Pro and Cons of Quick Endgame Content Release

[Xystic]

I'd like to discuss the pros and cons of quick content release today.

Pros for quick endgame content release:

-New content regularly
-New armor sets to compliment content
-New encounter strategies and etc
-A Sense of character progression

Cons for quick endgame content release:

-Freebie gear must be given in some format to keep the community on the same page
-Armor sets, achievements and invested time have less self-value
-When logically drawn out, there really is no sense of end-game progression, where a player must defeat A->B->C. Freebie gear will allows players to hop in at "C" which means there was no forward progression at all for some players and wasted effort from others.

There is a lot more involved then just, "We need new endgame content." If you are for quick content releases, how would you solve some of the cons? If you are for slowed content release how would you deal with progression and capped players?

[Terius]

Pro: People can do something other than login for 3/4 hours on a monday and don't need to come back until the next monday due to lockouts and tome caps.

Change Myth Cap to per job or up the cap. Due to RNG I've gotten one Ring in 6+ weeks of coil. (Its the only piece of healer gear that dropped!) Not feeling the character progression. :P

Remove lockouts or let people do it 3 times a week or something.

[Esmian]

Most of those cons are solved by me not caring what people in the community have if I'm having fun with the new content. Also, achievements in this game are almost entirely worthless to begin with so it's sorta moot(I'm looking at you luminary gear).

[Starfox71rt]

I don't see why they didn't just bring back a Dynamis type reset for Coil. Upon completion of a turn, you are locked out of that turn for 72 hours.

For Myth tomes they could do a trade in rate of like 1500 philos to reset weekly cap. (Sidebar: I'm not a huge fan of this one because it would increase some players' pressure to continue grinding but its better than nothing.)

They could also add a new currency called something like Duty Finder Points (DFP for short). A player would only qualify for DFP if they queue'd solo for DF (maybe even random dungeon queue). If random, when they get the acceptance message, instead of showing the dungeon name/picture, there's just a black screen with a question mark (to prevent players from withdrawing until they get the dungeon they want). The player receives DFP upon completion of the dungeon and can use the DFP to reset the Myth Cap (or whatever else you may or may not want to reset).

All of these ideas could keep players coming back to the game throughout the week. I think the thing that SE needs to realize is that Hardcore players are going to be just that. They "generally" (please don't flame if you consider yourself hardcore but also enjoy helping others) have no interest in carrying newer players through content so you might as well just let them aspire to be as hardcore as they want. Slowing them down is not the ideal way to secure long term subscriptions nor is it a good way to get them to participate in other content.

[Kirsi]

Esmian is fet, if he went on a diet all of our problems would be solved.

[Kasumuni]

Pros = More things to do





Cons=

[Xystic]

Most of those cons are solved by me not caring what people in the community have if I'm having fun with the new content.

You have to remember this is a MMO and your doing new content with people who have different reasons for doing end-game content. If we swing all left field and you lose a good portion of the community, you will have no one to do content with. We need a mutual agreement or endgame content will not survive. WoW did an all left swing with the release of NAXX40 to please capped players. The raiding community fell apart like flies. The gap between new players and end-game was so far apart that replacing anyone you lost in your guild was near impossible without spending months of investment to gear players just to do endgame again. However, by adding pre endgame gear, you drive away people who do end-game for the sense of achievement. Thus we repeat this vicious cycle of replacing players until the pool is depleted or guild collapses.

[Amberion]

Pros = More things to do

Not so sure about that.. well to a point. As with the progression this game use, it makes old content pretty much worthless.

It was something I liked about XI, when new endgame content came out, you had more to do since the old content still had relevant gear.