Casual players leaving for frustration or hardcore players leaving from boredom.

[Gilthas]

I really wonder what the percentage of "hardcore" players really is.

I can understand the complaints of "logging in on Mondays and running out of content", even though I log in pretty much everyday to play around 4 hours (I must be doing something wrong though).

But what exactly is the solution to this problem?

Remove tomestone caps? Won't solve anything because instead of running out of content on Mondays they'll just run out of content in a week.
Remove Coil and CT lock-outs? Same thing really.

The only real options to give the hardcore something to do is to either keep adding content at a faster pace than the hardcore can consume (unrealistic) or make stuff take a very long time to obtain, which I'm not sure they would like either considering that 1 month after the game was released some people managed to complain that Miner and Botanist took a very long time to get to 50 (despite there already being an abundance of Miners and Botanists at level 50).

As for the complaints of stuff not being hard enough. When you have a game that lets you rechallenge stuff over and over, there is nothing that'll ever be hard enough for them without being completely broken. The only reason why Absolute Virtue stayed unbeatable for such a long time in FFXI was because you couldn't rechallenge it over and over like you can do with pretty much anything in FFXIV.

FFXIV could use some long term goals for players to achieve, but I doubt pleasing the "Monday-night only" players is possible.

[elreed]

Im one of those middle core, don't have much time with family and work to play like the hardcore I was, and the problem I see with this game is that the same content is destined for both type of players, in order to progress in the story you need to do all the content available, so if the content is too hard for casuals, gives SE no option but dumb down content, if we had several types of content, where the hardest content is optional with gear as reward and some side story then casuals wouldn't have to worry too much about that in order to progress, later in the game when casuals get higher tiers of gear they can go back and do the content they couldn't do at that time with better chances because of their gear. By that time the hardcores already have all the items and got enough time to show off their shiny gear.

So with this they can solve the current issue of is too hard...is too easy we have now, SE can give time sinks to hardcores like farming pop items for HNM's or gods and areas like Sky and Sea for them with lots of hard stuff to do, giving casuals a long term goal at the same time.

[therpgfanatic]

People just don't understand / don't want to roll multiple toons instead of havin just one to play that kind of games, and then blame the dev team. Which is pretty sad imho, but hey, people. Wanna do coils more ? just do what you have to for that.

Give the way the job system works here, it's actually a very bad idea to make alternate characters. It makes more sense to focus on one character. There's even achievement rewards only obtainable by focusing on one character, such as the multiclass mastery titles.

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/L...V_Achievements

Paragon's Crown requires lv50 all classes.

[Zell]

Threads like this always pop up the last month before a new content patch. NEw content, everyone is happy. Second month, most things are on farm with a few end game bosses remaining (Ifrit/Titan Extreme). Last month hits, hardcore players are bored. Casual players are trying to finish the content before new patch hits so that they don't fall behind.

When 2.2 hits, people will love the game again. Right before 2.3 hits, they'll hate it again. Same Cycle OVER and OVER again. The fact that this game can pump out content every 3 months means it's going to retain a healthy subscription.

[Jael]

I consider myself a casual player and have really been impressed with the learning curve in Final Fantasy XIV. It feels like mechanics that are introduced continue to be used, and layer on to known mechanics. I'm just starting the endgame, so we'll see if I continue to feel that way.

[Parodine]

I didn't renew for this month in large part due to school pressures, but in part because even as a casual player, the main thing I was doing logging in to cap myth and grab a treasure map.

I plan on renewing for 2.2 to try to enjoy the content. I'm excited BoB and Myth won't be locked so I can spend more time gearing alts, but it's not exactly reinventing the wheel in terms of content. I'll probably be back to where I started after I get bored again. But at least I'll have vanity to look pretty while I grind tomes.

[ispano]

Aion released with a 48man dungeon God knows how many dungeons. Multiple gear sets, pvp and much much more.

People always forget to check on these things. Aion released in Korea, roughly a year before it did in NA. And it had much less to do then.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

Love a good doom and gloom thread with no factual basis. This thread is win.

[Acala]

Threads like this always pop up the last month before a new content patch. NEw content, everyone is happy. Second month, most things are on farm with a few end game bosses remaining (Ifrit/Titan Extreme). Last month hits, hardcore players are bored. Casual players are trying to finish the content before new patch hits so that they don't fall behind.

When 2.2 hits, people will love the game again. Right before 2.3 hits, they'll hate it again. Same Cycle OVER and OVER again. The fact that this game can pump out content every 3 months means it's going to retain a healthy subscription.

this is incorrect...
i more accurate would be to say that ppl love the game every other patch. because lets face it the extremes were not much for hardcore players. even most middle core players can probably have been downing them fairly consistantly. as for casuals they seem to be waiting for content to be hella nerfed. and love is way to strong a word. more interested is more accurate.

4 end game bosses just isnt much especially with the vast ilvl difference thats expected. idk maybe more but i would be incredibly surprised if the new primal fights drop max ilvl gear. and max ilvl is pretty much all that matters, gear wise, because stats are incredibly boring. since we no longer have a bs .3s checks as long as there are no major encounter breaking bugs does anyone really think t9 will remain unkilled for more then a week or 2?

[ExperienceLoader]

This. Some people are always going to complain about running out of stuff to do after they've been able to pour hours a day into something and that dwindles to hours a week. Progression outpaces the rate of development. Sure some people are doom and gloom about the future of the game being too light on significant content, but I have been able to play the game long enough to judge. Pretty much the only encounter I've seen that sufficiently pushed the hardcore crew and remained unkillable for most of the content cycle was Algalon the Observer. Secret boss only revealed after clearing a punishing raid that you only had an hour to kill before he "locked out". That's brutal right there, you only got a few shots at him a week and that's only if you managed to clear the raid to get to him.