Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Melithea]

You're spot on. You'll never convince the trolls of the other side of the argument because they have underdeveloped empathetic skills. It's a large problem in society today.

When are these mmos going to evolve in some fashion away from reserving content for the troll elitists and open things up for mainstream gamers? I thought FFXIV might be that mmo, but it doesn't seem so.

Just to make this perfectly clear: I'm not trolling and I'm not even "on the other side of the argument". I very deliberately staked out neutral ground and positioned myself as a non-hardcore, non-elitist who hasn't even cleared T6. My purpose here is to figure out exactly what changes people think need to be made. Because any changes made are obviously going to affect me, too. That's why I keep challenging people to be more clear, more specific, more detailed, and pointing out problems with their answers. It helps them refine their arguments.

So far, I don't feel like the proposed solutions are any better than the current situation. They're just different. They have pluses and minuses that haven't been demonstrated to be an overall positive.

People say they're getting frustrated with not being able to do that special 5% of the content in the game that is actually challenging, getting bored and leaving because there's nothing else to keep them occupied. So none of that entire 95% of the rest of the game is worth staying for either? Ask the hardcore Coil raiders what their play schedule is like. For a lot of them, it's log in for 3 hours, clear Coil, log out for 165 hours.

This is not an issue with the difficulty of one dungeon and one trial. This is an issue with an overall lack of content in the game because the game is still very young and content is limited for everyone. It's getting a lot better as time goes by. There's a LOT of stuff you haven't done, you're just not interested in doing it. Which is okay, but you can't blame the content and you can't blame one hard dungeon for that.

I've played this game daily since Closed Beta. I still have lots of stuff to do. There is a TON of content for mainstream gamers. This idea that because a small slice of content is "reserved for troll elitists" (for a few months until they make it easier) and somehow this is ruining the game and making everyone quit isn't just wrong, it's ridiculous.

[IgnisFatuus]

There's a LOT of stuff you haven't done, you're just not interested in doing it. Which is okay, but you can't blame the content and you can't blame one hard dungeon for that.

what is this magical content you speak of? grind the same dungeons for atma/novus/sold/myth/sbing? so much variety.

yes, i know there are other things to do, but it comes down to "do the same thing in a slighty different coat of paint".

[Clavaat]

-snip-

I think there is a misconception about content in general here. It could just be General Board being General Board, but I don't know anyone in my LS/FC who is actually bored or out of content. We run the endgame stuff at our pace statically, but the rest of the time we collect tomestones, atmas, books, sightseeing, RP, leveling alt jobs, crafting, gathering, gardening or pickup EX, HM's, BC. I don't know, I find all of that stuff very fun to do, but I can understand why others don't.

[Melithea]

what is this magical content you speak of? grind the same dungeons for atma/novus/sold/myth/sbing? so much variety.

yes, i know there are other things to do, but it comes down to "do the same thing in a slighty different coat of paint".

I think there is a misconception about content in general here. It could just be General Board being General Board, but I don't know anyone in my LS/FC who is actually bored or out of content. We run the endgame stuff at our pace statically, but the rest of the time we collect tomestones, atmas, books, sightseeing, RP, leveling alt jobs, crafting, gathering, gardening or pickup EX, HM's, BC. I don't know, I find all of that stuff very fun to do, but I can understand why others don't.

The fact that I got both of these replies in the same minute is hilarious beyond words.

[Clavaat]

The fact that I got both of these replies in the same minute is hilarious beyond words.

He actually had one I forgot about which was SBing :P

[Lemon8or]

I don't know anyone in my LS/FC who is actually bored or out of content. We run the endgame stuff at our pace statically, but the rest of the time we collect tomestones, atmas, books, sightseeing, RP, leveling alt jobs, crafting, gathering, gardening or pickup EX, HM's, BC. I don't know, I find all of that stuff very fun to do, but I can understand why others don't.

I happen to be one of those people that is getting bored actually. Besides turn 9, there's nothing that I can work on for this patch, well good thing 2.3 is coming but not many stuffs there neither. Tomestones? 1 expert roulette per day. Atmas? Books? Meh when I can have a legitimate shot at HA weapons. It's a boring grind. RP? Not my cup of tea. Leveling alt jobs? Crafting? Gathering? Look at my signature. EX? Cleared all, have everything from them except the Garuda/Titan/Ifrit ponies but farming parties for these EX fights usually fail so yeah.... A large number of people in my FC is growing bored as well and haven't logged in for days on end while we used to log in everyday with things to do.

[Melithea]

I happen to be one of those people that is getting bored actually.

You only have 2650 achievement points. That alone tells me that there is a lot that you COULD do. You just choose not to because it doesn't seem to interest you. From the sound of it, that's because none of it appeals to your sense of "progression". And as I said before, there's nothing wrong with that.

But this is a completely different problem than "Second Coil needs to be fixed because less than 100% of players can beat it." Second Coil adds 3 hours of content per week for people who can clear it, so if everyone was clearing it they would still be bored. This is a distraction from the point of the thread and should not be confused with the idea that Second Coil is designed badly because it requires people to pay attention and deal with interesting challenges. I brought up the overall lack of content to SHOW that it was a separate issue, not to derail the thread and make it the main topic. Making Coil accessible to everyone will not solve the late-patch cycle doldrums.

[Lemon8or]

You only have 2650 achievement points. That alone tells me that there is a lot that you COULD do. You just choose not to because it doesn't seem to interest you. From the sound of it, that's because none of it appeals to your sense of "progression". And as I said before, there's nothing wrong with that.

I was and never have been a completionist, more of a minimalist, so achievement points mean nothing to me. I do things that I feel as you say it "gives me a sense of progression", whether by playing different jobs so I understand what my group can do or progression on second coil. Grinding on 1 map to another to get a vanity tool or title is not what I think of as progression and this game has a lot of those side-tracking achievements but I was never big on aesthetic things, only when it stands out really badly like the monk boots I have. Different people have different taste as to what appeals to them so I was only speaking for myself and the people I know.
If you actually take a look at my achievements instead of a generic points system, you'll see that battle-wise, I have cleared everything up to turn 8 and relic every single job. The only thing I left out is animus/novus/vanity/chocobo achievements. Why? Because they are grindy and not fun. Crafting and gathering-wise, I have every single one of them at 50 and right where they need to be: being able to craft and gather things I need.
On topic, why not just make the boss simply strong? Because imo that is boring. There is one thing and one thing only that you're dealing with, the damage they deal. RPGs are fun because there are multiple scenarios you have to anticipate for. If wasn't for that, I would play generic FPS where the only thing that matters is seeing an enemy first and kill him instead.

[Gormogon]

I brought up the overall lack of content to SHOW that it was a separate issue, not to derail the thread and make it the main topic. Making Coil accessible to everyone will not solve the late-patch cycle doldrums.

That's exactly the issue and i agree that making coil more accessible wont fix the overall issue. Diverse rich rewards isn't spread equally across all forms of content.

In the time between major patches which is usually 2-3 months the first month is easily done for casual or mainstream players. Can also be applied to the top 10-100 groups, I assume.
Yet those doing coil have gear to grind across 9 jobs for that additional month. The overall experience is rewarding.
Casual or mainstream players don't really have much to look forward to unless a minor patch really introduces something but it isn't as rewarding as coil. So the overall experience is simply an experience and not only is the rewards small it's turning into a grind. Grinds and range are the worst possible ways to approach lighthearted content.

I have no clue if Golden Saucer will fix this. For sure the new class/job is gonna add another months worth for players to experience and gear.
Frontlines will tackle PvP players wanting to PvP but I don't know how that 24v24v24 is gonna affect the overall experience but at least we'll know soon enough.

Sorry for the late reply, post limit was reached.

[Yukiko]

Casual or mainstream players don't really have much to look forward to unless a minor patch really introduces something but it isn't as rewarding as coil. So the overall experience is simply an experience and not only is the rewards small it's turning into a grind. Grinds and range are the worst possible ways to approach lighthearted content.

Why dont you name it: Animus and Novus...
So many were looking forward to it and walling gear upgrades with rare drops behind Coil2 doesnt help anything either...
Its not even a grind, it is a massive timesink and gilsink too... Have you already forgotten Contentsellers? Those now not only selling Coil2 but also have enough gil for Materia to additional getting Novus...

It feels like an overall 5%-10% of the playerbase is getting progress/support and all others are left behind... CT2 is a drop on the hot stone because of upgrading gear with those reare drops we just gotten in Coil2 before...

You should never use all kind of possible restrictions to lock content away.
Only Timesink, or
Only Gilsink, or
Only grind, or
Only RNG, but never all at same time! Step by Step!!