Maybe it's time for a casual "strike" if not complete departure.

[NamiRocket]

You can barely play this as an MMO but nor can you really play this as a standalone FF title in the series

I don't disagree with this, to be fair. It's an MMORPG, despite people's claims that it's not or that it's merely a standard Final Fantasy game masquerading as an MMORPG, but it definitely does not give you the wealth of things to do (outside of raid content) that other MMORPGs often do. At least not from one patch to the next.

[Carighan]

Besides, the hardcore playerbase has it made it abundantly clear, especially with Chaotic, that they hold such casuals in complete and utter disgust and don't want such players in "their" game anyway, so might as well just let them have it then, let them hold the game up on their own instead of expecting others to keep it running for them while being spat on by community and developer alike.

Huh? Where does this come from? Chaotic is not as newcomer-friendly as Extreme is, but it's still a comparatively forgiving fight because the DPS requirement is so insanely low. It means for example a newcomer healer can focus fully on healing, or anybody can pay a lot of focus on the mechanics. And now that we're past week 1 tactics and stuff like HealersOut is a tactic, which makes this even more relaxed, it really isn't that problematic a fight any more?

What makes you think Chaotic is meant only for the truly hardcore? That'd be Ultimates, no?

[Carighan]

You can say they get a few pieces of content 'exclusive' to them, but really that's not even the point. The replay and longevity value of the overlapping content is significantly different. In the same vein that releasing casual content like large-scale raids benefits a lot more players than just casual folk. It still has several pieces of content behind it which are pretty good incentive to anyone seeking a challenge.

So erm... I dread to ask, but what would, in your opinion, add "longevity" to normal raids?

[Volgia]

The problem is, is that the replay value between both pieces of content are not nearly the same. Like, you can't really sit there with a straight face for example and say Normal mode MSQ trials offer the same replay value and longevity as an Extreme, which has many people replaying that a great deal of times times for a mount, or more if they are unlucky and don't want to wait 4 months. Same thing with Normal raids, the gear is invalidated the same second it releases. Why do you have weekly gated normal mode gear with equivalent item level to crafted DoW/M gear which is significantly easier to obtain. Same thing with Alliance Raid and augmented crafted.

You can say they get a few pieces of content 'exclusive' to them, but really that's not even the point. The replay and longevity value of the overlapping content is significantly different. In the same vein that releasing casual content like large-scale raids benefits a lot more players than just casual folk. It still has several pieces of content behind it which are pretty good incentive to anyone seeking a challenge.

It's 50-50, in the grand scheme of things, and ultimately they have a bad content pipeline. Now, I don't know exactly whether you're defending that pipeline or just replying to OP, but it's absolutely absurd for both casual players and raiders alike.

I mean the fact that the normal easy stuff they keep releasing is bad has nothing to do with raiding. That's a separate problem we're discussing here, here we're discussing on whenever casual people are "left with the crumbs" which is not true, and i'll try and explain it responding to Ezraa here:

Snip

Here's where the hardcore - casual dichotomy falls apart. Because raiding content is made to last because it's challenging, but normal content isn't made for people who want to endlessly spend time in FFXIV, It's literally made for people who play this game CASUALLY. As in once or twice a week.

You exhausting every single piece of content from Golden Saucer to Blue Mage to Eureka, are not playing this game casually. Hell, you're more hardcore than I am.

[Kaurhz]

So erm... I dread to ask, but what would, in your opinion, add "longevity" to normal raids?

Well for starters the gear not being near enough immediately invalidated by crafted gear would be a pretty good start. Why am I going to do a Normal Mode raid more than once if crafted is of the same Item Level and substantially easier to obtain? The gear expense is roulette Gil. For me personally I can fully outfit a class before I've even finished doing a weekly reclear, so why would I bother? Now, if normal raid gear was +10 of it (so equivalent to non-augment Tomestone), then the incentive to actually rerun it would be there. Same thing with Alliance Raid gear, that should be equivalent to actual raid and augmented tomestone.

[miraidensetsu]

Make friends, join discords where the purpose is recruitment, find like-minded individuals to accomplish a shared goal. These are basic social skills.

I giggled.

Static? Where I must apply like a job? With curriculum, interview and all? To be even more judged by toxic hardcore players?

Discord? Where hardcore players can speak their minds without limits and be as toxic as they want without risk being banned?

Any other suggestion?

[Gurgeh]

Well for starters the gear not being near enough immediately invalidated by crafted gear would be a pretty good start. Why am I going to do a Normal Mode raid more than once if crafted is of the same Item Level and substantially easier to obtain? The gear expense is roulette Gil. For me personally I can fully outfit a class before I've even finished doing a weekly reclear, so why would I bother? Now, if normal raid gear was +10 of it (so equivalent to non-augment Tomestone), then the incentive to actually rerun it would be there. Same thing with Alliance Raid gear, that should be equivalent to actual raid and augmented tomestone.

Agreed,
There are 1,000 awesome things that you could give crafters to do that would still sell like hotcakes.
In fact no infinite!
Why do they have to 'tie' craftining into the battle content gear.
Because the crafting really is essential to savage at the end of the day.
Heck they could allow crafters to craft gear upgrade materials that allow dieing of gear.
There are even other crafted upgrade materials you could let crafters make that would mean crafting and scalpers are no longer an obstace to gearing, but rather the 'ulimate' requirement to gearing.
Give the crafters something that is the best and the essense of the the current expansion.
There are other options I haven't imagined, but the opportunities are endless.
I ran the normal loads. (I couldn't afford crafted gear and all the melds to make it worthwhile.)
This is software, nothing is set in stone, things can change.
You open up the path to higher end content, and just 'enjoying' crafting at your own pace.

[Kaurhz]

Agreed,
There are 1,000 awesome things that you could give crafters to do that would still sell like hotcakes.
In fact no infinite!
Why do they have to 'tie' craftining into the battle content gear.
Because the crafting really is essential to savage at the end of the day.
Heck they could allow crafters to craft gear upgrade materials that allow dieing of gear.
There are even other crafted upgrade materials you could let crafters make that would mean crafting and scalpers are an obstace to gearing, but rather the 'ulimate' requirement to gearing.
Give the crafters something that is the best and the essense of the the current expansion.
There are other options I haven't imagined, but the opportunities are endless.
I ran the normal loads. (I couldn't afford crafted gear and all the melds to make it worthwhile.)
This is software, nothing is set in stone, things can change.
You open up the path to higher end content, and just 'enjoying' crafting at your own pace.

Tying crafted in with battle is healthy and I 100% think it's good, and I think it should be tied in more, like the old days where you had to craft items for your relic. Or heaven forbid actually communicate with other people if you needed another method to obtain it.

I just in general find it a really dumb idea that you have a weekly gated gearing method that is released at the same time as crafted, which is substantially easier to obtain, and isn't locked behind any form of weekly time gate. It used to matter when being a crafter was actually a demanding way to play the game, and not something you could just do at a whim. Why am I going to bother doing Normal outside of the 1-time completion when there's already an ungated handout?

[LateNightSuki]

I giggled.

Static? Where I must apply like a job? With curriculum, interview and all? To be even more judged by toxic hardcore players?

Discord? Where hardcore players can speak their minds without limits and be as toxic as they want without risk being banned?

Any other suggestion?

Oh, I genuinely thought this was a joke for a second due to the sheer absurdity but you're actually serious aren't you?

Very telling that you haven't applied to many statics, if you've even done it once lmao.

[NamiRocket]

I giggled.

Static? Where I must apply like a job? With curriculum, interview and all? To be even more judged by toxic hardcore players?

Discord? Where hardcore players can speak their minds without limits and be as toxic as they want without risk being banned?

Any other suggestion?

You forgot the "basic social skills" part. I'd start there.