The Ifrit Fight is Dangerous to the Community.

[Treach]

What I'm trying to say is that I would like reasonable game design principles to be applied here, not "Let's make it incredibly difficult for lesser-skilled players to complete!"

I do not approve of elitism.


I have a reasonable party, and they have done well in other content. It's just puzzling to see that we, all of us at rank 50 with our main classes, simply cannot seem to get Ifrit past 50%, and even by then one of us has been knocked out at least once.

And yes, we have been using the strategies offered by linkshells such as BlueGartr, and have viewed the videos, etc. We're being screwed over by technical and human limitations.

Ok I lied, had nothing better to do while waiting for a party.

[SilvertearRen]

Ok I lied, had nothing better to do while waiting for a party.

Does anybody have anything better to do while party seeking? ...I'd say crafting, but that would be just mean.

[Aistaraina]

Does anybody have anything better to do while party seeking? ...I'd say crafting, but that would be just mean.

Fap.

/10char

[TheVedis]

Does anybody have anything better to do while party seeking? ...I'd say crafting, but that would be just mean.

seeking party?
try making party, much faster

[Deceptistar]

Or they could, you know, fight it a bunch of times and find their own strat.

not everyones on vacation/home business/jobless so that might pose a problem if it took one group of LS's over 200 tries to make a strat.

[Reliquia]

I don't know about Ifrit in the game is it is currently, but this game needs challenges even if it promotes elitist behavior. This fight is the closest thing we have to end-game content, and end-game content is very important for any MMO. These challenges are what keeps us entertained, this is when we start dreaming about ultimate gear and so forth. Everything cannot be crafted or obtained in a relaxed manner, especially not the best pieces, we have to earn them with our blood and sweat. Therefore we can wear them proud.

[Veltaine]

so i read along here somewhere about a themepark... lets take that analogy somewhere


how do they redesign the superman rollercoaster to amuse the thrillseekers, and then ppl like me? who hate dropping more than 5 feet IRL... they arent gonna do it.. why should ifrit cater to everyone as well? hes the superman rollercoaster of the game, reserved for the hardcore players.. and besides.. its not like you cant beat the regular ifrit fight, right?

at a themepark there are many things to do, as well as in an MMO.. by no means should everything be created equally.. theres content for casual, and theres content for hardcore.. take it or leave it

your playing a game.. enjoy it for what it is, i do

[Volta]

I know Ifrit has certain stances to each weaponskill. The problem is being able to memorize them properly. I really do not have the mental clarity to accomplish memorization of the finer nuances of the Ifrit fight, and yet I would like to at least be able to beat him.

I used to be a hardcore player in other MMO's when I was younger and sharper. Those days are definitely behind me, and I have no desire to really revisit those habits.

Maybe you should play Angry Birds on the iPhone. Requires no IQ and fun to boot! Very Inclusive!!

[SilvertearRen]

so i read along here somewhere about a themepark... lets take that analogy somewhere


how do they redesign the superman rollercoaster to amuse the thrillseekers, and then ppl like me? who hate dropping more than 5 feet IRL... they arent gonna do it.. why should ifrit cater to everyone as well? hes the superman rollercoaster of the game, reserved for the hardcore players.. and besides.. its not like you cant beat the regular ifrit fight, right?

at a themepark there are many things to do, as well as in an MMO.. by no means should everything be created equally.. theres content for casual, and theres content for hardcore.. take it or leave it

your playing a game.. enjoy it for what it is, i do

An interesting way to place an argument, using the themepark analogy. I understand what you mean.

However, I have to ask, what will happen to those who would LIKE to hop onto these rides? Should we be greeted with a disclaimer before we fight Ifrit, like most of these "extreme rides" do at themeparks? This is a bit of a silly counterargument for me to make, but I'm trying to illustrate the point that if the platform allows for it, the system should be as inclusive as possible.

An actual, physical themepark will obviously have limitations on who can enjoy it; a video game is comprised of a virtual environment and lines of programming code.

The former is not easy to adapt for a paraplegic who wants to ride the Screaming Tornado, while the latter has the ability to be adapted to various software and hardware solutions to allow that same paraplegic person to play the game.

The principle I am going by is that video games, by their very nature, should be as inclusive as possible without sacrificing the thrill, challenge, and rewards that hardcore players crave from their game experiences. Thus, the solution would be to add variable difficulty modes that does not infringe on the "original" hardcore experience.

It's really quite simple, and if the hardcore players don't like the lower difficulty options, they can simply opt out of those modes and choose only the most difficult mode. This would have no impact whatsoever on the prestige factor of the encounter. In fact, it could even be a way for hardcore players to beat their chests and show off their manliness in a player exchange that would happen as follows:

Casual Player: "Hey, I beat Ifrit on One-Star difficulty, I think I'm ready for two stars."

Hardcore Player: "Oh, well, have fun getting inferior drops from two stars. I've only fought Ifrit on Three Star difficulty, and I got an Inferno Lance drop!"

I hope this illustrates very clearly that the variable-difficulty-options that I've been advocating on these forums will not hurt the hardcore players at all, but instead gives options to players whose skills are "inferior" to hardcore players.

[Deceptistar]

well.... the jp pickup groups arent having that much of a hard time so maybe its more the non-jp casuals that are having problems... and not the content itself. This IS catering to the jp society more than any else and its going to go with their standards of difficulty in the end.