Why Casual Friendly Would Stop ARR From Dying

[Azurymber]

Let's face it. Modern MMOs don't last. LOTR, RIFT, SWTOR, GW2, TERA etc, have all essentially died down after a few months of release, to the point where some have gone free to play.

To me, the reason for all these failures is obvious. It's not the games that are bad. On the contrary, I would argue that SWTOR's gameplay is incredibly fun, as well as GW2's.

It's that they don't handle user experiences well.

When MMOs first came out, most of the people playing them were computer geeks, or series fans. For example, ffxi was my first mmo when i was around 14 or 15. A lot of people I played with at that time were my age (I started the game with a bunch of friends). Most of the people on the ffxi servers had quite a bit of time to devote to the long tedious leveling up process, but also was in no rush to do so.

I was in linkshells where people didn't hit 75 for years and didn't care. The fun part of ffxi was experiencing new zones, fishing, gathering, farming, talking to friends, doing missions and quests, etc.

It wasn't until WOTG came out that I noticed people rushing to the end.

But since then it seems to have become common place in MMO's to rush to the end, because for some reason, devs have created this formula that an MMO should be a "short rush to end game, and then lots of repetitive endgame stuff"

I personally believe this is a response to WoW's success. And in all honesty is the wrong way to look at MMOs.

MMOs are successful when they integrate a player and make the feel like part of the world. Connect them with friends. And give them something to work towards.

However, part of an MMO is variety. And thats where most modern MMOs fell short. I played SWTOR and loved it, but by endgame i was bored out of my mind. There were a few end-game raids and pvp. nothing else. Similarly I enjoyed GW2 for the most part, but by endgame it got repetitive.

My fear is that ARR is going in this direction. It sounds to me like it will be "spend 2 weeks questing to max level, repeat crystal tower and labyrinth 100 times"

My suggestions is a completely different path. One that focuses on casual players and not on the -few- people who play 24/7, make their voices heard, and essentially make up the core of "end game".

The first step here is to create something like a daily. Every day you log on and you have a quest or something to do that takes approx 30 minutes to an hour. Kind of like levequests. HOWEVER. You don't just get money and items out of this. You get special points which allow you to get one of the best gears in the game (for a specific slot) after 365 dailies completed.

Along the way you make money, and can get access to multiple other very good intermediary items.

For end-game content. Instead of leaving dungeons the same. Every time you create a new one you write the following for the old one
--for monsters in dungeon x
damage = damage / 2--
In other words, you cut the damage in the dungeon by half. This means people still need to spend time to get through it, but casual and Returning players, can easily accomplish it.

What i'm getting at here is simple:
Design the game for the MAJORITY of players who are working, have kids, have school, have girlfriends/boyfriends, have a life, etc.
Not for the -few- hardcore endgame players who can spend 8 hours a night raiding.

That doesn't mean you ignore the hardcore players. It just means that with every "new step" in the game, you easy-mode the old stuff, AND you create a serious incentive to still do the old stuff, so that casuals and returning players get access to all that cool gear without having to invest 1000s of hours of time.

And you also focus on pleasing people who only play a bit every day. By focusing more on the leveling process than the end game, creating a dynamic world with lots to do, having dungeons that aren't overly hard but entertaining to go through, and creating a daily system that rewards people for playing every day (you can add weekly or monthly bonus systems as well), and allows casuals, even 10 year old girls, to get the best gear in the game

By doing this, you tell all the people with lives that they can play this game and -still- be "elite". As long as they play a -bit- every day. It gives them something -concrete- to work towards rather that doing a dungeon 100 times and hoping for a random drop and hoping your ls will let you lot on it (one of the stupidest systems ever). And it allows people to actually explore and experience the entire world, rather than just port between the city and dungeons, or the city and 1 or 2 zones for farming.

TLDR:
In short what I'm suggesting is that instead of super hard raid and 1000s of deaths, you have a -FUN- game, that rewards all players just for playing and sticking with the game. Where people can still advance by doing something for 15min at a time. Then on top of that you have a bit of end-game raid stuff for the hardcores so they can be the -first- to get stuff. But eventually you make sure that even children playing with their parents can get through the dungeons at some point, and experience the game and content.

[Zezlar]

Sooo.... in essence people who spend more time should continue doing so because they have no life, and people who log in 30 minutes to and hour a day can get the best that the game has available? Sorry I strongly disagree. Don't get me wrong, the game does need casual content. People who don't have the time should have options available, but they shouldn't be handed the best simply because they don't have the time or can't do a dungeon the way it was intended.

Also, not all casuals are frail people with no time. A lot of them kick ass.

[Azurymber]

Sooo.... in essence people who spend more time should continue doing so because they have no life, and people who log in 30 minutes to and hour a day can get the best that the game has available? Sorry I strongly disagree. Don't get me wrong, the game does need casual content. People who don't have the time should have options available, but they shouldn't be handed the best simply because they don't have the time or can't do a dungeon the way it was intended.

Also, not all casuals are frail people with no time. A lot of them kick ass.

This has nothing to do with what's "right". It has to do with what makes a game successful.
Allowing casuals access to end-game item gives XIV a competitive advantage over other games by attracting people who -just- want to be casual, and being able to attract large parts of the population who don't play MMOs because they are time-sinks.

However the system can be balanced.
You can make is so armor sets (hands, feet, legs, body) can be attained 2 ways. Either quickly via dungeon, or overtime via daily points OR achievement points

Then you can make hardcores able to get the best head
and hardcores get the best -new- armor for 4 months b4 casuals get a chance at it

And make legendaries or epic weapons based on playtime, not on long grinds. Ex. each daily lands you 5 special points, and when you get 365*5 of them you can get the first legendary weapon. Put another way. If you play -every- day after 1 year you will -always- have the best weapon in the game.

This create a huge incentive for continual playing, continual paying, and as a result, a constantly populated game that makes lots of money which can be invested in epic expansions.

[nokinator]

why.......

[Renen]

FF11 WAS doing fine until abyssea started catering to casuals. If ff14 is similar in difficulty to ff11 pre-Abyssea then that would be perfect. I myself am a kinda casual player, where I dont have any of those fancy static groups or run dungeons with the LS like its a part time job. I had plenty of fun in ff11 and the ff14 darnus hard fight that everyone whined about.

On relics: They should actually make them LESS dependent on time spent playing (hamlet), and more on being good enough at the game (boss fight) in order to obtain them

[Phe]

even 10 year old girls, to get the best gear in the game

kidding aside.
let casuals get very good gear, and hardcore players the best gear.
the difference can be minimal.
like 100 Atk for an NQ item and 105 for the HQ.

[Noblewar]

They already made Relics casual so doesn't that indicate to you that this game is going to be "casual aka easy mode"?

You're basically asking for a complete WoW copy with different graphics. I say no! That game is horrible in every way!

[Cedri]

It's hard to find a good balance between endgame and early game. Yeah all the flashy stuff is high level, comes from hard fights and probably considered "best in the game". However, the reason why this is the focus of most MMOs is that endgame is enevitable. Just as death, taxes and bad Chuck Norris jokes.

even 10 year old girls, to get the best gear in the game

Little sister was 12, she was a BA in FFXI

[Renen]

That game is horrible in every way!

I never played WOW, but it cant be horrible in EVERY way? It dos have the most subscriptions of any MMO

[Jynx]

I don't get why people just assume if people have limited playtime they want things handed to them. It's not casual or hardcore gamers who demand instant gratification it's people who feel their time is too important to waste on a MMO.

These are not the people you should aim at pleasing because they are the first to leave regardless of how far back you bend to please them.