Alliance based content

[AppropriateName5786]

My question is, what incentive is there right now to have a fully functioning linkshell when there is nothing to do with them that requires it? Why would I want to have 18 people for the new Delve when it is POSSIBLE to beat it (I know it will be, or why would they have included that adjustment to do it with 6 people) when I can do it with 6 people? Why do I drag 18 people into this content when I can clear it faster with 6 people with secondary characters and not have to split the loot at all? The loot is the same regardless of players entering, what sense does this make!? If this is going to be just like the adjustment to the original delve, like was said in that post, the rewards system wont be like Divine Might. There is 0 incentive to bring an alliance.

The answer to all of the above questions is clearly, "No one knows! Why the heck ARE you doing that to yourself?" These are all leading questions and hardly deserve a serious response from the development team. Besides, a linkshell with only six people in it is fully functioning. I'm not sure how you came up with the strange idea that only a linkshell with 18 or more members is "fully functional."

I've seen this once before and it was with Abyssea. This caused a splinter in all linkshells and pretty much destroyed them. So then after Adoulin came out we were forced to once again gather people up to do the original Delve because it was balanced around 18 people. Then you had everyone quit for XIV and come crawling back because its boring and the people who still had a linkshell are penalized for it.

The fact that linkshells broke up so readily was a testament to how much people hated being in them. After all, if you didn't have to deal with 17 a--holes to accomplish something fun and worthwhile, why would you force yourself to? There was a general reluctance to get back into large linkshells when Delve was released, but it had to be done to make things easier. As someone who plays several highly desired support jobs I've seen my fair share of endgame linkshells. I don't think I'm the only one who has noticed that all of the big ones are, without exception, really just a loose collection of small cliques who would break away in the blink of an eye if alliance content didn't give the best rewards anymore.

My question is, will there ever be an incentive to do alliance based content that justifies having more than 6 people in our linkshells? Everything in this entire game can be 6 manned aside from VD Divine might. The new battles they have planned will probably all be 6 man as the originals were (Shadow Lord etc.) One event in the ENTIRE game that requires more than 6 people. This is an MMO?

What part of an MMO says that you have to play with 17 others to get anything done? If you have more than 6 friends in the game and you play with them often, isn't that enough "justification" to have more than 6 people in your linkshell? Isn't the ability to interact with everyone on your server, group up with anyone, participate in WKRs with anyone, quest with your friends/anyone, and compete for mobs/NMs with everyone what defines an MMO and what single-player games lack?

I personally hope they never make content as dead-on-arrival as Legion again.