Alliance based content

[AppropriateName5786]

Bored people quit, and people who quit don't give SE money. They did the same thing in WoW for several years, but Blizzard realized that this was a huge design flaw and fixed it somewhat with systems like LFR. FFXI has no such system, nor does it have the population/ability to make it work even if it did. Making Delve 6-man was a very wise decision; the problem with Delve now is the design (i.e. it is extremely unbalanced, gimmicky content), not the number of people who can enter.

Some people log in for 2 hours a week on LS event night and get the best gear available, just because they have the right connections. Some of these people spend zero time "enjoying the game" outside of showing up to an event once or twice a week. On the other hand, someone who spends 10 hours a day in the game might never progress past D/VD AA fights because they don't know the right people/no LS needs their jobs/they live in a different time zone etc. When it comes to end-game alliance content, the amount of time you spend in the game and how dedicated you are (and these two things are quite distinct) don't mean all that much.

Alliance content is never about "teamwork," as any activity that requires more than 1 person requires, by definition, teamwork, which means that you can experience all the teamwork you want in 2-6 person content. As Zombie343 mentioned, it's always about exclusivity, and SE should no longer cater exclusively to "princesses" in this game. Optional alliance content is fine, but content that is exclusively for alliances needs to never be seen again.

[Draylo]

Bored people quit, and people who quit don't give SE money. They did the same thing in WoW for several years, but Blizzard realized that this was a huge design flaw and fixed it somewhat with systems like LFR. FFXI has no such system, nor does it have the population/ability to make it work even if it did. Making Delve 6-man was a very wise decision; the problem with Delve now is the design (i.e. it is extremely unbalanced, gimmicky content), not the number of people who can enter.

Some people log in for 2 hours a week on LS event night and get the best gear available, just because they have the right connections. Some of these people spend zero time "enjoying the game" outside of showing up to an event once or twice a week. On the other hand, someone who spends 10 hours a day in the game might never progress past D/VD AA fights because they don't know the right people/no LS needs their jobs/they live in a different time zone etc. When it comes to end-game alliance content, the amount of time you spend in the game and how dedicated you are (and these two things are quite distinct) don't mean all that much.

Alliance content is never about "teamwork," as any activity that requires more than 1 person requires, by definition, teamwork, which means that you can experience all the teamwork you want in 2-6 person content. As Zombie343 mentioned, it's always about exclusivity, and SE should no longer cater exclusively to "princesses" in this game. Optional alliance content is fine, but content that is exclusively for alliances needs to never be seen again.

Yet Delve 2.0 was a step back in the "exclusive" department. Nobody will take random jobs because the more people you add the more HP mobs have and more difficult it becomes. It ends up being people with mules and specific jobs only. The is the same for almost all the hard mode battles too. At least alliance content let you bring other jobs and still win w/o gimmicks like increased HP per person.

If someone logs on 10 hours a day and they aren't completing content it is because they are idiots. You could easily farm a large amount of gil and pay people for wins or items that you desire, or put effort into researching a linkshell within your play time. Alliance content is more about teamwork than 6 man, you are so mistaken. It requires a lot more work to get 18 people working together well than it does 6 people (oops I meant 3 people and mules).