Concern for onboarding experience of new players

[NegativeS]

Game not hard enough....need more epeen.

EDIT: Wait, this is OPs first and only thread and replies.

This thread stinks of troll.

Nah, thread seems like it had too much thought put into it to be a troll thread. I actually agree with some of his points.

[Aringhe]

People dying to a 1-shot mechanic and implying "that's enough difficulty" is a strawman.

If you unironically use strawman in a conversation about opinions then you need to take a nap instead of venting on forums, IMO.

I can't even remember an MMO that was actually hard or offered any challenge outside of optional side content (like the BAMs in Tera).

I think a lot of people overlook the experience they get from playing other MMOs more often than not. I'm not sure if you (or people who have played multiple MMOs for long periods of time) are aware that the things you do in one type of game seems to directly translate to others and greatly impacts your sense of difficulty in games that utilizes similar mechanisms.

[van_arn]

The problem isn’t that the early game is easy. The problem is the game doesn’t have any content on the spectrum of difficulty until optional content is unlocked or multiple expansions into the msq.

I want the msq to be easy — just not free. It's mindless for too long.

[Snowdove]

As someone who is still going through the MSQ for the first time, let me say it isn't the difficulty that is putting people off.


It's the slog of the MSQ. It wouldn't be so bad if you read some story, went out and did some stuff, then go back and read more story.


The way FF14 does it, it's read a metric ton, go and do something for 60 seconds, then go back and read another metric ton of stuff.


I'm literally spending 10-20 minutes reading, going somewhere else, reading more, going somewhere else, reading yet more stuff, then finally going somewhere and -- oh, read more stuff. Now, finally, I get to shoot something! Oh, back to reading more stuff.


I know this is FF and this is how things are done. Lots of story. Fine. But break it up a bit more and give us something exciting to do.


These Steven King novels between beating on something is punishing.

[Sclair0]

I dont necessarily feel like MSQ needs a tune up (unless they ever actually bother to split up Praetorium and Castrum into dungeons and trials, they definitely do need to be harder)

But I do agree there is a lack of challenging content, especially during early levelling where the game is trying to teach players new to the genre how to play an MMO.

I'd definitely like to see more challenging content, and more content like the original deep dungeon, that retroactively gives people in the lowest levelling tiers something to engage with.

[IdowhatIwant]

This same complaint can be said about most MMOs outside of it's initial release. The MSQ is not really meant to be difficult it is meant to tell a story and it would not be fair to gate people behind a difficult MSQ. That being said we have had difficult final bosses in MSQ, Shinryu is a good example where a lot of people were struggling to clear it and that also caused people to complain.

[Kes13a]

As someone who is still going through the MSQ for the first time, let me say it isn't the difficulty that is putting people off.


It's the slog of the MSQ. It wouldn't be so bad if you read some story, went out and did some stuff, then go back and read more story.


The way FF14 does it, it's read a metric ton, go and do something for 60 seconds, then go back and read another metric ton of stuff.


I'm literally spending 10-20 minutes reading, going somewhere else, reading more, going somewhere else, reading yet more stuff, then finally going somewhere and -- oh, read more stuff. Now, finally, I get to shoot something! Oh, back to reading more stuff.


I know this is FF and this is how things are done. Lots of story. Fine. But break it up a bit more and give us something exciting to do.


These Steven King novels between beating on something is punishing.

If only... they put in some way to skip the story you dislike reading.

if they did that, and maybe then added in someplace.. like a book in the inn that you could go through at your leisure...

I wish they came up with and implemented an idea like that, I bet it would help you.

[Vahlnir]

Nah, thread seems like it had too much thought put into it to be a troll thread. I actually agree with some of his points.

That's how they get you hook, line and sinker.

But yeah, I don't think this is a troll thread. I don't necessarily agree with their points, but its their opinion all the same. I think they are looking at it all wrong. It's not the difficulty level that makes it a slog early on, it's that ARR, especially post 50 ARR, is quite a drag story wise even with the streamlining they did. I wouldn't wish ARR on anyone, but it has become more of a "rite of passage" of sorts. It wasn't so bad back in the day, but those of us who were around then were able to do it in small doses due to the patch cycle.

[Kes13a]

That's how they get you hook, line and sinker.

But yeah, I don't think this is a troll thread. I don't necessarily agree with their points, but its their opinion all the same. I think they are looking at it all wrong. It's not the difficulty level that makes it a slog early on, it's that ARR, especially post 50 ARR, is quite a drag story wise even with the streamlining they did. I wouldn't wish ARR on anyone, but it has become more of a "rite of passage" of sorts. It wasn't so bad back in the day, but those of us who were around then were able to do it in small doses due to the patch cycle.

it IS a slog, yes, seems to go on.

but it does make sense. and for you, even more sense because they remade 1.0, made ARR and the post 50 was them essentially realigning with what direction Yoshi wanted to go it. so, yeah, it makes sense, but it did seem to drag a bit

after that.. .its been awesome

[Platinumstorm]

I think there is an issue where there aren't enough moves to use at low levels.