Data from lucky bancho about participation in field content

[Shurrikhan]

Yeah I agree with that, I just can't quite "put my finger" on why.

I have this vague sense that there used to be a lot less of an aura of "exhaustion" with having to "do" anything in the game, and players having a little more zeal for "playing just to play", with the rewards being mostly a bonus for doing that, rather than the explicit purpose.

But I can't tell if it's just coloured selective memory or not.

And I think you may be right that it's partially something to do with a certain sense that something is "off" about XIV's reward structure at some fundamental level, though this isn't an area that I feel confident elaborating on further since it's not something I personally think about too much (because I'm not a collector-type and I'm personally not motivated by much besides 'Is this fun for me to play').

I'm similarly no collector and have been just taking things easy (lack of patience for static play after work, then grad school, etc.) and mostly just play whatever I feel like playing... but the fact that, say, Savage statics increasingly ramp up their ilvl requirements well above the default minimum so that one has to have done the previous tier or dropped millions on the new crafted gear just to be able to play it before its forks into just farm parties and trap parties, and I will occasionally feel pressure during a week I can't play much to just, say, get my tomes via the most efficient way possible so that I can retain the ability to PF Savages (usually just on my tank char of late) on at least one gear class.

I definitely got the same impression that there has been a shift and would agree that changes in zest and zeal are largely to blame, but I really do think the reward schemes both take the remainder of the cause... and probably indirectly caused much of that change in player (in)tolerance. But, I'm likewise not the best positioned to speak on the exacts of those problems in the fundamental reward schemes or what ought to be done about them.

All I can wish for presently is very rough: that 7.x and onward increasingly tries to break down, shorten, or thin out barriers between week-one-participants, between "real" content and all else, and between with-obvious-rewards content vs. transient content (for most, get your weapon/accessories and be off) vs. purely optional/no-obvious-rewards content -- better letting us instead just play what we want, with far less pressure to get in on the release rushes