Gated Content:

[AmonXF]

Gated Content: content in the game in which you put a series of quests, or requirements before allowing access to said content.

At first pass through this game, I felt that having your quest chain lead into instances was a very cool idea... and it was actually very easy to get groups to complete content. And then the 8 man content hit in my story quest and suddenly I saw incredibly wait times and not being able to work my way through it. I can actually see now what a completely terrible idea this was and suddenly I'm brought back in time to days of old where you had to do painfully long quest chains to get Keys to be able to enter instances... and complete sets of resistance gear just to advance further in the game.

Defiance also ran into an issue with gated content which I saw in week 2 of their release... and then I just closed up the game: not worth it.

I'm also at that stage right now with FF14. I think that if you took an honest poll and asked players if they prefer an "open sandbox" type access to ALL content vs gated content you would find that the majority of your playerbase doesn't want to be stuck endlessly assisting guildies with content that has no meaning other than to become "unlocked" in a quest chain... they get zero benefit running people through that content.

It's a major under sight in your game. And I'm pretty sure I'm not tolerant enough to sit around endlessly waiting on 8man groups to be able to see the end of my story and then "unlock" even more content to play as a level 50.

[Zfz]

To be honest, it is a central design paradigm of Final Fantasy. The existence of a main story line.

Once you get past that, the world is basically open to you.

The wait times are not related to having this design philosophy. It's related to not having enough server resources.

[Shaone]

Is this real?

[AmonXF]

Is this real?

Absolutely real.

I have about 2-3 hours of play time per sitting - last night in prime time I sat in a queue for 1.5 hours for an 8man instance and then decided I didn't have any longer to wait. I can't even start on "end game" dungeon grinding - or relic yet as far as I know until I complete my story mode.

Why mix "raid" content with 4man too... that's just stupid design also. Especially if there's really a low incentive to queue up to help others finish.

[Shaone]

Absolutely real.

I have about 2-3 hours of play time per sitting - last night in prime time I sat in a queue for 1.5 hours for an 8man instance and then decided I didn't have any longer to wait. I can't even start on "end game" dungeon grinding - or relic yet as far as I know until I complete my story mode.

Why mix "raid" content with 4man too... that's just stupid design also. Especially if there's really a low incentive to queue up to help others finish.

OK, surprised it's taking that long, but I guess most people prefer going premade into those 8 man dungeons by now, usually with single tank/healer. But people do get a benefit from helping on the later ones, it gives tomes. I've helped people doing story runs 4-5 times on both the later 8 mans, if you can find a fully premade group then you won't be queuing at all. They do exist, other people need the clear the story too. try putting out a shout or two in Mor Dhona while you are queuing.

[Johnist]

The OP only has a Level 30 CNJ/WHM... How can he know what any of the 8-man content is considering the 1st 8-man required event is a Level 40 Guildhest and the dungeons aren't 8-man until 49/50 (Cape Westwind, Castrum Meridianum, Praetorium, Ifrit Hard Mode, Garuda Hard Mode, Titan Hard Mode, Binding Coil)...

I'm sorry, but to me 'raid content' means 3+ Full Parties (Crystal Tower, Odin, Behemoth) all of which are Level 50 content... there is no 'Gated Raid Content' that the OP has even encountered.

[AmonXF]

The OP only has a Level 30 CNJ/WHM... How can he know what any of the 8-man content is considering the 1st 8-man required event is a Level 40 Guildhest and the dungeons aren't 8-man until 49/50 (Cape Westwind, Castrum Meridianum, Praetorium, Ifrit Hard Mode, Garuda Hard Mode, Titan Hard Mode, Binding Coil)...

I'm sorry, but to me 'raid content' means 3+ Full Parties (Crystal Tower, Odin, Behemoth) all of which are Level 50 content... there is no 'Gated Raid Content' that the OP has even encountered.

I have no clue what's wrong with my profile - but that being said I have a 50 PLD and a 50 BLM... 50 ALC/50 CLN (I think that the last time I logged in to my PS3 version of the game I was level 30 - maybe I should log in to get this thing updated I guess)



Vs: "get a free company - friends - etc" a lot of people on Famfrit are very rude, immature, and getting groups via global channels is a massive pain. My complaint here about the content being set up this way is simple: they should have anticipated long ago that once the first and maybe 2nd wave of players made it through their story quest, there needs to be INCENTIVE for people to go back in and do it again - otherwise maybe allowing us to complete the story quests without needing the 8man content? I don't know - basically it's terrible design and expected from small minded developers back in the 90s. Come on now. We've already seen this design type fail - why use it again now 20 years later? Terrible choice.

The design here is that you want to have people constantly going back in to content that is meaningless to them - just for the lolz? Get real. This also adds tremendous strain to all FCs because people get stuck in a loophole constantly helping those below them in the quest chain - adds frustration to people who eventually just quit the FCs to go to pure "end game" FCs just to avoid having to do the CHORE of helping out those still working through it.

It's a vicious - near sighted circle. Such a flawed and terrible terrible design. Thank christ I just got beta accepted into a few games as well as a couple more coming out in a day here... something to do until the next MMO or SE gives their heads a shake and wakes up... NO significant patches or anything since release.

[Eightbit]

Honestly I don't feel the gated aspect is the issue, the issue is there are some things that have no point in being rerun after the first time through. Essentially any of the story mode trials (story primals and Westwind) have very few people returning to do them as they offer no reward to the members outside of story progression. This does get alleviated by having an active and helpful FC the first time through, or if you are an in demand class such as healer or tank.

[Tupsi]

Yep, the problem is after the initial population rush, there's no reason to go back, like ever unless you want certain gear pieces - Even XI had content you'd redo for various reasons like Limbus even if you didn't do it for the AF+1 or Omega/Ultima/accessories pieces you could always do it for coins and make money. Here, there's honestly no real reason for me as a 50 SCH to go back into Copperbell or Haukke Manor.

However, Gated Content is a staple of FF games - every single one (maybe not as much as the new ones) had content that was inaccessible to you for a while either till main story completion or certain side activities were done - so the problem is, especially as DPS, DF times are extremely long especially after instead of everyone seeking together, SE broke the servers into groups that SIGNIFICANTLY raised search times.

[Aegis]

Yep, the problem is after the initial population rush, there's no reason to go back, like ever unless you want certain gear pieces - Even XI had content you'd redo for various reasons like Limbus even if you didn't do it for the AF+1 or Omega/Ultima/accessories pieces you could always do it for coins and make money. Here, there's honestly no real reason for me as a 50 SCH to go back into Copperbell mines.

There was no incentive to Farm magicked skulls for others or the 2:3 fight or help them with LBs. People still did it, even though it took longer to complete than the ~30 mins s dungeon takes now.