The time has come to get rid of enrage timers

[Llus]

It becomes my business when that's the excuse they want to use for why they're in my PF. Or why I'm having a harder time carrying them in some random DF because they're constantly on the ground or otherwise doing their impression of a corpse with regards to how many buttons they're actually pushing in any given encounter.

That being said, I'd like to believe you're aware that I don't actually care what they do with their money and their time. And I'd like to reiterate that I'm not sure the people described in Kamatsu's strawman actually even exist.


Really? Come on. I deserve better than some throwaway Star Wars quote. I pay me sub and do the gud deeps! I do the gud deeps! :|
Kylo Ren is a punk.


Obviously the game is friendly to casual players - except when it's not, I mean - but that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that it is in SE's best interest to not cater to the whims of people that don't want to put any effort whatsoever into their game, that for all intents and purposes will never be a reliable revenue stream on an individual level, else we wind up with the current PvP combat system in PvE and encounters that never rise above a mildly-pitched yawn.

Let's not act like people weren't/aren't peeved at Steps of Faith, The Chrysalis, Garuda normal, etc. being nerfed. That people weren't adamant about Ozma, Nidhogg and Shinryu not receiving mechanical changes to appease the vocal backlash. That people weren't happy that 2.x had actual endgame progression structure - even if just as many, if not more, were happy when it was eventually abolished.


Don't get me started on that group. Anything they want is definitely the last thing I want, XIV and especially otherwise.


Balance is indeed the key. While I have no quick and dirty example like Wildstar on the hardcore end, I can't imagine many games can survive solely off of their fickle and unreliable casual audience. I've gone down the rabbit hole a number of times weighing theories for what the game would look like if the higher end of the skill spectrum vanished.

Unfortunately a lot of this will come down to quarterly P&L statements and if statistics are showing a higher profit when appeasing grey tier players by dumbing down content, that's exactly what will happen. The entirety of Stormblood reeks of grey tier hand-holding with the exception of Ultimate and will likely continue until they push those that like a challenge completely away from the game. At that point the content will be based around glamor contests, party chat during "extreme" primals and "savage" raids while ordering the newest pretty outfit, mount, minion and emote from the mog station. $$ talks and grey tier players are more likely to throw their cash at SE for the thrill of that 2 minute lap dance rather than the much deeper and complex but infinitely more fulfilling experience of a truly savage raid. Instant gratification and entitlement culture at it's best.

[RiyahArp]

Unfortunately a lot of this will come down to quarterly P&L statements and if statistics are showing a higher profit when appeasing grey tier players by dumbing down content, that's exactly what will happen..

there simply aren't enough high skill players to make any game work. I mean, they had to make data center wide party matching because each server often couldn't field enough raiders for the hard content at the time to staff it; if your static broke up, transferring server was a serious option, just to be close to enough of a critical mass of raiders to do things. In general, they have to design for a triangle; the base of characters tends to narrow pretty fast the harder they make content.

Even EVE, which is considered hardcore, is built on people just farming mindless pve in concord space.