Why do casual players seem entitled to cosmetic items added in game?

[Colt47]

The issue isn't entitlement. It's more acknowledging a contributing factor of the issue on threads such as you yourself have made.

SE > Adds cosmetic item to game, locked behind savage.

Some raiders > It's not so much fun, why are there so many damn casuals that can barely handle AoEs in my savage parties?!?

Someone acknowledging the issue > This is what happens when you put cosmetic items behind savage. It will attract casual players into high-end content, that will suddenly want to do it for the reward, even if they aren't prepared.

Someone not actually reading the comments > CASUALS ARE SO ENTITLED THEY WANT THE REWARD FOR NO EFFORT.

There's several issues going on here, and not really correlated to entitlement. Most of the casuals that want this cosmetic are already trying to do the content. If people are proposing ideas then it is only to combat SEs fairly bad design.

Well, it's worse than that. The core issue is they forgot how to make engaging and fun content after slashing all the possible different things that someone can do with in the limited design space they have. They increased monster movement speed so kiting isn't viable, completely killed any kind of strategy with crowd control, and mostly turned the game into a slightly more complex rhythm game where the hard mode is hiding the notes from the player. And all the cosmetics and cool stuff is being added behind hard mode. When you remove the actual incentives, the game is completely boring trash at this point.

People made fun of my posts about disliking the change of warriors cone AOE to a circle and now I'm just sitting here after years of being stuck in homogenous savage meat grinders and feeling at least some satisfaction in the cold reality hitting people. Pal World Raid Bosses actually have a lot of the same problems that savage has, only at least in that game someone can use an editor or mod to solve half the problem. Unfortunately, the other half with the content being engaging or fun can only be solved by game designers trying to make more use of the space. Suffice to say, we had more variety of things in Shadowbringers and Stormblood than we have now.

Actually... the haunting realization just set in that raiders are literally the equivalent of the mindless pals just dpsing the raid boss down while the ONE person having fun is the guy who set the fight up and has to fly around dodging lasers. So, technically if they automated the damage dealing and we were more like the siege general maybe that would be a good change? :P

[Kaurhz]

Well, it's worse than that. The core issue is they forgot how to make engaging and fun content after slashing all the possible different things that someone can do with in the limited design space they have. They increased monster movement speed so kiting isn't viable, completely killed any kind of strategy with crowd control, and mostly turned the game into a slightly more complex rhythm game where the hard mode is hiding the notes from the player. And all the cosmetics and cool stuff is being added behind hard mode. When you remove the actual incentives, the game is completely boring trash at this point.

I mean I agree with this, but it's no real single issues. If one were to be thorough, they could probably have enough of a bucket list to effectively do a full thesis in bad game design at the standard required for an MSc.

I don't think incentives are inherently bad, but this one is so tone deaf it's almost difficult to believe that there's been a success for a decade. Like the way they implement feedback is kitchen sink style. Bad feedback? Don't think about it logically... Throw the kitchen sink at it.. It's how we ended up in this specific instance.. It's how we end up with a game that is a husk of what it once was, between simplicity and aggressiveness of QoL. It's how we end up with a game that doesn't know what it wants to be from one expansion to the next.

[Yahza]

So the content can have rewards as long as you personally don't like them?

No, but I do think there's a difference in the type of reward. Put a really awesome outfit or mount behind savage and I'll be just fine with it. (Can't have the Axoloth, but hey! I have super cute capybara!) I'll find an alternative. Why is that? Because there are plenty of different outfits and mounts in the game. It's not like that with character customization. That is something this game is very... well, calling it limited is actually glorifying it.

I assume you're someone who enjoys raiding and getting BiS, right? (Correct me if that's wrong!) Now let's make that gear obtainable through raiding, but to make it BiS, you'll need all crafters at 100 and use them to craft several HQ crafts, with items that can only be gathered by yourself. Tell me you'd be fine with that, please.

[Supersnow845]

I don't understand this notion where raiders spend a lot of gil on food and pot is coming from...I used to be on Jenova like you and I raided all the time and never spent that much gil on anything for raiding. Shoot back in ShB I used to make food and pots for sale and I stopped bc the prices were set so low that it wasn't even worth the sale of them. Not to mention that those who are in statics tend not to buy anything bc the odds are they have at least one person in the static that can craft stuff for the team. Doing savage and ultmates does not drain that much gil for you lol Unless you potting every single pull and if you are that so dumb XD You only pot when you going for the clear.

You don’t spend much but in general outside of a few things like CAR and criterion you make no money. Add in crafted gear and it’s an overall drain compared to casual

[BrokenFantasy]

In other words, you don't even understand your own position. You are playing a video game, which is a business for SE. The reward structure is there to provide psychological enticement for players to join / engage and give SE money in the meantime. You are a customer, nothing more, nothing less. You can demand all day long, but it's the business that will have to make the balancing act of whichever group might bring in more money, the "I want it all for free" or the "it's a reward for playing" one. However, as an individual, YOU should start to properly reevaluate your priorities. Because rewards for completing combat content is and has always been a significant drive for this type of game genre, and if each release gets you in a zone of discomfort, you will have a pretty hard time down the road.

Show me exactly where I said that I want it for free. You're either disingenuous or you can't read.

[Volgia]

I think you're missing a huge point here though. Those weapons are just prestige and 9 out of 10 times casual players who enjoy glamouring more than raiding wouldn't even use those. They look fully out of context, don't match with most outfits, and most people who care about that hide their weapons anyway. Now character customization is a different thing entirely. It's part of character identity, being able to envision your character the way you want to, and something that you want to see. Comparing a hairstyle to a weapon is comparing apples and oranges, especially when you consider how awfully limited character customization in XIV is. There are B-tier mmorpgs who do a way better job at it, while XIV should be considered an A-tier mmorpg in my opinion.

We already have that in the Golden Saucer, where you need to dish out MGP to get hairstyles, this is even more accessible since all you need to do is get the Gil to get it. This is additional customization you get from PLAYING the game. I just don't see the difference, honestly.

To me it's kind of insane that you guys are complaining about not being able to get it, you can get it, just do the content, or pay for it with your Gil.

[Kaurhz]

We already have that in the Golden Saucer, where you need to dish out MGP to get hairstyles, this is even more accessible since all you need to do is get the Gil to get it. This is additional customization you get from PLAYING the game. I just don't see the difference, honestly.

To me it's kind of insane that you guys are complaining about not being able to get it, you can get it, just do the content, or pay for it with your Gil.

The biggest difference in all honesty is that Gold Saucer is the most long-standing content in this game. By comparison a 24-man chaotic trial could very well more than likely be dead in-game and on life support with Discord before March.

If you are going to lock character customization options in a game already notoriously bad for character customization, then you better at the very least be able to make sure the content is able to lend itself to being long-form.. Regardless of the difficulty of that content, and not indirectly punishing players that end up doing the content later on in the patch cycle.

[Yahza]

We already have that in the Golden Saucer, where you need to dish out MGP to get hairstyles, this is even more accessible since all you need to do is get the Gil to get it. This is additional customization you get from PLAYING the game. I just don't see the difference, honestly.

To me it's kind of insane that you guys are complaining about not being able to get it, you can get it, just do the content, or pay for it with your Gil.

Where did I complain about not being able to get it? I'm always around gil-cap and even told people it was fine to have this gil-locked in a way. Play the game, make gil, get what you want if you're not into raiding. I'm just pointing out that I can fully understand why this is causing frustration.

[Yahza]

The biggest difference in all honesty is that Gold Saucer is the most long-standing content in this game. By comparison a 24-man chaotic trial could very well more than likely be dead in-game and on life support with Discord before March.

It will be. Gathering enough people to do Extremes or Savage is a pain already, or so they say? 24-man will be dead within a few months, unless you use a dedicated discord.

Edit: Especially if you take in mind how this doesn't have a weekly lock-out, so the people who really want to deck themselves out with the gear rewards will simply farm it.

[Connor]

It’s honestly weird to me how vehemently people insist that the ‘pretty princess flower girl’ hairstyle must - by necessity - be exclusively within the remit of hardcore players.

How dare those filthy casuals think they can *checks notes* serve cvnt like a raider?