Overview/Critique of Gold Saucer Events, as a Newer Player

I'm a fairly new player but I've tried most things in Gold Saucer. Let's take a look :)

Minigames: okay tier. https://i.imgur.com/wj1FimC.png
You put in little time, you win little, and you have control over your fate if you time it right. These are scattered about, but for example "Out on a Limb" can be found south of Chocobo Square.

Mahjong: haven't tried this one. Seems to be ~poor tier, from what I've read about other people's experiences. Apparently a very long queue, very long game, and harsh rating system. Main area at Wonder Square East.

Fashion Report: very good. You interact w/ the player community, figure out what works, and spend <10 minutes actually obtaining items and presenting yourself for 60k MGP/week. Can take Wonder Square East and jump down, or southeast from main aetheryte.

Lord of Verminion: good tier. A real-time strategy, testing your micro more than anything. Micro is more important than minion completeness, so a newer player can be fairly competitive. You can practice and master matches against AI , and progress your achievements without RNG. It appears the main long-term reward comes from four tourneys with at least 10/15 wins for an exclusive penguin minion. Completed just one tourney so far and found that the initial time sink of maybe 7minutes per match with no reward can eventually turn into over 90k MGP reward for placement. There are also challenges (not sure if one-time?) for additional rewards, as well as the weekly challenge log -- 5 plays, win or lose, for 27k MGP. Unfortunately, the one tourney I played in had obvious wintrading: https://i.imgur.com/TQWIvsO.png

The wintrading makes me disappointed, and laughably even the 5/15 wintrader scores higher than tough 15/15 AI grinding. In case you're not aware, playing solely against AI gets progressively harder with each win. Your multitasking will most definitely be tested -- mine was! I'm only writing this much because I care! Minion Square.

https://i.imgur.com/GWNlfnk.png

Triple Triad: very good. New players can compete, esp with Plus rule, work towards collections, play from anywhere in the world, get cards from variety of sources. The game itself is short enough that you can finish it even if your duty finder queue pops and you're accidentally on the wrong job. The only downside is card drop RNG, which can sometimes border on unbelievable. I've done a few tourneys with hybrid/NPC games and also with purely NPC games. There is enough competition that you must take care in your tourney losses. Found at Entrance & Card Squares.
https://i.imgur.com/BjGNKja.png

Chocobo Racing: okay to good. It's mostly against AI, but occasionally you end up in a surprise 2- or 3- player race, with 5-6 bots filling the remaining spots. Of course I cannot speak for R300 endgame races, only for maiden- to about R140- class. You will definitely end up spending a bunch of time and MGP on upgrades to stay competitive as you work toward eventual Pedigree-9 racing bird, hoping your other earnings will pay for your bird edibles. Chocobo Square.


GATEs: For most time zones, these should occur at xx:00, xx:20, xx:40 on the clock. Near the event time, various Gatekeepers will light up as yellow circles on the minimap. Talk to any of them to be teleported to the GATE. When in doubt, there's usually an active keeper or gate not far from Round Square.

• Leap of Faith: very good. Fate is entirely in your hands, pretty lax time allowance, and you can learn about the game's short and long jumping system.
  https://i.imgur.com/io0TSU1.png
  
  
• Cliffhanger: okay. A bit of jumping and waiting out bombs, fairly relaxed time schedule. It can be a bit awkward when you fall, because restarting requires walking over to the NPC again.
  
  
• Any Way the Wind Blows: good. Probability, but short time commitment.
  
  
• The Slice Is Right: meh. Unfortunately, you'd wait about 20minutes or more for this event to come up, and then have to suffer through several rounds of harsh RNG where the fate is barely in your hands. Its sounds and animations are great but the gameplay is not. Sword slices are hard to see from all angles, dog pouncing doesn't allow for reasonable channel time, nor is the dog's pounce radius telegraphed. The three cups shell-game portion is complete RNG, as far as I can tell -- 33% chance of losing after making it that far.
  Suggestions to make it better? Yes, please give every player 3 Lives and remove knockback from the various hazards!. Walking off the stage or losing all lives could then be the new conditions for losing.

Jumbo Cactpot: poor. The RNG is not great, but the worst part is the ~4 year achievement tied to it. Every week the worst case is about 3.5k MGP winnings, so you can do the math to figure out how long it will take to achieve the 1M requirement. Very unfriendly to a new player :) Cactpot Board

Mini cactpot: good. In contrast to the Jumbo, this one is short and rewards enough for time spent. The longterm achievement is not nearly as bad. Northeast of Entrance & Card Squares.

https://i.imgur.com/B18P9cC.png

I would probably cover up the names.