Content geared towards FCs

[Jeeqbit]

An easy way to see that FCs organize events just fine is to look at the Community Finder. A lot of them talk about the events they run.

Here are a few examples I found from a casual glance.

1. "We also do weekly fc runs - mounts, wepon farms, savages new and old, events, we even have a weekly movie night on Wednesdays in discord."

2. "What You Can Expect!!! Treasure Hunt, Mount Hunting, Full FC Raid Static For Upcoming UWU, Glam Farming & Design With Our Eorzea Collection Experts, Daily Roulette Anytime, Deep Dungeons, Relic Weapons Farming, Gposing Studio & In Game Photographers, Housing Design, Heat of Battle II and Seal Sweetener II Always Active, Medium FC House In The Empyreum, Small Beach House In Mist, Discord Available, Crafting Service Available From Our Master Crafter, Just Provide The Materials!, Impromptu Concerts & Parties, Special Events Planned For The Future, Halloween Party. Thanksgiving, XMAS ECT!, Fully Improved Workshop With Master Omni Crafters"

3. "What we have to offer. Heat of Battle ll & Reduced Rates ll Monday-Saturday, crafting/gathering xp buffs on Sundays, Weekly treasure map nights, Housing in The Lavender Beds, A discord server to chat & keep connected outside of the game, Food for leveling & crafting/gathering in the fc chest at all times, Groups for farming whatever you may need! Mats, mounts, fates, relics. Eureka & Bozja. You name it! Blue mage enthusiasts"

4. "Benefits include: Free Company Buffs, Free Daily Chocobo Training/Leveling - Krakka Roots and Thavnarian Onions are also provided for free to our members. Free Company Discord, Gaming Community Discord - Free weekly/biweekly game giveaways. Free Company Mentors - A system to assist members in achieving their in-game goals. Crafting Committee - A committee that provides free gear to our members daily (up to endgame, level 90 currently). Mercenary Committee - A committee dedicated to assisting members clear content/MSQ daily. Newsletter - Our way to inform busy members weekly of current Free Company activities while they are away. Weekly Meetings - Another way to keep our members informed and many giveaways after each meeting. Fashion Crew - A team that will gear you up (For free, provided by the FC) and earn you a score of 80+ for max MGP weekly! GC turn in assistance: Our team of crafters will make you daily GC turn ins for your crafters and show you the ropes. Event Committee - A committee that explores the depths of content that FFXIV has to offer EVERY WEEK, see below. (We try to run at least two FC activities daily)

Events: Mount Farming. EX Mount Prog. Treasure Maps: We run THREE map events weekly and the Free Company provides all maps for free. Alliance Raid Night: Come join the FC as we run the latest 24 man content each week. Old School Raid Night: go back in time and clear old raid content (savage and normal). Fate Achievements. BLU leveling and Raiding. Fishing with Friends. ShB Gemstone Fates. We run Holiday events and special monthly events for our members. We always give out the best prizes and gil during these events! Jackbox Night. If there is a interest in other events not mentioned here - Bozja, Eureka, Unsync'd Raids, Sight Seeing Logs, Triple Triad, ect. We will set up events to meet the members needs/wants."

I truncated some of it, but you get the point. I got this information from the first 5 FCs I looked at. They don't seem to have any problems at all.

[Vidu]

To his point...there is alot of gated content in one way or another that requires far more effort to participate in. Joining an FC is not difficult to do also giving groups content to have fun doing that is aimed at guilds banding together (if implemented consciously) could really breathe life into the community and really end up being fun but we cant fathom that because were worried about a "gate"?? Come on....I've defended this game for over 10 years and this is literally one of the reasons why our community gets clowned (not that it matters but ijs).....a little soft to be brutally honest.

While joining (or creating) an FC is indeed not difficult, organising content for and with that FC always will be - no matter if its content designed only for FCs or the content we already have that can be done with people from your FC.
Content that is designed to help you band together will still require you to make plans to actually play together - just as the content we have now. It also leaves a lot of room to achieve the absolute opposite by "forcing" you to exclude people from said content because its always going to support only a limited number of people. Or you'll have so many different schedudles to work with that naturally you'll have to tell the nightshift-guy "Sorry, maybe next time" if the rest of you can make 8pm. Unless of course you have content like FC-credits that does not require people to actively play together in the first place...

[Raven2014]

snip

Some FC are even creative enough to make event that's not even a content. One of my favorite was hide and seek.

- We raffle a map that we gonna use for that week.
- Every member who want to participate are given 10min to go hide anywhere on the map.
- After 10 min a couple officers will try to go and find people.
- The people who manage to remain hidden after the time limit win a prize.

They also do things like help people clear savage or EX if they had seen the whole fight and just can't find the right party. (Like not carry, but if you had put in time and effort to learn, they'll help you through the finishing line).

Another thing about FC is social vibe, the one I was in had good vibe, and because of that people hang around the FC house unless they're doing something specific. In fact, you can almost tell some have their own spot. Like you can always find this lala ontop of the stable. There a group of friends who always seem to have a pinic on the yard. And you could always caught a few people just running up and down the street in front of the house or jumping over the fence. The officers also have designate class lead that can mentor if anyone want to improve their play. And holiday? Man it's a house party on holidays.

In fact, that FC was run so well that I truly believe I would have been in it forever. Sadly, one day drama happen and it became history. But because of that I know an FC live or die not because of the content, but because of the people in it.

[caffe_macchiato]

They don't seem to have any problems at all.

Try joining one of them and see how it is when, out of 150+ people, only <10 are online at primetime.

It's time for us to realize that we've been living in an echo chamber. It's not normal for the game director to tell us to play a different game. It's not normal for an MMO to struggle in social activities. It's not normal for FFXIV players to genuinely loathe having to play their own game. Most of us have very, very low standards. The player base just doesn't seem to enjoy FFXIV like they do other games. And while one can certainly opt to play old content, or make do with what we have, players just simply aren't in the mood for that. That's why they take breaks for months at a time. It's time for Square Enix to fix that by providing more incentives for group content instead of making everything single-player like the shareholders tell them.

Or you can play other games, your choice. I'm sticking with FFXIV.

[Jeeqbit]

Try joining one of them and see how it is when, out of 150+ people, only <10 are online at primetime.

And while one can certainly opt to play old content, or make do with what we have, players just simply aren't in the mood for that. That's why they take breaks for months at a time.

All of this is a symptom of the truth, which is that if you ever used Steam, you would notice that all of the people on a friends list usually play a game or DLC that just came out for a few days, then they finish it and stop playing. When an MMO releases a new patch, they are usually playing it for a few days, then they play something else. This is so easy to see on Steam that once you've seen it, you understand exactly why SE makes patch content that can be finished within a few days. Because most gamers will only consume it for a few days and move onto the next game.

We might as well also ask the question why a lot of content only lasts 20 minutes. That's really simple as well. People come home and have 2 hours to play in the evening. They don't want to be asked to be in a raid for 8 hours as if they don't have other things in their life. That's unfortunate for people that actually don't have other things in their life, but as far as I can tell most people do.

Playing just one game like this all of the time is not something most people do but if we really want to, this is what all the achievements and lengthy grinds are for. As I showed in my previous post, all these free companies have no trouble setting up events to do this short but farmable content and the scheduling can help people with limited time get the content done.

It's not normal for the game director to tell us to play a different game.

Maybe not, but because Yoshi-P has designed the game around most people's casual gaming habits, he knows that every patch will get people to login for a few days and that he won't lose those players forever because he's designed it to work for them.

It's time for Square Enix to fix that by providing more incentives for group content instead of making everything single-player like the shareholders tell them.

Last time I checked, most of the content in the game was designed for a party except quests.

[Atelier-Bagur]

It's not mentality issue, it's called strawmen and reaching, which is what you're doing. Ultimate sitting behind Savage is what you call progression. Do you know why?

Because if you step into Ultimate without Savage gears, you're literally gonna get ONE SHOT by the first mechanic. And that's not an exaggeration. Even in BiS gear, missing a single mit or missing even just food and you gonna still get high rolled to the floor. Going in there with a whole tier of gear missing ? Yeah, unless you want to just zoning into the area counted as "accessing" content, than power to you, but I think most people won't.

- There are gating that naturally make sense, and usually people just see it as a sequence. Finish the story of the previous expack before the current one. Clearing the previous floor of a raid before accessing the next one.

- There are gating that's a necessity for the medium, like weekly cap. No player like it, but it's there 'cause no MMO can hope to survive without it.

- And there are gating like the one you're requesting, gating only for the shake of gating and nothing else. Thanks but no thanks.




Hear that, the man who said not everything need to be catered to anyone, yet accusing people disagree as people selfish only care about themselves with a straight face.

Funny how its actually you being the strawman here. Keep making lame excuses for why they shouldnt continue doing unique things for the systems already built into this game. Keep discouraging the devs from trying to find different ways to do the content we already do just for the sake of wanting to make everyone happy, in a community space where people do their own thing. Oh how terrible it is for those whom dont care about FC stuff miss out on new activities you can do with an FC, how terrible it is for them to dedicate resources for updating pvp even though a lot of us tend to not care for it. How dare they branch out and make new forms of content. This is the same problem MMOs like WoW had with them introducing new gameplay systems but then soon abandon them and never update them.

I already said I dont much care for FCs but I know a ton of people whom put hours of work running their own little communities and I feel it would be cool if they ever create more things for that circle of space within FFXIV. But no just because YOU decide to not care for it, then it's not worth it. Yes I do know that they tried systems like this with Diadem and what not and it failed, but I would never want for them to just not try again and make something better.

[Deveryn]

All of this is a symptom of the truth, which is that if you ever used Steam, you would notice that all of the people on a friends list usually play a game or DLC that just came out for a few days, then they finish it and stop playing. When an MMO releases a new patch, they are usually playing it for a few days, then they play something else. This is so easy to see on Steam that once you've seen it, you understand exactly why SE makes patch content that can be finished within a few days. Because most gamers will only consume it for a few days and move onto the next game.

Thanks. I had long forgotten about this problem and why I just stick with an MMO (and this one in particular.)

I already said I dont much care for FCs but I know a ton of people whom put hours of work running their own little communities and I feel it would be cool if they ever create more things for that circle of space within FFXIV. But no just because YOU decide to not care for it, then it's not worth it. Yes I do know that they tried systems like this with Diadem and what not and it failed, but I would never want for them to just not try again and make something better.

It might be cool if they did something, but why? You say they can try again make something better. What does that look like?

[Raven2014]

Funny how its actually you being the strawman here. Keep making lame excuses for why they shouldnt continue doing unique things for the systems already built into this game. Keep discouraging the devs from trying to find different ways to do the content we already do just for the sake of wanting to make everyone happy, in a community space where people do their own thing. Oh how terrible it is for those whom dont care about FC stuff miss out on new activities you can do with an FC, how terrible it is for them to dedicate resources for updating pvp even though a lot of us tend to not care for it. How dare they branch out and make new forms of content. This is the same problem MMOs like WoW had with them introducing new gameplay systems but then soon abandon them and never update them.

Yeah dude, like I can't even make out what you're trying to say here, seem like you just picking up random stuff and make it into a rambling hotpot. You're desperately projecting and putting words in my mouth. So hope you don't mind if I just stop responding to you in this thread.

In a way though, this kinda remind me how politician act. One side wrote a bill like "This bill will support the working class!", but also attach a "pork" provision in the same bill about giving take break to the rich. So when the opposition denies to support the bill (because of the tax break), they accuse the opposition as anti-working class because they didn't agree to said bill.

My parting work to you: your claim about making new content and your demand for FC exclusive content are two - completely - separated - things. They're like the main text and the pork of a house bill. I have no problem with your main text, but I don't like your pork, that's all there is to it.

[Vidu]

Try joining one of them and see how it is when, out of 150+ people, only <10 are online at primetime.

It's time for us to realize that we've been living in an echo chamber. It's not normal for the game director to tell us to play a different game. It's not normal for an MMO to struggle in social activities. It's not normal for FFXIV players to genuinely loathe having to play their own game. Most of us have very, very low standards. The player base just doesn't seem to enjoy FFXIV like they do other games. And while one can certainly opt to play old content, or make do with what we have, players just simply aren't in the mood for that. That's why they take breaks for months at a time. It's time for Square Enix to fix that by providing more incentives for group content instead of making everything single-player like the shareholders tell them.

Or you can play other games, your choice. I'm sticking with FFXIV.

You mention wanting more group content - fine, I can get behind that idea (though I do believe that adding as much flexiability to content as possible when it comes the amount of people needed is a good thing, since it allows you to actually play the game when you want to play it, not sit around and wait for other people...).
But what would be the benefit to limit that group content artificial to only the FC you're in? Assuming this mysterious content needs somewhat fixed numbers of people (and if its only a soft-cap like "With less than 4 of us we dont need to attempt it, it wont work") you've now limited the pool of potential people to group with to your FC - so from a few thousand on your datacenter to a few houndred (max) in your FC. If one person misses the date you set for some reason you cant just recruit a replacement from your friendslist or through PF, you potentially dont get to do that content for that day, great! I dont know if you can relate to this experience but on occassions people in my static bailed with very short notice or no notice at all - from PCs breaking down to family emergencies to forgetting the time and oversleeping. Most of the time we've been able to find a replacement, usually drawing from our friendslists. Had we been limited to just people from our FC, this would not have been possible and quite a few evenings would have ended with 7 people not playing the game.

So sure, lets have more group content - but you're not doing anyone a favor, not even yourself, if you lock this content behind or for FCs. Organising scheduldes with people who have jobs, families, different timezones is difficult as it is... Limiting the pool of people to draw from to FCs wont do the social aspect much good, I believe - now you get requirements like "must be playing between 8 and 11pm on at least three weekdays and a whole day every weekend or you'll be removed from the FC".

At the end of the day, I find FFXIV very much enjoyable without being forced into social activities - for me this is a game, that I want to play when I want to play, first. While I enjoy the social interactions and have made quite a few friends I'm not paying my subscribtion for those, I'm paying to play a game. And that means actually getting to play it - not having google docs to figure out when everyone would be available to do stuff.

[MonteCristo]

Try joining one of them and see how it is when, out of 150+ people, only <10 are online at primetime.

It's time for us to realize that we've been living in an echo chamber. It's not normal for the game director to tell us to play a different game. It's not normal for an MMO to struggle in social activities. It's not normal for FFXIV players to genuinely loathe having to play their own game. Most of us have very, very low standards. The player base just doesn't seem to enjoy FFXIV like they do other games. And while one can certainly opt to play old content, or make do with what we have, players just simply aren't in the mood for that. That's why they take breaks for months at a time. It's time for Square Enix to fix that by providing more incentives for group content instead of making everything single-player like the shareholders tell them.

Or you can play other games, your choice. I'm sticking with FFXIV.

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