This Game Forgets About the Intermediate Player

[Jacost]

What even is a "hardcore" player? Is it judged by hours spent playing? By the activities undertaken in game? By the ilvl on your main class? It's a pointless label that doesn't really mean anything. Casual at least has a somewhat concrete meaning: someone who only plays a few hours a week. Even then, there are those who will only log in every week to farm the latest coil and be offline the other 6 days. Does that make them casual?

[NyarukoW]

All this post is the OP not wanting to be lumped with the casuals. But obviously, the problem remains is that the select group of experienced players (a.k.a a sbuset of the "hardcores") who works to reject and exclude other players also excluded the OP, which is why there is much whining. Personally I see nothing wrong being lumped with the casuals. Scrub and proud! Seriously people need to be more inclusive and build a community the brings the players together. There is no need to treat casual players with contempt or blaming them for content adjustment. And if player have limited time like the OP, do everything else but the grinding first, you will get much better returns. And if that is all done, then grind what you can and don't worry about where the casuals will be, play for fun and not to worry about staying a step ahead of the jones.

[Garlyle]

A better remark that's more genuine is the "A step behind" crowd as intermediate.

A good way to put this is Titan EX. A lot of players have cleared Titan EX. It's honestly not that hard for a lot of people. There's also a segment of players who're probably never going to clear Titan EX, and that's fine. Then there's the crowd that missed the "everyone was doing first tier EX Primals" and now has to wait for the miracle that gets them a clear because 80% of the crowd attempting aren't skilled enough, and the vast majority of players that could assist them to a clear has no value in returning to it.

It's probably not even that hard for these players personally - but due to a variety of factors (started playing late, took a significant time break, life making a static impossible), they've "missed the boat" and now getting into a lot of the content that interests them is a struggle because they sit in that awkward content zone.

[MageBlack]

Please stop with the stupid generalizations, I for one fit in to none of those categories

I am always finding myself in that position when people try to describe how "people play" Just like in life, you cannot pigeon hole someone under a single label, and even then the label really needs to be self defined.

[AlexionSkylark]

There are more shades of gray on that than just 3...

I consider myself an intermediate player; I'm somewhat skilled, and I beat all extreme primals with the exception of Ramuh. However, I was scared off by the atma phase and as I got an unidentified tomestone from a ST run, I started saving Rowena Tokens for a soldiery weapon (have like 7 already). I have beat T5, but didn't kill even Rafflesia cuz of fail pugs on PF who disband after 4 tries. Also can't get a static because all groups who are recruiting are for 3-4 times a week, and I can't commit that many nights.

So, that being said, I'm somewhat divided on the atma grind. OK, now it's doable (No chance in hell that I would do it before), but on the other hand, I already spent 1k soldiery on tokens for a weapon ¬¬ what to do, what to do...

[Clavaat]

So, that being said, I'm somewhat divided on the atma grind. OK, now it's doable (No chance in hell that I would do it before), but on the other hand, I already spent 1k soldiery on tokens for a weapon ¬¬ what to do, what to do...

You can easily do both...the soldiery weapon, especially unweathered, is on par with Novus for most jobs. Do FATE's while you wait for queues, or just in general have some free time. People only got frustrated with Atma's because they tried to grind them for hours on end. Just pace yourself.

[AlexionSkylark]

That's a nice suggestion. I'm doing a few ST runs tonight to upgrade the pieces of i90 that I sill have (head and belt), and might get an oil of time or 2 in the process.

[Lord_Zlatan]

What even is a "hardcore" player? Is it judged by hours spent playing? By the activities undertaken in game? By the ilvl on your main class? It's a pointless label that doesn't really mean anything. Casual at least has a somewhat concrete meaning: someone who only plays a few hours a week. Even then, there are those who will only log in every week to farm the latest coil and be offline the other 6 days. Does that make them casual?

no it makes them casual-hardcore leet raiders... obviously.

[Roris]

Well it is SE after all, they've never been good at finding a middle ground.

[MasamuneBranford]

I agree my post's biggest flaw is generalizing this into three categories. That was incredibly stupid.

If some people want to throw me into a category of casual; then so be it. I play probably 8 hours a week. If I told someone who does not play video-games that I play video-games 8 hours a week they would think I'm an addict. It's all going to be opinionated.

In RL land I'm a married attorney who recently had a kid. Time is important thus I analyze I how spend it. During 2.0 I'd say Titan / T1 / T2 was the pinnacle of intermediate content. I felt rewarded for that extra time I played to clear those runs. Since 2.2 - I feel that I could half the amount of time I play and practically be at the same place two patches later. In my opinion, the extreme primals of 2.3 were the equivalent to what Titan HM and T1 / T2 were at 2.0 (this is what I deem intermediate content). Unlike 2.0, the 2.3 intermediate content rewarded nothing additional to the casual content.

Basically I feel that I could have played half the amount of time (not done the extreme primal runs and not worked towards a relic) and been practically at the same place. To those saying that I'm a casual because I didn't finish T9 before 2.4 - I'd like to ask what you think the definition of a casual player is? Isn't Coil by definition "hardcore" content?