What is it like to be unable to clear all of the content?

[Lunavi]

Turn 4

Our raidgroup is not always there all of us when we do this instance as it happens in the middleish of the week so we have to pug 1-3 members.

Yes, I am alittle upset. We are tackling this now then as more and more people in FC is getting geared enough to act as replacement to not having to rely on PUG's

No. Making it easier would make it useless for premades which should be the goal of an MMO.

Harder content earlier that makes so more people need to join up free companies before titan/coil so it becomes easier for them to grow together with their free company.

[FJerome]

You want casual? I'll give you casual.

I've been stuck for a week at Garuda. Garuda Story Mode.

[Chocolys]

...
Not every player is like this. I can understand that.
.....
and while I get along well with the more hardcore players there's a bit of a disconnect between me and our more casual player base... it happens!

Do you really understand?
By that I mean do you think that your way to play is better than their way?

How you immediately just interpreted the word "better" in the question above might be an answer by itself.

Browsing MMO forums, there is often one recurrent complaint from players matching your playing profile: that MMOs are becoming too much of "Theme parks".
Kinda like a place where there is no challenge and where you just mindlessly follows the attractions around.

But anyone who has ever been to a live amusement park, will notice people having fun all around.
It's not any different in MMO for some players. It's a social place to meet and have fun together, chatting or fooling around.
The game dungeons are kinda like the attractions. They just want an easy and fun ride. They're not seeking for the frustration caused by an undesired challenge.

"Theme park" players or more casual players do not care about min-maxing, rotation efficiency and the likes, simply because it makes no sense for them to do so, because it feels more like work to them, and since the only thing they mostly enjoy is just riding kinda effortlessly along the content proposed having fun.
They're not seeking any hard competition, they're seeking an easy entertainment.

Then you have the opposite kind of players. Players who enjoy competition, who get their fun for taking on difficult content, who attempts to optimize the way they play to be the most efficient during battles.
The kind that mostly finds unchallenging content boring.

Of course I'm over simplifying with these 2 main categories of gamers, as each player has its own different and subtitle motivations to play a game, but these 2 are kinda relevant to your post.

Obviously a conceptual problem might arise when these opposite kind of gamers share the same MMO. The game developper either have to pick a side, or try to please both sides. Is it possible and if yes how to do it, that's another topic all together.

But focusing on the subject of your message, the relational problem between "casual" and more challenge-dedicated players.

If you really understand them, then you really accept than your way to play the game is not better than their way. It's just different.
You may more easily complain there is not enough challenging content, while they may complain some content is too hard.
You may praise a Combat Log parser as useful tool to optimize your character, while they may not care at all or be annoyed by parser as it should not be necessary at all for the way they enjoy playing the game.

Neither is wrong or right, they're simply not seeking the same type of game, even not the same type of entertainment in the first place.

If you think that that the only better way to play a game, is simply being the most efficient during battles, then you will simply never understand the so called "casual players."
Of course it works both way. And sadly I notice more players who think their way to enjoy the game is the only way it should be, and cannot grasp (or simply won't bother trying to) that others may not play at all for the same interests. The worst being when one tries to enforce his way to play onto the others.

I don't think it should be so hard to connect between two types of player if each type accept that its way to play is not better than the other, but just different. To understand that they may potentially not be compatible to play with each other in some context, but that both are entirely legitimate in how they want to play.

[Haprimac]

What content has gated you, and for how long?
1. Coil turn 5, 1 week
2. Garuda Extreme, 3-4 weeks
3. Ultima Extreme, 3-4 weeks

Why are you stuck here?
1. It's still all new and in our group we're rotating healers (three of us currently), so it takes a bit before I learn the stuff as well as the rest of the group
2. We were very close last weekend, but after the closest call and somebody killing spiny, we started to lose focus and derpherping more than usual.
3. Last phase with the bombs. Haven't done Ultima for awhile, but I think we might be able to do it this time, atl I feel a bit more sure of myself than few weeks back when I was just blindly dodging stuff and having near heartattacks with tanks at low health constantly.

Are you upset about this?
1. Not at all!
2. Maybe a bit. So close, yet so far...
3. Naaah.

Should any changes be made to the content to accomodate you and players like yourself?
Not really. I'd say lag, but I don't see that ever changing. I just have to predict the moves and pay attention.

What kind of content would you like to see added in future patches for you to enjoy?
- More fun events, the ones in this game are so lame compared to what I was used to in LotRO...
- More fun and possibly dangerous exploring
- More crafting; perhaps vanity outfits to craft?
- More primals that require teamwork and not soloing in a team (I'm looking at you Titan...)
- Dungeons with more unique bosses like Pharos Sirius. It's so dull that when I was in Haukke for the first time, I found the succubus type boss very cool and her background story interesting, but to see an overload of them in AK and Haukke HM is [insert fart noise].

[synaesthetic]

My company is fairly laid-back compared to others. We're not that large, we have only two Coil groups running (a third in the planning stages) and we are slowly progressing. One of our Coil groups is on Turn 5, the other is on Turn 4. We raid a total of nine hours a week, spread across three days.

Nothing's bottlenecking is at this point. We're just starting Twintania, and progress is being made. We've gotten Garuda EX down to a science, and we'll start working on Titan EX next weekend.

I'm not upset about this. I'm upset that Square keeps designing lazy fights like Titan, and even to an extent, Garuda EX. These types of encounters rely upon being perfect for long stretches of time, and a loss of perfection by any one player can, at any time, cause the entire group to wipe. There are very little recovery points; they are not designed for an epic, drag-out, neck-and-neck battle, the type that have always been the most fun in other MMOs I've played. They're designed so that you will either clear it flawlessly or die with no in-between, largely due to the prevalence of "F you" mechanics and the imbalanced way in which they tax classes. Garuda is much easier for a party with all ranged DPS while Titan is brutal on offensive casters.

Fortunately most of the fights in Coil have been better designed than the primals, and Ultima HM is an exceptionally well-designed fight. I think SE is headed in the right direction, but they need to rethink their encounter design philosophy. Taking a fight and adding more instant-death moves doesn't make it harder; it makes it cheaper and more frustrating. These are the kinds of things game designers did in the 80s when coding arcade games. XIV doesn't need this; we don't have to put a quarter in every time we die.

[Lilysparkle]

For me, certain fights reach a level of anxiety and stress that imbalances what I'm hoping to achieve by winning in the first place, and it becomes un-fun. One example of that is Titan HM.

I have beaten it quite a few times to get various relics, so there's certainly a point where I can "do" the fight. I think it might be in part due to the first few times doing it was as a healer, and obviously that is pretty tough. >_< It took me a week, and occasionally watching a video and trying to prepare for it to feel "ready". Even now, I still don't really enjoy it. I dislike that you have to play flawlessly for the whole thing as well as the fact that there's so much dodging and mechanics to it. Objectively I could say the fight is "fine" and it's just something to do with me - and I have no problem with that.

But it gave me a realisation that it's not worth my time to attempt anything like Coil, or now the Primal extreme modes. I don't care to try. I know that attitude might be so strange to some, but I play the game for me, and to relax. So if anything, I am gating myself, but I don't have the patience and resilience to throw myself at a Primal extreme fight 10-20 times in order to beat it. Never having that jewelry or the allagan gear is something I can live with, as I can slowly accumulate myth and obtain things that way. This is fine with me. I like the designs of some of the allagan gear, but I won't have access to it, and I'm fine with that.

I try to be a conscientious healer, but I realise my personal comfort limits. Strangely enough, I enjoy CT because it's more straightforward? I don't know. Basically the intense pressure of stuff like healing Titan HM or other Primal EX and not letting anyone down or disappointing the team? Nooooo thanks. ;x The reactions I've seen when a group fails to do well, makes it seem like ppl are generally unforgiving for not being as quick to learn something as they are. And sure, it can put ppl off.

[aray0002]

.

I wont quote your whole post but.. I just wanted to say .. I read it all, and it made me sad. I can relate to your frustrations and I find it really crappy that this game has become so focused on 1 mess up and you become the ( TARGET ) of cyber bullies. FF has always been about the a story being told where you and others you meet on your journey become HERO's of the story. FFXIV makes you feel everything but a Hero. Matter of fact I would say the players in this game go way out of there way to make you feel pretty crappy about yourself. You have choices and don't be discouraged. Leave this game if you must but.. never ever feel your not worthy to play. I had a Tank tell me how to heal in WP the whole time. Said i was a STUPID HEALER and the crazy thing.. He never died once. He was mad because I was wasting MP. He was a jerk and I could only laugh at his stupidity. Remember Have FUN !!!

[KoujiMoreno]

Stuff.(

Ouch right in the feels...

I'm encountering something similar, but within my own FC as we try to down T4 in coil and the ex primals. I've pugged T4 and gotten it down before the FC started taking off and you'd think that now that I'm doing it with my FC it'd be a lot less stressful. Well it's not. The person 'leading' the raids really becomes a d-bag and suddenly doing endgame stuff is no longer fun. I've started considering just leaving the FC, despite everyone else being awesome to be around.

I'd have to say other players act as gates for me.

[Dimitrias]

I guss i'm a casuall player. I work a 40 hr a week job, the rest of my time is on this game. I've been playing since beta phase 3 and I have literally not done any endgame content. I've had ifrit HM and Chimera quest for months now.

Only content at lvl 50 I did was complete the original main storyline, plus farm WP and got my ilvl up to 70 on my paliden. Since then I've just been leveling all the classes. I am currently on my 6th class to 50. I have always kept up with my hunting log and grinded dungeons. Even got the dungeon siege 4 achievement now and the masters of war.

So ye thers so much content I havn't done in this game, but I still love it reguardless.

[Grizzlebeard]

I guss i'm a casuall player. I work a 40 hr a week job, the rest of my time is on this game.

Hardly casual.

Unless there's a general acceptance that to classify as a hardcore player you're required to be a jobless no-lifer.