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

[TheJarvisMan]

The OP makes some very great points. I agree with most of them. I'm already bored with the new patch. I think I just keep resubbing for the story each patch. Why keep capping the highest rate tomes when the gear will just be obsolete in a few weeks?

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Flatly, the OP seems like a player who enjoys the game, yes, but will only make the effort for gear incentives once they are at their easiest to get, using that as justification to not task themselves with content when it's both relevant and challenging. Knowing that all things become easier over time due to nerfs, Echo buffs and overleveling/outgearing, it's effectively gaming the system. And that's fine, but I would say it's hardly something to boast about.

I fancy myself quite the opposite. I love the challenge. I'm far from the best, but I give my all as if I were. I push myself to learn battle content on my own and enjoy figuring it out well before I seek out guides. I love PvP and the dynamic aspect of it. I love raiding, and how it's less a test of my ability alone, but how well my friends and I can work together, push our limits and win. I love glamour; it's not enough for me to do well, I gotta look good doing it. Best of all, I love helping others learn to do what I do. Not just because helping them only creates more dependable allies for future endeavors, but even now, I can look across Idyllshire and say "I taught that guy T5, she and I cleared Weeping City together the first time, I taught him how to MCH in PvP. . .", and it's a great feeling, one that can't be experienced simply waiting it all out.

Simply put, some are fine walking the trail up the mountain. I like to climb it, or blaze the trail with others. If anyone's "mid core", it'd be me.

[tymora]

If there is any incentive for doing tough content...it is that awesome feeling you get when you finally win after putting in lots of hard work.
Once you get addicted, there is no turning back.

[Mugiawara]

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.

I'm already bored with the new patch. I think I just keep resubbing for the story each patch. Why keep capping the highest rate tomes when the gear will just be obsolete in a few weeks?

Can you blame us for when the man keeps going the same wheel for 3 years? Thank Goddness I main AST, right? I can forsee the next bit of content.
If there's a 3.5 - Story - Hilde!/SCH thing which I never heard anyone speak of -New Primal - Maybe 2 dungeons - More Void ark - some new thing no one cares about because it's either bad or half-baked and given.
He tells us to play a new game when we get bored, and thats 2 weeks post patch, and 2 weeks pre-new patch just to play catch up. That's what I do.
Just pray 4.0 is going to be a on new course, hoping to hear some fun news in FF. I'm not trying to doom and gloom but if 4.0 isn't something really exciting
I kinda give up on this game and hope something better comes out. :/

[NefarioCall]

Flatly, the OP seems like a player who enjoys the game, yes, but will only make the effort for gear incentives once they are at their easiest to get, using that as justification to not task themselves with content when it's both relevant and challenging. Knowing that all things become easier over time due to nerfs, Echo buffs and overleveling/outgearing, it's effectively gaming the system. And that's fine, but I would say it's hardly something to boast about.

Hmm, i guess i didn't really expand on it in the original post, but i used to pull 10+ hour boss fights in FFXI. Bring it on. I love that kind of stuff.

I just don't feel it's worth it for my own personal play experience in this game. Were the game built differently, i would absolutely take on more challenging content. But the work i put into gearing up for the fight will be obsolete in weeks or months.. and perhaps more importantly, the fights themselves are a shadow of what they could be with elemental strengths/weaknesses/skillchains etc etc. This is not FFXI, nor will it ever be. I accept that and enjoy the things i like about this game, many of which are superior to FFXI. This game is more action and mechanic based. That's fine. It is what it is. It's just not as exciting to me on the end game as other games.

I'd like to grind for 100 hours to get a piece of armor that i can grind another 100 hours cramming it with fire resist materia to the maximum forbidden level and take that into an epic 10 hour fight with a fire based monster and know that the fight and my gear will be at or at least nearly as good a year from now. If nearly, i want to be able to upgrade my existing gear, rather than start over.
(True story, i've got hundreds of elemental resist IV materia stashed away and i've yet to find a reason to really use them, but i reaaaalllly want to xD)

This game doesn't have that. But i love other things about it, and i play those things.

FFXIV will never be hard core enough for me to take that part of the game seriously, but it wasn't ever built with that in mind. I'm always a bit disappointed by that on some level, but at the same time, if a modern hard core MMO were my make or breaking factor in what game to play, i'd go play EVE. ... or SOMETHING... but if this game had that kind of end game, i would play it. I don't because it's not here to play. It never will be.

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Now this is more like it. As opposed to the "I'm mid-core, I choose not to play end game, lol to those of you who do, what's even the point of it?" feel of your original post, what you're really saying is you play the game to only a certain extent as it doesn't have certain features or systems you would prefer more than what's currently in place. However you do still love the game. That's entirely different from your original statement and far more valid. Pseudo-pride in effectively doing less or spending less time to accomplish what others have, again, is hardly a boasting point. Maybe you didn't mean it as such, but that's quite how it came across.

This is technically my first MMO and I'm quite satisfied with it. Prior to this, I came from an old console RPG I played online with friends that had MMO elements to it, and was quite grindy. Despite that, it was a lot of fun (White Knight Chronicles for anyone curious). Some of those friends really grew to enjoy this game, and others were almost immediately disillusioned. What I told them was that this game is NOT WKC and never will be. So long as they play this looking for that experience, they will continue to be disappointed. I've since branched into other MMOs and I enjoy those too, as they are, and not based on what I like from XIV. I'm not saying people aren't entitled to preference, but fact is playing Game A expecting what Game B offers will generally never be satisfying, even if you enjoy both games.

[Auteur]

And it bears repeating that the hardcore demographic has not, and is not, SE's target audience. The main reason is economics: F2P cash shops are much more effective at monetizing hardcore players, which are as a whole a very small percentage, than subscriptions. Subs cap the revenue from a single player while F2P cash shops can truly milk hardcore players for staggering five to even six figure sums of money per person.

Hence SE, running a sub based MMO, rightly must appeal to the widest audience possible rather than a select minority. Simply put, this game is not meant for people like you OP and you should instead look at F2P mmos, if you can bear dealing with their cash shops.

[vp_cmc]

And it bears repeating that the hardcore demographic has not, and is not, SE's target audience.

Then they should just remove hard content and focus on glamour and whatever other things those casuals are doing. Hardcores will go away and stop complaining (so game loses just 1-5% of players), and everyone is happy

[Elim]

Then they should just remove hard content and focus on glamour and whatever other things those casuals are doing. Hardcores will go away and stop complaining (so game loses just 1-5% of players), and everyone is happy

That's what SWTOR did. It hasn't had a new raid for over two years now, and no sign of one in the future. They only release story content and cartel market(cash shop items) items now.

[KitingGenbu]

Then they should just remove hard content and focus on glamour and whatever other things those casuals are doing. Hardcores will go away and stop complaining (so game loses just 1-5% of players), and everyone is happy

Aren't they already doing that though? Its not like Gordias and Midas Savage had really anything great looking tbh and were identical to normal just with the option to color. Creator is a little different but still people will probably treat it as the same thing or just hit it when it goes unsync after 4.0 goes live. People 'complaining' are honestly people that look at the long game of things which makes it harder to enjoy the short game that the devs are pushing out.

Which goes back to Yoshida's quote to people unsatisfied between patches, "Its okay to unsub until the next patch" (or something like that). The problem with this way of thinking is SE always does free logins around the .5 of each patch so....you can experience most of the patch has to offer during that free time, resulting in less renewed subs if people have the patience to wait till then. Then again, with the cash shop being updated on a monthly basis for nearly 2 years now, I'm sure they make enough money to cover the sub loss, especially with how many people I see running around in the new chinese outfit alone.