And i thought FF14 was supposed to be for casual gamers.

[Eruantien]

ya everything you stated, and everyone else here stated is very casual orientated, the thing that makes it more hardcore is getting all the gear, but as a casual player, again as people have mentioned, you don't need it, AF is more than enough for the dungeons, in fact I still wear the stuff because it looks frigging awesome.

Yes getting quadruple melded gear is going to set you back loads of gil but why do you need that as a casual player, 1 materia will set you back what 20k if that.

Ifrit takes 15 minutes really, even with pickup groups so after 15 hours thats 30 runs, and that is way too many runs for a casual player to even contemplate wanting to do.

So many things are catered for people like you, leves, behests, quests, easily PLed to get levels up. Even solo isn't exactly a burden. it won't be as fast as a 4 hour PL party but the game isn't only for casual players or even a single player game it is an MMO so needs to cater to several type of people. So is this game casual friendly, definitely

[Babydoll]

This game definatley seems to favor casuals atm. I am always able to log on and join in on a group doing whatever. May it be AV, CC or one of the primes there is always shouting going on for one of them. I consider myself a hardcore gamer (as in the kind that won't get up to go WC until I finish doing what I am doing, won't eat, etc..aka a tard lol) like..I'll eat sleep and breathe the game until I finish what I'm doing =X

Took me like a week and a half of doing Ifrit to go 7/7. This game is so easy its not even funny atm. I am hoping after 2.0 the real hardcore stuff comes out! Casual is nice too but yeah,

[Crow79]

I would like to add my 2cents as well.

I know that FFXIV is a MMO and understand that a MMO implies that you play with other players... but why not have a MMO that caters for single players as well (full game content)?

I know it is cliche to mention other games when making suggestions but I think of Sarcerd and Sacred 2 when thinking of a good example of catering for both multiplay and single play. You can go anywhere and kill anything alone if you are good enough, high enough and stocked enough. Then when you go multiplay, everything gets increasingly harder depending on the size and level of the party. This was great because saying that you killed a dragon with 5 friend meant that the dragon was at least 15 (thumb suck) times stronger and more difficult to kill as just a single player.

I understand that this is not what a lot of players want because then everyone can just solo everything and LS's would be kinda useless but I'm sure that with the high quality system, some sort of balance can be found to still encourage multiplay but then at least not exclude the "SOLO" players as I like to call myself.

Maybe I should have started with that, I consider myself as a "SOLO" player due to the casual nature of my game play. 15hrs a week!! I wish i even had that much time. I only get to really play when I'm on leave. With the little time I have to play during the rest of the year, it is really annoying to look for a shout and then wait an hour or two for everyone to join, and then maybe doing one run and someone has to go eat or smoke or sh@# and by the time they get back I have to go. Thus it only leaves me with solo play. I just think that the players that work for a living (thats where the money comes from SE, ppl work for money, not everyone is fortunate enough to have someone else work and pay for their gaming) should also be considered and let them enjoy the full game that they are paying for as well. I am one of the few remaining players on my server that played from 2010 (that I still know of) I know most left after the free time expired (free loaders, sheesz) but the others that I spoke to left because we got forced to do stuff that we were not Forced to do in the beginning like have big parties just to enter.

This rant is getting a bit long, so I think I should rather stop it here. I will just leave this one thought. Why chase after players and player content of ppl that will only complain and leave anyway after two or three months? Why not get personal input from your CORE and long time players instead?

[Asiaine]

I think this is not meant to be very solo-friendly as there are other MMORPGs out there that are meant be solo-friendly. So from a business poitn of view, FFXIV does not want to compete in the solo-friendly market.

Also, FFXIV is Final Fantasy, and part of that theme (genre, history, background) is a focus on party play. To have that emphasis removed is to no longer be Final Fantasy.

Put another way: To say you want to play FFXIV is to say you want to be in a party-multi-player-centric world. For your situation, hopefully Content Manager will solve the problem (I think your main concern is not not-wanting to party, but rather, having to spend time to build parties).

I am much in the same boat, and am eagerly anticipating Content Manager. Fortunately Yoshi-P says that's one of his most important/main/prime features he is looking forward to ^.^b. Maybe i'll end up in a party with him!

[tymora]

If you can solo a dragon, then Ishgard would have defeated Dravania before the game started.

[Crow79]

If you can solo a dragon, then Ishgard would have defeated Dravania before the game started.

Not quite sure I know what you mean?

I do understand that all FF games are 'Party Based' but you are actually a SOLO player controlling a Party!!! So...
What would be nice to have is maybe a way to hire a "helper" like a white mage to go with you into fights. Even hire a full party, coz the parties I have joined were sometimes filled with people that only wanted one thing then leave or mess with the party after they have what they want. I just really feel that instead of forcing people to get 8 other players to join, rather enable a solo or even two to enter and do stuff, but reward the 8 players groups better or something like that. At the moment, if you have one player that messes about, the party will get nowhere. But if it was possible to do the same thing with only 7 or even 4 good players, why do you have to drag one bad player around? I have done Darkhold with 4 really good players and the other 4 only tried to keep up. I just think that it would be more of a challenge for all players if the dungeons were almost like Lev's. You can try a 3 star lev alone and if you succeed, you are really good with great rewards. If you are 8 with a 3 star, your just afraid and will get very little to no reward.

In my opinion it is really limiting for people who loves the game and loved it from the start, to not be able to participate in all the game have to offer. I am really tired of trying to get into good parties and every time you get a good LS and then the people start to drop out and leave the game and you have to start over again and again.

Aah well it seems that I just have to accept that this is more like a American High School than a GAME. If you are popular and have lots of friends, you can do everything. If not "Sit in your corner and Shut up". We will take your money and not give a hoohaa what you think.

Just thought that there were more people like me that wanted to experience the full game without restrictions but I was mistaken.

[Orophin]

To be fair, all the content in your original post was introduced AFTER Yoshi-P took over development. He has since shifted the focus of important story elements to be group content. Tanaka's vision was that any discipline could level up and see the content (i.e. the old main storyline) but that no longer applies.

There will still be solo content in ARR, but I would expect major story content to still involve full parties.