"The Consequences of Reducing the Skill Gap" (A Video Relevant to the 4.0 Changes)

[Kisagami]

Okay, you guys clearly aren’t getting what is going on on SE’s end.

Not everyone has the time to dedicate days, weeks, months to one game and learn a hard PVP mode. The old PVP just wasn’t used enough; there weren’t enough people to keep the queue times down. Sure you had communities, small ones, but they were a small subset of a community you are nostalgic for. But they need to keep the majority of their players happy. They have more casual players than hardcore esports-like players who live and breathe the game.

A lot of gamers I know personally have to work. Some can work up to 12-14 hour days. If a game is too difficult, or requires too much time to learn, it gates these people out of the game. These paying customers are rushing off to easier games where you can play casually just for the story or for a few hours a week without heing too left behind.

We’re also in the age where gaming addiction is becoming recognized as a legit medical issue such as gambling addiction, and in Asian countries like Japan, there have been people dying because of how much time they dedicate or play to game, to get as you say “better.”. Reading guides, tactics, etc. on an obsessive level. And that is bad for their health, but necessary to get better in some of these games for some people. It’s quite bad in Japan, Korea, and China, from what I have read. They want a healthy environment where they can attract a large player base. Where the game isn’t cut off from casual players, who work, play other games to, or just son’t have time to dedicate time to constanly to get better. The pace here is casual.

It’s been been said SE makes a lot of their money for people buying subscriptions just to get through content or story, then let it lapse until something new comes out. Sure, there’s a huge nostalgia for those who love difficulty and earning their way up through an uphill climb, but the vast majority of players, or the community, aren’t into that. SE, like most buisnesses, cater to what retains the majority of their players.

From the many communities I know, who do not participate on forums here, the new PVP is much easier to learn and get into. Even if you’re not good at it, you can try it and have some success following the teams or even just exploring. Coming in, intending to die a lot, and just seeing it inspired my friends to play it - just like we do drunken dungeon runs TO die and laugh at our shortcomings. We don’t want our games too serious. Hell, we’re even a shits and giggles FC at Cult of the Chocobo. If the game was so difficult, we’d lose OUR community of casual players who can’t play as hard or as long to “constantly improve” just to advance. Some of us are just here for the story. And the easy PVP was the only reason my FC came out to try it in the first place - even if we lost, we got a small amount of coins, and I actually got better at my score and tactics just playing it easy at my own pace. I’d go from bottom of the rankings, to at least mid. Cutting me off and making me miserable just to get a little credit for effort isn’t fun for me. I’d drop PVP instantly if I had to worry about competiting, surviving, and living up to the hardcore player’s expectations with keeping track lf 32 skills. My anxiety can’t take it.

They make more money from casual players... that’s all I can say. We have more players now than we did back in 3.0. And way more than since 1.0. At the end lf the day, there’s numerous reasons SE is doing what they are doing, and while they are an ethical company, they’re still a company that needs to make a profit. Instead of catering to an older generation of gamers, they’re making themselves more prominent in the new generation, that want a game to be a game... not a stressful environment where they have turn over from people not wanting to adapt. A game, to the vast majority of us, isn’t a challenge. Its just something fun to do to pass the time.

So one small community dies... but another rises. That’s what happens with change. People don’t like change. But sometimes they happen for the good of greater numbers.

Basically, I see your argument more as “back in my day,” for Seniors. It was more difficult and more rewarding for them. They don’t like how the system changed to make things more accessible to others because it was “too easy.” But making it more accessible, and easier, opened up more things to more people. Its a cycle that will always happen with technological advances.

It’s also late and I may be rambling, but honestly, all your threads are about the good old days and now you’re even blaming the new generation. Things change. That’s progress.

Edit: So, I started thinking, and it reminds me of something I learned from The Jimquistion. At least a shower thought if you will from watching this video about EA changinb matchmaking in a manipulative way to hold people longer in the games without turnover. https://youtu.be/E_QaTtvI2tg

They mentioned Crash Bandicoot had a level system that if a game was too hard for someone, instead of the person putting the game down out of rage or unwillingness to learn, the game made it easier so they’d keep playing and have a positive, less frustrated experience with their game. That created less turnover; otherwise they’d be losing those customers. And... Crash Bandicoot is a beloved series that many point to as a challenge. Challenges don’t keep players as much or spread it by word of mouth to other people. Positive experiences do.

To compete, and gain more customers outside of the hardcore base, is more profitable and more accessible. It also earns them more money in the long term by making people happy, making them feel awesome, which is what many gamers love: the win. The gratification. Feeling gander than what they do in RL. So, yes, more less skilled players, but far more payers...

I understand some of your frustrations, but more frustrating or too difficult of content just to get through a story personally turns me off. And it turns a lot of my other non-competitive friends off. Having a game where content was more casual, more rewarding, keeps us longer.