There is nothing wrong with instant gratification

[Azazela]

If a game isn't fun, then you simply shouldn't play it. If you logic is as follow :

"Well in 5 more hours I'll hit 50 and then there will be something new"
"If I grin through this one dungeon 60 times total, then I'll be able to do interesting content"
"I have to farm a gathering profession to compete with teleporting bots t pay my bills, but I won't need it as much wnen I get enough money.

And the FINAL sin in any MMO is.

"Wait till next patch it will get better". Why would I want to wait for 3-4 months to make the game more interesting, especially when you note that many times patches are failures, broken content, no proper class rebalances, etc. Thing that should be hotfixed the day they are noticed, should not be held for almost hald a year of you waiting for shit.

Game needs to be fun, always. There is no excuse to shove artificial bad content to to simply draw things out for the same of a timesink.

[Supersomething]

The problem with instant gratification is that eventually you will run out of things to instantly gratify you. Games do need to be fun, however 'fun' is completely subjective and that especially goes for games being fun all the time which is nearly impossible for any human being on this planet, because eventually you will get bored. Ideally you would want a good balance between instant gratification and things that will take a certain amount of time for the game to remain interesting. Now in the case of SE having unfinished end game this is going to be a deterrent for some, however others will be just content with crafting, leveling alts, and helping their friends.

[Ebon_Drake]

There is absolutely everything wrong with instant gratification. The rewards are far less fulfilling for one. Anything 'worth' having is worth putting in the work to get it. If you don't enjoy something, don't do it. That being said. I would much rather have it take time and work to get to something I really want and can be proud of.

5 minute grind to 50 with full af+1 gear? meh, I'll be like yea, so what.. Netflix time. Spend a lot of time and hard working getting something that is very hard to get? I can sit back and say yea, I did that, and feel accomplished. People these days with wanting everything now.. McDonalds attitude I call it. Makes it so that you have stuff (not just in a game) that you don't care about and don't appreciate.

Learn to work hard for something and you'll learn to appreciate it all the more. The feeling of accomplishment after reaching that goal that is super hard is crazy satisfying.

:tldr: learn to work hard and really truly appreciate the stuff that comes along with it instead of slamming your fist down and saying "I WANT IT NAO!!!".

Running an instance 60 times is not about instant gratification, its just terrible design that is not fun.

It's about working hard to get to a goal. don't like it? don't do it. Get over the fact that you have to actually work in a game to get to something you want. Every MMO game is like this, stop acting like it's something new SE did. Go play EQ1 back in 99 and try camping a contested mob, for days, and standing in a line, for days, waiting for your CHANCE to kill a mob that spawned once a week to get an item.

You must be self projecting yourself on to others.

Ohh noes, not my MMO! The point of my life is lost.

Exactly the type of response I expected from someone acting like an teenager whom feels entitled and can't have what everyone else has worked so hard for "RiTE NAO!!"

[killergerms]

like when people buy titan runs haha

[jdnyc]

If you achieve everything with little to no work, there is no sense of accomplishment. You will get bored and move on to do something else. There is everything wrong with instant gratification and it is what has destroyed the genre.

[Daragust]

In addition to what has been said, instant gratification causes you to want the next thing even faster and easier. This means that over time you get less and less out of each gain and need either larger gains or more of them to be happy. Many MMO's have burned out because they simply can't keep up with the gratification cycle they have instantiated and people get bored/numb. There have been studies, not gonna go find one but there have been several, that prove that people take better care of and feel more pride in objects they worked for than those they were given. I agree there is a tedium point where the reward isn't worth the effort, but little to no effort means a worthless reward. Aim for the middle of that curve and you'll be a much happier person.

[Freakiie]

In addition to what has been said, instant gratification causes you to want the next thing even faster and easier. This means that over time you get less and less out of each gain and need either larger gains or more of them to be happy. Many MMO's have burned out because they simply can't keep up with the gratification cycle they have instantiated and people get bored/numb. There have been studies, not gonna go find one but there have been several, that prove that people take better care of and feel more pride in objects they worked for than those they were given. I agree there is a tedium point where the reward isn't worth the effort, but little to no effort means a worthless reward. Aim for the middle of that curve and you'll be a much happier person.

This is a very good point I've seen in F2P games over and over. The people that didn't spend thousand of dollars (myself included) to get high lvl, well geared characters have a lot more attachment to those characters than the ones that just smack thousands of dollars at the game, sit around instantly in top gear and then go like "so what should I actually do in this game?". A lot of those super heavy cashshoppers quit just as fast as they got their gear and give their accounts away, while the people that worked hard are a lot more attached to their characters and you wouldn't see them part with them anywhere near as fast. Unfortunately with how easy some games become you don't really get that attachment to your characters anymore since it just feels way too easy and there's no sense of accomplishment. Your character isn't something you poured hours of work in anymore, it's just there and it seems almost logical it's max lvl and everything.

Now people will go on about skinner boxes and how that's bad etc, but lets face it, working towards a goal is a lot more fun than just sitting around and instantly getting your top gear. It's why so many people don't like private servers, there's just no sense of accomplishment. While I can't deny having to run the same dungeon over and over isn't very good design, especially when there's a lot of potential dungeons SE could make viable, instant gratification is even worse.

Getting endgame gear should feel like an accomplishment, but the journey towards that gear should be fun too. Unfortunately too many people nowadays can't see the journey anymore and just want the goal right now, which considering how straightforward the journey SE has made is, isn't such a big surprise. With the rebalancing of tome drops with the next hotfix I hope this changes and we actually get multiple viable dungeons to run. That way there doesn't need to be an instant gratification, but the journey isn't the same dungeon over and over either.

[Yurikitty]

The problem with instant gratification is this, you get no satisfaction from working for it, it is meaningless within hours. I am going to assume you are from the Yolo generation or pretty close to it. I have this problem with my own kids. They want something, they want it now, they play it for 5 hours and then its boring, they want the next new pretty shiny. What you kids dont get is the immense satisfaction of working for something, finally getting there and being proud of that achievement cause you worked so hard for it! People that played 11 for instance, it took months to level up to cap, months, and it was so worth it in the end, I played that game for 7 years, and when I finally quit for instant gratification WoW it sucked. Kids today, when will you learn?

[Azazela]

Running an instance 60 times is not about instant gratification, its just terrible design that is not fun.

[Ri_ri]

Try to enjoy the journey for a change. Getting your AF2 today and beating Coil tomorrow wouldn't be nearly as fun as you think.