Increased isolationism

[FHT]

Seriously though, it is true, XI you could build up from that first time you ask: "how do I move?" or "how I mine for fish?" to end-game, it was just extremely community oriented

The amount of new friends you'd make just by walking by their K.O'd body & throw them a raise + cure III & protect, nowaday people with raise walk over your body like if it was a front door carpet and they ignore you when you ask for it even with all the QoL we have today.

I made so many friends just by raising people in exp parties and then staying for 25 mins PL'ing them cause they were too low to handle their chosen EXP camp, I really really miss this feeling and I think something like that would definately bring XIV's community closer.

Also, I met my g/f 9 years ago in west ronfaur, saving her from a ferocious goblin thug!

[Almalexia]

Ninety percent of my FL was created in 1.0, when doing dungeons/hamlet/primals/relics were spontaneous, flexible and long-term goals. There was a community outside the linkshell.

The only reason I've added people in 2.0 is for mailbox.

Diadem is mechanically capable of bringing back that pick-up-'n-go spirit from the bygone days, but it feels so hollow in its current state. There needs to be more dynamism to keep players on their toes. I'm not saying the devs need to aim sky-high with Diadem - nor should it be zeni more complex than content from other titles - but surely there's something they can do to salvage this content and break it from its middling limbo before it slips off players' radars and into the abyss. Einherjar.

[Neon_Sea]

For something like Diadem there needs to be more value to roles and cooperation of your group to complete goals. If there where multiple paths to spawn mobs, like high level gatherer needs to get X in certain amount of time while you kill X mobs to spawn a Bront. There can be mini dps checks with consequence if failed but not a wipe. Then maybe harder mobs and objectives you could only complete by bringing in an alliance or talking to people on the island already. As it is now it is the worst or the worst, just mindlessly 123 things for shiny. You dont even need to bring a tank or healer, and actually I got a gold chest with 3 people once.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Ninety percent of my FL was created in 1.0, when doing dungeons/hamlet/primals/relics were spontaneous, flexible and long-term goals. There was a community outside the linkshell.

The only reason I've added people in 2.0 is for mailbox.

Diadem is mechanically capable of bringing back that pick-up-'n-go spirit from the bygone days, but it feels so hollow in its current state. There needs to be more dynamism to keep players on their toes. I'm not saying the devs need to aim sky-high with Diadem - nor should it be zeni more complex than content from other titles - but surely there's something they can do to salvage this content and break it from its middling limbo before it slips off players' radars and into the abyss. Einherjar.

i sea what you did there

[Silenka]

Ninety percent of my FL was created in 1.0, when doing dungeons/hamlet/primals/relics were spontaneous, flexible and long-term goals. There was a community outside the linkshell.

The only reason I've added people in 2.0 is for mailbox.

Diadem is mechanically capable of bringing back that pick-up-'n-go spirit from the bygone days, but it feels so hollow in its current state. There needs to be more dynamism to keep players on their toes. I'm not saying the devs need to aim sky-high with Diadem - nor should it be zeni more complex than content from other titles - but surely there's something they can do to salvage this content and break it from its middling limbo before it slips off players' radars and into the abyss. Einherjar.

Brilliant.

[Twilight Sky]

The best way to approach this game is to accept you will be alone.. I had to do just that or I'd just keep FC hopping/Server transferring.

[Whaleporn]

Ninety percent of my FL was created in 1.0, when doing dungeons/hamlet/primals/relics were spontaneous, flexible and long-term goals. There was a community outside the linkshell.

The only reason I've added people in 2.0 is for mailbox.

Diadem is mechanically capable of bringing back that pick-up-'n-go spirit from the bygone days, but it feels so hollow in its current state. There needs to be more dynamism to keep players on their toes. I'm not saying the devs need to aim sky-high with Diadem - nor should it be zeni more complex than content from other titles - but surely there's something they can do to salvage this content and break it from its middling limbo before it slips off players' radars and into the abyss. Einherjar.

I lol'ed.

[Intense]

Keeping an FC alive in this environment is really challenging. Can't be bothered to read through all of YP's interviews, but has he addressed any complaints regarding this?

[Raldo]

"Help, my friends stopped playing!" No, I think they really try to avoid talking about that particular problem.

I have the same issue. I mainly log in to cycle the tier-1 FC action wheels, so the 3 or so people that do still log on can have their +xp bonus without spending our dwindling company credits.

[Intense]

I, of course, meant complaints of the overall trends in the lack of a feeling of community by the player base; even if its just the NA/EU player base, which is a huge chunk of their income from this game. Not individual OF type complaints of friends not logging in anymore.

I would imagine that they don't want their players to have low moral while using their product.

[Whaleporn]

I think what shoots 14 in the foot is that there are no long-term group projects that require more then a handful of people, and the world itself is not very hostile. The bonds we made in 11 were forged by being forced to rely on strangers and being forced to make friends because everything on the way up to 75 could and would kill you. It sorta says something when I'm still gaming with the killing ifrit troll that joined my linkshell nearly 10 years ago and that I remember more people from a game I haven't touched in years vs a game I currently play. As someone said the tools we have for forming groups now would have been awesome years ago, when there were things to do that really merited them.

And yeah, I was a founder (1 of 3 people) in a linkshell that started in quifm hanging out naked around the lake while waiting for ghosts to go away at level 20 and extended into endgame.

[Destinye]

Free Company workshop projects was supposed to bring us together as a group and work together!

[Intense]

Free Company workshop projects was supposed to bring us together as a group and work together!

In reality, its more like bugging people to join a light party on a crafting job so we can advance....

[Niiro]

I, of course, meant complaints of the overall trends in the lack of a feeling of community by the player base; even if its just the NA/EU player base, which is a huge chunk of their income from this game. Not individual OF type complaints of friends not logging in anymore.

I would imagine that they don't want their players to have low moral while using their product.

Why the hell would they care as long as they're making money off reskinned mounts and extra retainers.

[Intense]

Why the hell would they care as long as they're making money off reskinned mounts and extra retainers.

Because, when you don't have happy players, that dries up really quickly.

[Niiro]

People are happy to double their sub fees with retainers and throw extra money at SE hand over fist for a glorified fashion sim and chatroom.

I've said it before, the problem isn't that SE isn't making a better game, the problem is they don't have to.

Devoted FF fans and a vanity shop are more than enough to keep the game going and probably very profitable with a bare bones dev team for a long time to come.

[Silenka]

It's sad but true. For example, SE has been cashing in on FF nostalgia for a loooong time now. There is a very good reason most of what they produce are remakes, rehashes and games such as Record Keeper and Theatrhythm that let you "re-live" the games in new ways. There are tons of people, proven, who will buy anything with the FF name tacked onto it and who will waste tons of money on frivolous shit related to FF.
Where I start to fail to understand the XIV model is this: I am one of the people they target with the nostalgia products, but I absolutely can't reconcile buying shit from a cash shop when I'm paying a monthly sub fee, ESPECIALLY shit that's already in the game/just a reskin and takes 0 effort on the dev's part to make. I can't accept that there's "no way" to give players more inventory space (because SE's too busy cashing in on the extra retainer fees). I do not understand how ANYONE, even the most die-hard FF nostalgia consumers, could be okay with this and take it for granted, particularly when the game is struggling to deliver actual content even despite all the cash they're making from the shop on top of the sub fees.

I would love to get into the heads of the people who are okay with the cash shop and find out what killed the hamsters that run their brain-wheels. It makes absolutely zero sense to me that someone could go through the steps of deciding they want Minfilia's outfit, see that it is one-piece non-dyebale, and also by the way fifteen bucks, and just go "yea why not, I didn't need that money anyway".

The fuck.

[Intense]

I tried to take the contrary regarding the cash shop further, but the fact that I see so many simple bitches running around looking like a janky Minfilia really stomps on my point...

[JigglyJam]

Yeah but have you seen that hairstyle on lalafell? totes adorbs

[Classikmage]

Keeping an FC alive in this environment is really challenging. Can't be bothered to read through all of YP's interviews, but has he addressed any complaints regarding this?

I found the trick to that, a couple months back I got FB'd by some old FFXI friends that had a server together on FFXIV, now we're all together, had some more old FFXI'ers join last month and we're all having a casual grand old time now. This game is a lot better when you're playing with people you know already.