Chaotic Alliance Raid: More Content for Professional Gamers

[Lilapop]

You don't need to imagine. Queue level 100 content in duty finder and pay attention to what your party members are doing. It's incredibly common to see people who heal only with Cure 1/Benefic 1/Physick and just stand around doing nothing when they aren't healing. People who only press 123, ignore the rest of their kit and complain about "button bloat". People with <30% uptime who don't know what the global cooldown is or that they should keep it rolling and press off globals between those abilities.

I'm not talking about people who aren't good at the game, I mean people who don't understand how the combat system works at a basic level.

The game does absolutely nothing to help or encourage people to learn how it works, so they don't bother. You can't even really blame them. It's a game design problem.

Are you living or are you dying? If you're living, they're doing the bare minimum required to do their job in normal content, expecting anything less, at this point, is setting yourself up for failure.

[BigCheez]

Are you living or are you dying? If you're living, they're doing the bare minimum required to do their job in normal content, expecting anything less, at this point, is setting yourself up for failure.

Yeah, that's the point that I'm making. The skill floor has been set so low that there is an epidemic of players who have no idea how the game works, which makes the gap between normal mode and actual content far too wide.

I think the game should ask just a little bit more of players in normal content, so they actually develop a basic understanding of how the game works.

Basically, this:

This isn't caused by the chaotic alliance raid. This is caused by how low the skill floor has been pushed.

You can literally AFK through most of the content in the game and as a result, endgame is now populated primarily by people who legitimately have no idea how to play the game.

Imagine if putting the key in the ignition was enough to pass your driving test. The disparity between the average driver and people who actually know how to drive a car would be insurmountable and car crashes would be commonplace. This is essentially what has happened in FFXIV.

I don't think casual content needs to be hard but I think the game would be in a much healthier state if it actually required people to play the game. Maybe tanks shouldn't be able to solo everything. Maybe you shouldn't be able to heal level 100 content exclusively with Cure 1. Maybe it should be possible to run out of resources if a dungeon pull takes way too long to die.

[Mawlzy]

You don't need to imagine. Queue level 100 content in duty finder and pay attention to what your party members are doing. It's incredibly common to see people who heal only with Cure 1/Benefic 1/Physick and just stand around doing nothing when they aren't healing. People who only press 123, ignore the rest of their kit and complain about "button bloat". People with <30% uptime who don't know what the global cooldown is or that they should keep it rolling and press off globals between those abilities.

I'm not talking about people who aren't good at the game, I mean people who don't understand how the combat system works at a basic level.

The game does absolutely nothing to help or encourage people to learn how it works, so they don't bother. You can't even really blame them. It's a game design problem.

I'd agree SQEX could do better in getting people better at the game; it's an even bigger issue in PvP, but this sub-population using Physick and equivalent in level 100? I just don't see it. I don't see it in streamer content when they do mentor roulette. This strikes me as another fairytale perpetuated by the raiding community in their rants about players with "two braincells."

But I think this misses the point. Either through skill limitations or from a lack of interest in the high-end design -- which boils down to memorizing guides then putting your feet on the right pixel -- the majority of players can not or will not participate in raiding. Thus releasing what is apparently an innovative high-end raid when the bulk of players have nothing to do is inevitably going to create a firestorm. And while I personally don't care about rewards, this hairstyle issue throwing kerosene on that fire was completely predictable.

[Mawlzy]

Yeah, that's the point that I'm making. The skill floor has been set so low that there is an epidemic of players who have no idea how the game works, which makes the gap between normal mode and actual content far too wide.

I think the game should ask just a little bit more of players in normal content, so they actually develop a basic understanding of how the game works.

Basically, this:

See here's the problem. To you "actual content" is high-end combat. That's a perfectly legitimate position for you to take for yourself, but however much we go through this "skill issue" business, nothing is going to change. Most players don't like it. Your "actual content is in actuality niche content.

The bulk of the player base see "actual content" very differently than you do, and their pissed because their definition is not getting enough new material.

[Gurgeh]

Yeah, that's the point that I'm making. The skill floor has been set so low that there is an epidemic of players who have no idea how the game works, which makes the gap between normal mode and actual content far too wide.

I think the game should ask just a little bit more of players in normal content, so they actually develop a basic understanding of how the game works.

Basically, this:

Agreed. My friends who unsubbed (who I mention every other comment) I think didn't stick around as long as I did because they never went on to DT extremes.
They did not have a 'great' experience of EW Extremes, they just 'overcame' it'. They had a traumatic experience of progging Singularity unreal for well over a month.
They overcame it they are all better gamers than me (Dark souls etc) , but it was a 'shock'.

I've be noticed a big appetite for no guide, NO PRESSURE, just prog what we can, Ex PFs.
The only thing that kept me going longer was that I chanced to put up a blind prog for DT EX1, (I didn't even know other people did it) and it filled fast and all had fun

Really the chasm to Ex is so huge it's no wonder everyone goes guide crazy. They are terrified of Fing up. It goes from a game to nerve racking chore, and sucks every drop of fun out.
Where as if it wasn't such a shock, they might go in and their first experience might be deeply enjoyable. Rather than "my F god I still don't believe I cleared that".

Casual needs to get harder. Or there needs to be bridge content. (EX criterion with farmable gear rewards. I'd recommend grear that starts better that crafted, but can't get as good as fully pentamelded)
1 4 man body check , fast , sub Ex DPS check, but NOT enrage, randomisation as long as people can understand which mech just killed them.
Can you imagine being able to que that with almost a full party of frinds. Or at least 50% friendly. And have it unlimited gear you ready for a small leg up in Ex or Savage, while you get your Crafted or Cap tome gear.

What is this freaking obsession with Savage?
Do they have like just 2 encounter designers? One is a kittens and bunnies submissive people pleaser, the other is a cackling maniacal sadist, and no middle ground is possible.

[AllenThyl]

See here's the problem. To you "actual content" is high-end combat. That's a perfectly legitimate position for you to take for yourself, but however much we go through this "skill issue" business, nothing is going to change. Most players don't like it. Your "actual content is in actuality niche content.

The bulk of the player base see "actual content" very differently than you do, and their pissed because their definition is not getting enough new material.

"I went into McDonalds, and they didn't even give me a BigMac! Still paid for some merch, to really show them how disappointed I was! Will also be back there tomorrow to order some underpants I really hate!"

[BigCheez]

See here's the problem. To you "actual content" is high-end combat. That's a perfectly legitimate position for you to take for yourself, but however much we go through this "skill issue" business, nothing is going to change. Most players don't like it. Your "actual content is in actuality niche content.

The bulk of the player base see "actual content" very differently than you do, and their pissed because their definition is not getting enough new material.

It isn't that I only consider high-end content to be "actual content". I don't consider current normal mode content to be "actual content" because it doesn't require the player to participate. Like I said, I don't think normal mode content needs to be challenging but it should actually require players to play the role that they signed up for.

[Mawlzy]

"I went into McDonalds, and they didn't even give me a BigMac! Still paid for some merch, to really show them how disappointed I was! Will also be back there tomorrow to order some underpants I really hate!"

You've lost me Allen. If your first point is people in this game expect free stuff, that may be true of some, but most just want the same stuff (content) they've had for the last decade, which is also the reason they subscribe to the game.

If your second point is... er... "underpants???" ...oh, is it that people playing an "action combat MMO" should like high-end raiding? Asked and answered.

I appreciate you have an extremely low opinion of the players in this game. You have made that very clear in multiple posts. But you're not going to turn them into raiders by demeaning them, and neither is SQEX with the CAR.

If, on the other hand, you and SQEX have common purpose in trying to drive non-raiders from the game, you're doing a bang-up job. I'm sure you'll be much more pleasant to others when those who remain all meet your action-combat purity test, and hope you enjoy the content that can then be directed at players like you, albeit with only 20% the gross income.

[Mawlzy]

It isn't that I only consider high-end content to be "actual content". I don't consider current normal mode content to be "actual content" because it doesn't require the player to participate. Like I said, I don't think normal mode content needs to be challenging but it should actually require players to play the role that they signed up for.

Understood. My perception is that most players do regard normal mode content to be actual content, and feel like they are participating when they engage with it. By implication, you also seem to be implying that the non-combat content isn't actual content either.

There's clearly a significant minority of players who share your views. That will become a majority only though players leaving the game, which is already happening and likely accelerated by another tone-deaf act by SQEX that further antagonizes them.

[BigCheez]

Understood. My perception is that most players do regard normal mode content to be actual content, and feel like they are participating when they engage with it. By implication, you also seem to be implying that the non-combat content isn't actual content either.

There's clearly a significant minority of players who share your views. That will become a majority only though players leaving the game, which is already happening and likely accelerated by another tone-deaf act by SQEX that further antagonizes them.

The majority might feel like they're engaging with casual content but they also likely feel that the gap between normal mode content and high-end content is insurmountably wide and that problem would be solved by re-tuning normal mode content. That's literally why we're having this conversation.

Non-combat content does actually require you to engage with the content to complete it. You can't AFK your way through beast tribes, custom deliveries or Ishgard restoration.