Dear SE: Please listen to actual players, not just content creators

[DynnDiablos]

The only difference between a "casual" and "midcore" player is, that the "casual" player is still too scared to try things in my opinion.
But everyone slices these categories differently.

I see this "too scared" comment come up a lot. I've played for 12+ years. I've never dipped into harder content because it is simply something I don't find fun or want to do. It's not a too scared thing, it's I have ZERO interest. If I need to study strategies, and raid plans and Venn diagrams and memorize a novel before even going into a fight...forget it. That isn't fun (for me). I play games to relax. Not do homework and be stressed the F out.

[Raim]

They need long term casual grind goals. Every patch needs a gemstone mount in my opinion. Every patch needs a glamour or mount that costs like 50k tomes equivalent to a gemstone mount grind. We need things like a Variant dungeon roulette and a Deep Dungeon roulette with like 10-20 floors. They need to overhaul ALL old world fates with new mechanics and make gemstones more rewarding in general. Players should always have some kind of casual grind goal to work towards each patch. On top of that im tired of hearing promises about a Gold Saucer revamp and only getting a new Gate event every few years. They need to swallow their pride and implement a straight up queue system for Forked Tower. No, not next foray this foray.

[AvoSturmfaust]

To be honest, judging only from the Forum here, listen to the Player would be the same bad Decision then listening to Content Creator, both would drive the Car against the Wall.

[Fawkes]

This is a common view that I've never understood. It's related to "stop holding yourself back," and "anyone can clear X hard content if they just do Y and Z."

The truth in most cases is much simpler. As soon as some of us see the word "prog," the immediate thought is "this is a game, not a job." Or we simply find PvE in this game tedious. Or a hundred other reasons that all boil down to "I'm not interested in that," not "I'm afraid of that."

Nothing to do with fear, in part because there are no consequences for failure.

The game taught me around launch, with Titan Hard Mode lag-slides, it is not built for fast-paced dodging. The devs include it anyway for some reason, maybe it works in Tokyo. When I did Twintania it seemed like the entirety of the difficulty was just things happening faster or without tells at all, which meant I would just run in a circle or back and forth because people told me to, not because I understood the mechanics. Clearing it didn't feel like "I'm good at the game", it felt like being a mouse conditioned to run a maze.

[Kozh]

I'm glad you are able to read a sentence, i'm sorry for you not being capable of reading the entire room.

The irony of you saying this while you yourself is incapable of reading the room.

Who the hell says anything about being above the rest. That's not the person you quoted was talking about. Just because you pay the same with others, doesn't mean you're entitled to the same reward.

Do you think all raiders are young healthy people who has all the time in the world to waste it on games? No. Or maybe you think all of them are so good at this game that they clear hard content effortlessly? Also no.

You envy those raiders, demonize them while not realizing that those people actually do make sacrifices to get to where they're now. Lots of them are adults with job, famil, responsibilities, etc.

Back in EW I used to prog raid with my static until late at night. I am also very easily get migraine and carpal tunnel from those session, it isn't always fun.
Now that I don't raid anymore due to health issue, I understand that I can no longer get all those savage rewards even if I like them very much.

Tldr: stop being entitled. Especially when ff14 actually give a lot of rewards for the more casual contents.

Also, stop using the old players on your argument, when in reality you're doing this for your own sake mostly.

[TomsYoungerBro]

In today’s live letter, Yoshi-P openly admitted that the development team is feeling the pressure from the constant demand for new, challenging content. He mentioned that the staff is stretched thin with trying to balance delivering fresh and exciting content while keeping up with player expectations.

It’s no secret that the team is working tirelessly, but I can’t help but wonder if part of that strain comes from trying to cater too heavily to the hardcore community.

This is a product of their own demise, and not the fault of content creators. When you water down all the jobs to pathetically simple and homogenized forms, the only satisfaction you can get out of the game (combat-wise) is through the encounters themselves. This huge imbalance puts a lot of pressure on the content to generate that satisfaction all by itself. What makes it even worse is new combat content comes out every 4 months or so, while classes get major reworks/updates only 1 per expac. Sorry not sorry Yoshi P. This is your fault

[PercibelTheren]

'Midcore' players don't exist tbh. They're either casual players with an unhealthy ego because "At least we're not like those Limsa catgirls", or hardcore players in denial.

I mean, what would you call the pretty large subset of the playerbase who is bored in roulettes and normal content, enjoys Extreme and easier Savage floors but doesn't want to, or can't, dedicate large amounts of time and energy to progression raiding?

[Alyx-Greywind]

I mean, what would you call the pretty large subset of the playerbase who is bored in roulettes and normal content, enjoys Extreme and easier Savage floors but doesn't want to, or can't, dedicate large amounts of time and energy to progression raiding?

Average. I mean I do that, less time to manage EXs and the easier Savage Floors but I still consider myself an enjoyer of the more Casual stuff. I consider dipping into EX and Savage a bit further into the Hardcore end of things.

[Gurgeh]

Disclaimer: ...

In today’s live letter, Yoshi-P openly admitted that the development team is feeling the pressure from the constant demand for new, challenging content. He mentioned that the staff is stretched thin with trying to balance delivering fresh and exciting content while keeping up with player expectations.
...

I fell I need to say because I've been so vitriolic, that I appreciate 90% of what the XIV team have done. That includes their Savages and Ultimate's that I don't play.

What I don't appreciate is:
- no statement of commitment to provide cross-DC PFs that are killing peoples communities as players reaching end game leave, and rouls in the deserted DCs are hobbled back to pre-endgame content. (delay any content you like to do this, but you have to tell us this is coming and its the reason, and disable demolition.)
- no statement of commitment to actually fix the privady issue - roll back acceptable - (delay any content you like to do this, but you have to tell us this is coming and its the reason, and disable demolition.)
- poor MSQ fine. EW exploration missing, covid, fine. Iffy but functional OC maps, fine, espcially with such great CEs.
- but wantonly hard Cloud of darkness, in light of the above, REALLY not ok.
- skipping normal OC setpiece in favour of savage, in light of chaotic and EW and MSQ, REALLLY not ok.

For me personally I think it would take so little commitment and guarantee to make me happy. You just have to commit to some reprioritisation, deliver when you like, and not complain if I unsub while your playing catchup instead of normal content.

Commitments though have to be better than the the one we got for speech bubbles. And given the the commitments can be justified as highest priority, it ought to be able to timescale.

The problem has been injury on injury on injury on injury, and were doing ok and hanging int there still, with the camels back being finally broken by needless insult.

Variant was great, wow freshness.
Island Sanctuary was clearly a work of passion, just not fun for me.
The dungeons within the stale forumla have been great.
The trials knockout.
The first three Exs, great.
The first 4 normals knock out. And now I've cooled of, the last 4 are decent I suppose.
I think the CEs are knockout (but no replayability , as I was never staying so don't need glams, and I'm excluded from Forked Tower by reason of better shit to do that gamble my time on getting in. I need a guarantee I can get in within an hour from my whim, that is not subject to the whim of some discord overlord to change, period.)
Cosmic I except is decent enough, but I'm not interested since add-ons made the craft/gather playing field uneven, and losing my house meant I've no use for the only crafting I ever did enjoy.
I even 'enjoyed' DT MSQ because I took my time.
I don't mind that made me miss out on savage, saving for other players' attitude towards me, which I hold Yoshi's "play other games" and "try ultimate" attitude' 50% responsible for. But only 50%. I think Yoshi hurt some high end players with that, and they in turn beat down on casual again.

But when you destroy my communities with poor no cross DC party finder, and you rub salt in their wounds with stuff like chaotic, when I conser I came here for
a) MMO social and b) accessible casual 'engaging' battle gameplay.
Then I'm 'severely' let down.

I appreciate 90% of it and resent only 10%, I enjoy 30% of it, But I can only enjoy 30% of it for about 4 months out of every 18, at that point it just becomes a solo game, and as good as the good bits were, they can't compete in the future with the best solo games. 4 months for the cost of an expansion 4 months sub, when the experience 'sits in the shadow of how fun it was to play with friends I no longer make being around only short term'. No its not going to work.
And Im pissed, because I think you can do much better.
The less invested I am in you doing better. The less pissed I am.

All the rest of my ire? Yeah ALL the rest is the community rubbing me up the wrong way, and the significant part of that that I lay at SE's feet, for not doing 'anything' to curb it, and plenty to provoke it.

I blame the community. But I also don't. I'm not expecting FFXIV to change human nature upon subscribing.

[Hanzz96]

I'm glad you are able to read a sentence, i'm sorry for you not being capable of reading the entire room.

Engaging in savage content doesn't make you above the rest of the player base, the time you put in there is equal the time casual gamers put somewhere else in that same game, what are you on about?
Just because you get a good grade at school, doesn't allow you to be condescendent towards your other classmates you know?

We're both paying the same amount of money at the end of the month to play the same game, so no, you're not above the rest of the playerbase just because the time you allow is different than mine in there.
Just because you're younger or have much capabilities, doesn't allow you to gatekeep all the rewards.
I'm playing everyday with my friends, and one of them is 60y/o, she loves the game as much as everyone, she spends time lvling and crafting, she engages in content as much as she can, but you'll never see her in savage nor ultimate, nor even in forked tower , but she was in castrum, in DR, in Dalriada - So why is she being punished for her age, while she pays as much as you ?
Who are you?

Even world of warcraft allow casual players to get the same rewards by different ways, they understood that their player base is getting old, is having a full time job, a family and they don't have the time to allow huge amount of hours to their game, and they still think about them, they still provide ways for the casuals to still keep up with the hardcore ones.
You're the part of the community no ones like, you're the kind of person who thinks that, since they get the better grade for "working more", others are not worthy.

My guy

Lots of raiders are "old" have full-time jobs, families and responsibilities, not all of them are young and energetic university students. Most raiders sacrifice their rare free time and show a lot of deciation in order to clear hard content to get the rewards, why should you get the same reward without the effort? You shouldn't its entitlement. Also why would people do the hard content at all if you could get the rewards from normal? They wouldn't.

Yes you pay the same and you have other rewards you can get from the content you do engage with. For example the savage glams you want are accessible from normal they just aren't dyable. WOW has a similar system where you get the same gear from normal, heroic and mythic but the harder the difficulty the cooler visual effects the gear has.

Raiders are being demonised in this thread and it just shows that some people dont like people who work hard for something