Increasing difficulty in casual content ≠ Savage

[Dzian]

This is a good definition, but under this definition, what exactly is casual content? Savage does not require more than a few hours a week in a lot of cases, but many would not consider Savage raids casual content. If we are deciding who is and who isn't a casual based upon the relative time spent in-game, casual or hardcore content becomes subjective, influenced by so many outside factors it would be impossible to determine what is and what isn't casual or hardcore content.

The issue really is that many people don't like the word "Easy" so they substitute it with "casual" so it doesnt sound so bad. especially when its gets blended in with a time factor.... you can play 4 hours a week and still be clearing savage. kinda smoke screens the term "easy"...

after reading most of the posts here, I would add my opinion that "casual" content is anything that can be cleared with minimal learning and minimal attempts required to complete it. An example would be ANY dungeon because you can clear them on Day 1 with 1-2 wipes total and not be bothered with guides. Mechanics are typically very forgiving to mistakes.

kinda empahasises the point. if you take the word casual in that quote and swap it with easy it reads exactly the same. just sounds a bit more derogatory

I woudn't ever get rid of this in favor of harder content, though. This content needs to exist so players with limited time to play can still progress on something, even if its just collecting tomestones and never touching extremes/savage. .

On another side of it though. various topics pop up from time to time regarding difficulty and raiding and why players don't like it. and I tend to think that a big part of the issue many players have with difficulty on all levels of the game is that whatever players get out of content has to be worth whatever they put into it....

I think this true on levels and exponentially highlighted by the games reward system at every one of those levels..

players generally don't want dungeons and roulettes to be harder because what they get out of them is trash a few trashy tomes which they can spend on a trashy piece of gear that they'll throw away almost as soon as the next patch lands... gear is all cheap temporary junk none of it holds value or power. and as a result of that none of it is worth any real effort to get..

this is also why many players don't bother raiding because the increased effort isn't justified by rewards. if you clear sigma savage and get full 370 for example. it's worthless to you. as soon as 4.4 lands with a new raid tear there's going to be 380 crafted stuff. making all that raiding worthless..

this is the trouble nothing ever has value or feels powerfull. even the stats don't make a difference. a few extra points of a primary that you don't really need as you cleared the content before you got it... and a bunch of secondaries that do absolutely nothing....

crit being the big one that everyone wants. but why is beyond me? because it does nothing... my level 70 bard is rocking over 2000 crit and gets exactly the same number of crits it did in t5 against twintania with maybe 300 crit...... or against alexander with over 1200 crit. those extra 1700 points haven't changed anything...

higher level mobs you say? NOPE!!! take a 2000 crit bard into central thanalan and blow away 1000 level 1 lady bugs or squirrel things. your crit rate will be exactly the same as it is against kefka... the stat does absolutely nothing... skill speed,m spell speed all the same. flare is the same cast tiem now with 1700 spell speed it was in arr with 500 spell speed.......

the result of all of this is a massive lack of power, impact or value in absolutely everything players get as rewards. which is a big contributor to the problems the game has with player retention and also a governing factor over difficulty..

when all the rewards are as cheap and worthless as they generally are the difficulty has to be at a low level.. minimal junk out so minimal effort in..

I'm quite casual as a gamer but effort / reward is definitely a factor in things. in xiv I tend not to raid because the rewards aren't worth it. partly because theyre so short lived and secondly because the content will be nerfed to hell anyway.. I cleared coil had a title which to me worth the effort of getting. even if I knew the gear would be replaced. then they went and unsynced it and you could 2 man rofl stomp the whole lot... value gone.....

I think the general lack of value in all the rewards is why players kick off at the idea of making content harder... because why put effort in when you get nothing out....

I also think the fear of failure is an issue. or fear of losing. the idea that content should be clearable first time. but this again comes down to the rewards being trash thus must be easy to get I think..