Records of Eminence!

[Afania]

So to say I am holding this stance due to the fact that I can't get what I want seems unlikely to me, rather, if anything, its a view based to protect my friends, because as anyone who knows me can tell you, I have primarily been in a semi-social shell for 2 years playing with people no where near the top and have joined other more endgame shells at times in order to fulfill my need to progress, if anything, I think this view would be sticking up for those people who I know can not get what they want because of their limitations on time or lack of assistance.

I have plenty of social LS/friend too, 90% of (real) casual players I know of actually doesn't give jack shit about being 1% or being 10% behind hardcore, they have enough to do before worry about top gears.

You say this, yet, almost every job accepted into events requires something to be taken, not all of which is easy in any sense to get ahold of. WAR needs Razorfury, MNK needs Oats, WHM needs capped Cure Potency with +2 Body/Legs, BLM doesn't get brought, RDM is hardly ever brought, in the event it does, its often decently demanding of decent gear(like Silencing Tojil), THF is hardly ever brought to events, when it is, your expected to have TH7, which till the Login Campaigns was difficult for some people due to Dynamis Win issues. Thats just the first 6 jobs, PLD needs Ochain/Aegis/DT gear and still hardly gets brought, DRK needs Senbaak, BST sucks, BRD is essential to every event but people want a Harp or Horn before you get that invite, RNG is rare but requires Relic gun for enmity issues, SAM requires Fudo and Tsurumaru/Masasamemaru depending on content, NIN sucks, DRG requires Upu. I leave it there, you get my point, you can say that its no big deal, but nearly every single job has something people will require you to have to participate that is not particularly easy to obtain for people outside of the endgame community or the people who are simply late to catching up to an event like Delve where everyone finished it months ago, and doesn't want to do it anymore.

Then play the game ._.

Pretty much every RPG, MMO or single player, including FFXI, require you to beat A to do B. You have to beat 1st boss in an RPG to challenge 2nd boss, beat 2nd boss to challenge the 3rd. Can't beat 3rd boss? Grind the level, grind some money, buy new gears and beat it.

What I don't understand is, you're pretty much asking all players able to beat 3rd boss right from the get go. Ok so you don't need to get Senbaak/Oat/WHM+2 body/legs/TH7 for your jobs, what else you wanna do in this game? Log on and expect to be able to clear the hardest content and quit? Everything about RPG is about spending time and pimp your character. That is the core of RPG gameplay, character progression. If you don't have those items go get it. What else do you expect from a RPG? May as well play RTS or FPS if you don't want the character progression as part of game play.

Abyssea is a 2010 content and released before delve, there isn't anything wrong to do abyssea first from RPG's POV.

The hard part is that everyone's done with it, but this is an issue that will happen in every single MMO, not just FFXI. And it's certainly not because the hardest content drops exclusive gears

Your example of casuals can't get Abyssea gear without help doesn't support VD shouldn't be more rewarding arguement.

You are rewarded with more items for winning on higher levels, you also have a higher drop rate on certain things like gear so far as I know, you do get rewarded for beating the challenge, you can argue the reward isn't worth it, but its a reward, not every reward has to be super powerful or special gear to be a reward. This whole debate started with the idea there are no challenging things in this game to do, not that there are no rewarding challenging things to do, just no challenge, the point I made from the start is the challenge exists, if you truly want challenge for the sake of challenge, not for super special gear, but the thrill of the challenge itself, it exists, and is open for you to try your best to win at.

My arguement is simple. If you spend 3 min worth of work, you get 3 min worth of reward. If you spend 10 hour worth of work, you get 10 hour worth of reward. If you spend 10k hours of work, you get 10k hour worth of reward. The reward/effort ratio must be right.

If 10k hours of work gives same reward as 3 min worth of work, then it makes no sense even in a video game, and it's certainly a design flaw.


I'm not complaining about the game lacking challenge. There are always challenge if you want to challenge yourself. Even without DM VD mode, if I want to challenge myself I can just make a 7~9 person pt try to beat delve, or use a none popular job for delve.

But AA/DM VD is a content, and atm I feel VD(especially DM VD) is completely not worth the effort to farm, since RME upgrade item doesn't worth shit now. A lot of friends of mine just solo very easy mode for pages/mat all day, if ppl want item drops they do normal/difficult. I rarely ever see ppl farm AA VD, let alone DM VD. Some(including myself tbh) even refuse to party and just solo RoE for pages.


This is a design flaw, dev made a content, and nobody is interested in it. No matter how much you want to "protect your friends", it's hard to deny that dev make a content nobody want to do is design flaw.

Long time ago SE made same mistake in FFXIV by having garuda weapon same IL as Titan weapon, but titan 10 times harder to beat than garuda. Then have Coil T5 weapon same IL as relic+1, but Coil T5 weapon 100 times harder to obtain than relic +1. So majority of players don't bother to farm titan weapon nor interested in Coil T5, because the reward/effort ratio isn't right. They fixed that in the end. If it's not a design flaw, why'd they fix it?

Real life interactions I agree with, but, how do real life interactions translate into there needing to be super powerful gear only 1% of players can get? That, I do not understand.

It's a motivation. It's human nature that ppl need a goal/motivation to feel satisfied. Not everyone can afford a house, not everyone can afford a ferrari, but some people make it a goal to work hard to obtain those, an feel fulfilled when their goal is accomplished.

A game with no goal to strive for, and no one interested in challenging the hardest content is design flaw all over. I did not say casuals should not play and should be kicked from all content at all. But I believe a good, meaningful RPG should have meaningful , epic goal to fight for, and the time and effort invested in accomplishing such goal should be rewarded. Remember the time when you play single player RPGs, some ppl would spend hours and hours to grind character to super high level so they can beat secret boss for secret weapon?

That's the reward for the effort. Only then it creates meaningful and fun roleplaying experience. It's been done since forever, been done before MMO exist when we all play single player RPG, it's more like a golden rule of game design, not another way around.

If you want challenge, you can have it, if you want rewards, you can have it, if you want rewards only you can get, no, you cant have it. My views on it all are as simple and clear as that.

It's not about whether I want reward only I can get or not.

If I log on, ask my friend/LS "Anyone want to do DM very difficult?". Then everyone reply: "YES I WANT TO DO IT I WANT X item, this item is EPIC", then it's a good design.

If they reply "Mehhhh, I'd rather do normal with 10 ppl", then it's fail content. Nothing can deny the fact that a content nobody want to do=fail.