Why would you want to encourage people to play new content!? Look at how much old content there is to play!!!!!!
Guess what was your point, which is something that is problematic about this relic step.
I mean, I see things from the following perspective:
1. The alternative to getting a weapon at the highest possible level only otherwise obtained through the hardest content in the game ... gasp... actually takes effort. Relic has and always will be meant as a dangling carrot for the masses to have a piece of the dream of having "elite/special" content that they otherwise could never obtain. They are never going to make any step of any relic phase other than the last "celebratory" phase even remotely easy and not time consuming. It's purpose is to 1) keep you playing/subbing and 2) take long enough for the average person to last until next content update and 3) Maximize the utility of existing content by repurposing it to make it relevant. It may be lazy as hell, but its better than offering nothing on their end.
2. This relic step seems to be so poorly designed in that it relies heavily on ARR 2.0-2.55 content as much as it does on HW 3.0 content that it feels like a slap in the face to ask for them to come up with original activities to do on each relic step.
3. It's finally starting to seep in that like every other MMO out there, there is a peak with creativity/content. ARR hit its peak earlier because it's not a new MMO, it's the rebuild of a shitty, broken ass MMO that launched 6 years ago that nearly killed off an entire development team, and under probably the harshest scrutiny imaginable, a new team not only salvaged the train wreck, they made it very good and incredibly fun/addicting. But it was never, ever going to last.
ARR will have a shorter lifespan than XI or WoW in terms of being a very active game. Because it appears that the dev team blew all their CDs on getting ARR right and used their strongest content/ideas from the get-go. What we're seeing now is the dev team hitting fatigue and unable to continue to patch cycle we enjoyed in ARR. By trying to hit that same window, we're seeing them have to cut corners or re-use old stuff. And considering how much development is going on at Square Enix these days, who even knows what capacity the XIV team is at anymore.
At this moment with how things are, I fully expect this game to be near death by 5.0...if it makes it that far.
Savage claims Team Updog, apparently
Elysium will continue a shell of its former self, tho, looks like?
RIP in Peace to those guys; forever greatful for Team USA making Asami a lala that one time.
Two members announced they were retiring from XIV progression a week or so ago, and I heard some people predicting then that the team would be disbanding soon or rebuilding at some point. From the sound of everything, World First competitive raiding sounds horrible. It sounds just like competitive eSports, which also sounds equally horrible. You kill your love of a game by burning yourself out under the conditions you have to play in order to remain competitive. If that's what you find interesting and passionate about, all the power to you. To me, I would never want to subject myself to an activity that could possibility harm/damage a big part of my life that I want to continue to enjoy as long as I can.
Edit: Holy shit, their writing totally sounds like PR fluff. Angary, I think you have to step up your PR game...
