Sorry Yoshi, but if you award the best weapon in the game by winning the lottery...

[JunseiKei]

People are upset not because of what this is, but because of the precedent it sets.

That would be...





...a chance of getting something you want or is useful to you at an incredibly rare rate. Like 3 lines on WTs. Hitting the Jumbo Cactpot for 1,000,000 MGP. Or sink the time and get something far more feasible.

[St0rmchild]

...a chance of getting something you want or is useful to you at an incredibly rare rate. Like 3 lines on WTs. Hitting the Jumbo Cactpot for 1,000,000 MGP. Or sink the time and get something far more feasible.

And how eager are you for this to become the norm for all future content ?

[Alistaire]

And how eager are you for this to become the norm for all future content ?

Especially when the worst part of it has nothing to do with the rewards but the laziness in design.

[VeliusVire]

And how eager are you for this to become the norm for all future content ?

Whether or not it becomes the norm isn't the problem, it's whether or not you /NEED/ the weapon for content, which you don't. That's why these weapons shouldn't be taken seriously, they're not required, it's more of just a 'Test your luck'. That and, the weapon already has a stigma, it doesn't carry prestige like a Raiding Weapon, or the effort of a Relic Weapon.

[St0rmchild]

Whether or not it becomes the norm isn't the problem, it's whether or not you /NEED/ the weapon for content, which you don't. That's why these weapons shouldn't be taken seriously, they're not required, it's more of just a 'Test your luck'. That and, the weapon already has a stigma, it doesn't carry prestige like a Raiding Weapon, or the effort of a Relic Weapon.

You still don't understand -- you didn't need this item this time.

The dangerous precedent this sets is that it may be decided that this is a great model to apply to ALL content - dungeons, raids, etc. - and not just end of patch/content, but everything - and that includes upcoming leveling/progression content.

Maybe I should put it like this:
Do you want to buy gear items with tomestones, or are you comfortable with spending tomestones to buy a chance for gear -- that may or may not be what you wanted, and failing that chance be a limit on what you can do or play ?

Because I am emphatically not comfortable with that.
One of FFXIV's awesome features is how small the gap is between the social and hardcore players, and how the game (pretty successfully so far) has integrated both groups in the same content.
One reason for that is the gearing system, which linearly rewards efforts with results.
This kind of RNG does not do any of that.

And that is why this has me extremely concerned.

[JunseiKei]

And how eager are you for this to become the norm for all future content ?

It won't. This isn't '90s era MMOs where that was a norm.

You still don't understand -- you didn't need this item this time.

The dangerous precedent this sets is that it may be decided that this is a great model to apply to ALL content - dungeons, raids, etc. - and not just end of patch/content, but everything - and that includes upcoming leveling/progression content.

Maybe I should put it like this:
Do you want to buy gear items with tomestones, or are you comfortable with spending tomestones to buy a chance for gear -- that may or may not be what you wanted, and failing that chance be a limit on what you can do or play ?

And that is why this has me extremely concerned.

Again, this isn't '90s MMOs. FFXIV is catered to casual and fair weather players. Putting in things like the chances for gear that actually matter takes away from that and will ultimately only sustain those that could sink the long hours to actually achieve it just to do minimal tasks. While your concerns are certainly something to keep in mind, which considering the type of game Yoshida has built thus far, he keeps in mind even now.

Hence this enticing, RNG gated object that people continuously are willing to suspend logic upon.

Concerns can also be blown out of proportion, which is what is happening here- you immediately went for the worst case scenario.

[Fyce]

FFXIV is catered to casual and fair weather players.

One more reason not to put these weapons at i280.

[Alistaire]

It won't. This isn't '90s era MMOs where that was a norm.

Lol what a petty reason to quit a game for...

Again, back to the point where this was literally advertised as being a taste of what's to come in stormblood.

[ErryK]

Again, back to the point where this was literally advertised as being a taste of what's to come in stormblood.

More of a taste of what Eureka, and how it will work in relation to the 4.0 version of the relic.

[Tsunenori]

And how eager are you for this to become the norm for all future content ?

Slippery slope argument always has been and will continue to be dubious at best. You're becoming upset at something that has not happened because of something you see as tangentially related. Let's try to keep the focus on what's actually on trial here instead of being outraged at something that hasn't actually happened.

While we're at it, let's also not kid ourselves about what MMORPG design actually encapsulates: time sinks, grinds, randomness, and other stalling methods used to keep players around for long periods of time. If there's a thing to be upset about here imo it's that the i280 aetherial weapon is a pretty blatant appeal to that kind of design and a lazy motivator to get people engaged with new content. That's a problem that permeates a number of areas in FFXIV and could be improved upon.

As far as the weapon itself, I touched on this a bit in one of the other threads, but this is a randomized weapon that has appeared at the tail end of the expansion when all relevant content has been cleared for months. The only use that a minimal amount of players get out of it is a fun stick to beat stuff with for a couple months before literally all of this gear becomes invalidated 5 levels into the next expansion's leveling path. You can argue philosophies and design semantics all you want, but that's the reality of the situation. Unpopular opinion warning, but I think anyone arguing that it's a "slap in the face" and unsubscribing because of the weapon itself is a little too invested and probably needs the break anyway.