Mayor problem(S) with Mahjong / destroying collectors overall /
I have no idea where to post this, because in the Gold Saucer section it has a 11 page (10k views) long topic about this problem and its still totally rejected and fully ignored.
Long story short if you don't want to read this wall: SE broke one of their best mechanics in the game, wich is heading somewhere even if you have bad luck or low skill.
What i loved about FFXIV compared to WOW is that: even if you are bad, or have no luck, you will still get what you want (maybe slower than others, BUT you still get it, and thats all you need to hear). I love collecting things, so this was one of the main aspects why i chose to play this game.
The perfect example is the trial mounts. Even if you don't have luck and always roll low numbers, after 99 kills and obtaining 99 tokens you can buy the mounts from a vendor. (you know you are heading somewhere with each kill) I think this idea was genius!
Another example with the same thing in mind, what if you are just bad and can't even kill it? No problem, next expansion you head back with +10 lvls and do it unsynced, now this time, even if you are super bad and still die a lot, the other 7 can carry you, even if they are bad too. Or if you don't have any friends, but you have a lot of gils you can ask pro teams to carry you in raids. (now gil is one of the things you get from everywhere even if you dont want it, you will still get a lot of gils)
The main problem with Mahjong is the achievement reward. Mahjong is a 4 player game, and the top 2 gets ranked points, the bottom 2 loses ranked points. You can only get the Orchestrion Roll if you have 1600 ranked rating. In order to get this you need to win (a lot), and in order to win someone else has to lose. Right? Thats basic.
BUT!
Now imagine the server would only have 4 players TOTAL. Only 2 of these players would get the achievement, the other 2 will never get it. See the problem?
There will be a lot of players including me who will never ever get the achievement, because we are unlucky. Yes we know how the game works, yes we know the rules, but when you have 23k points and the 4th turn they do a ron on you with -24k points, then you can tell its 100% luck based game. You can be the world best Mahjong player and you would still lose that 24k points in that situation.
But it would be not a problem, if you would know you are heading somewhere! But you are not heading. You don't get a token for the game, there is no alternative for this achievement reward, you can't buy it from the Marketboard, you can't pay others to help get it. If you have bad luck thats it! Game Over!
This is ONE problem with the game, i know a lot of collectors who are collecting orchestrion rolls, and this is the only reason they started Mahjong, and all of them, including me will never get this one. Our perfect collection is now ruined.
But is this the only problem with Mahjong? Nope..
There is no other reward included. WHAT? :D No mgp, no gil, nothing. You sit there play 1 hour, and you have to sit there with your 2k points even tho you know you can't win from that position.
They said they can't reward Mahjong with anything because it would feel like gambling.
COUGH COUGH TRIPLE TRIAD DUELS ARE AWARDED BY MGP COUGH COUGH.
So we have a mini-game here that destroys collectors playstyle, with 1 hour / game with no rewards.
The real gambling is that achievement right there! It can be fixed very easily by changing the achievement to WIN X times, or PLAY X times. But will it be fixed?
