I'm a mid-core player. I choose to not play end game. (What's the incentive?)

[NefarioCall]

I am the 'casual' player because I don't demand optimal play from those I group with. I am ok with 45+ minute dungeon runs if everyone is having fun, learning, and communicating. I'll take those over the robotic 15-20 minute dungeon runs any day of the week.

I just finished a 40 minute Halatali Normal run. Good vibes all around. Got my BLM up to 53. Everyone even took a minute to dance at the end rather than just rushing to the exit. I'll take it every day too.

One thing i would like to see though maybe, is a Relic type quest-line for Armor... It's another alternative to tome upgrading that stays relevant whether i take breaks from the game or not.

My primary incentive is to see the story of the FF14 world and experience the encounters. That's why I did coil and that's why I did my Zeta and Anima weapons. I rarely worry about ilvl beyond what I need to do said content, though since I have had a friend ask for me to fill in a gap in his static that has changed somewhat in the last couple of days. Regardless, gear, for me, is always a means to an end beyond its appearance and likewise, beyond appearance, transitory.

On this i do like the FFXIV system a lot. FFXI had a truly fantastic story line, but it was extremely difficult to make the opportunity to see it. Not so hard to accomplish that here. Regarding the Casual/Mid/Hard Core definition. I don't know what i qualify as. I spent many nights grinding out 10 hour battles vs Kirin back in the day. I would do it today too if FFXIV had something similar, but it doesn't. FFXIV's top end doesn't excite me the way FFXI's ever did. Not even close. Still, i love the Casual Halatali run i just did equally. I like that a lot about this game. I take a casual pace, but my playtime is way beyond Casual. So i just picked the in-between to reflect that i represent a player who is not specifically on one extreme or the other.

-Hard core, adhere to rules, strict log in times and play to win, always challenge themselves (can I do this in lower gear? Can I DPS this whole phase instead of heal? Solo Deep Dungeon.) (Fun is pushing my limits)

I fully intend to do this. I don't care how many late nights it takes... xD

From the looks of what I read, the few things I can assume is that this guy is not at i210 overall, and only has a single 230 piece. 30 mil gil saved up from 1.0. a single 60 class. 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a month. And that's what he has to show for it. What're you even doing here?

Well, i have every Hand / Land / War at at least Level 50, and most of those i leveled after 2.0 came out since i generally just stuck to a couple jobs in the old days. I've also maxed out all the 2.0 Beast tribes and finished all the job quests up to 50 and finished every 2.x quest except for Beast of Brewer and maybe one or two others. I've unlocked and played every 2.x content except for 2nd and 3rd Coil. I'm presently working through the 3.x content. I also bum around a lot in housing because i do enjoy that. The gil is all 2.x onward savings because i spent everything i had from 1.x buying my Free Company the first Mid Size house on server. The one by the water (Lavender plot 11 on instance #1). I'll get to Alexander probably in the next couple weeks, especially with the iLvL going up as it does. The 2nd part of it is iLvL200 right? So especially with Weapons being a bit tougher to upgrade, i dunno ... maybe i'm a bit technically late on the first part, but even the 2nd would just be entering my field of view.

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

Yes, this is going to be a continuous problem with the way Yoshida set the game up now.... Every 4 months there will be a patch or an expansion that will take 1-2 days to clear a patch or 1-2 weeks to clear an expansion... And there won't be much of a reason to continue playing because you have already seen everything... This probably wouldn't be that bad but paying 15 dollars a month for 4 months just for a day or two of enjoyment isn't acceptable to me. So unless they find a way to make lvl 60 content enjoyable for longer than 2 days... I will no longer be playing, or paying.

But you are correct, there is almost no reason to dump 100+ hours into Creator savage. We already know in 6 months, you will be able to go in at lvl 70 and scoop up all the rewards in a fraction of the time it takes everyone that is doing it now. The same applies to Anima weapon, and every other piece of content in this game. I really don't understand how this system was greenlit into production.

The easiest way to get anything you want...... is to stop playing for 2 patches.

[Jinx_Darkes]

The fact that you have been playing 1.0 on these binges, and the fact that you've barely done the content and have so little to show for it... I hate to be that guy but this might not be a dev issue... You might just be bad.

[Claire_Pendragon]

for clarification, Alexander Normal is easier than EXs, and EXs are usually almost the same in difficulty as the 1st floor of each savage set. (though the prior 2 might have been a tad bit harder, but no where near as hard as the following 3 floors on that set)
So with Coils, do T5 unsynced, and then go and do T6 synced, as it will be far easier.

[Alexander_Dragonfang]

First, you are not a midcore player, you are a casual borderline unstable player.

Second, even if, unbeliable, the lead director of the game thinks you are a totally ok player since you go and come back just as he intends his player base to do, it is suprising to me that you say there is no motivation when the whole game is made arround players like you from a design perspective, even number patches push the content, odd number patches fill up any gaps, you can then, play just fine by playing 1 month each patch, so, in a 6 month cycle, you are required to play only 2 months to "stay up to date".

Motivation is a personal thing, there is nothing the developer team can make to make you feel motivated to play this when you already go away for months and you have been playing since 1.0, and even if it was, it would only make the big design issue going with game even deeper, the cattering to returning/unactive players and its ridiculous "no one left behind" policy that only wastes resources and development time. If you have been here since 1.0, that is 2010, and you still haven't found a motivation, tbh, you are better off for your own good, and ours, the last thing we need is the dev team wasting more time and resources into players like yourself.

[Auteur]

OP is a bad example and not representative of any community, need to focus on the big picture: SE tried appealing to hardcores (gordias, midas), which failed miserably and caused severe damage to the game pop. Now that SE has instituted a correction, that correction needs to maintained notwithstanding the sudden complaints from that 1 percent of hardcores lest disaster repeat itself again.

[KitingGenbu]

I'll be honest, I didn't read most of the posts outside of the OP's, but Yoshida said its okay for players to stop paying SE and take breaks from the game. I can't ignore the man's advice.

[NefarioCall]

Motivation is a personal thing, there is nothing the developer team can make to make you feel motivated to play this when you already go away for months and you have been playing since 1.0, and even if it was, it would only make the big design issue going with game even deeper, the cattering to returning/unactive players and its ridiculous "no one left behind" policy that only wastes resources and development time. If you have been here since 1.0, that is 2010, and you still haven't found a motivation, tbh, you are better off for your own good, and ours, the last thing we need is the dev team wasting more time and resources into players like yourself.

No matter the MMO, or the design, i've always been a binge player. Not especially different than the others who come and go at each patch cycle. Given my play-style though, my play cycles don't tend to match the patch cycle. ... (Expansion aside)

I always love tracking the player levels after a cap increase, and seeing that small number of players who inexplicably make it to cap in a couple days. I'm fairly certain that most of the player base does not do that. If i was a one job player, focusing solely on battle contents, then i'm sure i would have had no trouble getting 50-60 in the first week (which i did with my first job), and then keeping up with the cycles. It's the Armory system, and its ability for me to level and build every possible profession on one single character that sets this MMO ahead in my interest to any game that limits you to just one. It takes a lot of time and effort to get everything to 50 unless you're one of those fraction of the percent of speedy grinders. Even then it should take a while.... and then taking multiple jobs to 60 and gearing them up effectively. It's not 10's of hours... it's 1000's, which is well beyond what any normal person would spend on any normal game. ...

Then, as other posters have mentioned, time spent on other areas of the game such as housing or gold saucer or frankly.. just good 'ol socialising eats up hours that are not directly accounted for in terms of getting a level up. I'm extremely excited about any new type of content that expands on the variety of play styles available. If i end up liking deep dungeon i could disappear into that for weeks and not get a single level up from regular battle content.

[Wavaryen]

The combat in this game blows.

That is pretty much it. That is why I and many of my friends don't really care about end game.

[KaitlanKela]

I play challenging fights because they're the most fun content in the game. Fights that are easy are pretty boring. If the challenge isn't fun to you, no amount of carrot is going to make you do it.