Island Sanctuary feels intentionally slow and inefficient.

[LianaThorne]

I don't get why you're using casuals as a defense of time gates. If anything, the fact that this game is catered to casuals should mean time gates are more harmful. Wouldn't it be better if it was more flexible and less time gated so that casuals could spend time playing when they wanted? Imagine spending the whole week bogged down by work/school work + the rest of life and you just want to spend the weekend relaxing and building up your IS. Then you hit a couple of time gates and you can't do anything super meaningful with it for most of that free time.

My point was that it's meant to keep an even playing field between groups, not that it's catered to any particular group. And yes, they can do that but what happens when those who can play 24/7 zoom ahead while those who can't are making small bits of progress every couple of days or weekend? Would that not lead to some feeling like they can't keep up and abandon the activity all together when they realize the scope of what they need to do to get to where everyone else is?

I'd rather an online game lock progress for x amount of time to give everyone regardless of playstyle the chance to get to the same point before allowing for more content to be consumed by the whole. That's all I meant. It keeps it even. If you can't get there within the time gate then that sucks but it gives a chance at least.

Also, for the record, I'm thinking of time gating in a similar fashion to what Tower of Fantasy currently has. It gives everyone a chance to catch up to level cap before they unlock more.

[Rilifane]

My point was that it's meant to keep an even playing field between groups, not that it's catered to any particular group. And yes, they can do that but what happens when those who can play 24/7 zoom ahead while those who can't are making small bits of progress every couple of days or weekend? Would that not lead to some feeling like they can't keep up and abandon the activity all together when they realize the scope of what they need to do to get to where everyone else is?

I'd rather an online game lock progress for x amount of time to give everyone regardless of playstyle the chance to get to the same point before allowing for more content to be consumed by the whole. That's all I meant. It keeps it even. If you can't get there within the time gate then that sucks but it gives a chance at least.

Also, for the record, I'm thinking of time gating in a similar fashion to what Tower of Fantasy currently has. It gives everyone a chance to catch up to level cap before they unlock more.

Nothing. That would happen. So this random player over there has IS at max rank. Doesn't matter, doesn't make a difference.
There is no need to "keep an even playing field" for content that was specifically designed to have practically no impact on anything outside of that content. So what if someone fills their glamour dresser with fancy stuff faster than someone else? Or has collected more minions in a shorter time?
It has no impact.
Isn't one of the traits many people more on the casual side pride themselves in that they don't have the mindset of having to keep up because they're all about chill fun? Then there's no reason to timegate things hard and what Neko said, that someone could just spend an entire weekend doing nothing but IS if they feel like it has more merit than someone feeling like they "can't keep up" in casual content that was specifically designed in a way that there is nothing to keep up with - like with glam, minions, achievements, jumping puzzles, Gold Saucer etc.
None of that loses value if you are slower.

[Iyrnthota]

My point was that it's meant to keep an even playing field between groups, not that it's catered to any particular group. And yes, they can do that but what happens when those who can play 24/7 zoom ahead while those who can't are making small bits of progress every couple of days or weekend? Would that not lead to some feeling like they can't keep up and abandon the activity all together when they realize the scope of what they need to do to get to where everyone else is?

I'd rather an online game lock progress for x amount of time to give everyone regardless of playstyle the chance to get to the same point before allowing for more content to be consumed by the whole. That's all I meant. It keeps it even. If you can't get there within the time gate then that sucks but it gives a chance at least.

Also, for the record, I'm thinking of time gating in a similar fashion to what Tower of Fantasy currently has. It gives everyone a chance to catch up to level cap before they unlock more.

I can't help but be reminded of the old Fatigue System in 1.x they had to "even" progression, whereby xp gains would be reduced over time to stop people grinding to get ahead.

Generally panned as a pretty crappy idea.

I don't think people should be prevented from grinding, if that is their prefered method of playing. The timegating doesn't bother me personally, but given the choice I would remove them altogether tbh.

[LordGiggles]

My point was that it's meant to keep an even playing field between groups, not that it's catered to any particular group. And yes, they can do that but what happens when those who can play 24/7 zoom ahead while those who can't are making small bits of progress every couple of days or weekend? Would that not lead to some feeling like they can't keep up and abandon the activity all together when they realize the scope of what they need to do to get to where everyone else is?

I'd rather an online game lock progress for x amount of time to give everyone regardless of playstyle the chance to get to the same point before allowing for more content to be consumed by the whole. That's all I meant. It keeps it even. If you can't get there within the time gate then that sucks but it gives a chance at least.

Also, for the record, I'm thinking of time gating in a similar fashion to what Tower of Fantasy currently has. It gives everyone a chance to catch up to level cap before they unlock more.

An even playing field for what though? Outside of a few cosmetics there's really nothing to even out here. It's single player content, there's zero reason to ensure that everyone plays or finishes at the same time. As much of the the thread has said, this is not serious competitive content.

I also think the logic you've given here kind of inevitably leads to supporting some other choices we clearly all agree would be a bad idea (such as a cap on how much exp or how many ms quests you can beat per day/week, or a big fish/ocean fishing point cap).

I can't imagine people so casual they quit because they don't want to play the game when others are further ahead are much of a group worth caring about here anyway. It'd be a miracle if those people even beat EW at all.

[DezereDawn]

An even playing field for what though? Outside of a few cosmetics there's really nothing to even out here. It's single player content, there's zero reason to ensure that everyone plays or finishes at the same time. As much of the the thread has said, this is not serious competitive content.

I also think the logic you've given here kind of inevitably leads to supporting some other choices we clearly all agree would be a bad idea (such as a cap on how much exp or how many ms quests you can beat per day/week, or a big fish/ocean fishing point cap).

I can't imagine people so casual they quit because they don't want to play the game when others are further ahead are much of a group worth caring about here anyway. It'd be a miracle if those people even beat EW at all.

plus, with the current iteration, anyone who didn't immediately start Sanctuary at 3AM on launch day will be perpetually behind thanks to not being able to make any effort to catch up anyways lmao, it's timegating that doesn't even lighten up over time