CBU3. Please respect your players.

[Absurdity]

Lastly, there are more people playing the game today than back then. So it's a fact that more people are playing healer than they were 6 years ago even if healing is still in a shortage.

Which is exactly why one can't just confidently state that we have more healers now than back in Heavensward either.

Do we have any concrete data on what percentage of the overall playerbase mains healers now and how many did back then (and I mean actually main, not have the job leveled to 90)? None that I know of at least.

[Elissar]

Wait a minute is hard mode actually locked behind completing the game once?
Lame if true, give me mf critical mode right of the bat.

Actually many games do that...Resident Evil franchise, DMC, Bayonetta...

[Kazhar]

Actually many games do that...Resident Evil franchise, DMC, Bayonetta...

They're not anywhere as long.
Also they usually have non-braindead normal difficulty.

[Nav_Fae]

Which is exactly why one can't just confidently state that we have more healers now than back in Heavensward either.

Do we have any concrete data on what percentage of the overall playerbase mains healers now and how many did back then (and I mean actually main, not have the job leveled to 90)? None that I know of at least.

It's impossible to get concrete data for anything. But at this point it's arguing semantics. In a hypothetical example, we could say that there were 1mil players back than and that 200,000 of them were healers. This would claim that 20% of those players were healers. But we could say, that 10mil players play now and that 1mil of them play healers. That would be 10% play healer. This would make both statements true. That there is a shortage of healers and that more play healer today. Of course, most people who look at data would pay attention to the percentage over the total and say that the number of healers has decreased because it is less than the previous statistical value. I do think it is a reasonable (even if inaccurate) assumption to believe that this math is likely how the game has played out though, seeing as the game's total population is without question higher.

This is exceptionally difficult to calculate in any meaningful way since players can change their main job of choice at any time, leveling multiple jobs, and play jobs on alts.

[Elissar]

They're not anywhere as long.
Also they usually have non-braindead normal difficulty.

I am just saying facts, "braindead" can be relative.

[R041]

More like Normal Mode being locked behind Easy Mode. Amirite lool ....

[Elissar]

More like Normal Mode being locked behind Easy Mode. Amirite lool ....

Tbh, at least they had the decency to add new rewards in NG+. Some games like The Witcher 2 do it by difficult level (Dark mode is great), as example of awful design i can mention Dark Souls 1, NG+ is pure trash.

[Minarisweet]

Im all for criticism but this isnt the ffxvi forums...

[Nav_Fae]

Im all for criticism but this isnt the ffxvi forums...

It's not. But does it count as a Creative Business Unit 3 forum? I suppose that is the real question.

[sharknado]

[*]Unchallenging dungeons, normal raids, and alliance raids

Not sure if normal should be "challenging" by most/all player's definitions.

[*]Crafting and gathering stripped of their complexity

It's just enormous time sinks doing brain-dead actions. For me, it looks like FF14 expansions are intended to be played on the first and last patch, possibly with scrip gear to avoid all the time sinks and whatnot. Marketboard mass crafters are likely happy though

[*]Manderville relics

I grinded few old relics but only because of their looks. Not really see a value in having some elaborate grind for weapons that usually have generic to moderate looks... maybe if Manderville weapons would be something more...

Meanwhile to play a CBU3 game like FF14 or FF16 is to be insulted by the developers as they put baby guardrails all over the game.

There is a very limited audience for hard competitive content and it brings a rather harmful meta-driven approach to the game.