Just realized - if you're a casual gamer, ideally....

[VeranRamaden]

An MMORPG is not for you.
This isn't to troll, even though it seems it, it just struck me -
if I was a casual gamer, why the hell would I play a game that has so
much content (not exactly talking about XIV here guys) and only have say
a few hours (1-10) a week to play it? Here's the math;

sub free on avg is about $13 bucks a month;
well if you're only playing lets say 2-8 (median 4) hours a week,
so 16 hours a month and you're paying $0.81 for each hour you play.
Compared to MMO "hardcore" and "whatever the hell mediumcore is"
who will play a given 10-25 hours a week (median 17ish hours)
they're paying $0.19 cents for every hour.

Not only that (voodoo math), but casual gamers will most likely only
complete about 25%-40% of the actually game.

So you pay (lets say avg price for game is $55) for the game,
then casual gamers play for lets say 2-3 years max (2.5) $390
and the hardcore gamers will play for 5-7 years (6; given steady content flow) $936
so it ends up the hardcore gamers actually get what they paid for all in all.
Granted, $936's....is a freakin' lot. But given a good, continuously moving game,
I could see it being worth it. Not so much almost $400 in subs just to finish under a
quater of the game.

I just do not see why if you did not have adequate enough time to
play through 'time sinks' as people like to call challenging and difficult MMO's
would waste their time and money on a MMO.
This all leads to there should be more emphasis on hardcore content
(60%/40% at most, hardcore being higher #) because they will
A.) most likely finish most if not all content available
B.) will get the most bang for their buck
C.) will give the company the most money in return.


Well....I guess this is kinda trolling.
But, when I think of an MMO, I tend to think of the words "difficult, challenging, rewarding, in depth, etc".

Not "easy, quick, vapid, unchallenged, etc"



Bombs away.
-mini rant done-

Oh, and I don't hate casual players lol.
I just don't think that FFXIV should be most concerned with them.
If it was mostly casual, people would burn through content and be bored with the game.

[Lissandra]

For the sake of all the casuals, how rude of you to imply this...

[Jynx]

In actual terms a MMO is probably more suited to a "Casual" gamer thank you think.

A new game runs about 60 bucks, and provides you about 30~ish hours of gameplay "If your lucky these days".

A MMO provides you with hundreds of hours of content that you do at your leisure, while also having more content if you find yourself with some extra spare time. The catch is the subscription but a fully running MMO gives you much more "Bang for your buck" than a standard video game can provide.

MMO's are a perfect avenue for casual gamers to get into. It's not about being able to do all the content the game has to offer, it's about doing all the content that the game offers you and your play-style. A balanced MMO can catter well to both crowds.

[Wolfie]

First, MMOs offer a persistent world and opportunity to play with and/or compete against friends, which is not offered at all by single player games and somewhat limited in other multiplayer games.

Second, a monthly subscription to an MMO is still cheaper than any other sort of gaming in terms of play hours. If you haven't played games lately, only the top notch can boast over 30 hours of non-competitive-multiplayer entertainment. Most are in the single digits or teens.

Third, maybe I don't like or care about that other 60-75% of the content because it bores me. The content that I do get to enjoy is enough to justify spending my dirty casual gaming peasant money.

[Joeking]

[M]any
[M]en
[O]nline
[R]ole
[P]laying
[G]irls

I play MMORPG's because it makes me feel social.

[Xatsh]

I agree that MMOs where not really for casual back in the day... It was WoW which brought the casual base into the mmo world. Back in EQ and FFXI hardcore players outnumbered casuals easily 4:1, now I would say it is probably 30:1 casual to hardcore, complete 180 of what the genre was.

WoW changed the genre, they seen a whole market not touched by the genre and went for it and succeeded in pulling them in. Brilliant strategy which paid off in the 10s of billions of US$, and grew the whole mmo genre in terms of global population almost 5 fold.

I still say 80% of the mmo population hates mmos I mean really despises them if you think what the definition of a mmo was back prewow, but since they are the overwhelming majority their playstyle is forced on everyone and due to their numbers... WoW became the new standard. The days of the true hardcore mmo is long gone never to be seen again.

Ideally a casual gamer should not be playing a mmo, a consul game more fits the playstyle. Can play when ever you want, not forced to play with others which takes time, no one forcing you to be a certain way, things are made to more give you a sense of accomplishment with much less work, less/no grind, no competition. The issue is the casuals are playing mmos, and nothing anyone can do will stop it now. A mmo honestly is everything that most casuals hate, and why you see so much tension in these forums between the 2 opposing sides. The people who want a old school mmo experiance, and the causals who want the mmo to be more like a massive multiplayer online consul game.

[Wynn]

Here is some additional math

Tickets to a two hour movie (including previews): $21.00 Hourly value: $10.50

A console game with 70 hours of reported game play: $59.99 Hourly value: $0.85

Grabbing a few beers at the bar for three hours (assume a responsible 1 per hour): $7.50 Hourly value $2.50

Hitting up Disney for a day at which you stay for 8 hours: $52.19 Hourly value $6.52

MMOs are leaning more toward the casual market these days for a reason. The hay-day of games like EQ and Pre-Abyssea XI are long gone. May they rest in peace.

P.S. Casual =/= "easy, quick, vapid, unchallenged, etc"

All casual means is they aren't spending their entire life in front of their computer screen.

Casual players make it to end game in MMOs, meaning they experience just as much content. It just takes them longer than the guy who grinds it all out in a month.

[Jynx]

Ultima Online was extremly casual friendly aside from it's launch before they split the world into full PVP and Non-PvP zones. but that was not a extremly long period of time either.

UO was one of the first MMO's to hit big far earlier before FFXI or WoW. I think people are being blinded with nostalgia goggles, hell even XI in it's later years was fairly friendly to new players.

[Xandre]

This is just wrong. There's no need to explain myself.

[Tezz_Xivectro]

MMO's are NOT for the text book casual gamer (30min to 2hr~ playtime). Even if you can do stuff in-game with that time, at some point the community will have higher demands of you.
MMO casual != console casual. I consider MMO casual 2 - 5 hrs playtime, generally (depends on weekday & weekend player habits), but that's me.

Yoshida seems to be for: weekends = hardcore & weekdays = casual. There's no doubt that there will be higher demand content at some point. Because of this, the community will place demands on players & those who can not meet them will be excluded or won't progress nearly as fast (these people will complain).

These days though, all games are being dumbed down to the casual level, so who knows. Soon we'll be seeing fart jokes in-game.