Why Casual Friendly Would Stop ARR From Dying

[Starlord]

Everytime I see her name on a thread, I automatically think it's going to be negative in some way or form :P.

[Chardrizard]

Weren't you the guy that suggested to tone down easy mode darnus fight for the casuals.

[Azurymber]

Like i said, this is practical. I understand what you are all saying, but that way has been tried in every mmo for the past 5 years and they have all failed.

If something fails 10 times, why keep trying it?

Having to play every day for a year to get the best weapon, forces you to sub for a year. It also means ppl who normally quit and go to other games will prob keep their ff sub and play a bit everyday, as they won't want to have wasted the past 3 months they spend doing daily. This is logic and not about what feels right. It's about what creates success.

The fact is this game has competition for MANY other mmos
and it has nothing special to offer

Being able to attract very casual people will be a huge benefit.

However, to fix -all- your problems here is a simple solution:
Have one epic item from the dailys (if you do 365 dailys you get it)
Have separate sets of armor for partying, large allied parties, and solo

Personally I run a business, go to multiple schools (already have a few degrees), have a relationship, and have family stuff to deal with. Sometimes in my life I just want to solo for a month or 2. And FFXIV didn't offer anything "fun" or anything i could "work towards" in that aspect.

If there was an elite set of soloing gear, even if it was just for looks, I probably would never have left XIV at one point to play SWTOR.

FF has always been known for huge turnover rates where people quit and come back for a few months and quit again. Implementing systems that promote staying with the game would benefit everyone.

[Andrien]

There will be casual content for sure, and I have no doubt hard core content will intrigued casuals to try them out. You got to have both to compliment each other. Of course I want to play the game, and not let the game play me. lol

[Teuciont]

Or. You know. You could just stop being bad at video games.

[Scy]

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.



Little sister was 12, she was a BA in FFXI

Are you from Bay City, MI and your lil sister was a BLM named Foo on Hades?

[Elexia]

I don't get why people just assume if people have limited playtime they want things handed to them.

It's not at all hard to understand.

Player with 30 minutes a day to play: "I should be rewarded just like the guy below me who plays for 10 hours+ a day. I pay the same fee legacy or not. I pay for the same game. I should get the same rewards."

Player with 10 hours a day to play: "I put in so much time and effort I should get the good rewards but the guy above me wants the same rewards but he only plays 15 minutes - 30 minutes a day. That shouldn't be the case, there should be a separation of content."

The reason people see casuals wanting things handed to them is because they want the same rewards as people who aren't what you'd consider casual. It shouldn't work like that and that is why new MMOs fail, they try to cater to everyone which eventually makes your game very easy to leave because you done everything in quick succession, you have to wait for their next content update which may not be for half a year..why stay with such an easy MMO?

Casual vs Hardcore doesn't matter much as it does the way it gets handled, and every developer handled it poorly, which is why games are overly easy and overly generous. Not every casual player wants handouts, but they want to get the same benefits and rewards as someone who plays more than them or they'll consider it unfair or not casual friendly.

That's where the generalization comes from, the loudest group always win and the loudest group wants handouts. XIV 1.0 originally went the separation route but it was incomplete, the Guildleve system was supposed to be mainly for the casual playerbase, which the upcoming dungeons/hamlet defense/etc was supposed to be for the more "hardcore/people with much more time to dedicate to the game."

MMOs have generally always been about time dedication because of the consistent world and you spend your time in the world that was designed by the team, not a world designed by your liking and designed to fit your playstyle, this is why new MMOs have always failed, because they try way too hard to cater to the wrong group of people, because the first to go from an MMO are usually:

A. The "Hardcore" playerbase.
B. The playerbase inebetween MMOs, i.e "This is a new MMO lemme check it out..nope it sucks, doesn't have 21 years worth of content at launch..NEXT!"
C. The typical playerbase..i.e "So I did all of the main storyline and some side quests that were all the same and did the 4 dungeons available..what now?
Developer: "You have to wait 6 months for the content expansion, till then, PVP FIXES!
Player: "....NEXT!"


Meanwhile the playerbase that tends to stay are the ones who like the particular series the MMO may be from or the ones who can't afford to go to another. So unless SE handles the content very well, making this an overly casual game will indeed be the death of it because why play this casual game when you have a multitude of other MMOs out there, F2P ones as well? Besides the fanbase, the playerbase SE hopes to pull in will be coming from those said MMORPGs..if they see everything is exactly the same but with less content...there's a problem.

So SE is on thin ice as fair as a strand of angelhair, they have to approach this balance almost perfectly or they'll bleed people within the first month. You also have to remember XIV has this stigma against it: It has failed once before.

[auritribe]

Like i said, this is practical. I understand what you are all saying, but that way has been tried in every mmo for the past 5 years and they have all failed.

If something fails 10 times, why keep trying it?

Having to play every day for a year to get the best weapon, forces you to sub for a year. It also means ppl who normally quit and go to other games will prob keep their ff sub and play a bit everyday, as they won't want to have wasted the past 3 months they spend doing daily. This is logic and not about what feels right. It's about what creates success.

The fact is this game has competition for MANY other mmos
and it has nothing special to offer

Being able to attract very casual people will be a huge benefit.

However, to fix -all- your problems here is a simple solution:
Have one epic item from the dailys (if you do 365 dailys you get it)
Have separate sets of armor for partying, large allied parties, and solo

Personally I run a business, go to multiple schools (already have a few degrees), have a relationship, and have family stuff to deal with. Sometimes in my life I just want to solo for a month or 2. And FFXIV didn't offer anything "fun" or anything i could "work towards" in that aspect.

If there was an elite set of soloing gear, even if it was just for looks, I probably would never have left XIV at one point to play SWTOR.

FF has always been known for huge turnover rates where people quit and come back for a few months and quit again. Implementing systems that promote staying with the game would benefit everyone.

The solution is pretty obvious but no one wants to do it. Provide lots and lots of content that doesn't focus on the latest dungeon of the patch. Provide content that makes the game feel a little different every time you log in and provide players with things to do that make them feel unique without needing to grind dungeons for it. It's not that hard. Actually it IS that hard, which is why no one has done it, but that's really what's needed.

Obviously raiding content would stay, but it shouldn't be the only thing added with each 'content' patch.

My solution? Make the leve system a lot more dynamic, do amazing things with it. Implement a player housing system that is more versatile than any predecessors, and allow players to have a visible effect on the world around them. Player created towns and communities will go a long way in keeping 'casual' player subscriptions.

Facebook games and MMO's are a lot more similar psychologically than anyone here would care to admit. Myself included.

'hardcore' players should read this, and then get really really mad at me for showing it to them:

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-...e-games-2012-3

BI: What kind of satisfaction came with paying for Zynga's goods?
Exclusivity. Eliteness. Vulgar displays of wealth. Call it what you will, but those words encapsulate the feeling.

[fusional]

<uses extremely casual-oriented games that have failed as example of why casual-friendly play will save ARR>

[HiirNoivl]

What is this OP? It took you 8 sentences before going to ffxi??? Man, Azury, you're getting soft.