Casual player

[Asiaine]

The best course of action is to appeal to multiple demographics because even if you do something a group disapproves of, another group will approve of it. Square's doing a pretty good job at that right now.

Not always the best course. And of course, in appealing to multiple demographics you are of course excluding certain demographics. And one group of demographics that will get excluded from here are those who do like challenging/hard content.

What I do not understand is, given so much super-easy content already here, why did they add the Atma stuff in? It seems an odd contrast.

[Capita]

Not always the best course. And of course, in appealing to multiple demographics you are of course excluding certain demographics. And one group of demographics that will get excluded from here are those who do like challenging/hard content.

What I do not understand is, given so much super-easy content already here, why did they add the Atma stuff in? It seems an odd contrast.

I don't see any demographic being excluded here. There are equivalent weapons to be found elsewhere if you don't want to do the Atma grind, or want to put it off until after it's made easier.

[Asiaine]

I don't see any demographic being excluded here. There are equivalent weapons to be found elsewhere if you don't want to do the Atma grind, or want to put it off until after it's made easier.

The demographics being excluded here are those who are interested in in-depth/challenging battle mechanics. As well as those who are interested in equipment/weapon customization. And those who are interested in challenging/non-predictable battles against strong AI-ed foes.

Sadly, a lot of these are the hallmarks of a traditional RPG (oodles of skills/strategies to use, and weapon customization). Which means, in some way, the demographic being excluded are those looking for strong traditional RPG elements. And I hope we can't blame them for considering FFXIV as possibly offering those.

[Capita]

-snip-

I'd like you to name one MMO that didn't have predictable, scripted boss fights. I've played endgame in pretty much every major MMO since EQ and they're all the same kind of scripted fighting. The best at making scripted fights difficult was WoW, while FFXI focused more on ridiculous mob HP to simulate difficulty rather than having difficult mechanics. You're playing an MMO. This is how MMO's are.