Alienation of Dedicated and Skilled players

[Underdog2204]

That's a good point and maybe purely horizontal progression isn't what the game needs, but I would argue that the vertical progression that we have now also results in stagnation. We are getting tougher, but not in any meaningful way. A patch roles out that gives us gear with 20 more strength on it, but that same patch's content has monsters with 20 more defense and 2000 more health. The numbers are getting larger, but nothing about us really changes. While a more horizontal system wouldn't increase the numbers it would give us gear that adjusts our abilities or gives new abilities, grants passive traits, or even just has more interesting and complex stats. That to me would seem like less stagnation than what we have now.

It sells really well but it just doesn't hold up under scrutiny imho.

Yes there will be choice but that is only until someone does some number crunching and all of that choice is gone, it's just an illusion of choice like skill trees are. I would prefer things not be overhauled for what will end up being a pointless exercise... I'm not even touching on the massive balance issues that tend to occur frequently with such a system.

Good job forums for showing further proof on how a chunk of people are getting alienated. There was no need to turn this into an argument. More content is more content. You can't say do other stuff to enjoy the game more when all we're hearing are Devs spending "a lot of time" on 3 different sleep poses and housing when we've spent so much time subbed and waiting on new content that we can actually appreciate. Yea more housing, glamour, and poses are cool, but now what? If we don't like where the game is we quit, is basically what you're saying.

If stating basic common sense like taking a break from a MMO when burned out is alienating you then you are doing it to yourself tbh.

Everybody should take a break from any MMO they are playing if they are finding themselves suffering from burnout... It's a game not a job... Hell even in jobs you take time off.

[Fricca]

If stating basic common sense like taking a break from a MMO when burned out is alienating you then you are doing it to yourself tbh.

Everybody should take a break from any MMO they are playing if they are finding themselves suffering from burnout... It's a game not a job... Hell even in jobs you take time off.

No.

Not liking where the game is progressing towards =/= being burnt out.

You completely missed my point.. There shouldn't be an argument. We're not depriving you of your fun nor preferred content, we just want more content that has depth and meaning for us if not for everyone. You know, memorable and fun ones, not face-roll ones. But right now it seems like a lot of people are dismissing it as "you guys just don't know how to have fun, there are other things you can do in this game to have fun". The Devs are already spending "a lot of time" (i just can't get over it when they said that on the live letter) on emotes and stuff so you pretty much got your slice of cake. Why not be open to other developments? Why tell us to quit the game instead? I don't think that's fair at all.

[WellFooled]

Yes there will be choice but that is only until someone does some number crunching and all of that choice is gone, it's just an illusion of choice like skill trees are. I would prefer things not be overhauled for what will end up being a pointless exercise... I'm not even touching on the massive balance issues that tend to occur frequently with such a system.

Perfect balance is impossible to obtain, even FFXIV as it is now is not perfectly balanced nor even are the most competitive esports in the world. Since that level of balance isn't possible, I would say inbalance with interesting choices/complex stats is to be preferred to inbalance with no choices/boring stats. All that's needed is a fair margin.

Bleeding edge raiders would likely make their choices on number crunching, absolutely. That's the nature of their game, but the vast majority of players don't stress over performance like progression raiders do. We can see evidence of that looking at FFXIV's jobs, which is the one gameplay choice we do have. Some jobs outperform others, but all are played, because numbers aren't the only factor. Paladins were the worst tank for months after Heavensward launched but I still mained a pld because I enjoy the lore, it's design, it's style, over the other tanks who were more efficient at tanking. Bleeding edge raiders might have chosen not to bring a Paladin, but there are still a huge amount of paladin players. The same would happen if we could customize our gameplay even more.

I would argue that it's also possible to create interesting stats that are hard to quantity. If you had to choose between an ability that roots one monster for 15 seconds or an AoE that roots everything it hits for 5 seconds, which would be objectively better? Wouldn't they both excel in different situations that would change from encounter to encounter?