Your thoughts on the direction of this game?

[Kosmos992k]

Similar to WeiShan above, I think that Duty Finder killed the community -- and the community we had is what really kept me playing all along. There are a few other things that have sent ARR downhill for me, like making most non-endgame solo-able/solo-only, and sidelining crafting while taking the social side out of it. Tying Lodestone "Likes" to Facebook and severely limiting photo storage space basically killed the out-of-game community (on the JP side anyway).

I don't think Duty Finder killed the Community, I think that the players did. A Community is something that comes from the players, much like the fundamental rule of MMORPGs - which is that you get out of the game only as much as you put in; community comes from the players, so if the players do not form a community, it's their fault. On of the things I see is that players have a considerably higher degree of selfishness now than in prior years of my gaming life. There is a far greater emphasis on the personal and selfish goals of gearing and progressing. The simple fix for this issue is for everyone to make a greater effort to communicate and play with each other for reasons other than it being a way to personally acquire more gear.

Duty Finder is - if anything - simply a tool that can be used in whatever way we wish. it enables players who's friends don't happen to be online or interested in running something, to find a group that will, it enables new players to obtain help in clearing dungeons through the effect of duty roulette. Fundamentally it's a tool that can be very constructive, but sadly the way it is used by many players as nothing more than a means to an end (farming Myth) has invalidated the constructive role to a large extent.

[Kosmos992k]

Holy crap. This is why i rarely come to these forums. You sir, just showed this guy your sarcasm meter is definitely broken with this wall of text above me.

I detected no indication sarcasm, other than the ridiculous nature of the statements being made. You sir just demonstrated why I rarely post here either.

To add one thought, if indeed sarcasm was intended, it was far too close to how a relative majority of vocal posters on this forum actually DO post. Hence it does not appear to be sarcasm to me.

[Derceto]

Jim's been spot on so often lately. Really love him for telling it how it is, the melodramatic persona and ridiculousness be damned.

One of the funnier Jimquisitions I've seen lately. I think he nailed it right on the head though. His description of the XIII plot had me laughing pretty good.

[hyperhelios]

I detected no indication sarcasm, other than the ridiculous nature of the statements being made. You sir just demonstrated why I rarely post here either.

To add one thought, if indeed sarcasm was intended, it was far too close to how a relative majority of vocal posters on this forum actually DO post. Hence it does not appear to be sarcasm to me.

Then learn to comprehend before you go post a wall of text and look at who he was responding to and then get back to me again.

[Kosmos992k]

Then learn to comprehend before you go post a wall of text and look at who he was responding to and then get back to me again.

Look at who he was responding to? Who? Am I supposed to know who everyone is and what their posting pattern is before applying a sarcasm detector now? I reply to the posts I read, if there is some further sub-context or in-joke that results in a misinterpretation of a post by others, how is that the fault of those not sharing the in-joke and merely replying to what is written?

But do go ahead and put me down again, I'll let you have your win.

[hyperhelios]

Look at who he was responding to? Who? Am I supposed to know who everyone is and what their posting pattern is before applying a sarcasm detector now? I reply to the posts I read, if there is some further sub-context or in-joke that results in a misinterpretation of a post by others, how is that the fault of those not sharing the in-joke and merely replying to what is written?

But do go ahead and put me down again, I'll let you have your win.

It's Friday so I'm just going to guess you're drunk for saying this. Now, I'm not the smartest man in the world...but the guy you quoted by clicking on his post actually had a quote within his post that you quoted him on. So yeah, I'm gonna chalk that up to you not reading and just mashing quote buttons and typing randomly.

[Luvbunny]

Snip

You made many valid points. The Hunt itself is a great idea, but the implementation is not. Yes, it has been hijacked by the same hardcore players wanting to swiftly upgrade everything fast. SE should have foreseen this, and do a swift fix. I am all about giving everyone options and helping casuals gearing up, but not by doing a zerg content running around killing mobs in 30 sec or less. I rather have them do actual dungeon contents and learn their roles and rotation better so you have more people doing raid and coils stuffs. And they should have put Hunt Marks for Dungeon Monster so that the newbies do more dungeons, learn more mechanic, and get their lvl 100 gears, and try Coils 1. It's sad when you are doing duty finder and your group can't even clear Hauke Manor normal....and your summoner refuse to use all their DOTs spells on boss.

[Kiara1]

Look at who he was responding to? Who? Am I supposed to know who everyone is and what their posting pattern is before applying a sarcasm detector now? I reply to the posts I read, if there is some further sub-context or in-joke that results in a misinterpretation of a post by others, how is that the fault of those not sharing the in-joke and merely replying to what is written?

But do go ahead and put me down again, I'll let you have your win.

I think maybe you should stop posting now...

[Boon_Pendragon]

I have never watched a video before a fight and i will never do so.
Gaming has always been about exploring and learning to me, not look up guides how to complete stuff.

I used to be adamant about not watching videos, but now I make it a point to do so.

I love exploring, discovering and solving different aspects of games and play them at least once through without a guide. FFXIV is however, an MMO, and that means playing with people, people who may only have a few hours a day to play the game as they have work or other commitments, not NPCs that are perfectly fine with someone potentially making many mistakes and causing multiple wipes. Of course, most of the content in FFXIV isn't that tough or complex, but fights like t5... going in blind is just going to waste 7 other people's time. And I don't think that's fair to the 7 of them.

I get my "explore the dungeon blind" fix by making sure I play as many new dungeons as I can within the first two weeks of their release, or by forming parties with friends.

It isn't a requirement to watch a video or read up on a fight beforehand, but it's probably the nice thing to do.

[ApolloGenX]

This is MMO "lite".

It's the theme park transition from old school to mobile gaming. I am sure there are plenty of people that like this move toward... wherever it is that mass homogenization, simplified encounters, and token grinding take you... I am guessing Facebook.

Personally, nowadays I get more gaming satisfaction from watching Sword ARt Online 2 than I did from actually playing this game. I have also been revisiting some of the F2P games... Tera, Aion, EQ 2... and they have a LOT more stuff to do..... so, new-ish game or not (It's not really that new..it's just newly redone)... free games have more to do than a subscription based game. That makes no sense.