’t a WoW clone” response there’s literally an interview where Yoshi-P told his team to study and play WoW, since it was the top-selling MMORPG at the time. And sure, I get the logic behind that. But here’s the thing: shouldn’t whatever you create still be unique?
People often bring up the argument that FFXI borrowed ideas from EverQuest, and that’s true but FFXI still managed to stand on its own. It had its own soul. It felt like Final Fantasy. FFXIV, on the other hand, feels more like a generic MMORPG with a Final Fantasy skin layered on top.
Countless times I’ve seen new players in the Novice Network say things like, “Oh, this job reminds me of [WoW job].” And sure, comparisons are natural both are MMORPGs but no one plays Mortal Kombat just because it reminds them of Street Fighter and picks Scorpion because he “feels like Ryu.” They're both fighting games right?
That logic just doesn’t hold up yet it’s become normal here.
In my honest opinion, Dawntrail’s writing has been quite poor. A lot of it feels rushed, scattered, and emotionally flat. The expansion didn’t introduce anything truly new either. These days, FFXIV feels like a ghost town people don’t socialize, don’t chat, and many just log in to maintain their houses.
This game should offer us so much more than that.
Most of us 1.0 players also came from FFXI. None of us wanted FFXI 2.0, but we definitely didn’t sign up for Final Fantasy: A WoW Clone Reborn either.
Continue reading...