The game is more dead than it was pre-3.1

[Fevelle]

Garuda storymode is the hardest Garuda fight currently because it cannot be overgeared (at least in the DF, which prevents you from doing it undersized)

Go in with a healer that cannot avoid Mistral Songs (and consequently gets 1-shotted by it) and you're going to have a hard time. Compare this with Garuda HM, where everyone is encouraged now to eat the Mistral Song on purpose just for the sake of getting more damage in on Garuda a few seconds faster because the damage is no longer a threat.

Still not something that should need nerfs to be clearable with new people. What happens is that most people don't have patience to explain every mechanic of the encounter to a new person (or don't care to explain at all) and when they wipe they come here wanting nerfs and screaming that "content X is unclearable with PUGs".

I remember people saying that Ravana EX is unclearable in DF (some still say this), and yet I cleared it in DF with no echo bonus and with 6 newcomers including me (and as I said I'm far, far away from a skilled player).
I don't think "having a hard time" is an excuse to nerf something. It's a trial, it's supposed to push the players at least to some extent, even more if they're level synched.

[Eothas]

Clearing Garuda Normal for the first time is one of the best memories that I have from this game. I got in with 3 new players aswell via DF as a healer.

The tank eating every slipstream, had to keep him alive and help the DPS with the plumes. Garuda teleporting around and using her 1 shoot mechanic while listening to that cool music, every time that we reached the final phase, my MP was always at around 10%, I had to use every little trick to keep myself and the party alive, after 10+ wipes finally killing her and listening the "victory music" felt so rewarding. Felt like my first challenge in the game.

Although it's true that her normal mode is harder than the others, I think it was really fun for new players that don't give up after 1 wipe. Its sad that they nerfed her.

[Alex_Lenderson]

But SE has failed to make content that remains fresh and replayable, which is one of the key components to making an MMO work.

How many hours have you put in? If it is more than 400 congratulations you more than got your money's worth.

[Blood-Aki]

But everything doesn't have to be so gated. Majority of people aren't going to grind and then unsub because majority of people don't have time for that. Hence all the complaints about not having enough time.

Then this indeed would turn into a real casual game, it would have died off already if everything was uncapped from the start, there would be no raid scenes because all the raiders would have capped in the 1st 2 weeks they could beat the content, then have no incentive to do it anymore.

Even 24 man raids like void ark, would be even harder to que for in about a month because everyone would just spam it till they got their gear sets. and it would turn into CT/WOD in a short time. You can't do that with diadem due to the sheer randomness of the 210s that can drop and have better stats then the gated 210 and you actually winning the lot.

You and a few others may not unsub but a large population of this game would have dropped off fast. and there wouldn't be much point playing this when you don't have many people around you. This is how they keep you subbed.

[Terribad]

Snip

RNG, RNG is basically the gate that gives you the illusion of doing something. Everything doesn't have to be RNG and RNG doesn't have to be for every patch.

Plenty of mmorpgs have RNG not everyone grinds everything out in one week and then leave or else no MMO would use it. Heck even the forums are gated ._.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Heck even the forums are gated ._.

Blame the trolls, spammers, and flame war instigators that caused chaos on the forums during beta (or even before that)

[anguel]

my little finger tells me that, this game wont have a long life ...
or WAYYY smaller than FF11

hmm, maybe 1-2 years befor its dead
(dead doesnt mean server closed in this case, but devs gonna enter a stage of "save the ship" by adding every kind of things, (strange, weird, not even related to FF ?)
complying to every single player request in the game to try save it)

i dont know i have that kind of feeling ...

[Blood-Aki]

RNG, RNG is basically the gate that gives you the illusion of doing something. Everything doesn't have to be RNG and RNG doesn't have to be for every patch.

Plenty of mmorpgs have RNG not everyone grinds everything out in one week and then leave or else no MMO would use it. Heck even the forums are gated ._.

Because their are plenty of succesful paid mmos, right? also, what does RNG have to do with the topic of why things are gated?

[kuma_aus]

Chocobo player here, it's on Mana Data Center.

Game still seems alive to me. Last night after reset there was about 20+ Alexander Savage parties in Party finder. I didn't count them. There was about 5+ Thordan EX parties. I was trying to clear Thordan so I didn't get to pay too much attention since I was in duty most of the time. I was still trying to clear Thordan before reset so I was in a party. Even when there was 1 hour to go until maintenance, we still managed to fill up the 2 missing spots to go try kill him.

Now mind you I have seen 40+ Alexander Savage parties in party finder after reset before, but like I said I was trying to kill Thordan so Party Finder might have gotten more lively when I went to sleep or while I was in duty.

[anguel]

i really would like to see a kind of graphic or things to show, exactly how is the player database (how many player per month, in 1 year)
but SE never gonna show us the things (or the REAL things)

and yes playerbase is declining strongly !!

i do remember 1 year ago (arround) when we did coil (1-5 turn), in mor dhona, there was SOOOO many people (no joking !)
that my computer couldnt even show half of them, and finding a friend in this crowd was kinda hard

today its, ... well, now you have no problem looking for a friend ...