Who is this game targeting?

[ashikenshin]

To each his own..

I don't think this is forced upon you. I don't like crafting too much and I don't do it. If you don't like this then don't do it, but just because you don't like it doesn't mean everybody is like you. It was easy for me to level doing dungeons while the game was new. I got a friend to play the game and with me as a tank take about 30-45 minutes to find healers on the duty finder. I ask my fc but everyone is either doing coils, primals or wp/ak. Nobody has time for lowbie dungeons because they offer no rewards for high level players.

I do think that this coupled by the increased dungeon xp coming in 2.1 will revive lowbie dungeons. In excalibur I always find one or two fate parties (in the morning, in the afternoon there are more.) If the xp is about the same or a little more than fates, I'm sure there will be a lot more people doing that instead.

I know of a couple of people who despise fates and will level secondary classes when 2.1 hits. I don't know if this is going to be enough but I see a brighter future for ffxiv than most here.

[Haibel]

In all honesty the inability to queue with more than one guy in Duty Roluette is probably some kind of technical limitation, just like the inability to send tells while in a duty finder instance is probably technical too. That said the technical problems of this game tend to be so absurd, it'd be easier to cope to just think the developers are insane, since otherwise it's hard to put your head around the concept that a modern game apparently doesn't have the ability to queue more than one guy in a random queue, or the ability to send tells while in an instance.

your thinking is all ass backwards on the matter.

1) why would you, to help a person clear content check random duty. you wouldn't, you would check the dungeon he needs.

2) allowing two people to Que together doesn't not help people that need to clear content. if you are a whm and dd in Que together for random dungeon you'll
never help a tank and whm, or two dd in Que for a specific dungeon.

3) the whole point to Random Dungeon is to give incentive to upper levels to play lower level stuff. It is not a means of replacing existing tome farms.

[Astarica]

It is easier to think of the devs as malicious because the more correct solution, incompentence, would leave you really depressed about the state of the game. It's easier to think a bunch of devs laughing, "Haha they won't be able to link their loots in chat!" then "We don't know how to get links to loots working in chat". It's amazing how low standards people have, or maybe they actually believe not being able to link item in chat, or that you've to drop your party to do a solo instance is somehow adding anything in the game. The technical limitation of this game is absurd to the point acceptance is not an answer, unless you accept that this game simply has no future, because that's the only conclusion you can draw when the game is missing so many fundamental elements.

[Roris]

They want Final Fantasy players, even though the story is lacking with its abundance of fetch quests, it's still missing iconic classes to be implemented in the future and also plays nothing like a FF game, this last point is arguably fine because every FF tries something new as good or bad as it turns out to be, also quite a lot of FF players have zero interest in the online games. They also want traditional MMO players even though it's still missing a lot of really basic MMO features like responsiveness or even an item sorting option, but hey they are working on it right, I mean they've only been working on it since alpha and we're just now getting it.

They also want people who are new to both Final Fantasy and MMOs so the game is extremely easy to get to endgame for a stress free experience. Thus here we are, at least the hardcore SE and FF fans who defend it at every chance they can get will keep it afloat, right?

[Arale]

The technical limitation of this game is absurd to the point acceptance is not an answer, unless you accept that this game simply has no future, because that's the only conclusion you can draw when the game is missing so many fundamental elements.

So much this. It feels like they are reusing a lot of the janky 1.0 architecture in a lot of systems the game uses, to the point where we cant have even the more basic staples of a current gen MMO. 2.1 is just a ketchup patch, while being a lot of stuff we should have had at launch, a good chunk of it is features that quite frankly should have been here at launch to ease & help the players out. Realizing this, my enthusiasm for the patch is pretty low since even F2P MMO's have launched with more. What bugs me is the counterargument ''they remade the game hurr hurr'' yes! They did, andddd then they reused all the models, environments, most of the animations, quests, netcode (lolz) and pretty much 95% of the old game. I played 1.0 and the stuff I see pop up that they've reused while looking at all the features the game doesn't have make me wonder...did they spend all that time on coil, new animations and a few dungeons?!

[Aerostein]

The target audience is everyone.

If that's their target audience, that's a problem imo. Any time you spread your resources that thin for so many, you're going to be severely lacking. Sure, they may pull some in, but people with even realistic expectations may be left feeling very unsatisfied. Myself included.

So much this. It feels like they are reusing a lot of the janky 1.0 architecture in a lot of systems the game uses, to the point where we cant have even the more basic staples of a current gen MMO. 2.1 is just a ketchup patch, while being a lot of stuff we should have had at launch, a good chunk of it is features that quite frankly should have been here at launch to ease & help the players out. Realizing this, my enthusiasm for the patch is pretty low since even F2P MMO's have launched with more.

So much this, as well. Agreed wholeheartedly. I want to love the game, but it is very lacking in many areas.
I especially like the fan boys who try to claim this game has had the most content at launch since WoW. In actuality, much closer to the opposite IMHO.

If they want to delude others and themselves, that's their business but some people know better.

[Nuinn]

If that's their target audience, that's a problem imo. Any time you spread your resources that thin for so many, you're going to be severely lacking. Sure, they may pull some in, but people with even realistic expectations may be left feeling very unsatisfied. Myself included.

The topic is, if I'm not getting it wrong, that some of the upcoming features you won't be able to enjoy with friends till 2.2. I was referring to what you asked in the OP. They just can't work fast enough to let you, me and everyone else play these new features with friends right off the bat as they implement them into the game. That's the bottom line. Trust me, I'm as impatient to play with friends but, eh, what can you do?

They have to cater to the widest possible audience, have to thin out their resources so everyone will have something, be it in small or big increments, to enjoy as new content is introduced. Or to put it in other words, to keep everyone happy, even though that's realistically impossible in any MMO. Someone's expectations are always going to be let down, whether this game is aimed for many or a few with a distinct taste in their MMOs.

If you are, as you said, never going to use the system (Duty Roulette) in 2.1 then I guess you'll have to settle for what it is, ignore it, and just wait till 2.2. Personally, I can't wait for player housing to be in the game (not the FC houses) and I am disappointed that we won't see them in 6 months or so but, it is what it is.

[GilbertLapine]

...few RL friends...

[PallasLloyd]

To actually answer the OP's question, I believe I remember a post from beta where Yoshi explained this. The game is basically targeted at and designed for people that:

• Have never played an MMO before
• Have next to no time to play MMOs
• Have tried MMOs in the past but found them too "stressful" for some of the following reasons/issues...
• Have anxiety issues in regards to talking to/interacting with other players in an MMO
• Get discouraged if things seem like they require interacting with other players to complete (see previous point)
• Get discouraged if things seem like they take too long to do
• Get discouraged if a system seems too complex at first glance

All the criteria any great MMO design philosophy should be based on.

[Aerostein]

To actually answer the OP's question, I believe I remember a post from beta where Yoshi explained this. The game is basically targeted at and designed for people that:

• Have never played an MMO before
• Have next to no time to play MMOs
• Have tried MMOs in the past but found them too "stressful" for some of the following reasons/issues...
• Have anxiety issues in regards to talking to/interacting with other players in an MMO
• Get discouraged if things seem like they require interacting with other players to complete (see previous point)
• Get discouraged if things seem like they take too long to do
• Get discouraged if a system seems too complex at first glance

All the criteria any great MMO design philosophy should be based on.

So basically the new, the casual, the lazy, and the anti-social?
Sounds awesome.

If you are, as you said, never going to use the system (Duty Roulette) in 2.1 then I guess you'll have to settle for what it is, ignore it, and just wait till 2.2. Personally, I can't wait for player housing to be in the game (not the FC houses) and I am disappointed that we won't see them in 6 months or so but, it is what it is.

Never said I was, or wasn't going to use the system. Personally, I do think it won't help much though. The majority of people will likely still be clearing their 8 minute WP speed runs all the same. Unless they plan to fix that, but that's another topic in itself. It is what it is.