Does the game need to be a bit riskier?

[DPZ2]

They tried 'riskier' concepts, and the audience was not enthused. One word: Diadem.

[Vahlnir]

They tried 'riskier' concepts, and the audience was not enthused. One word: Diadem.

That wasn't even risky content to begin with. It was one giant zergfest.

[Enla]

They tried 'riskier' concepts, and the audience was not enthused. One word: Diadem.

To be fair on that, Diadem wasn't well designed either the first or second time they brought it back. It was basically the content equivalent of throwing someone out of warm bath and into the Arctic Ocean. The third time they implemented it it was much better, and had they implemented it that way to start off with they could have then slowly expanded upon it to add combat zones for people to exploit for higher quality returns. FF14's biggest issue when they attempt to do something new is that they don't warm the players up to it. They just yell GO and expect people to adapt and because of that it took them almost five iterations on the same basic concept to get it close to being right for most of the community.

On the flip side there's the Baldesion Arsenal. It's riskier content, but because we already have had multi-tier raids in the game and because of how Eureka introduced the logos system it was much, MUCH easier for people to get into and love. It expanded upon an existing piece of content in what felt like an effortlessly natural way and if more of SE's attempts at newer content varieties were implemented with half as much care as BA, they wouldn't all be so divisive.

[linayar]

To be fair on that, Diadem wasn't well designed either the first or second time they brought it back. It was basically the content equivalent of throwing someone out of warm bath and into the Arctic Ocean. The third time they implemented it it was much better, and had they implemented it that way to start off with they could have then slowly expanded upon it to add combat zones for people to exploit for higher quality returns. FF14's biggest issue when they attempt to do something new is that they don't warm the players up to it. They just yell GO and expect people to adapt and because of that it took them almost five iterations on the same basic concept to get it close to being right for most of the community.

On the flip side there's the Baldesion Arsenal. It's riskier content, but because we already have had multi-tier raids in the game and because of how Eureka introduced the logos system it was much, MUCH easier for people to get into and love. It expanded upon an existing piece of content in what felt like an effortlessly natural way and if more of SE's attempts at newer content varieties were implemented with half as much care as BA, they wouldn't all be so divisive.

OP asked for risky content. If you're going to warm players up to it first, then where's the risk?

And that's why the answer to the OP is no. This game does not need to take risk. It can, but it doesn't have to, and if it does, do it for a side content that people can accept or not and it won't matter in the end. The main contents can be as predictable as ever in terms of regularity.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

They tried 'riskier' concepts, and the audience was not enthused. One word: Diadem.

It tickles me how Diadem will, without fail, get some kind of content update in every expac. I can't wait for 6.0 to take place entirely in the Diadem in order to force people to actually do it.

[Shurrikhan]

They tried 'riskier' concepts, and the audience was not enthused. One word: Diadem.

I'm not sure if a system which pursues a nearly lowest possible ratio of development time to time played metrics thereby inflated should be called "risky"...