The Lightfeather Proving Grounds

[Stormfur]

Not to put down anyone's enthusiasm, but the phrase "I'd play the heck out of that (if they put it in XIV)" really doesn't seem to pan out when that content goes live.

Let's look at a few examples:

[examples listed]

The problem with each of the things you've listed (with the exception of Diadem) is that you can only do them whenever you're not queued for something else. So you have to do them exclusively. You can't just play a round of verminion or triple triad when you're waiting for duty roulette as a DPS.

[Malzian]

The problem with each of the things you've listed (with the exception of Diadem) is that you can only do them whenever you're not queued for something else. So you have to do them exclusively. You can't just play a round of verminion or triple triad when you're waiting for duty roulette as a DPS.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, since I haven't played Triple Triad in a while, but I do recall being able to play Triple Triad while queued. Regardless of that, though, I still don't think that your being able to queue for things while doing them would make any of these more played. The lack in interest isn't so much that these things are stopping you from doing other things, but that they're not enjoyable alternatives to doing other things. Most of those systems play off of nostalgia for things other games (note: single player games) did well that have been adapted to XIV in a way that feels artificial and doesn't really give any benefit to the player for doing them.

The inclusion of a system that is more in line with the core theme of the game that offers rewards that people can actually utilize, like the glamour rewards, is going to be more attractive for people, especially if they can make it something that offers a variety of challenging content that you can tailor a bit to what you're looking for.

XIV's biggest issue now is that you do content up to a certain point in the week and then you have nothing to do. There's so much potential of what you can do in a battle arena: solo challenges, 4-man trials against random foes, 8 and 24-man fights, gauntlet runs of varying difficulty with random buffs and debuffs as you progress... All with the ability to choose the exact experience you want at any point in time. We need a system where people can create their own fun easier without having to rely on the same exact dungeons and raids week after week. I know my solution won't be perfect, but it's better than shoe-horning a system from an old game that doesn't fit the feel of XIV just because nostalgia.

[Stormfur]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, since I haven't played Triple Triad in a while, but I do recall being able to play Triple Triad while queued. Regardless of that, though, I still don't think that your being able to queue for things while doing them would make any of these more played.

You may be right on Triple Triad. At least with NPCs. I'm not sure if it was that way originally though. Also the idea of a Triple Triad tournament was really cool, but then people started abusing it and nothing was done and all incentive to continue playing was lost. Also, the idea behind Verminion was great, but the execution was really lacking. It's almost impossible to play on a controller. I never played FFXI, but Pankration sounds REALLY cool. Like the next-best-thing-to-being-a-blue-mage cool.

[Malzian]

You may be right on Triple Triad. At least with NPCs. I'm not sure if it was that way originally though. Also the idea of a Triple Triad tournament was really cool, but then people started abusing it and nothing was done and all incentive to continue playing was lost. Also, the idea behind Verminion was great, but the execution was really lacking. It's almost impossible to play on a controller. I never played FFXI, but Pankration sounds REALLY cool. Like the next-best-thing-to-being-a-blue-mage cool.

Give people a system with rewards and someone will find a way to abuse it, that's an unfortunate reality of these kinds of games. I agree that the execution of Verminion was lacking, they were working outside of their skillset when creating it and I feel like something similar to Pankration, while done with the best of intentions, is still in the same vein and likely to turn out just as poorly. I think something that flows with the mechanics of the game would be much easier for them to design though the new Diadem makes that look less likely as well. But I still feel that sticking with core XIV mechanics is probably more likely to work out than developing a whole new type of game within the game. But that's just my opinion on the matter.