I guess it's time

[Fumijj_Gah]

What dictates hardcore to you? Is it how long it takes to get an item? Or is it the actually level of difficulty in the content?

Both, long and hard contents were all around on XI back in time. With honest rewards people gonna be -proud- for years, see the Armada Hauberk set for DPS or even the relic itself.
FFXIV is just a loop of a really boring pattern where rewards gonna get deprecated in few weeks/months.
Like I've wrote before in this thread, relic quest should be like this;

a) Killing the highest raid tier multiple times (x10).
b) Getting the drop (?? item) from the same turn with a very low drop rate.
c) Getting another drop (?? item) from a secondary end game content with the same difficulty level (highest tier) such dynamis.
d) Including high amount of gils in the process.
e) Pushing the exploration, open world contents; collecting items around the world in extremely dangerous areas (raid team required to get through them).
f) Getting highest tier crafters together (those few around if we had a decent crafting system) in order to craft the item itself and to pull overmelds.


And yeah, your signature explains straight away how sick is FFXIV at the moment, with the director focusing on 'fun' and not 'dedication', 'skill' and 'rewards' which are the true essence of MMORPGs.
He even fails on the 'fun' point cause the game is super boring at the moment. If for 'fun' he means dancing emotes and few casual contents which are going to get old after few hours, then yeah, he -really- does it wrong.

[Velhart]

snip

Interesting. So how does this work on a casual level? So far this seems more catered to hardcore players. Note this is a game where they specifically mention they care about balancing casual, midcore, and hardcore content. Their execution of this philosophy is certainly questionable, but how does your approach remedy this? FFXIV certainly has it's issues in how to properly balance content and I have made several long posts on that alone, but I only see people that give ideas that cater only to a specific crowd instead of how it works to balance the philosophy they try to execute properly.

I think the "true essence" of MMORPG's is subjective. Gear to myself at least is only a means to accomplish the content in front of me. Something like beating AS8 in this game is way more satisfying than what is dangling on the stick at the end. Its a plus, but I would figure that mindset is more secondary. That is just myself however. FFXI was very gated on it's gear and content, and worked for what it was, but does this system truly appeal on a mass level? I like to see ideas that keep things balance, not cater to a niche group.

[Fumijj_Gah]

Interesting. So how does this work on a casual level? So far this seems more catered to hardcore players.

Eh, that's why the game is really bad for hardcore players at the moment. And for hardcore players I don't mean those who can clear the savage raids only, but people who put a true effort in order to obtain the highest rewards. Crafting system is a joke, for example. It has so much potential due the 1.0 origin/ideas but that's all. Balancing casual, midcore and hardcore contents is not a thing, it doesn't work, you need contents for all the players and their playstyle; in this way if you want a silly example, hardcore players gonna blame cause they'll say the relic is a weapon for plebs and on the other hand the casual players gonna say the relic grind is hot.

We really should get gear sets accessible only for hardcore players/those who want to put a huge effort in the game together with other people on the same page (no solo contents).
That's when you give the right pleasure to all the players. Balancing contents is an excuse, they need to do ways more, specified contents for players.