What makes you keep playing?

[Seravi Edalborez]

iLvl blockades don't keep content relevant. It just makes it harder for late players to catch up/go on alt jobs and nothing more.

This is why I never understood the stance of certain "casual" players flaunting the weekly lockouts like they punish no-lifers.

Sure, they do limit no-lifers, but they more punish the people who can't or don't play enough to hit their weekly caps way more harshly. And this is in every goddamn facet of the game. Weekly tomes, weekly Coil/AlexSav, weekly CT/VoidArk, red scrips, airship ventures, retainer ventures, crafting economy, even gardening used to be like this.

If you're late, you suck. It's the implied message some people hear if they miss even one week of something they care about. Or in the case of the "unlimited" content that is heavily time-blocked (airship, gardening, crafting for profit when you're in the "what do I make for money" stage), you're too slow to matter. I never admitted to having a problem with this but it's a large part of what compels some people to play. For better or worse.

[Niiro]

Which is why if they wanted to gate shit this way there should have never been a weekly cap, only a net total cap on how many tomes you can acquire that gets raised each week.

ie. Patch lands, 1st week the cap is 450, 2nd is 900, 3rd is 1350, etc, obviously they'd have to get rid of the fucking pointless and annoying 2000 cap, but there's no reason not to now that you can't even buy crafting items with tomes anymore (not that it was ever a good reason for the 2000 cap to begin with).

If you're starting from the 1st week, nothing changes, but if you're coming in later in the patch cycle you can actually catch up reasonably quickly (but you're still screwed out of potential gains from any other lockout events, but not being fucked out of tomes is the least they could do).

[Seravi Edalborez]

Which is why if they wanted to gate shit this way there should have never been a weekly cap, only a net total cap on how many tomes you can acquire that gets raised each week.

This would even play perfectly into the YOSHIP APPROVED casual method of unsubbing and resubbing as you please. Why is this not a thing? In any MMO?

[nyttyn]

This would even play perfectly into the YOSHIP APPROVED casual method of unsubbing and resubbing as you please. Why is this not a thing? In any MMO?

Because weekly caps, first and foremost, exist to keep people subscribe.

If the primary reason was to prevent world firsting, there would be something like a net total cap or certainly something less brutal. But take a look at how many people say they just remain subbed just to cap out their esos, or how many people say it's the only thing they do. The cap is weekly and a harsh mistress to make you feel bad about unsubscribing, and it's pretty clearly extremely effective.

No MMO which sees the need to use caps would let you simply resubscribe as you please, that'd defeat the point of weekly caps - which is to keep you subscribed.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Right but, subs in this game to my recollection HAVE to be in stretches of 30 days anyways. And if I'm really reaching for reasons, subbing for only 30 days instead of 60/90/whatever costs more "per month".

[Carth]

No MMO which sees the need to use caps would let you simply resubscribe as you please, that'd defeat the point of weekly caps - which is to keep you subscribed.

However, in XIV's case it's only effective if you care about doing Savage. If you're not doing savage then there is literally no pressure whatsoever.

There's a lot of people playing the game who couldn't give two shits about capping esos once they got their body piece for their favorite job, especially when you factor in that SE lifts lockout limitations upon a major content update, which allows you to catch up very quickly.

It's a very, very flawed formula that people are catching on to.

[Silenka]

However, in XIV's case it's only effective if you care about doing Savage. If you're not doing savage then there is literally no pressure whatsoever.

I personally am refusing to play the "cap eso every week" game. One, I don't need the gear for anything (no one who isn't doing savage really needs it), and two, spamming the same two tired dungeons every day is EXTREMELY not fun. I want the eso gear, but I'm waiting until they lift the retarded cap on it so I can collect the tomes for each job all at once. I think I just personally hate being locked into a cap deadline, I would much rather collect as many or as few as I want at my own leisure than be told "meet this requirement every week". Quite honestly, the system is designed to make me want to rebel against it for expecting me to adhere to it.

That said though, I still do feel some pressure to have the eso gear. I can hear some part of me saying that I'm still playing, even if I'm not playing my capped jobs, I should be the best I can be - and a lot of that gear just looks good glamour-wise. But it's overall still a waste of time and effort right now.

If you're late, you suck. It's the implied message some people hear if they miss even one week of something they care about.

This is exactly how I felt when I missed loot in A4 first week.
Even though I knew that I wasn't doing savage and this game is too sad and lazy to have any other content that would require me to have Alex gear, I still felt like shit for missing it. I'm sure it's even worse for people who do know they're going to be raiding. The "one piece a week" rule really contributes to feeling like crap if you somehow manage to miss a week. You feel like you lost out when you shouldn't have.

[Sho]

This has been a gripe of mine since day 1. I don't mind instanced content, but not having any open world, scalable fights such as ZNMs, sky and sea spawns, sucks. Hell, I'd even take dynamis for content.

And yes, I do consider that a huge problem. Call me old fashioned, but I want the point of a FC to be to band together and work together as a group so they can go "We came, we saw, we kicked ass". Not the "grats to the 8 of us. Sucks to be the others who cant go" content we have.

This sums up all of my problems with this game.

[Ratatapa]

Welp 18 days till subs wear off

[Kari]

subbing for only 30 days instead of 60/90/whatever costs more "per month".

Only if you need more than one character. The "Entry" subscription option is one character per server/8 servers or something, for the same rate as the highest amount of days subbed under the standard.

@People thinking that Void Ark won't drop i200 gear, what WOULD it drop then? Concerns that Alex Normal will be outdated are weird when the only other option is for Void Ark to be outdated on launch. Plus if it follows old systems, you will only be getting one i200 piece per week from Void Ark, and you can apparently get 210 gear from Airship content anyways.

Side note, while the patch looks like it might entertain longer than I expected, November is what 5 months from HW launch? I was really hoping after waiting almost all year for Heavensward, we'd stop skating for so long between having things to do.

[InnieDollar]

I actually have been wanting to quit because the fact there is only 2 tiers of content, easy, and rediculous, there needs to be more.

[Deuce]

Only if you need more than one character. The "Entry" subscription option is one character per server/8 servers or something, for the same rate as the highest amount of days subbed under the standard.

Legacy players must get special discounts then because my 3-month and 6-month subs are definitely at a reduced rate compared to the 1-month. I save something like $12 if I sub for 6-months instead of one.

[Kipling]

They do get special discounts. Isn't a legacy sub only like 9.99 or something?

[Destinye]

They do get special discounts. Isn't a legacy sub only like 9.99 or something?

Yeah my sub fee is only $9 a month. However if you end up getting overloaded with stuff and end up playing multiple jobs fully, you'll end up with an extra retainer or two thus invalidating your discount.

[Ratatapa]

We also get another discount if we sub for longer.

Subbing 1x for 6 month is cheaper then subbing 6 times for 1 month each

[Niiro]

Everyone gets a discount for subbing longer, legacy prices are just a little lower.

[Nyanoko]

To answer the OP: nothing. Silly me has kept the sub going even though I haven't checked in for weeks. I've opted out of the bullshit "gotta do weekly caps!" game. Alex normal is a snoozefest, and I cbf to do Savage/progression raiding these days. I just want some "casual trash" content that me and a few buddies can jump in and do every so often. Or maybe something like Salvage, or ZNMs, or fuck, anything but one four-boss "HARDCORE" raid and two dungeons I got tired of in the first week of reaching level cap.

Edit: FWIW I thought the 50-60 content was kickass, far above what other MMOs do, and worth the box price. It's the lack of content afterwards which isn't worth the sub.

[Kaixin]

Yeah my sub fee is only $9 a month. However if you end up getting overloaded with stuff and end up playing multiple jobs fully, you'll end up with an extra retainer or two thus invalidating your discount.

No, you dope, that doesn't invalidate your discount. I know what you meant though

[Delnoir]

For me it's mostly the disconnect from real life. I sadly don't have or am in a position to be in a Savage static, but I enjoy the company of my FC and I'm particularly fond of the world itself. I recently recruited three friends of mine, so I like to help them out and see what they're doing with their time in the game.

[Destinye]

No, you dope, that doesn't invalidate your discount. I know what you meant though

Yeah ;p doesn't help they keep referencing fixing our inventory problems through retainers.