New Variant Dungeon: Reward structure is a downgrade from previous ones.

[KillaKilala]

Once again, Square shows that they don't care about casual players by locking both mounts behind harder content.

Variant dungeons are my favorite content, and they managed to screw it up too.

I'm extremely disappointed.

And the biggest problem that even hardcore players don't want to do this content because there is 0 rewards for them too. 0 weapons, 0 gear, 0 upgrades and the mounts can be bought from the market board for 20 mil gil which is nothing. 20 mil gil is absolutely nothing for any player who knows how to make money in this game. How did we go from peak rewards in chaotic that people still play every day, to this and quantum? This is so sad... No one is gonna do it just for fun, when there's a lot of other content that is just as fun if not more and also rewards you...

[Jaltaer]

And the biggest problem that even hardcore players don't want to do this content because there is 0 rewards for them too. 0 weapons, 0 gear, 0 upgrades and the mounts can be bought from the market board for 20 mil gil which is nothing. 20 mil gil is absolutely nothing for any player who knows how to make money in this game. How did we go from peak rewards in chaotic that people still play every day, to this and quantum? This is so sad... No one is gonna do it just for fun, when there's a lot of other content that is just as fun if not more and also rewards you...

You must have missed the insane meltdowns that happened here and in other places because "waahhhhhhhhh i want the hair but i dont want to do harder content or spend gil i just want the rewards NOW no i dont want to earn them just GIVE THEM to me" over Chaotic.
They basically can't win - give higher-end content actually decent rewards, you get tantrums from people who want the rewards but abjectly refuse to even consider stepping foot in the content. Don't give it good rewards, you basically kneecap it at the starting line because now there's no motivation to run it for 90% of people. Of course, this could be solved if they stopped listening to the first group but eh, there's a reason babies scream and cry - it gets results.

[Pricia]

You must have missed the insane meltdowns that happened here and in other places because "waahhhhhhhhh i want the hair but i dont want to do harder content or spend gil i just want the rewards NOW no i dont want to earn them just GIVE THEM to me" over Chaotic.
They basically can't win - give higher-end content actually decent rewards, you get tantrums from people who want the rewards but abjectly refuse to even consider stepping foot in the content. Don't give it good rewards, you basically kneecap it at the starting line because now there's no motivation to run it for 90% of people. Of course, this could be solved if they stopped listening to the first group but eh, there's a reason babies scream and cry - it gets results.

Yeah clearly not, as casuals are getting a recolored mask this time and both mounts are only available for players who enjoy harder content.

So I'm really not sure what you're even talking about. Square doesn't care about casual players and repeatedly proves it.

Also, the hair was at least obtainable from hoards or from doing weeklies eventually (for PT at least). Here there's just absolutely no way to get it unless you 1) hope that more hardcore players will run the content and sell them, 2) you have the gil.

So yeah, same as chaotic.

[SkankyRoe]

You must have missed the insane meltdowns that happened here and in other places because "waahhhhhhhhh i want the hair but i dont want to do harder content or spend gil i just want the rewards NOW no i dont want to earn them just GIVE THEM to me" over Chaotic.

Literally zero people had any sort of "insane meltdown" as you describe; contrary to your hyperbole, nobody asked for a free handout. It's entirely reasonable that players were upset that a character creation option was not just simply locked behind a high-end fight, but it was locked behind a 24-man Anabaseios Savage with a very bad FOMO reward system.

[Aidorouge]

You must have missed the insane meltdowns that happened here and in other places because "waahhhhhhhhh i want the hair but i dont want to do harder content or spend gil i just want the rewards NOW no i dont want to earn them just GIVE THEM to me" over Chaotic.
They basically can't win - give higher-end content actually decent rewards, you get tantrums from people who want the rewards but abjectly refuse to even consider stepping foot in the content. Don't give it good rewards, you basically kneecap it at the starting line because now there's no motivation to run it for 90% of people. Of course, this could be solved if they stopped listening to the first group but eh, there's a reason babies scream and cry - it gets results.

Casuals weren't demanding "free" rewards and you know it, but then it's typical of hardcore players to accuse casuals of being "entitled" while they themselves are fat and bloated on content and rewards and then shriek bloody murder when their promised Savages and Ultimates get merely delayed, not cancelled, while normal modes and their rewards get axed all the time for over a year now.
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It's not about what I enjoy, it's the difficulty. An item granted for overcoming a great challenge would inarguably be more meaningful than something given out for free. When I see a player with an Ultimate weapon, it tells me they've cleared an Ultimate. When I see a player with a Manderville weapon, it tells me they watched some cutscenes. There's a story behind everything.

This is less the case for high-end versions of content. A big part of the appeal of overcoming hard challenges like this in an MMO is being able to show off the shiny and exclusive reward you got at the end. It's not just about doing it, but about having proof and being recognized for having done it.

Contrary to popular belief, a majority of the playerbase does not in fact fawn over your accomplishments and wishes they could be you, most of us are likely to run right past you not knowing you from anyone else. You playing a Hyur is more likely to turn heads, not whatever hardcore glam or title you covered yourself with, especially when none of us can confirm if you ACTUALLY did it without paying up or resorting to third-party tools, or how without achievement confirmation we wouldn't even know if you did something when it was current versus waiting until you could unsync it.

I wouldn't even recognize an Ultimate weapon if I saw one, and even if I could identify one, the only thing it tells me is that the person probably has a rotten attitude because that seems to be quite common with the hardcore playerbase.

Why should I even care about hardcore player accomplishments when they don't care if casuals get anything at all?