Thats what many are searching for...
Love me some FFXIV ARR. I have enjoyed this first six months but know I will not do another sub of the same duration, and haven't decided if I'll even do a month-by-month based on current issues and other competitive titles debuting by summer. Its my first game in the FF franchise, so I do not have the experience of FFXI - though def sounds like I'd have loved most of it.
People repeatedly say things on this forum like 'using the wikia or video guides doesn't really dumb down the game, after all players still have to know their individual classes/jobs - have reaction times, coordinate with others etc - 'you are being lazy if you don't know the guide well already for the dungeon you are joining'.
I would submit that one of the sub-categories of players, which I stand firmly in, are those who in former games were actually able to for the most part avoid using what used to be loosely referred to as cheating-guides. I'm not speaking of the the cutting-edge players - those who were able to choose to put in the time and effort involved in world-firsts. There were also those who just enjoyed jumping in with a limited amount of play time and partaking of a somewhat slow leveling experience because the most fun for them was the social aspect of their guilds etc.
Then there were players like me, who were not in the elite guilds, but for whom A CHALLENGE (*not a job, but exciting, hard content) was the EXACT goal. Those of us in that category were a large percentage in other games, not a fraction of the subscriptions. And yes, of course that is based on my anecdotal personal experience both inside awesome guilds and playing without a defined guild but rather just groups made from friends in-game, from more than 7 MMO's.
When we went into content for at least the first six months of a game and in many cases a good deal longer, we may have had one or two folks in the group who could give tips and or help but the majority of the dungeon or run would/could be figured out as we went. That didn't mean 26 wipes. It did mean a few wipes, communicated by typed chat, but we still got to joke around about the virtual world we were playing in (not local weather, doing the laundry afk's or recent football scores), have fun with the coordination of the fights, then the icing: getting to complete a dungeon 'known' as difficult with good loot largely ON OUR OWN.
Was it completely 100% on our own? No, not if we had a couple of people who might have a few tips included in the run. But it was fresh to us. And then we as a guild or group of friends who run together would make plans for what content we wanted to face the next few play day periods together. It is almost impossible to do this now. The peer pressure/ass-hol-itis that emerges if you even admit to this being your first run is crazy, let alone mentioning you haven't used pneumonics to memorize all strat phases.
Maybe we could to advertise in Party Finder for like-minded individuals to try some things sans any video guides, or with limited internetz help. Maybe I will - it would be like promo-ing a Party Finder group for all Scholars or All Archers to go through some specific content.
I like choice. I like that different playstyles have choices in most mmo's. I get that publishers cannot appease everyone. That does not negate the fact that just because you-Tube video's are available that I am REQUIRED to have memorized them before first getting the chance to enjoy the challenge of what is new content for me.
****Here's hoping the idea catches on and we can get our money's worth out of a game all the way to cap without having to dance to the rusher's rhythm. And when I say rushers, I am not talking about the world-first groups who should garner our respect, I am talking about mid-listers. I'm talking about those who won't play content as its offered but are in a rush to get to end game to play with their friends or alone - assuming the posture of 'knowing their class' when in fact there are quite a few end game peeps running about who have the title of Level 50 blah blah blah, but really seriously are not Mr. or Mrs. Everything.
My rose-colored glasses are firmly in their case. I'm a realist. I had the most fabulous times in older mmo's and am sorry there are so many players that completely missed that experience. I also love a lot of things about new releases; as technology moves forward it can not get anything but more exciting. The 'satisfying' part of the definition will have to continue to be made by players making their own content within each game though. That is done by finding like-minded individuals to play with instead of being dissolved into the bleating mass of excluding, pseudo-endgame-pretenders who attempt to make everyone else join the bleating club. I AM a semi-special snowflake, my money is on par with all other subscribers and its very good to know there are others seeking the same experience.
