Request: I don't want to solo the main scenario

[Zaaku]

Zaaku, I re-posted and bolded for emphasis for you. Of course hardcore players who stuck with Square Enix would be here more than casual players who wouldn't want to pay for the game as it is would be on these forums. Try hosting that poll in Zam and see where the votes tilt. I'm sorry to say, but your pocket vote doesn't count for anything - this game should be designed for the players that will join the game after 2.0, not just those that are here now.

Regardless of either case, you don't ignore one or the other camp - you find a medium. In this particular case, you can have your cake and eat it too.

But this trend of so called "like vote" polling needs to stop. It's horrible misrepresentation of the numbers this MMO should have had this deep into a normal life cycle.

We don't matter really? I suppose we don't after all. I mean we are the ones funding their little Lazarus project while they build the game in the background. We are the ones keeping FFXIV at the very least semi-relevant instead of hoping people will fall for FFXIV's relaunch. We are the ones who are going to be recruiting friends and recommending the title to people who are otherwise going to steer clear of a once disaster.

Yeah we aren't important after all I suppose. Let's all just keep pinning our hopes on that big fat lottery ticket casual crowd that will swell our ranks when 2.0 hits!

What pisses me off most is I can't even explain to you fully how much you are ruining your own expierence by bowing to the casual mindset. I can't impose the feeling of triumph and the self assertiveness a harder game forces you to adapt. I have no doubt if they made this into FFXI-2 our population would plummet. However after the ones who can't cut it leave those who remain will be better for the change and when new players join and face this giant wall of adversity we'll be there with an outstreched hand saying, "LS {Do you need it?}"

Those are the kinds of players that will stick with an MMO for years and years and years. What we have now is going to be a constant hit and quit fest as the casual crowd wanders off or loses interest when they can keep pumping out end game raids fast enough to keep up with their insane leveling ability.

[Duelle]

Those are the kinds of players that will stick with an MMO for years and years and years. What we have now is going to be a constant hit and quit fest as the casual crowd wanders off or loses interest when they can keep pumping out end game raids fast enough to keep up with their insane leveling ability.

Contrary to popular belief, boredom is not what drives casuals away. It's asinine decisions and changes in design that drive casuals away. I eventually got sick of FFXI's snail-paced progression. I spent close to 3 years in WoW, then WoW made very stupid design choices that caused me to start looking around. Then abyssea came out, which prompted me (and many others) to return under the hopes of finally being able to progress. When the jobisms facilitated by the proc system and RDM's standing at the time became apparent, I started looking around again. WoW had made their apologies for their earlier stupidity with patches 3.2 and 3.3. So I returned again.

Believe me, none of my switches were because I got bored of content. I just chose to not stick around like a battered wife.

[Zaaku]

Contrary to popular belief, boredom is not what drives casuals away. It's asinine decisions and changes in design that drive casuals away. I eventually got sick of FFXI's snail-paced progression. I spent close to 3 years in WoW, then WoW made very stupid design choices that caused me to start looking around. Then abyssea came out, which prompted me (and many others) to return under the hopes of finally being able to progress. When the jobisms facilitated by the proc system and RDM's standing at the time became apparent, I started looking around again. WoW had made their apologies for their earlier stupidity with patches 3.2 and 3.3. So I returned again.

Believe me, none of my switches were because I got bored of content. I just chose to not stick around like a battered wife.

You just said you were not driven away by boredom yet you left because of something inherent to the game design. The slower leveling progress. How was that an asinine change in design?

Thank you for proving my point.

FFXI drove away all but the dedicated. They stayed in most of the cases for years upon years. FFXI: Abbeysea's more causalized content attracted a player back whom ultimately left once again when some other game came beckoning.

[Duelle]

You just said you were not driven away by boredom yet you left because of something inherent to the game design. The slower leveling progress. How was that an asinine change in design?

Slower leveling had nothing to do with it, but thanks for failing to read between the lines. Built-in timesinks, community issues when it came to who got to party and who didn't, shoddy rarity-based economy, that's not even getting into my prior-mentioned anecdote of me being stuck at Windurst rank 9 for close to 3 years. I hit a point where I said "fuck it" and left.

Abyssea's problem was the fact that, again, people abused the proc system in a way that parties were largely what I have already called the official Abyssea party. I wasn't getting into those between RDM's lack of procs and where the job stood when not in posession of Almace and Chant du Signe.

FFXI drove away all but the dedicated.

I already addressed this:

stick around like a battered wife

Nice try, though.

[Dragon]

I like being able to play at my own pace. Being a slow reader means I have to skip through entire stories if I'm in a group because otherwise I hold others up.

No.

Being in a group means telling the people waiting on you to shut the hell up and let you watch the damn cutscene when you've not seen it before. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

[Pyretta_Blaze]

Being in a group means telling the people waiting on you to shut the hell up and let you watch the damn cutscene when you've not seen it before. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

I often tell my group before we do something that it is my first time and I will be watching the CS... At least now we can go back and rewatch some of that stuff. The text is all there too I believe.