Dungeons we need to talk dungeons

[RitsukoSonoda]

I think one of the core things missed from earlier MMO experiences though (in WoW or elsewhere), and perhaps one of the discussions most worth having, is that at certain times (more of matter of patches than expansions, to be honest), it didn't particularly matter if someone was "casual" or not. Those spheres didn't so delineate themselves. And yet, somehow, both sides felt neither especially

1. unengaged (as when there are insufficient difficulties at or higher than what would be doable by and engaging to a median player and/or the median difficulty has insufficient cognitive load or "stuff to do" in combat)...
2. nor excluded (as when there is seemingly insufficient content at or below difficulties that would be enjoyably doable by and engaging to a median player and/or the learning curve does not properly leverage earlier difficulty to promote later accessibility).

And, honestly, that may have had far less to do with difficulty range or the number of options or even the player climate so much as simply (A) proper use of learning curves, (B) available creativity and range of combat-related interaction even in solo play, and (C) use of reward systems (which can quickly become overbearing and thereby deemphasize intrinsic reward if led to become overly central to the gameplay loop).

Looking back I don't think casual started being used by players as a skill tier until WoW started getting popular. Before then Casual and Hardcore just indicated the average time a person spent playing the game and meant nothing in regards to player skill. There were highly skilled players in FFXI that were casual players that were only in game a few hours a week and on the same end there were Hardcore players that were in game more often than not that couldn't even clear the instanced story battles. Something FFXI had that most of these MMOs that came after it don't was a very large amount of horizontal progression. If a player didn't like 1 of the options or routes to obtain endgame level gear there were a number of other options available to them. It wasn't constantly powercreeping every update or expansion via an ilvl increase or level cap increase. It had a few early on up thru around early Zilart then stayed at that level through multiple expansions over years before they finally increased it again late in the title's time span.

One of the things about FFXI though is that a majority of the game's areas were accessible without having to complete the MSQ story lines. For the most part they only needed to be done to specific points if you wanted to unlock specific "endgame" content. This actually when looking at this title and other more recent MMOs to me feels like a better game design choice falling more in line with open world RPGs like Skyrim, Fallout 3/4, Outer Worlds, Biomutant, FFXV, etc where players were free to wander off to poke at optional content in all kinds of difficulties and level ranges then come back to the main story when they wanted to progress it. It didn't feel obligatory to do in order to progress and do anything else.

The stat squish they say will happen in Endwalker will hopefully slow down the power creep. I am curious about how this will impact duties in the level ranges indicated since the enemies in them are going to need to be retuned or balanced as well otherwise everyone is going to get facerolled by the first group of monsters when they enter. (Though I would atleast find that funny the first time it happened.)