Endgame too challenging and teamwork based (Hear me out)!

[Wingless_Seraph]

Achievement is a wispy word and one player's achievement can't be quantified against another, so why would you push that on people and argue for it through difficulty? So if I have an FC with 7 other skilled players with low latency, good PC specs, and good reflexes, the "difficulty" you perceive becomes very low to us. Is our feeling of achievement lessened compared to another who had to scrape and claw their way through the content using the Duty Finder?

I personally don't try to compare my personal situation, group of mates, or server community to an achievement that gives me some warm fuzzy feeling. What I do look at is content that can be enjoyed by the majority without major frustration, and not put on a pedestal by the few elites who have to be held on high with their glowing stat sticks. What is difficult is subjective in these MMOs and it's mainly a matter of time and the amount of human bodies one can amass together to perform a given role.

I beat Titan the first time with a Revenant PUG, can I say I gained more satisfaction than a FC of relatively good players who have years of playing together in various MMOs because it was more challenging for my group of 8? I can't knock a person's satisfaction for playing the game the way they like, but I can tell you my perspective and that is: I enjoy the game from 1-50, easy content, hard content, it's all the same to me. Getting my first relic was no different 5-mins after the fact than getting my first Foestriker gear from Satascha at level 15. When I helped others get their first relic, I was happy for them. And that's where I feel players have this massive disconnect. They associate achievement with low accessibility. Being the few, the elite, the proud to claim the top of Mount Everest while basking in the warmth of the glory. While I, who is just as skilled and capable of climbing Mount Everest would like for others to see the world from that altitude as well.

To me, putting money and Dev time towards content that a small % will ever see is a poor usage of resources. Currently, the entire Titan HM thing, though not at fault on its own has caused some interesting things in the community. You have multiple FCs selling Titan wins to people. Last I saw on Leviathan was one FC claiming 300+ people satisfied, and that's not counting the other FCs who have done the same. So what was once a firm "gate" has now become a means for those with the ability to beat Titan with 7 players to become extremely wealthy off those without the patience or care for the "achievement or satisfaction." I won't even get into the growing number of groups being put together with requirements to have a Relic and in some cases a Relic +1 to do AK, CM, Prae, which further pushes desperation onto the unfortunate players who are blunting against Titan HM in despair. As a member of the playerbase I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, the mercenary aspect of it from an entrepreneurial perspective is ingenious; the other hand I feel shame for those who would profit from the desperation of others instead of doing what I feel a healthy "community" should do: Help others beat Titan by joining those PUGs or aiding others. And some people do just that. It's been kind of rare for me to see a Titan PUG without atleast one relic user in the group, lately.

In the end, I sit somewhere in the middle between making content accessible and so challenging, through whatever means, that only a small % will see the content. What really comes to my mind is why are people throwing around the word "challenging" in an MMO genre that lives and breathes on repetition? The 10th week of Turn 1-4 coil that is completed in under two hours isn't a challenge at all to the static 8 or good FC. It's a serving of repetiton of stale tactics and battle plans for loot. I guess in my mind, I really don't care how a person plays their game as long as overall frustration is within a healthy parameter. The fanfare of a cheer after hours of butting heads against a difficult encounter doesn't erase the hours of frustration that preceded it. But that's me.

And I'm not asking to make things EASY or EZmode like most people will claim in their extreme responses to derail a good discussion. People should be allowed to want some middle-ground and it shouldn't be defined by the personal satisfaction of the tiny few. I think, currently, FF14 does a good job with end game gear (Which is really what the vast majority of players truly care about) by giving Allagan to the raiders who can do Coil and AF2 for Myths to those who can't and even being good options for those inbetween and on both sides of the equation. I hope they continue this trend, where the joy of raiding is simply to raid, while gaining some reward for it, and those who would like to solo or randomly group up with others can still work towards current high ilevel loot.

The funny thing would be if "Extreme" mode was added to the primals but without incentive besides some "Achievement" unlock on your character. You'd get a good indicator of those who actually want to be challenged for the sake of it versus those who just want to be in the small % to be envied as they stand in towns or outposts with their weapons out to show their shinies.