Why do casuals act as if it's the end of the world when suggesting?

[Lauront]

The problem is that it all boils down to: Too Easy or Too Hard

As someone who is somewhat casual in this MMO (usually do some EXs but I wasn't too impressed with EW so not motivated to really), but enjoyed midcore raiding (and other content) in a prior MMO that shall not be named, agree with all this. People keep saying harder stuff in this is a song and dance memorisation routine, so not sure how much I'd enjoy devoting time to that.

My hope had been, regarding MSQ content, that they'd use the trusts to allow for an optional "ez mode", so that the normal/DF version can show more variety in difficulty and be less braindead, as some of these fights represent very powerful bosses, and the mechanical ease can be jarring - the EX modes are too camped up to be taken seriously often in that sense, being deliberate fabrications of the Minstrel. But instead they seem to be smoothing over content to make it Trust-compatible. I could not take Endsinger seriously for what she's meant to represent, although that fight was altogether too cheesy for me, and Zodiark really would've been better accommodated by a harder difficulty... and you could throw in a Trust easy mode for those who just want to play the game in a more "chilled" way. At the end of the day this is a game and I don't like things meant to be powerful just rolling over.

I'd also appreciate more "midcore" content, which is mechanically somewhat challenging and repeatable, but not a huge timesink. The new PVP mode sort of works for me that way but variety is great. And I second healer sentiments - even doing it at Alliance raid level, unless you're dealing with really bad runs, it's not difficult and the 1 button dps spam very quickly grows monotonous and boring, and on a healer like SGE I am barely even using half my kit without much struggle. Not sure who this is meant to appeal to.

To me, it's less a casual/hardcore divide, as being a casual does not stop me from appreciating challenge in the content and I part ways with any self-proclaimed casuals who don't. It is solely down to how much time I am willing/able to put in. People who actively want the content to be where it is now/easier are a separate category.

Because the word casual has lost its meaning and generally now just means lazy players..

[...]

I have virtually always considered myself a casual gamer. yet i play games on high difficulties , enjoy tough games like sekiro and bloodborne, and generally use games to suplement and add more challenges to life. where many people view games as escapism to escape there failing lives.

Meanwhile, high end players can get no significant joy of challenge out of:

• Any light party content.
• Any open world content.
• Alliance raids.
• Any large-zone side-content.

Anyone who wants some sort of challenge is offered only those three flavors of 8-man beat-a-cylinder-to-death-while-moving-to-the-right-places-at-the-right-time fights in perfectly circular or rectangular rooms. That's literally all they get.

If the devs need to cater to all play styles, why the heck is there no real midcore experience? Why is there only barrel's-bottom difficulty available to light party play? Why do all hard modes (Extremes, Savage, Ultimate, etc.) have an easy mode, but none of the other types have any hard mode?

Exactly.