Problems with the strength of gear coming from easy mode Alexander

[Bourne_Endeavor]

every recent mmo i'd say yes, the older ones not so much. the percentage of the player base that participated in endgame in xi or everquest for example was much much higher in part because the rewards were that much more valuable and appealing...

as for difficulty it's not as niche as you might believe. things as simple as psn and xbox / steam achievements show this where there are literally millions of gamers out there that go after as many platinum trophies as they can get or take pride in getting that achievement for beating games on there hardest difficulties. these things are so popular globally that now literally every game must have them. and players will do harder things in games just for an achievement.

the real difference between those games and mmos is that in those games the milestones or challenges don't change. in mmos especially the more vertical ones they do. coil a year ago quite challenging content. coil today. face rollable by 3 people.

I likened it to passing your driving test today. only for them to abolish the driving test next week... suddenly makes the fact you past completely worthless.. and that is a huge motivation killer

Because MMOs were a relatively new genre, and you had scarily few choices. We're talking fifteen years ago. Nowadays, you have a deluge of games, which inherently splits the overall demographic. FFXI didn't have any larger a raid scene nor did it have the same complexity. Top tier bosses like Absolute Virtue were essentially kamikaze zerg rushes.

... you realize this helps my argument not yours, yes? If I platinum Mass Effect or Dark Souls, my only reward is an achievement or trophy. Not gear. You acquire the very same thing upon clearing Savage. The entire purpose of Savage is for players to test their skills against an extreme challenge-- with the reward being an achievement for doing so. Gear thereafter is basically beating the same challenge multiple times, but making it easier. You've already completed the challenge and have the accompanying bragging rights on your achievement bar. Now, you're just doing it all again either for better gear ahead of other players or the fun of it.

That analogy makes no sense. If the driving test is the challenge, my completion of it is the reward. If it's later abolished, I still have the acknowledgement of having completed it.