In Defense of Dawntrail's Difficulty.

[LilithKha]

When this content is too easy, the people who play the game the most are affected. When this content is 'too hard' (by your standards) the people who play the game the least are affected. If I were the devs, the answer is obvious.

Adding on to this, the people who play the game the most are also the ones giving square the most money through subscriptions and cosmetic items. They are also the ones most likely to keep playing the game in the future through pre-orders and deluxe editions. Catering to dedicated players is always the smart business move.

[Jaxtaro]

Adding on to this, the people who play the game the most are also the ones giving square the most money through subscriptions and cosmetic items. They are also the ones most likely to keep playing the game in the future through pre-orders and deluxe editions. Catering to dedicated players is always the smart business move.

Whatever one's position is on difficulty, the above claim is unsupported.

1. There is no evidence of any kind that hours played translates to dollars spent.

2. There is no evidence that current hours played translates to long term continuous subscription continuity.

3. None of this has any impact on the issue of dungeon difficulty.

4. Evidence actually shows the opposite of the notion that default dungeon difficulty leads to increased subscriptions, as the dual expansions of Shadowbringees and Endwalker both are associated with less challenging dungeons, alongside significant growth in playerbase. This is not to claim a causal relationship between them, only that there was not a measurable exodus which coincides by a lower challenge level.

5. In the MMO industry, the conclusion that you reached is quite literally the opposite of what has occurred. Catering to "dedicated players", especially those who call for standard content to be a significant step up in difficulty have historically led to catastrophic population collapses.

There are much better arguments in defense of the current difficulty level, and even though I am strongly in favor of an additional, lower tier across the board of dungeon boss challenge, I too enjoy it as it currently is, and would make the case that repetition takes the edge off of the harder encounters, and that given enough time, not only do those who struggle have a strong chance of overcoming, but the rest of the teams become much better as well, increasing the carry potential of even one who just can't get it (with the excption being healers, who are harder to carry if they aren't getting it).