Please grow the MMO part of the game. End game is lousy.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

As I've always said: if multiplayer "dies" in an MMO just because we have a choice of playing with bots, then the multiplayer part was just a facade. Let them pull away the veneer to show the joke that MMOs are.

I'm sure people who like interacting with others have already made a circle of friends to play with and/or joined a free company, and they can still play with them. Those who don't and won't do that won't do that no matter how far detached from reality the devs are who believe they will if they strongarm it enough (I mean, reaching this epiphany took them only a decade! Sheesh). The former lose nothing, the latter gain a more enjoyable game.

Also, it can only be considered a "visual novel" if they continue to fail at making the combat engaging.

[KizuyaKatogami]

As I've always said: if multiplayer "dies" in an MMO just because we have a choice of playing with bots, then the multiplayer part was just a facade. Let them pull away the veneer to show the joke that MMOs are.

I'm sure people who like interacting with others have already made a circle of friends to play with and/or joined a free company, and they can still play with them. Those who don't and won't do that won't do that no matter how far detached from reality the devs are who believe they will if they strongarm it enough (I mean, reaching this epiphany took them only a decade! Sheesh). The former lose nothing, the latter gain a more enjoyable game.

Also, it can only be considered a "visual novel" if they continue to fail at making the combat engaging.

Which is exactly what has happened. Look at how they’re treating healers and how they continue to gut and simplify jobs each expansion.

[DPZ2]

Which is exactly what has happened. Look at how they’re treating healers and how they continue to gut and simplify jobs each expansion.

You're upset that SE has chosen not to change your particular playstyles as much as you think is needed, not that they're adding Trusts to the main story line dungeon instances. The need to describe this game (or any game with a battle system, really) as a 'visual novel' is pretty telling.

If you truly believe this game is becoming a 'visual novel', then you must have really disliked World of Warcraft/Star Wars: The Old Republic/Rift/Guild Wars 2/ArcheAge/Blade and Soul (those are the icons I can see on my desktop at the moment, there are a number of others out there as well), since one can solo-level (i.e. experience the non-raid-oriented story lines) in those particular games without ever engaging with another person in-game. It's not optimal, and some of the fun you can have is definitely tied to group interactions (guilds/FCs/Parties). But you can do it.

I play visual novels. The dynamics are quite different. The end-game is extremely different. There is no "rapport" system in this game. You can't Romance any of the Scions. You can RP to your hearts content, but it isn't part of the base game.

The reason these games are classified as MMORPGs is the same reason FFXIV is an MMORPG. There are instances where players can group up; there are persistent, distinct worlds to play on, you can interact with other players to your hearts content. Or not.

[KizuyaKatogami]

You're upset that SE has chosen not to change your particular playstyles as much as you think is needed, not that they're adding Trusts to the main story line dungeon instances. The need to describe this game (or any game with a battle system, really) as a 'visual novel' is pretty telling.

If you truly believe this game is becoming a 'visual novel', then you must have really disliked World of Warcraft/Star Wars: The Old Republic/Rift/Guild Wars 2/ArcheAge/Blade and Soul (those are the icons I can see on my desktop at the moment, there are a number of others out there as well), since one can solo-level (i.e. experience the non-raid-oriented story lines) in those particular games without ever engaging with another person in-game. It's not optimal, and some of the fun you can have is definitely tied to group interactions (guilds/FCs/Parties). But you can do it.

I play visual novels. The dynamics are quite different. The end-game is extremely different. There is no "rapport" system in this game. You can't Romance any of the Scions. You can RP to your hearts content, but it isn't part of the base game.

The reason these games are classified as MMORPGs is the same reason FFXIV is an MMORPG. There are instances where players can group up; there are persistent, distinct worlds to play on, you can interact with other players to your hearts content. Or not.

It’s not about my particular playstyle. They have objectively been simplifying jobs since Shadowbringers. They have made healing incredibly simplified, they gutted sch dots, gutted ast cards and abilities, have continued to make healing more and more easy while doing nothing for the dps side of things on healers. Their stance on this was because the casual playerbase would find more dps abilities too difficult to manage, but that rings rather hollow at this point now that they’re specifically working on making the game entirely solo. It’s not about a particular playstyle it’s about engagement, and yoshi p quite literally showed he doesn’t care about healer concerns in the recent QnA.

Yes it’s effectively becoming a visual novel to me, considering how much easier dungeons are thus expansion and yoshi p going on record saying he wants to streamline them even more. Dungeons being streamlined even more at this point just means a visual novel where you hardly focus on the mobs and bosses and focus on the pretty lights in the background. The problem with devoting so many resources to making the game soloable is what about the people who aren’t invested or don’t care for the story? Endgame is the only thing for them and if that’s lacking then what’s the point of even playing?