EC explains how the current progression system is flawed

[Vrath]

-snip-
We are the hogs.

Except we're free to go the minute we're dissatisfied with the corn. I don't know about you, but I don't have any walls around me "compelling" me to play this game.

Even without that little flaw, your analogy makes little sense (but I'm just a stupid little hog, so what do I know?)

[Seig345]

It seems to me like it's only flawed depending on what you want out of the game.

If we're gonna talk about hogs, there has never been a corn trap I haven't gotten bored of and ended up leaping the fence. Every few years I might feel some nostalgia and go back to said corn for a week or two, but ultimately I'll end up leaping right back over those walls in search of something else. Final Fantasy XIV, to date, has been the only MMO where I leave with the expectation that I'll be coming back when enough time has passed and new content has been released. Gone are the days where I'd wish I could be like the people I'd meet who've played the game for years at a time without unsubscribing or taking a break longer than a week or two. I couldn't do it when I was a kid in junior high just starting out in EverQuest, and I can't do it now 15+ years later.

I guess I'm just really good at jumping? ;p

[Dyvid]

Some of these comments.... LOL.

[Malevicton]

This thread has a lot of edgy teens that just finished psyc101...

[Greedalox]

This thread has a lot of edgy teens that just finished psyc101...

It's a lot more to do with common sense than Psych 101. You're the one playing the edgy card though :P

[Malevicton]

It's a lot more to do with common sense than Psych 101. You're the one playing the edgy card though :P

people are going on about conditioning as though Pavlov is some contemporary revolutionary

[Omskahn]

It seems to say the exact opposite. In the first minute of the video they explain that developers have to impliment a grind/gate otherwise players will burn through all current content and get bored.

The rest of the video doesnt say anything other than players need more mechanics/content to stop them getting bored, which isnt much of a revelation.

It still remains that grinds/gates exist because there isnt an endless stream of content being created at the same pace that players can go through it.

Yea dude, but pay attention to what they say directly before that. Progression shouldn't be used as a tool to train the players to keep coming back, or not as a means to add more play hours without actually adding content.

Like you said, there does need to be so gating so that people dont burn through it. But at the same time it shouldn't be there to artificially extend the life of content - which is what SE is doing with the current endgame, and why I decided to start this thread.

There needs to be a happy medium between gating to hold players back, and gating to simply extend play time, and right now I think SE is too far into the latter.

[Dyvid]

Well first look at the video, they used WoW talent tree as an example but considering Blizzard all but scrapped it speaks volumes in it self. Players just ran to forums to find the best build instead of trying to customize it themselves. FFXIV 1.0 tried this similar concept of sandbox gaming and look what happened.

The ultimate question though is if you are enjoying the content you play or find it totally boring? Does the fact you can only earn 450 tomes a week diminish the enjoyment you had running the content?

[LunaHoshino]

I actually quite like the current system FFXIV has going-- it ensures a level playing field for the majority of the playerbase and keeps there from being a chasm between the people who no-life it and grind everything out as fast as possible and the people who play more casually. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not see PFs full of parties with ridiculous ilvl requirements three days after a patch comes out.

[Purrfectstorm]

Some of the things we do in this game are just a chore. It is fun to reap the rewards at the end but often the journey is tediously boring. That's why you hear so many in the community complaining how others want things handed to them without "working" for it. People don't want to make the journey because it feels like work. That speaks volumes about how unfun it can be. Not to say that there aren't some fun things but mostly it's about making behaviors addictive so we keep coming back for more. Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHfiKav9fcQ

FFXIV fulfills all the criteria to create addictive behavior.