Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
I guess that just brings to question, what is an arbitrary standard?

Let's not pretend the numbers (e.g., boss HP and enrage timers) aren't coming from somewhere. Do we call each player playing at ~80% of what their character, if perfectly mapped out, could do in that fight under identical conditions "arbitrary"?
If the enrage timer were set to whatever clear time play-testers managed with mild experience over the given spec but decent enough understanding of many other factors of "good play" in the average of a few trial runs, is that, too, "arbitrary"?

Similarly, if someone, in having found several more ways by which to engage with their job -- say, by learning how to make use of a Yaten-Enpi extension for rotational sync, how to swap in an early Yuki rotationally to have Yaten-Enpi available for forced melee downtime, when to rotate in a Yuki-Hagakure vs. a Gekko/Kasha-Hagakure, when to remain in scripted Haga rotation vs. switch to "overclocked" or "ad-hoc" rotation -- and like that content is initially tuned for a given tier to have stakes by which that engagement felt pertinent and rewarding, is it "arbitrary" that they would want to see that tuning principle remain?
Well let's look at one that's commonly brought up relating to more casual content: time spent.

I've seen all over these forums that people expect a dungeon to take no more than 15 minutes. If it goes to even something like 18, they feel that is too much.

But where in the game design is that a requirement? That's what makes it arbitrary. They're not using the time allowed by the game and in this content you usually don't run into an enrage timer. It's an arbitrary standard created by a segment of the community. There's no statements by the devs or anything in their design that says the content can't be completed outside that standard. Just the expectations of some people they visit upon people in a situation where they let the game randomly match them up with others who may have differing playstyles.

One of the things people need to do when they put their fate into the hands of the random matching system is not be so unbendable on those expectations. Because PUG situations can be very different. If they aren't willing or able to play with less than perfect players, the game does give them the option of going in premade.