Chaotic Alliance Raid is a fun fight, but awful content

[Valence]

All the discussion around this fight both here and on reddit is making me realize that FFXIV's problem is not that it lacks enough specifically casual, specifically "midcore," or specifically hardcore content; it's that FFXIV has nothing in it that people log in and do just because it's fun.

Nearly all of the repeatable content in the game is run via Duty Finder (minimal filtering) or Party Finder (somewhat more filtering), but both allow for some degree of an antagonistic experience. There's no "this is gonna be fun to play regardless of who I end up playing with"; rather, it's more "god, I hope I have a good group so that this goes by quickly and I can get my big dopamine hit." It's a fundamental gap in the FFXIV experience.

Very much so.

Honestly, whilst I agree, I actually think what you've diagnosed is precisely due to these reasons:

The content types here should ideally feed into each other, e.g., ideally a casual player should be able to finish the story and then be adequately prepared to step into extreme content, for example, without needing to adjust to pacing, or for example learn their class. Now we can say ideally at level 100 people should be able to do this fundamentally, but the game doesn't actually encourage the latter, and in the case of the former where they have pacing it often times comes without consequence, to where you can ignore it all and be OK in casual content. At the very least people should be aware that a struggle has happened as opposed to being able to shrug it off and not think about it again. There's nothing in that experience that leads your typical player to finish the duty and then do even rudimentary reflection, which is where the improvement comes in.

You might ask why does that relate to fun? Because regardless of what pacing people may or may not enjoy you're indirectly indoctrinating them into a specific way of thinking, people can begin to be content with things being too easy, and then eventually satisfied because the visual spectacle detracts from everything else. If SE put a little bit more expectancy on the player through the natural course of the game, then in turn those that do the harder content will have that trustworthiness in those players.

Realistically what SE has done has developed everything in such a way that leads one side of the player-base to have no faith in another, and in some cases why would they when the game itself doesn't facilitate? This in turn makes a lot more people not enjoy it when they otherwise probably actually would if SE developed everything in a more natural and progressive manner, rather than pedal between progressive and regressive. People would have a lot more fun if the experience was progressive and naturally fed to the next difficulty tier.

It's somewhat disappointing because all of this finger pointing is ignoring a very large issue that has gone on for a very long time.

Frankly this also comes with the fundamental system of the game where most things are done individually where solving a mechanic and standing in the correct position is on you, and if you fuck up, you fuck it up for potentially everyone. There is no helping or carrying people that struggle more than you do. There is no more helping you from someone that struggles less than you do and learns faster. Most of the player to player friction happens precisely because of learning speed differences, goals and personal paces (as seen as the hardcore raiders vs the casual that is just trying challenging content for the first time and being baited into the content by hairstyles).

And then you get more rewards proportionally to the amount of first timers which is a good idea on its own, but instead of rewarding you for helping other players, since you can't actually help them much for starters, it rewards you for putting up with them instead.

[MisterNublet]

And then you get more rewards proportionally to the amount of first timers which is a good idea on its own, but instead of rewarding you for helping other players, since you can't actually help them much for starters, it rewards you for putting up with them instead.

Thought I'd help get other players their clears and joined a dozen "enrage/clear" parties over the last 5 hours and not a single time did the alliance make it past swap.

I could have used that time to join farm parties and gotten half of the demi I would have gotten if one of these parties actually cleared the fight. The bonus is a trap while the limsa rpers wipe the instance repeatedly hoping the 23 other players will carry them to a new haircut.