@Casuals , do you think the message has gotten through?

[Carin-Eri]

Yes please! Meracydia is right there!

Remains to be seen whether the story will take us there in favour of shard-hopping with the 'key' though.

[Volgia]

I do especially want to hear if many casual players do take the live letter otherwise, and read between the lines that CB3 agree they do want to be providing more midcore (accessible but still where playing well matters).

Like I think a few things are of note here,

1.- Square Enix added chaotic as the only new thing for "savage" players, they didn't add Criterion Savage dungeons back.
2.- Savage players also play 'normal content', and would 100% benefit from the normal content being more fun to play.
3.- FT is not tuned to "Ultimate raiders feeling it was worth their attempt", Ultimate takes a large amount of effort with minimal error that can take up months to clear. FT can be beaten by random players who organize in a couple tries.
4.- They are apologizing about the lack of Ultimates because if I'm not mistaken they promised the second Ultimate by 7.3 and are delaying it.

And finally point 5:

(people who want to do challenging content, but don't like lots of guides, don't like waiting 45 minutes for PFs fill and then collapse after 2nd pull, don't like progpoint threats, don't like scheduling, don't like the anti-ToS stuff that always goes with discords.)

People who like challenging content, but don't want to read up guides (You don't have to, you can do them blind) who don't like waiting 45 mins in PF or progpoint threats (You don't have to, you can form a static), don't like scheduling (Either you have unlimited time, or you don't understand that team-based challenging content requires consistent effort in an MMO) and don't like the ANtiTOS stuff that goes with Discords (Discord is just a tool for voice chat).

I'm not a Deep Dungeon player, but that's basically what you're asking for. You don't need scheduling, discord, guides and can do it at your own pace.

[Fawkes]

@Casuals
(people who want to do challenging content, but don't like lots of guides, don't like waiting 45 minutes for PFs fill and then collapse after 2nd pull, don't like progpoint threats, don't like scheduling, don't like the anti-ToS stuff that always goes with discords.)

Do you think the message has gotten through?

I was really impressed with the live letter because of the bravery it took. It was going to be a double edged sword, and it has been. But the way to fix that problem is with the game, not by avoiding the issue and sweeping it under the carpet, not with a service game.

No.

I wasn't really impressed by the live letter at all. To me, it felt like Yoshi-P has been off doing something else and has team leaders for each piece of content that told him what they're going to do. Whoever was in charge of Cosmic Exploration decided to fold on everything and told Yoshi-P they'd do basically everything people asked for. Mounts, longer timers, you got it. And whoever was in charge of Occult Crescent told him excuses for why they can't do any of the feedback. No Forked Normal, no better atma droprates, nothing. The disparity in the answers really bothered me. Also with no attempt to fix Occult Crescent it makes it feel like the whole expansion patch series is over. Like they've given up. I guess we might get some stuff in 7.5x maybe, so technically it's not going to be nothing but the standard fare until 8.0, but that's still probably like over a year away. And from how things are going BST is probably going to end up just being like "Blue Mage Carnivale Savage" or something.

[MicahZerrshia]

If there is 1 thing I have learned in my 15 years playing this game, it's to never ever take anything Yoshi PR says seriously until it is implimented into the actual game. He's been making promises and bringing up talking points since 1.0 that he has yet to deliver on or even speak of again. All of his apologies and PR speak mean absolutely nothing to me and will remain so until he starts not only answering difficult questions instead of the carefully curated questions they choose AND he begins to deliver on them, even if that is addressing something previously stated that could not be delivered on for whatever reason. If he would actually eat crow once and awhile instead of just radio silence on big topics, it would make him and his team seem a lot more competent and trustworthy.

[Tsukino]

As a casual, I have NO IDEA what this long diatribe of nonsense you just rambled on about is?

Can anyone care to translate?

All of their posts read kind of similarly to this, but I think it boils down to this:

There were two separate concerns that were addressed with an apology in the recent live letter - everyone hating Occult Crescent/Forked Tower and Ultimate being delayed. Except only the Ultimate delay was an actual profuse apology, while the complaints about OC/FT were given more of an explanation or excuse as to why it is the way it is and they're not changing it. So the serious raiding audience got a real apology while the "casual" audience did not, showing whose concerns they really care about addressing.

[Kes13a]

Given that my reaction, as well as that of my closest in-game friend, was to unsubscribe immediately after the LL, I think that answers the OP's question.

I'm also going to make a prediction, because if it pans out I can show everyone how clever I am, and if it doesn't everyone will have forgotten about it and I can just whistle like it never happened.

Ahem.

By 8.3, the player count will have fallen to one third the EW peak.

I would say thats an easy prediction, since by the release of 8.0 we will know if anything changed (and I dont expect it to)

[thereal_aliceanders]

I'm genuinely worried. This game is what keeps Square Enix afloat, and the excuse they gave about "cost" just infuriated me. I logged in, saw there was nothing for me to do, and logged right back out. After nine years, I've canceled my subscription, which runs out in August, and honestly, I have no desire to ever come back.

[Nooch1982]

As a somewhat casual player, i find a lot of the choices made to be really frustrating.

I hate the idea of duties that are inaccessible to players that don't have pre-made groups. And I'm not talking about the Extremes or Unreals, I mean content that is made to seem to be for the community at large, but there is no DF to join and rarely anything in PF. I still haven't been able to get into a lot of the content, like BA or the V&C dungeons, there's never anyone doing them now and there was no DF for them when they were relevant. They put forth so much effort to rehash old fights, but don't do anything with some of the older dungeons (not that EW dungeons are even old). And I can't get into FT because apparently, that's only for pre-made parties with voice chat (which is also not supported by the game).

The devs make it seem like the game is bursting with content, but honestly, there's so much dead content or so much content that is only relevant and fully able to be experienced the day it releases (all of the restorations). Yoshi says he doesn't expect players to play only this game, but if you're not working this game for 40 hours a week, you may get left behind and miss out on some things permanently.

[Kaurhz]

I would say thats an easy prediction, since by the release of 8.0 we will know if anything changed (and I dont expect it to)

As the line goes...

It's not a prediction, it's a spoiler..

Pretty much may as well be

[Bryson]

Casuals are completely detached from reality. This "mmmorpg" is the most giga casual game on earth. You all are pandered to 95% of the time.. stop conflating "respect my time" with "make everything giga ez so I can log off."

Just admit you're either lazy or you unironically think your IRL time constraints justifies less content for those who actually want to play the game.