Why Casual Friendly Would Stop ARR From Dying

[Dzian]

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..

I'm a casual player. and in response to that quote my belief is and has always been that a well structured game should tailor for everyone. All players should have the means to get everything at some point. Play time should never be a deciding factor on rewards. (within reason at least)

What I do sometimes wonder though is am I the only guy that considers himself casual and wants rock solid content. Seriously come on, easy mode is not fun. Now lets go back to the quote above for a second and lets hypothesise for a little about Crystal Tower. I'm going to rip off Nyzul Isle and say it has 100 floors and for every floor you climb you reach a check point. So next time you go in you can start at that floor if you reached the check point. No problem. Now even if I only play an hour a day and as such it may take me a full week of trying to clear just 1 floor I have no problem at all with that. You're group of more hardcore people with more time on there hands could perhaps burn 1 or 2 floors a day maybe even more if they're super skilled, but the point is that it would be structured in such a way that it is possible for everyone to reach floor 100 eventually.

It doesn't mean the content has to be easy each and every floor could be a challenge in itself. Floor 1 could be Darkhold. Floor 2 Aurum Vale. Floor 3 Cutters' Cry etc... (Not the actual dungeons but an example of floor structure) Most of those aren't particularly difficult but if you think back to the beginning of those dungeons where people didn't know what they were doing they were quite tricky to clear.. 100 floors of that I'd be quite happy even if it took me a week to work out the strategy for each individual floor. If it's something I could just run in and find myself sitting on floor 8-10 that same evening I'd honestly be thinking WTF.....

I question that this is the general idea the 'casual' player base has. I'd call the players who think that way idiots, not casuals.

Perhaps I'm an idiot then. I do believe that content should be accessible to everyone in some form. I believe skill should be the measuring stick not the number of hours in your day. While admittedly there comes a limit where you need at least a minimum amount of time each day I think something akin to my example above is a fairly solid system for everyone.

It's something 11 did really well. and as much as I hate comparisons between the two when you look at systems like Limbus Einherjar and Salvage even the ZNM system. They were accessible to everyone. You could take a group of people and clear a lot of those Limbus zones in an hour or so with just 5 or 6 people. If you had a bigger group of people you could work on 2 or 3 zones at once and form up your big group one weekend to take down Ultima/Omega. Einherjar was similar 30 minutes no time extensions. Accessible to everyone. You needed a fair level of skill/gear to clear the wings in the time limit sometimes but it was accessible at least.

ZNM again could farm zeni anytime at all randomly pull a couple of friends and work through a lot of the lower tiered stuff and maybe organise bigger t3/t4s for a weekend or something.

So yeah my view is content should be accessible to all but in no way easy moded. If you clear crystal tower in a month and get a shiny piece of armour congrats, if I clear it 6 months later and get the same piece, that should never mean the content was made easier...

Why must people be so vehemently against anything being a challenge? Do you just want to log in and be handed the best gear in the game? What is the point of playing?

I'm casual and I want lots of challenges. Challenges give me a reason to better myself. Both in solo and in group content. Lose a boss fight or some content and think ok how can I improve my performance. Better gear maybe? Different skill rotation? or maybe use different sub skills? All questions that help me become better at my jobs. If things are easy then I'll never improve.

I've been called a great Paladin many times. can tank alot of stuff with relative ease but every single time I tanked Chimera I'd kick myself because even if we won I never quite felt good enough at it even if the party say I did well. Always looking for ways to up my game, thats why I like challenges. overcoming this challenge may teach me something I can take to this challenge and make it a little easier. and so on..

[Kiote]

This isn't such a hard thing to overcome. Simply make content designed to be solo'd that rewards with good gear that has stats geared to solo players. Make party content that rewards with gear that has stats more appropriate for party play.
What will make this game a winner is providing content for everyone.
Content>Gear.

I'm sorry, but this is not the Solution. People who want to Solo through easier content should not get the same rewards as people who put in the effort to complete every challenge put in front of them.

It's something 11 did really well. and as much as I hate comparisons between the two when you look at systems like Limbus Einherjar and Salvage even the ZNM system. They were accessible to everyone. You could take a group of people and clear a lot of those Limbus zones in an hour or so with just 5 or 6 people. If you had a bigger group of people you could work on 2 or 3 zones at once and form up your big group one weekend to take down Ultima/Omega. Einherjar was similar 30 minutes no time extensions. Accessible to everyone. You needed a fair level of skill/gear to clear the wings in the time limit sometimes but it was accessible at least.

ZNM again could farm zeni anytime at all randomly pull a couple of friends and work through a lot of the lower tiered stuff and maybe organise bigger t3/t4s for a weekend or something.

So yeah my view is content should be accessible to all but in no way easy moded. If you clear crystal tower in a month and get a shiny piece of armour congrats, if I clear it 6 months later and get the same piece, that should never mean the content was made easier...

This is the solution. Casual does not mean solo. Casual means you do not need a large amount of time to make progress.

Square needs to make content that is completed in steps or has to be built up to. Not meaningless time sinks. Checkpoints.

If you can only play the Endgame Dungeon for 30 mins and it take 4 hours to complete there should be a checkpoint. A place you are not required to stop, but a place you can jump to when you come back. Nyzul island is the perfect example of this. 20 sets of 5 that saved your progress. Anyone who completed a set could start at the next set. Anyone who hasn't completed has to start from the beginning.

The same concept can be applied to dungeons. You enter the dungeon, and any who has made it to checkpoint one can use a device to port to checkpoint one. Anyone who has not cannot. This wouldn't just allow for Casual players to advance through real content, but it would allow for Devs to open up content to more diverse and more in depth adventures.

No Easymode. No Soloing Party Content.


Checkpoints.

[Zehira]

Casual or not, just as long as XIV don't waste my time for nothing... Something like this:

Before enter the Ifrit battle...
Player2: Oh shit, I forgot my lantern please give me 5 mins while getting it..
10 mins later...
Player2: Damn, can someone teleport me please? I am out of anima..
Player1 agreed and teleported Player2...5 mins later..
Player3: Sorry I have to work in 30 min see ya!
Player1 is seeking for a replacement for 20 mins...
Player8 joins!
Player4: Sorry, my wife aggro I have gotta go..
Party: FFFFUUUUUUUUUU

Otherwise, correct me if I am wrong, should content finder fix the problem like above?

[MrKupo]

Casual or not, just as long as XIV don't waste my time for nothing... Something like this:

Before enter the Ifrit battle...
Player2: Oh shit, I forgot my lantern please give me 5 mins while getting it..
10 mins later...
Player2: Damn, can someone teleport me please? I am out of anima..
Player1 agreed and teleported Player2...5 mins later..
Player3: Sorry I have to work in 30 min see ya!
Player1 is seeking for a replacement for 20 mins...
Player8 joins!
Player4: Sorry, my wife aggro I have gotta go..
Party: FFFFUUUUUUUUUU

Otherwise, correct me if I am wrong, should content finder fix the problem like above?

I think this is what casual is. Players that seek games where they can get into the content right away and leave it just as quick.
A casual player wants to be able to play the content without committing themselves to it completely. What I mean is, lets say you start a party and it's a great party. The only problem is you only want to do one raid because you just don't feel like doing any more than that. A raid shouldn't force you into more raids. It's not about time, it's about feeling forced into playing a game.

The same thing goes for the effort you put into creating a build that can run certain content. A casual wants to be able to level up to that point and be able to play it, and not be forced to go out and find the perfect weapon with the perfect stats and the perfect strategy. IMO, when a party leader needs to paste in a hyperlink to a 10 page strategy for a fight, then that's no longer casual.

Casuals want to participate without committing. A casual can spend all day playing a game, that doesn't make them hardcore.

[Almalexia]

Casuals want to participate without committing.

There are literally hundreds of critically acclaimed and commercially successful single player games that I am sure the casuals haven't played. There are also dozens of multiplayer games with a non-committal, drop-in/drop-out system. These accommodate the casual lifestyle much better than any MMO ever could.

Instead they come here. Are they lost?

[Zumi]

There are literally hundreds of critically acclaimed and commercially successful single player games that I am sure the casuals haven't played. There are also dozens of multiplayer games with a non-committal, drop-in/drop-out system. These accommodate the casual lifestyle much better than any MMO ever could.

Instead they come here. Are they lost?

Games have changed and evolved over the years. Drop in drop out style of game play like Call of Duty for example have shown that ease of play sells a lot. Those call of duty games sell over 26 million every year..

Now say you don't like shooters, they aren't everyone's cup of tea. But some people are into rpgs more, but want a multiplayer type game. Which is why most MMOs have evolved to have a Call of Duty style matchmaking system for their multiplier dungeon or raid content. Easy to get in get out play whenever you want. Playing with other real people might be more fun then playing a single player game.

The number of people willing to do stuff like stay in one town shouting for hours to make a group I.E. like making a Ifrit group is very few. Today's generation of gaming is about instant gratification not sitting in town for a hour or two making a group.

Gameing style and attitudes change from the Everquest and FFXI days of online gaming. To be more successful companies realize that they need to cater to the masses who want easy drop in and drop out multiplayer systems in their online games.

[urban]

Now say you don't like shooters, they aren't everyone's cup of tea. But some people are into rpgs more, but want a multiplayer type game. Which is why most MMOs have evolved to have a Call of Duty style matchmaking system for their multiplier dungeon or raid content. Easy to get in get out play whenever you want. Playing with other real people might be more fun then playing a single player game.

The number of people willing to do stuff like stay in one town shouting for hours to make a group I.E. like making a Ifrit group is very few. Today's generation of gaming is about instant gratification not sitting in town for a hour or two making a group.

Gameing style and attitudes change from the Everquest and FFXI days of online gaming. To be more successful companies realize that they need to cater to the masses who want easy drop in and drop out multiplayer systems in their online games.[/QUOTE]

edit: >.> /mybad mess up your quote


Great point. i don't play CoD because it not my cup of tea. my little brother and my nephew ask me to play CoD all the time. i play it just to bond with them but CoD it not my thing But i dont ask or Demand whoever made that game to cater to me do i? NO I DONT. I JUST GET OWNED AND TELL THEM OK I DIE ALOT IMMA GO PLAY FFXI and FFXIV. Im not even a CoD forum member either.

BTW there are times i just let my character craft... at the same time i shout to make a PT or looking for a group or if i see a shout i like and i join that. All my time are aren't being wasted.