Player Drop Off and Accessibility/Diffculty

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Originally Posted by IOwn92FCHouses

Clearly there is some sort of skill expression. It's a classic, isn't it? "X thing doesn't take skill. Poo poo on this thing I dislike, no skill, easy and simple."

No, it's not just a dance. Yes, there are skills involved. And neither you or the person you're responding to would know because you both have FAILED to clear ANY savage tier at ANY POINT in your respective accounts history, per your publically accessable profiles.

Respectfully, don't talk about how easy content is when you have never, ever, been able to clear that content. The only consistent factor in your parties is you. Perhaps you should look inward as to why you've failed to clear a tier.

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I wouldn't necessarily say it has a high skill expression when the solutions are almost always the same for any party, but sometimes you flip the coin on which groups the target, or which pattern it picks. But I would say it does have a high effort-ceiling as you'd need to improve at the mechanic to perform it more and more smoothly. You can't just know it.

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Originally Posted by BlisteringFrost

I wouldn't necessarily say it has a high skill expression when the solutions are almost always the same for any party, but sometimes you flip the coin on which groups the target, or which pattern it picks. But I would say it does have a high effort-ceiling as you'd need to improve at the mechanic to perform it more and more smoothly. You can't just know it.

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It does have high skill expression. Doing mechanics while also putting out good numbers takes time, effort, and practice. Gaining that consistency while also outputting numbers or heals is complex. Doing that all quickly and in a higher stress environment takes skill. That's just undeniable fact. And, if you're going blind? Compound solving mechanics yourself instead of waiting for Hector to make a video. Anyone, including you, who says there isn't skill expression is simply wrong. There is a continent of difference between someone who struggles to clear on week 30 and someone who clears week 1. It's insane to claim otherwise. I could go into paragraph upon paragraph about the differences.

The audacity people who say "no skill" when they've not even scratched the surface of what that skill is is maddening. It's like a child jumping to reach their home's literal ceiling and claiming they can do it because they can see it. Lying to themselves.

Like, bros. There's an entire different version of FF's combat that's behind a closed door. A door that can be opened with a bit of effort. Some of you wanna say there's nothing behind that door when you've never even opened it.

I sure hope that's enough metaphor and analogy to get across the point.

Edit: person I'm replying to got carried through m4s on week 24 going off of the achievement date. Why did I even seriously respond to this dude.... Jfc

It's true that I didn't finish the tier, having spent weeks getting nowhere with M8S and not having fun, I made the logical and reasonable decision to stop banging my head against that particular wall. As much as you may not like my analysis, based on my experience, doesn't make it invalid. I did see a "different version of FF's combat" and, in my opinion, it was worse than what I'd seen in extreme for all the reasons I gave in my post that got quoted. If you like "the dance" and wiping because one person made one mistake, good for you, I don't. I don't consider it "skill" and I don't consider it good game design. For the record, I quite enjoyed Chaotic - as evidenced by the fact that I have both the mounts and still have a pile of gear boxes from it, chaotic was fun, with the exception of M6S which was great fun savage was not fun.

Those memory games require precise execution and learning, and this takes a skill of its own. Nobody here would be able to pull what first world teams pull in less than a handful of days to clear a whole tier at MIL. Some people need weeks, some need months or more.

It serves nobody belittling it by saying it's "no skill". It's not no skill. It's just excruciatingly boring and/or frustrating, that's the words you're looking for.

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Originally Posted by NovaStella

That's not a personal slight, it's actually a huge problem with accessibility IRL too. The question is always, who is is accessible to? Even people with the same disability can have competing access needs.

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I understand, and thank you for the clarification. Everything I mentioned was just one example. It would be possible to find a balance, at least try, but the main problem is that the developers are taking what they think is the easy way, ignoring this issue and not even trying.

If they had asked people with disabilities, they would have gotten a response, but even when they received reports about accessibility issues, they ignored requests sent directly to their accessibility team (I don't remember the exact name of this department, sorry).

Some might say it's impossible to make the game accessible for everyone, and I agree, but at least they could have tried, asked, and at least improved something.

Take the 2'd new Alliance raid, for example, where the flashes are literally blinding. The moment when the final boss teleports to the corner, you're enveloped in a white, blind spot. This was probably intended to create difficulty and cause some players to miss the corner and fall. When the content's challenge involves blindness and disorientation, which can trigger seizures in certain people, I can't believe the developers have given even the slightest thought to content accessibility.

For now, it's all about "If you can't, don't play." And the main problem is that no one asks us, and apparently no one ever will.

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Originally Posted by yesnt

Add an accessibility mode to the game for casual content. Let disabled or older players get simplified hotbars. Give them more and clearer instructions to solve mechanics. It does not hurt me.

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This exists, it's called duty support. they are also adding the lives system to dungeons so you can get carried by the scions

can also play tank, you're immortal as a tank in dungeons pretty much

I wish they'd make content easier but rotations harder/more complex. Expressions of skill should be in rotational gameplay rather than increasingly elaborate and esoteric song and dance routines they have to come up with.

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Originally Posted by Raim

I wish they'd make content easier but rotations harder/more complex. Expressions of skill should be in rotational gameplay rather than increasingly elaborate and esoteric song and dance routines they have to come up with.

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and unless one's doing blind runs all the time that skill expression drills down to how well they can follow a guide

The more high pace of the combat encounters is about the only thing keeping dawntrail afloat for me atm. There is plenty accessibility via the npc's you can run content with and other normal content other players can easily carry you through. I've no interest in seeing combat slowed down for a few people. There's plenty you can do in this game, the last thing the combat needs is further slowed and dumbed down ty.

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Originally Posted by Raim

I wish they'd make content easier but rotations harder/more complex. Expressions of skill should be in rotational gameplay rather than increasingly elaborate and esoteric song and dance routines they have to come up with.

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You don't do savage. What content do you want made easier? I genuinely want to know what you find hard about the content you do.