Take it easy on the Nerfing :/

[Nalien]

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!

A well crafted difficulty curve shouldn't even exclude the majority of players like we seemingly had with Steps. A Realm Reborn has instead decided that difficulty curves are either too hard or don't work, anything resembling one gets flattened out over time. It is absolutely no surprise people got to Steps and had difficulty, though I still think the major problem was simply people leaving because the time/rewards for Steps were completely ridiculous. Nothing was hard about it, just that 15 Sol isn't worth such a lengthy instance.

[Natashio]

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!

Wwww...and that is exactly when I took the game out of my PS3 and never played it again..

[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.

[Riepah]

The only real challenge in this game is RNG. Even in "high end" raids, an individual's job doesn't tend to be all too difficult, the high failure rate stems from the fact that it's usually enough for 1 person out of 8 to make a mistake to force everyone to start over.

[Miscreant]

I think you are using the word casual for bad.

I can use my bf as an example. His playtimes are 'casual' meaning he is a full time student with not much playtime. He has over 50m Gil, all Lucis tools, cleared the coils, has zeta weapon, etc. People just have poor time management skills or are bad players.

How is it that he has hardly any playtime and yet has 'accomplished' more then those who complain about the game who have all the free time in the world? He also runs our fc and organizes statics...all while going to a very demanding school. I am so tried of the "I dont have time to play and do things so the game should bend to my needs' mentality.

Yeah your BF sounds pretty similar to me, I run an FC, have cleared Coil etc all while holding a management position in a 9-5 office job. I wouldn't consider my self casual at all, probably more medium-core.

As for people complaining about Steps of Faith being nerfed, why do people even care? It wasn't challenging to begin with, it wasn't something like Coil where we had to work for weeks to get a clear. I can understand why people get mad at nerfs like Coil, where other people are practically given what you slaved for, but the last time I did Steps of Faith we beat it at the first Dragon Killer, how was that challenging content in the first place? We didn't have to work for it, we just went in and completely overpowered it, and for that I have no sense of achievement and no sense of bitterness towards those who have got it easier. Good on them, let them enjoy the epic closing to the 2.0 series, let them get excited knowing they are ready for 3.0.

[Elusana_Celah]

As for people complaining about Steps of Faith being nerfed, why do people even care?

I think people are more or less worried about the "slippery slope" effect. Like they fear that SE is going to just give in to the unskilled or lazy players every time they whine and soon SE will be catering to them to such an extreme that even the optional challenging content that we DO enjoy will end up getting whacked with nerf bats.

It isn't the fact Steps got nerfed but more or less that "slippery slope" and the fears for the future that have players caring about this. Does SE have a line drawn that they won't cross or is that line easily erased...?

[SDaemon]

I think people are more or less worried about the "slippery slope" effect. Like they fear that SE is going to just give in to the unskilled or lazy players every time they whine and soon SE will be catering to them to such an extreme that even the optional challenging content that we DO enjoy will end up getting whacked with nerf bats.

It isn't the fact Steps got nerfed but more or less that "slippery slope" and the fears for the future that have players caring about this. Does SE have a line drawn that they won't cross or is that line easily erased...?

Slipper slope is widely recognized under its fallacious form for a reason.

[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?

[saber_alter]

I think people are more or less worried about the "slippery slope" effect. Like they fear that SE is going to just give in to the unskilled or lazy players every time they whine and soon SE will be catering to them to such an extreme that even the optional challenging content that we DO enjoy will end up getting whacked with nerf bats.

It isn't the fact Steps got nerfed but more or less that "slippery slope" and the fears for the future that have players caring about this. Does SE have a line drawn that they won't cross or is that line easily erased...?

It's simply easing already existing content. Steps of faith was a story mission. SE saw some people were having trouble clearing it, so SE eased it so people wouldn't have so much trouble accessing the heavensward content.

i doubt they'll be on the slippery slope anyway...seeing how the only 'nerfs' FCOB received is echo and a single add removed on turn 13.