The Boom and fizzle of the mini games.

I recently started playing FFXIV again after stepping away for a while and decided to play some TT this weekend. I played it just a little when it came out, but I knew tons of people who were just crazy about it coming to the game. Over the weekend I noticed just how dead TT now is. Chocobo racing seems to be in about the same place. We now have Lord of Verminion on its way, and it looks really interesting. I have my own views and opinions on why these side activities are fizzling shortly after release, but what do you guys think?

I had envisioned TT being a popular distraction, with players standing around population hubs playing each other, but that simply has not materialized. So much effort seemingly being wasted by SE to bring in fun side content, for it to be forgotten soon after by the majority. Will LoV face the same fate? I hope SE is watching this and seeing the same problems and plan to make adjustments. These side activities SHOULD be a great side item, but for some reason are just falling stale.

I think part of the problem with TT is that it seems broken and unnecessarily hard to get some of the cards. RNG is very bad on too many of them.

And don't even think about trying the tournament. It has been broken by win trading for so long the non win trader typically doesn't bother to attempt it.

The problem with Triple Triad is "ease of entry" I feel. With the start being easy but a lot of good cards behind massive roadblock barriers, it tends to make veterans cringe and newcomers not bother.

Im curious why you dont see more people playing though. In population hubs, you see lots of people standing around, chatting, doing lot of nothing. This is when you could have people playing, but you never see it......At least I dont. People have just totally ignored it. When you compare that to how hyped people were for it, it leaves a lot of questions. I can remember many years ago in FFXI people wanting mini games. I saw it for years, people asking for it. Its finally here, in ffxiv, and people have quickly shelved it. If I am SE I would be looking very hard at why that happened, and how they could give new reason for ppl to play, and perhaps expand the places people can play games. I also personally hate that there are so many freaking rule types. I know that is one thing that puts me off playing - Some of the rules are just not fun to me, while others are very fun.

The reason why everything is DOA(including what will happen with LOV since you get 150 MGP per win....) is because the Time:Reward ratio for everything is horrible. The shiny toys costs tons of MGP, and the only way to acquire them is to mindlessly grind for hours or even days for it. I'll even argue that the rewards aren't even that great either. While the glamour options are relatively cheap, the more popular options(mounts, cards, etc) cost up to hundred of thousands with a few being 1 million. That's like weeks of grinding mini games that are made tedious by crappy RNG or unengaging design. I mean holy shit, there are some TT NPCS I can't beat because of them having shitty rules you can't do anything about like Ascension, Random, and Chaos. Sometimes all in one. The only reason I even bother with TT is because we're in a content drought and I need MGP for that Afro in 3.1.

It's amazing how they can take great things from previous games and run it to the ground.

Card win RNG and rules that mostly favor NPCs (Random is just about everywhere now in HW) when it comes to collecting more cards is probably the main reason people have given up on TT, plus many of the new NPC are once again timed based instead of just being open for play. What's the point of collecting cards and creating decks when you have very little control of your own cards?

When folks have to open up a tracker to see when a certain NPC is avaliable just to play a mini game, you know things have gone quite far south.

Come on SE, it's a mini game, not gathering job....

I might be the only person like this, but the main reason I don't like to stand around and play triad against my friends, is that it makes me feel guilty to win.

The game doesn't feel like a nice game of chess, or checkers, where you say "great game!" at the end. At times I felt like I had this dominating deck that no matter what they had, there was no chance for them to win. The deck used against the imperial with a 99% win rate sort of proves this is possible. Also since there is very little rng unless you use odd rules, it seems to be a puzzle logic game. They were "obviously" just not smart enough to figure out the puzzle against you, which is terribly degrading. To top it off there is that mgp gain to really rub a win or loss in. It's a terrible way to think of it, but yeah... I feel it hurts friendships, so I would rather not play at all. *except vs cpu.*

Triad is only good as a one player vs. the computer mini game. Just as it was in it's first incarnation in FF8. IMO

Personally, it's the timer that ruined the game for me. Triple Triad would make a great strategy game, but they forced immediate moves to prevent any strategy during the game itself. If you make the effort to memorize their decks and playing patterns you can win against many of the NPCs, but winning based solely on memorized patterns feels too much like cheating. I'd rather be able to work out what cards will have what effect and make a reasoned decision about what card to place where, but the rules forbid ever doing that. There isn't even time to see what the numbers are on the cards before having to play one.

Against another player, you can't even rely on memorized patterns like you can against the overly predictable AI of the NPCs. In PvP games, it's just a matter of who has the better cards. There's still no thought or logic involved, because we're not allowed time for either.

The way all TT games are run here should basically be one of the special regional rules that apply only on certain games at certain times (and a relatively rare one at that). When you get "speed game" as a rule, it would work like it does now, requiring all moves to be made immediately. Otherwise, you'd be given time to make an actual decision about what card you want to play (unlimited time against NPCs, or maybe a couple minutes per move in PvP).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nel_Celestine

The problem with Triple Triad is "ease of entry" I feel. With the start being easy but a lot of good cards behind massive roadblock barriers, it tends to make veterans cringe and newcomers not bother.

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A bit late, but I agree with this. It takes a very large number of cards to even be able to use a halfway decent deck. I know from my friends who weren't willing to put in the starting time with 1-star cards that it's primarily what stops them from doing it. There is absolutely no "ease of entry" into TT, it's a grind right from the very start.

I really disagree with TT being about one person with a dominating deck, though. I've definitely had good matches with random people in tournies who have similar deck strength that I do. It's just that none of my friends have the deck strength.

My only gripes with TT is with the restrictions in areas to play the game. For awhile I've pitched to my buddies online that TT would be a nice time killer when we wait on CDs/DCs so why can't we be able to play it even in duties. I don't even think the game is available to play in the heavensward areas last I checked.

In general I just hate having to be in certain areas to even play the game in the first place which has been a huge barrier of usability to me.