Hardcore, easy mode and the XI veteran

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Originally Posted by Jennestia

Being realistic people would agree that it's still a timesink, that very thing they use to say makes XI a bad a game. A timesink is a timesink in the end. If Timesinks is what made XI 'bad', how is it that timesinks make XIV 'good'? So being real, both games have their equal share of timesinks.

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There's a difference between timesinks and gameplay.

If a player does an activity every day for a year and wins every time, yet is still empty-handed at the end of that year, it's a time sink.

However, if each time they win, they get a little closer to obtaining the reward, it's gameplay.

Something like the materia system would be a time sink, but that's ok. There's no reason there can't be some time sinks. The difference is in XI, everything was meant to slow you down. Travel, the rate at which an average player could make Gil, reentry timers, spawn times, low drop rates.

It was all about delaying the player.

But XIV is given enough events that can be done on a player's own schedule, those optional time sinks won't seem like time sinks, because even they will be on a player's schedule.

For example, player a tends to log in an hour earlier than a scheduled event, so that's when they occupy themselves with time sinks instead of watching a moogles spin, while player b does the same for an hour after then event.

Time sinks aren't bad, just as long as it's not a main design focus used across the board.

Those events were overcome through trial and error by gamers who spent drawn out months learning only the very basic mechanics of the game in an arduous and arbitrary grind intended to do nothing more than to stall players while the development team cooked up something for their players to actually do with their capped characters.



I don't have time to read rest cause I'm off to work but I'll reread it there. I've thought this ^ for a long time but never had sources to back it up. Idk if you do either, technically it's impossible to back it up unless you can get word-of-mouth from the producer "We're just stalling you bitches til we come up w/ a good idea." However, I do believe this too be true. It's the only reasoning behind the abomination that FFXIV was at launch, that they didn't want everyone to be at cap waiting for content because if you can lvl fast then game is ez mode lawl which some people can't shake.

I barely frequent forums anymore cause of all the QQ so I can't tell if this mentality has kept up, but it did at one point and because you made this thread I'm guessing it still has.

OP knocked it out of the park. Well done, and I don't think anyone could say it better.

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Originally Posted by Eekiki

More of the usual nonsense..

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Heh, I bet I'm older, work more hours (government job), and make more $$$ than yooooouuuu.... But nice try..(not really)

Edit: I DID spend the first 7 months of XI on unemployment to be fair tho.. I had just moved to another state and my job didn't quite transfer (like they told me it would!) so I started up a MMO while collecting that check! I didn't even try to look for a job until the last month of my unemployment LOL. Dag.. I miss those days..

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Originally Posted by Exni

Heh, I bet I'm older, work more hours (government job), and make more $$$ than yooooouuuu.... But nice try..(not really)

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With typing skills like that, I doubt it.

i make moar money therefore i am moar right! teh end

Didn't read the whole post and definitely didn't read the comments because the hardcore/casual debate has been beaten to death. But in case it hasn't already been said, hardcore and difficulty have nothing in common. A hardcore player is simply a player that puts a lot of time into the game, and that does not always make them good. You can have hardcore players that are garbage, or hardcore players that are amazing. On the flip-side, you can also have casual players that are just as amazing as the amazing hardcore players, or casuals that are also complete garbage because hardcore and casual have absolutely zero correlation with skill level.

Personally, I am very "casual" because I only actually play maybe once or twice a week. But I invest a lot of time into looking at items, strategy, quests, reading forums, etc so in a sense I'm also "hardcore". What kind of game do I want? I want a game I can play casually but have a lot of depth. I don't want to have to practice a boss for 6 months for a 2% chance for one good item to drop. I want to be able to log on during the times I want to play, get something done, and log off without feeling like I just wasted a valuable chunk of my time.

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Originally Posted by Eekiki

With typing skills like that, I doubt it.

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With your dimwitted attitude, and actually bringing up typing skills on a game forum (aside from the fact that nothing was wrong with what I typed...) I'm SURE of it

So what games are considered hardcore and have a healthy player base? I don't want to be playing the wrong game you know :P

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Originally Posted by Exni

With your dimwitted attitude, and actually bringing up typing skills on a game forum (aside from the fact that nothing was wrong with what I typed...) I'm SURE of it

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I cannot stop laughing.