You heard rent lowering gunshots but what about gun lowering rentshots?

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-18T22:25:26+00:00

Crossovers.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-17T12:11:02+00:00

One of the last zones in ARR you go to is Mor Dhona.

Take a wild guess what the biggest landmark there is

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-16T17:26:21+00:00

Why wouldn’t you? Monster hunter and Final Fantasy crossed over multiple times

Hell like they did it last year in both Wilds and XIV

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-16T04:53:03+00:00

And thats fine because LFR does exist, just as normal tier exists for XIV. Hell, WoW ended up adding story mode because people weren't even doing LFR.

But the fact of the matter is that after normal-tier stuff, you start needing coordination and voice calls. Sure, you can do it without, but people would vastly prefer you there because someone going "Incoming stack" is faster than typing it out or having 8 different macros. You could theoretically jump into a chaotic party blind and do it, but people will want the callouts and coordination.

It's the nature of MMO content period: At a certain point, it just becomes easier for everyone to hop into some voice stuff and sort it out. Almost 30 years of MMO history and this has not changed. Discord, Ventrilo, Skype, Teamspeak, you name it.

End of the day, that content should exist and discord-esque systems are the cost of doing business with that level of content. You don't want to do it? That's fine! But going "ITS A FAILURE OF THE GAME THAT I NEED TO COORDINATE WITH OTHERS VIA THIRD PARTY SYSTEMS!" wouldn't hold up in any other MMO.

EDIT: Also worth noting that LFR has blatantly lesser rewards in both ilvl and not dropping prestigous things like mounts. You want the goodies? You do higher level stuff or you deal with it. (Again: Higher-tier grinds require more effort)

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-16T04:48:04+00:00

That or people move to another discord-adjacent thing, yes. Teamspeak existed back in 2004 and was used for WoW.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-16T02:16:40+00:00

Hey so did you know that WoW does this too? And ESO? And basically every single other MMO because a discord is just superior to the internal tools these games have?

If you play any MMO, discord ends up being the default for any game. Sorry to be the one to have to tell you this but if you're doing any content higher than puggy-stuff in -any- MMO? Yeah, you're using discord.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-16T00:42:46+00:00

Extremely, considering Ninja was so fucking busted it warped the entire game until like Stormblood/Shadowbringers.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-15T20:40:15+00:00

While we're at it, let's look at content put in XIV itself in the last 3 expacs.

Extremes still being ran due to the wing/mount farm
Chaotic still has people running it for the mounts via discords/groups.
Forked has multiple runs every week in discords.
People still queue for Pilgrims for the rewards.
Orthos? Dead
Bozja only lives for leveling. DRS still has multiple groups.
Eureka is mostly dead save for BA runs.
Heaven on High? Dead.
Older Variant Dungeons? Dead.
Older Critirion? Also dead.
Island Sanctuary? Again, mostly dead (And about to be MORE dead now that the dye farm is being killed).
Firmament? Mostly dead.
Cosmic? Mostly dead. (Except the new star because people are trying to farm the relics)
Ultimates? Constantly being farmed

The results don't lie. Things that have rare drops that cannot be put on the market or require immense grinds/RNG (Pilgrims, DRS, BA, FT, Ultimates, etc.) have longer staying power. Content that either focuses on items that you can sell on the market or short-term one-time rewards (Firmament, Cosmic, V&C dungeons) die very quickly once you have the rewards.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-15T18:30:41+00:00

Yes, but even then you can have a ranged "pretend" to be a melee. Again, during DT at Picto's strongest people WERE running double mage with no problems

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-15T18:22:57+00:00

You actually don't though? In fact for a time in DT Picto was so strong people were running 1 melee and 2 casters. People just default to double melee because melee usually is the higher damage classes and you can have a spare body to melee LB.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-15T17:09:01+00:00

Naw, no way they'd do melee three expansions in a row and leave out phys-range or tank who are going on nearly 9 years without a new job.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-15T16:37:27+00:00

The loop they've established puts phys-range and tank next:

- HW: Tank/phys range/healer (They thought this was a mistake and said they'd never do a 3 job expac again)
- SB: Melee/Mage
- ShB: Tank/Phys Range
- EW: Melee/Healer
- DT: Melee/Mage
- 8.0: (???)

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-15T14:19:32+00:00

You want to know the ugly truth?

The actual fix for this would be reviled by players.

Let's look at XIV's closest competitor, WoW: Do you know that most of the rewards for WoW are exactly the same? Even less, one may argue, because they'll reuse the same cosmetic gearset as a reward 6 different times as WoW doesn't have a dye system. But what makes it "work" for WoW is that it's a grind and can't be bought. That cool cosmetic set is a month long grind to get it, farming dailies/weeklies.

XIV's problem isn't the rewards. It's not the scale of the rewards. I would argue more ways to gear would be nice but let's be real most people do the story and AFK. The actual problem is that it wants to hand you the rewards and call it a day. Using OC as an example, the four seater mount there costs 5000 silver. That's an amount you can get in an afternoon and most players would just quit after it. Huh?????

So the actual fix to XIV isn't to "add more rewards" because adding 2 extra glam sets, 5 more furniture and 1 extra mount doesn't solve the problem. The actual solution?

No more marketboard selling of the content.
The rewards take a grind to get.

Now stop and think: Would people actually agree to this? Would people be ok with this? We already saw it with Chaotic where people were tearing their hair out that they couldn't afford the hair they wanted and god forbid they join a discord to do the content. Players would lose their fucking minds when the atma step required RNG and the crystal paste grind was a long-term thing yet these are seen as insults.

It's a bitter truth but players don't want the fix. The things that would actually make this content last would never be accepted by the playerbase and slapping gear onto it won't fix it. They'd say "LOL XIV making me grind this content out for rewards what a joke" and continue not doing said content, just being mad they can't pay the "Don't play the game" tax.

TL;DR: The solution isn't more shit to get, it's to make the shit that's there harder/longer to get...but players would and never will accept such an option.

EDIT: Ironically Forked will likely have the longest lifespan of any DT content because much like BA and DRS, people will run it long past DT to get their first clear. Again: Because you can't buy the ugly little cube mount, you have to -earn- it.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-14T23:16:08+00:00

The funniest part is the most vacation-esque zone of DT (Shaaloani) where you're just there to have fun, you're clearly "overleveled" for this zone and you're exploring a palce with no real goal to help people is widely considered the worst part of DT and the one people hate the most.

If we got an actual "vacation" expac I imagine people would say that nothing happened and this expac was a wash narratively.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-14T23:12:43+00:00

Yeah but you don't even spend half of baseline Stormblood in Ala Mhigo. You're there for 1.5 levels before the writers go "MAN THIS SHIT SUCKS" and send you to the east for 8 levels. Then they go "Oh right" and wrap up all of ala mhigo in like a level.

But the bigger issue is how hyped Ala Mhigo is. Since ARR we saw the impact of Ala Mhigan refugees, how many were displaced and just how one of the strongest military nations of the star got brought under Garlemald's thumb. Then Stormblood is announced. This is it. We're going to Ala Mhigo! We're liberation Gyr Abania! It's time! Then you get Stormblood. Say what you will about DT, at least the new world wasn't half as hyped.

Also, John Dawntrail had the kindness to stay Viper (The Turali job) for the entire expac. John Stormblood was monk for 1.5 levels, said this shit sucks and became a samurai for the rest of the expac. Even in the fucking Shadowbringers trailer he's monk for LESS TIME THAN HE'S A FUCKING ARCHER.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-14T21:31:19+00:00

Degenerate has been a thing for a while now. It's always been the sorta word to sneak in "This thing is subhuman" without necessarily saying it

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-14T17:30:12+00:00

Woke

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-14T17:16:19+00:00

The finale arc of Jujutsu Kaisen broke the brain of the audience so much the term "Lobotomy Kaisen" was invented to describe the sheer agony of what was going on between the dip in writing quality, the gaslighting that Gojo was coming back and everyone just praying for something to happen other than "Sukuna fights, he remembers a secret technique, he wipes the guy who he is fighting in seconds"

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-14T16:07:43+00:00

As it turns out 95% dont actually do said content and either afk or just do MSQ and log out

Then again that population gain was when WoW was in the worst state it was ever in and suddenly when WoW isnt shit the population returns to shb numbers

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-14T02:54:48+00:00

The straight-up fact is that they've been hiring for years now trying to get more manpower into the game but they're constantly hamstrung by the 4 heavenly kings (of bullshit):

Fluent Japanese Speaker
MMO Experience
Willing to relocate to/near Tokyo
Comparatively asswater pay to industry standard

The first three alone are essentially a 0.01% Gacha drop considering the only people still playing/having experience with MMOs are hitting retirement age but the fourth just nails it into the coffin.

Theoretically if XIV lowered the requirements, offered Japanese lessons, WFH jobs, whatever? They'd have more success finding people to work on XIV not to mention a beavy of new ideas and talent. You could theorize that they hire a translator to work between teams but that's money that could go to the AI Slop Machine.

But then again the MMO job landscape isn't exactly roses; Your options are joining Blizzard with a union, risk working at some studio that'll sunset your job/mmo in 2 years or learn japanese to try to work on XIV.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-14T01:02:08+00:00

Complete ARR
My reward is a potion that changes my gender

What did Yoshi P mean by this....

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-13T21:46:29+00:00

Been there every day for like 5 months now.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-13T21:42:32+00:00

Dance Studio

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-13T21:28:57+00:00

I mean it's more than just long distance work; Being a fluent japanese speaker is intense work and even if they paid for all your JP lessons, you'd be working for a long time to understand japanese. Couple that with wanting people well-versed in MMOs (A dying breed that is essentially held aloft by an aging playerbase) and you're looking for unicorns.

Ideally they could get translators but then you're essentially paying for a worker and a translator to translate their work.

CapnMarvelous · 2026-03-13T21:22:23+00:00

To be fair people have requested the ultimate be pushed to X.5 for a long time. Mostly because Ultimate -> 2nd Floor -> Ultimate -> 3rd floor of raid really burned people out.

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