What is Midcore? Why does it matter?

[DPZ2]

Can you even hear us down here, on top of that mountain?

All I hear is that haunting yodeling refrain: riiiiicooolaaaaaa

[that's a dis on your own presumption, not on the person you're responding to in a passive-agressive way]

[R041]

All I hear is that haunting yodeling refrain: riiiiicooolaaaaaa

[that's a dis on your own presumption, not on the person you're responding to in a passive-agressive way]

Yeah - Because it's just an out of touch and insane opinion for people to look at the Casual to Hardcore graph like this:






As if there's no form of middle-ground, and anyone that isn't conforming to doing the absolute soul-crushing content with a static is a Low-Tier Casual.

I mean they can have that opinion, that's fine. It just looks silly, and I only wish them the best on top of that mountain.

Funny how one person writes "Savage", and another immediately reads that as "Ultimates". There is a bit of a bias there.

Now a complaint about, I dunno, Variant instances not being casual yet, somehow, not being midcore because of Rewards ... might be interesting. Or not. (I think it's been posted to death by now).

I've always liked this short treatise on what makes a gamer 'casual', 'midcore' or 'hardcore': https://steamcommunity.com/groups/th...5033754098617/

That link for Midcore is very close to my OP. It's Mid-Something, not necessarily hardcore. But definitely not always casual. People are super aggressive about it being Casual because it can sometimes lean into Casual with Flexibility.


They said Ultimates, and I went to an extreme because I'm petty. Here lemme edit it for you.. lol

[ChonkGoblinSuprem]

Anyone better than me at the game is a tryhard nolifer poopsock. Anyone worse than me is a filthy nublet casual bish.

[DPZ2]

Funny how one person writes "Savage", and another immediately reads that as "Ultimates". There is a bit of a bias there.

Now a complaint about, I dunno, Variant instances not being casual yet, somehow, not being midcore because of Rewards ... might be interesting. Or not. (I think it's been posted to death by now).

I've always liked this short treatise on what makes a gamer 'casual', 'midcore' or 'hardcore': https://steamcommunity.com/groups/th...5033754098617/

[Raikai]

At a minimum, I think we need to fix or make a new Synced Wondrous Tails.

You know, I'd love if we had that. Running unsyc'd solo just for the weekly stamps is fine and all (I do it myself when I'm running out of time), but I wish it had a good incentive to run that old EX/Savage content sync'd. Maybe changing WT would be too much of a hassle, so I'd think it could be something else, that is not messing with the Unreal mode either.

To my experience, I think the closest we have for midcore in Endwalker are the EX trials if I consider that the mechanics are slightly easier than Savages. We need something like that, but with less time involved. I thought that maybe V&C would fill that niche perfectly, but in practice the Criterion difficulty is Savage levels, while the actual Savage is even beyond that.

There's also one thing intrinsic to XIV's encounter design that may play a big factor on the devs not able to be successful delivering midcore, and is the fact that what is hard about an encounter is puzzle solving, not performance checks unless you're prog enough to clear the fight. This kind of difficulty threshold has a limited 'shelf life', because once you memorize whatever it is, it becomes trivial, whereas a performance check (like what happens for average players in WoW's Mythic+'s midcore range) is dynamic because it depends on more personal stuff like your class, gear, etc. It may facilitate a more toxic environment, but in a vaccuum it feels more interesting that how XIV handles things.

[Fawkes]

Island sanctuary is midcore.

[DPZ2]

YThey said Ultimates, and I went to an extreme because I'm petty. Here lemme edit it for you.. lol

They actually wrote "savage/ultimates" in the first sentence, and the last one ended with a comment about players at "savage level" ...

You defaulted to reading 'ultimates' and apparently stopped reading anything after that. Or just plain forgot and are unwilling to admit it.

[SannaR]

Trying to categorize content into casual, midcore, and hardcore is inherently flawed because it lacks nuance. I understand wanting to be able to quickly and accurately describe the type of gameplay experience certain types of content offer either to describe what you're looking for or to recommend things to friends or new players, but I think we could do a better job at describing different types of content by breaking down casual, midcore, and hardcore just a little further:

Fast Food: The Taco Bell type content. The kind of content that has little-to-no bar of entry. You get in, you get out, and you're done. Think a drive through--instant gratification for minimal effort and minimal cost.

Fast Casual: The Chipotle type content. You want to put in a little more time in exchange for a little more quality, but the experience is still quick and to-the-point. You have the option to sit down for a little while, but you generally don't stay there long.

Cafe Style: The hipster coffee shop type content. You want something light and modestly priced, but you want to stay and linger. You aren't in a rush to leave, rather, you want to stick around and enjoy the atmosphere.

Restaurant Style: The sit-down restaurant type content. This is where you want to make a commitment. You're here to invest your time for a higher quality experience, but one that also doesn't require an aggressive amount of preparation. There's no dress code, and the cost is still quite manageable.

Fine Dining: The dress code restaurant type content. This is for those who want an experience, and will pay the cost to have it. Here, there's an expectation of you--a dress code. You can't roll up in jeans and a T-shirt; you need to look the part, and you're going to take all the time you want to get the most out of your time there.

This is probably one of the better descriptors.

[Rolder50]

The definition of midcore is very fluid and varies between people. In my opinion, content that requires effort to learn and clear but doesn't necessarily require a static group with a set schedule would qualify as midcore. So things that make you think but can reasonably be done with pugs.

With this definition, the content that would qualify would be like Extreme and Unreal trials, and maybe the first couple floors of Savage. There isn't much.

I think it's important because it gives something to do for people who want content that requires actual effort and skill but isn't so hard as to require you to schedule around it.\\

Edit: I like that fast food comparison up there and would equate it to Cafe Style.

[R041]

They actually wrote "savage/ultimates" in the first sentence, and the last one ended with a comment about players at "savage level" ...

You defaulted to reading 'ultimates' and apparently stopped reading anything after that. Or just plain forgot and are unwilling to admit it.

Idk if that's the gotcha you think it is, because there's no detective work needed. It would've been easier for you to just tell me I'm a PoS for being petty, but instead you chose to come up with a conspiracy theory.




Edit: (I feel like Renathras with all these edits)

It's rather unfortunate that this thread was seemingly started in good faith and has had some good discussion yet has consistent attempts of derailment by the OP. Quite bizarre.

Nature of the forums when people attack each other. You can't honestly see these responses to my post as good faith? They're mostly condescending - Anyway, read any thread and we all get a little weird after the first couple pages.

But I'll take a step back - If anyone starts some shit, then they can just hold onto that shit for themselves. I apologize for aggressively.. Memeing. lol





Edit 2: (Oh god, the walls are closing in, I have no posts left. Have mercy.)

Anyway, anyway.. I might just be a Casual. Reading all of these posts, I don't have a lot of faith in anyone knowing what Midcore is, memes or not. Especially myself. These are just things I always assumed were 'Mid', with spice.

I just know I really want content to do that can retain my sanity from both extremes of the spectrum in difficulty. So it might not necessarily mean it doesn't exist, but it sure is lackluster for me right now.