Mediocrity should NOT be the standard for players in any content.

[Packetdancer]

I've even had my fair share of struggle runs where we wiped multiple times in different parts of the dungeon or trial but the people who were struggling were clearly trying. I had one cutter's cry run where the healer and one dps kept dying to the chimera's mechanics, and we ended up being there for an hour, but they kept trying and we managed to beat it and I can commend those people, especially the healer, for not leaving.

Brief side note: someone I know taught me a wonderful rhyme to remember the Chimera's mechanics based on the eye color, and I have taught it to pretty much every sprout I've run that dungeon with. (And some non-sprouts, too, because even if they know the mechanics, it's a useful rhyme to teach others who they might end up running with.)

If it's violet, stay by it. If it's blue, better shoo.

Makes for much smoother runs, in my experience, and helps folks with their next run in the dungeon too.

[Wildsprite]

-snip-

we already have a thread full of complaints about this very feature

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...as-A-Good-Idea

[TalithaSolarien]

Brief side note: someone I know taught me a wonderful rhyme to remember the Chimera's mechanics based on the eye color, and I have taught it to pretty much every sprout I've run that dungeon with. (And some non-sprouts, too, because even if they know the mechanics, it's a useful rhyme to teach others who they might end up running with.)

If it's violet, stay by it. If it's blue, better shoo.

Makes for much smoother runs, in my experience, and helps folks with their next run in the dungeon too.

While certainly helpful with Cutter's Cry it won't help you with other Chimeras you encounter in the game (PotD, Ivalice, etc) unless you are close enough to look into their eyes. My hint (that I picked up from a stream) is "Ram scram" (and the other way around).

[Valic]

This isn't an issue but people keep trying to make it one. No one forces you to queue with randoms. Stop trying to force your way onto people. You dont pay their sub. The dev's will never change things people wont change you can only change yourself.

You think this only affects duty finder random queues? You're funny.

we already have a thread full of complaints about this very feature

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...as-A-Good-Idea

Not exactly the same as what we're talking about here. The overall game has functioned much easier since SB, not just solo queues.

OP, I know this is going to be shock to your sensibilities to hear, but not every player in the game has the same goals and motivations as you. Some people just want to log into the game, join a group, and look at the pretty colors flash in front of their eyes. These players don't care how fast or efficient they go through a run. These players aren't trying to maximize their time. These players can play however they want. It's not SE's or your job to police how good at the game players must be.

There will always be these players and no amount of whining is going to change anything. There are many tools in the game that allow you to leave a group or avoid these players if you don't want to play with them. If you are choosing to enter roulettes than you need to accept the choice you made and deal with the potential consequences of getting matched with anyone under the sun. If you can't handle that, you may want to go back to your single-player games like Dark Souls where you can be as elitist and snide as you want.

Those "players" can play games that do this very same function of shiny/flashy colors that don't require them to do anything. Or go watch anime. FFXIV shouldn't be reduced to that for the majority of its core content. It's SE's job to provide an engaging experience in a game, that challenges the player and gives a feeling of satisfaction based on the requirement to "win" means to do well enough to not "lose". Look at earlier video advertisements of this game and look at what they use to identify as their pride in this game.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abggh6mISSo

^ this is one of their JP commercials. It shows a young man doing several activities, both alone and in groups requiring him to work towards a goal and "achieve". You're gonna tell me right now this game is not supposed to be to achieve, but to sit down and go brain dead? No, that can't continue.

As for the many tools in this game that allow you to leave? So you think a player that actually means to try should suffer a 30 minute penalty because 1-2 players in the group they're in aren't trying at all? You also assume this is only roulette content..... There's a LOT of players in PF just as well that don't know some of the most basic skills. Dark Souls isn't an mmo, MMO's typically set base content to require some form of competence beyond hitting 1 button. Stop acting as though my post is about being an elitist and stop accepting this low as a standard. You people are why this gets shrugged off and why there's so many players who think its okay to not gear up or learn their job.

[QT_Melon]

You think this only affects duty finder random queues? You're funny.


As for the many tools in this game that allow you to leave? So you think a player that actually means to try should suffer a 30 minute penalty because 1-2 players in the group they're in aren't trying at all? You also assume this is only roulette content..... There's a LOT of players in PF just as well that don't know some of the most basic skills. Dark Souls isn't an mmo, MMO's typically set base content to require some form of competence beyond hitting 1 button. Stop acting as though my post is about being an elitist and stop accepting this low as a standard. You people are why this gets shrugged off and why there's so many players who think its okay to not gear up or learn their job.

Just a few thoughts, because I think you need to step back a bit, with and rethink your arguments.

1. PF is NOT DF. The argument you presented is incorrect because you added in the penalty that DOES NOT exist in a full Party Finder drop than you would in a Duty Finder.

That said, has some of the content become "too easy"? Yes.
Are there people who still can't perform basic functions in the game? Yes.


Has their subscriber base dropped due to it? Doesn't look like it.

Yoshi has come out and said he wanted it more accessible and that he didn't want people to feel it to be too much of a grind anymore. That someone can come back and play instead of being on it all the time.

Part of the complaints about the game's state do come from people who do burn through a lot of this content too much too quickly and those negatives start piling up because that's what our human memory latches onto the most: negative experiences.

There is still quite a bit of content out there that is challenging but due to the reward structure has certain access locks to it, be it weekly lockouts - having to form a job composition around it etc... Part of this problem is that depending on the culture/region - it brings its own set of problems. Japanese culture will work to make sure achieve the goal with different compositions. Raider mentality in the states is general complaints about a job that is "trash" due to hyperbole over "the meta" That's not to say that there are genuine concerns over a job, bugs and reward satisfaction. Then job identity arguments making different jobs in the same classes "feel the same" because the devs trying to breakup the meta. So yes it is "our" fault that some of this blandness has happened and the game feeling less challenging overall is one issue.

Age is another issue. While I think this game isn't THAT bad off technology wise. I think it's far easier to feel that FFXIV needs a technological overhaul due to the way tech has progressed, over how FFX11 may have needed it (till the time of 14's first appearance). There's also the feel that the staff ....or at least the time to roll in content is running thin. From the way they had to do half a race for each gender (and you can see they had to keep adjusting down to the wire and on after launch) to other small "impact" but noticeable things like why only one model of Mystel like Dulia when you had a CG movie showing that quite a few were overweight. Yet it's her model NPC that's roaming around, which kind of minimizes the story's impact in some ways (it's WELL written, and still has a lot of fantastic story building elements - make no mistake) . Then not having craftable weapons for the new Jobs that were primal based. Not to mention we're this far into the patches and still no relic quests.

Now I know I digressed posting the above paragraph, but that's to show that you can see it's getting a bit "threadbare" overall.

But one other point to this problem is that in the end this is a business. If they're still gaining subscribers with a lowered bar, then that's what's gonna happen until it starts losing people.
There isn't one factor to this problem of mediocrity and some of it isn't easily solvable due to cultural differences, while the other is going to take time (if they need to just have a better game engine and at that point would it be worth it to move to a 3rd engine when you can just do another MMO from the start?)

The problem isn't also SE accepting mediocrity itself, from the tone of your rant/rebuttal this is a community problem and some of which the blame lies on ourselves in the way we approach this content and caused a clash in mentalities that many sides take to an extreme.

[Warghoul570]

Holy elitist Batman.. might be time to step off your high horse brother... number one not everyone learns the same way and number two it’s hard to ask questions because most people, at least that I’ve seen would rather act like d-bags when someone makes a mistake rather that point of out or offer a solution. You want to help others improve simply don’t be a d-bag about. Personally I’d rather someone point out something I’m screwing up or forgetting about. Now if you try to be nice and the person has an attitude about it then all bets are off. It’s just that simple

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Holy elitist Batman.. might be time to step off your high horse brother... number one not everyone learns the same way and number two it’s hard to ask questions because most people, at least that I’ve seen would rather act like d-bags when someone makes a mistake rather that point of out or offer a solution. You want to help others improve simply don’t be a d-bag about. Personally I’d rather someone point out something I’m screwing up or forgetting about. Now if you try to be nice and the person has an attitude about it then all bets are off. It’s just that simple

+1 to WarGhoul
Get this man an ice cream bar

[Jimmymagic]

/ice cream bar sent

Done

[ForteNightshade]

Holy elitist Batman.. might be time to step off your high horse brother... number one not everyone learns the same way and number two it’s hard to ask questions because most people, at least that I’ve seen would rather act like d-bags when someone makes a mistake rather that point of out or offer a solution. You want to help others improve simply don’t be a d-bag about. Personally I’d rather someone point out something I’m screwing up or forgetting about. Now if you try to be nice and the person has an attitude about it then all bets are off. It’s just that simple

This is... what's to learn about AoEs do more damage on multiple targets than single ones? It's basic math. 100x5 is more than 200x1. And yet you still see countless people at level 80 who won't. Likewise, several mechanics have been repeated endlessly. The stack indicator is used constantly prior to make level.

With that said, do you want to know why people say almost nothing nowadays? Because their advice—no matter how polite—is meant with variations of "you don't pay my sub," "I can play however I want" or <insert expletives here>. For a lot of people, they just stop trying after being told one too many times how horrible they are for daring to suggest you (general) are doing something wrong.

[SieyaM]

This for example.... should not be a thing. You shouldn't be allowed in an expert roulette with gear that isn't 80. You shouldn't NOT know by now that you've had aoe skills for 70 levels now and use them in every single dungeon to clear trash mobs and mass packs of enemies. But, because there's no content in the MSQ that forced the player to go "oh, I can't do this, I'm too weak, maybe I need better gear" or "well, I'm not able to kill these for some reason because they keep respawning, maybe I can kill them all at once?"... or ANYTHING that requires a player to think. This is what we're subjected to. I'm sorry but no, it's not okay that at this level and this far into the game after this many dungeons/instances a player is allowed to be a complete idiot and be rewarded for it. This could be said that just the player's fault here.... and it is. But SE isn't helping by making content more and more "casual friendly" and giving people all this room to just stomp on everything with less than bare minimum. PF or duty roulette, you'll find people that are this bad and they're allowed to be and again... REWARDED for it. Imagine doing a normal trial roulette (one without a platform you can fall off of) and dying every single time to anything, you don't do dps, you waste the healer's mana in ressing you, and its all because you either A. didn't bother to put on armor because somehow you can get away with doing this... or B. decided "eh, I don't care, if I die, I die, it's just another roulette. I'm sure everyone else will handle this just fine".

I think the most telling part here is that you would rather force a kick by disconnect rather than try to even attempt to help another player. With an attitude like yours becoming more common it is very possible they have gone all the way to 80 without anyone telling them anything about AoE rotations. As for the gear, I thought they were adding minimum ilevel to most things now.