/r/ffxivdiscussion: A stricter ilvl sync is the solution to casual content being easy

[Erzaa]

FFXIV isn't a RPG. It is a single player game with mmo elements sprinkled in.

In that case, based on your previous argument, power creep shouldn't be a problem, because it's ok for single player games to allow players to be strong.

This is false. There is no truth to this whatsoever.

Interesting. So in your mind, a seasoned pianist has the same struggles as a student just starting out?

If you want to talk about how a real world concept is translated into a video game, then in order to get better and stronger, you have to push yourself. It doesn't happen by tackling challenges that are too easy for you. Ask any weight lifter if they feel more powerful when they do lifts that are easy for them, or when they go past their previous max lift. Ask any runner if they feel more powerful by run a distance they're used to, or when they go past their previous limit. Your sense of power and progression is false. Sorry.

You did push yourself. You completed that level 50 encounter when you were at level 50 and have now surpassed it, overcame it. Repeating that encounter should now be easy for you. Once you've mastered the basics, they are just that, the basics. Or do you believe repeating a Plié is to a Prima Ballerina anything but a warmup? The current challenge is to master an entire dance routine.

Games are supposed to be fun and challenging.

Says who? For that matter, who's to say what's challenging to one person, isn't easy for the next? Who defines what challenging means?

Otherwise, what are you even doing? What exactly are you being entertained by that you can't get from reading a book, watching a movie, or something else that does not require your engagement.

I'm being entertained. As you said, I can watch a movie, read a book, cook a meal, play a video game, do anything I find entertaining. That's why video games fall under entertainment.

Stop being selfish.

The only one being selfish here is you. You want everyone else to play like you'd like to play. Add to that, you responded rudely to a valid remark, and were factually incorrect in your response.

The entire point of my post is that you responded to an opposing argument providing an objectively wrong statement. XP and gear have always existed in RPGs for the very purpose of providing a player with meaningful progression, as evidence of a mastery of their art. Just as in real life, when you practice and practice something, you improve on it, become better, and the basics become easy, as second nature, and you also eventually upgrade to using better tools. That's the reason for its very existence from the day it was conceived.

You're under the impression that I am just thinking about myself.

You are though. Because you're incapable of considering others' point of view. Like how you completely skipped the part of my argument where I said:

Having said that, I do understand the argument for say a level 50 player not seeing the whole fight, because gear and higher level players make the content too easy to blast through. At level 50, a level 50 encounter should be hard, at level 90, a level 50 encounter should be a joke.

If you believe as a level 90 character, in full gear, you should be struggling in a level 50 encounter as if it's your first time doing it, then I don't know what to tell you, except that's an irrational idea.

The problem for SE arises from the fact they need seasoned players to keep the queues filled, in order for the content to still be available for new players.

When a new player with crappy gear enters a duty, they should ideally see all the mechanics, experience the whole fight, struggle and overcome it.

However, seasoned players who've completed this challenge and have better gear, stats and knowledge of it, blast through the encounter. Why? Because this is a challenge they've already overcome and it should rightfully be easy for them.

How do you balance these two opposite scenarios? On the one hand, you want the new player to experience the whole fight and overcome said challenge, on the other hand, you don't want to eliminate the seasoned player's progress and make them feel like they're still weak and useless and all their accomplishments were for naught.

So far, they've settled on what you might call a middle ground.

The very concept of syncing someone experienced down, removing abilities they've supposedly mastered, and weakening them, goes against the philosophy that one is now past one milestone and ready for the next challenge.

On the other hand, not doing so for the sake of balance, would make things even worse for the new players, as letting seasoned players maintain all their power would mean everything dies in one hit.

Removing the seasoned players entirely would just make the old content impossible to complete.

Is there a better solution? Perhaps, I don't know.

Finally, if you really are so considerate of new players and want them to experience the fight as it was intended on release, make a PF and bring them in and intentionally lower your gear.

If you're intent on using the roulette, how about you intentionally lower your damage, stop hitting the boss for a few seconds at a time, so they experience the whole fight without skips?