Take it easy on the Nerfing :/

[Remilia_Nightfall]

The whole "Get to endgame for a challenge" concept seems silly to me... Why would someone interested in a challenge drag themselves through an increasingly lengthy campaign of mediocrity to get to the good stuff? This stinks of the exact same defense Final Fantasy XIII got... It gets good after 20 hours of boring corridors, I swear!

You must be new to MMOs.

They are called time sinks. They are quite common.

[Nalien]

You must be new to MMOs.

They are called time sinks. They are quite common.

Sure. A good time sink doesn't put its players to sleep with how mindlessly simplistic it is, though. People actually tend to praise those kinds of time sinks, rather than writing them off as another waste of time. Suppose it's too much to ask to have anything engaging on the trek to endgame these days, though.

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Sure. A good time sink doesn't put its players to sleep with how mindlessly simplistic it is, though. People actually tend to praise those kinds of time sinks, rather than writing them off as another waste of time. Suppose it's too much to ask to have anything engaging on the trek to endgame these days, though.

I am quite sure there are plenty of people out there who consider what you call "mindlessly" to be "relaxing". Those people don't read the forums. They probably don't even know what a forum is. Still they pay SE as much as you.

We are in the age of Call of Duty and Bubble Witch Saga. You would be surprised by how many people actually like "mindlessly simplistic" stuff.
And guess what? It is cheaper to develop. Why not do it, if you were running a business?

[Nalien]

And guess what? It is cheaper to develop.

You say that, but I'm fairly sure SE just took an extra cost adjusting Steps of Faith... A much bigger one that was needed, too, considering all Steps needed was its rewards to actually be worth the time investment.

We are in the age of Call of Duty and Bubble Witch Saga. You would be surprised by how many people actually like "mindlessly simplistic" stuff.

There are these things called genres... Or do you really think SE is trying to appeal to the mobile app demographic with Final Fantasy XIV...

When I did Steps of Faith it was a instance that was pretty damn well crafted. It wasn't hard by any stretch, it just required a bit of communication, but even if everything went right it was still a tight fight with failure always being a possibility. That added to the dramatic tension of the encounter and overall enriched the story. Now Vishap is effectively just a giant FATE boss to be zerged down with the rest with very little chance of failure.

I'm all for relaxing stuff, that's why I like Triple Triad and Fishing. I'd much rather the story be dramatic and the story encounters enhance that, though. There is a place for relaxing content, epic fights with building-sized dragons probably isn't it.

Why not do it, if you were running a business?

Standards, mostly. That's why, even though I'm not particularly fond of the Souls franchise, I have a great deal of respect for its developers. They found their niche and they do their best to appeal to it. Wish more developers would do that, rather than shamelessly trying to appeal to as many niches as possible and just diluting their product as a result. Though Final Fantasy XIV has probably fared better than most in that regard (which is why I'm here).

[Remilia_Nightfall]

You say that, but I'm fairly sure SE just took an extra cost adjusting Steps of Faith...

Indeed. They had to patch something that was apparently too hard. Maybe next time they will make it easier in the first place. Unfortunate, I know.

There are these things called genres... Or do you really think SE is trying to appeal to the mobile app demographic with Final Fantasy XIV...

Not necessarily, but I am sure you get what I mean. The age of DAoC or UO is gone. WoW created a new genre tbh, a "new way of experiencing MMOs", and if you want to join the market at this point in time you, as a developer / publisher, cannot disregard that.

Standards, mostly. That's why, even though I'm not particularly fond of the Souls franchise, I have a great deal of respect for its developers.

I am a huge fan of Souls games. I know that challenges are what make a game (or anything in life, really) enjoyable and satisfying. Still, we must face the truth that the majority of people do not like that.

[Nalien]

Indeed. They had to patch something that was apparently too hard. Maybe next time they will make it easier in the first place. Unfortunate, I know.

That wasn't the issue with Steps though. The issue was that people left because it simply wasn't worth the time investment for what you'd get out of it. Anyone who didn't already have it cleared had to deal with constant disbands because of this. That was the issue.

All they needed to do was address the issue with rewards and perhaps make certain aspects of it more forgiving. People would have stayed, gladly depending on how much better the rewards were, it could have been slightly easier and everyone would get their clear while still experiencing the original fight. Instead they just completely idiot proofed it. People will still stay, sure, it's almost impossible to fail now, but the fight has completely lost its soul IMO.

Steps really just comes off as something that was ill planned at this point. The fight was great and I really enjoyed it, but they gated Heavensward behind it. They ended up coming close to Heavensward with people still not beating it, despite the fact that I'm sure something like the Chrysalis would have had a similar completion curve (actually I helped a friend catch up before Steps was nerfed, just me and two other people, we wiped more to Chrysalis than Steps...). That timing forced them to drastically nerf it to keep Heavensward accessible. A smart developer probably wouldn't have built an expansion with all the content gated behind the story so that all their subscribers didn't feel the need to madly rush the story...