Patch 2.2, Accessibility, Difficulty Levels, and Throwing Away Content

**Fendred** · 01-27-2014 12:01 AM

So after reading the responses I got to my original thread, I took into account a lot of things people wrote in response and calmed the f*** down. However, there seems to be some misunderstanding as to what constitutes accessibility, so...

1) Patch 2.2 adds the "medium difficulty" to end-game content that should have been there from day one for players who just want to see the story, but at the same time takes the higher difficulty of that content away from the players that wanted a grinding-their-teeth challenge and some kind of trophy for doing it to show off to their friends. So they are actually taking away accessibility to the content.

Think of other games with difficulty levels. You may not ever play on super-chillidog-my-innards-are-dying extreme mode, but you could still try it if you wanted to. That is what access is. This is a game where you payed for the higher difficulty on those bosses, but now they are going to remove the higher difficulty at the same time they activate medium difficulty on the same boss. That sort of flies in the face of what "accessible" is supposed to mean.

2) No special rewards/trophies for beating the harder difficulty level that isn't the same thing rewarded at the lower difficulty level. It doesn't even have to be stronger gear, it could just be a different coloration of the same gear, a specific achievement stating you beat it on hard mode (which is sort of implemented since you can at least see the date on the achievement, but that really isn't what I'm referring to), and/or some kind of unique pet/mount/furniture. The players who took on the harder challenge should be rewarded for that because that is part of the reward for doing harder challenges: The trophies and recognition that comes with it.

3) All of the content we see now will eventually get thrown into the dustbin of old content caused by ever increasing item levels. In the end, it wouldn't even matter if they preserved the old content because they are constantly pushing higher stats, which don't equate to higher difficulty. Instead, they just create higher bars of entry and completely trash the original challenge of the older content. Simply put, they are forced to throw out the old content with this model because they would have to keep rebalancing the old stuff against the higher stats to keep it valid. So again, the challenge associated with the older content that YOU PAYED FOR will be ruined by their model of progression.

**Dark-Saviour** · 01-27-2014 12:58 AM

If you want harder content, it should be because you enjoy harder content and that in itself should be all the 'reward' you need.

As I've said in another topic, through various games, I've seen people say they want harder modes and more challenging content introduced because they enjoy pushing themselves and overcoming a challenge. Then when it gets suggested it have the same reward, the response is inevitibly, "WTF? Why would I do it then? If I can just get the same thing for doing the easier stuff, why would I force myself to endure something so annoying/tedious/difficult?" :-/

**Dovah** · 01-27-2014 01:09 AM

It really is pathetic when people complain about their "accomplishments" being "invalidated". Simply unsub because nobody would miss you. None of you are special little snowflakes so please stop thinking you are.

**Caraway** · 01-27-2014 01:37 AM

I, for one, am glad SE's doing it this way. Why? Because there's story content in them thar hills!

But seriously, SE has locked story content behind the hardest difficulty events in the game. Now that the rewards are being outdone by something better, them making the story and the (what will be) mid-tier rewards available to players is only an increase in accessibility. This is something SE's doing that I've not seen many other games do and it's fantastic. It was one thing I was honestly upset about with EverQuest2 in that a lot of important story events happened through the raid content and I had come along to that game after the fact so couldn't really see it anymore. No worries here.

**NefGP** · 01-27-2014 02:59 AM

You people can't see the forest for the trees. Do you even have a concept of power creep or a vibrant endgame?

The OP is exactly right. What kept XI alive and interesting for so many years (granted they kinda held onto it all a bit too long and then changed everything in 1 update so it was a massive shock all at once, as opposed to a gradual thing) was the horizontal progression. It's not *just* about validating the effort put into the game; (and just because that doesn't matter to you doesn't invalidate it as a legitimate thing - the only difference between an accomplishment in a video game and one in a sport is that one is more based on physical activity and the other mental, so either they both count or neither does. I'm not gonna listen to any Fascist telling me otherwise.)

It's about having a wide variety of things to do, a REAL "theme park" with something for everyone. Stuff that the casuals or average player can do, and really grindy or hard as balls content for the hardcore player who has nothing better to do (or simply chooses to ignore other obligations lol) than play the game. XI was great for that for a good 7 yeas, with all kinds of endgame content. I'm all for accessibility, don't get me wrong - XI had a lot of problems that I'm glad are gone and don't care to see repeated (in most cases the concepts were good but the implementation was awful. like absurdly low drop rates on NMs. Forced partying is another example, it was a good method but the grind itself was just far too tedious for entirely too long.)

What we're getting with this current design philosophy is effectively just the flavor of the month. The only content that effectively matters is the current patch's, and that is an incredibly narrow and shortsighted approach to design. As the OP stated, power creep will eventually come back to bite them hard as we're all just hamsters on a wheel. The difficulty isn't ever truly increasing, only the bar of entry - to the point that our gear will be so absurdly strong that it'll throw all semblance of balance out the Window. WoW has been struggling with this for a while now, and so is XI with the introduction of the Delve weapons (not to mention how badly the pissed off al the REM weapon owners).

We don't gripe because we're spoiled little children. We're complaining now to get the Dev's attention in the hopes of steering the ship away from the rocks that we're drifting ever closer to before it's too late because we genuinely like this game and want to enjoy it/see it do well.

**Arkghyom** · 01-27-2014 03:10 AM

That's how it is, even if we don't like what's going on.

**Swishytail** · 01-27-2014 03:11 AM

It's funny because this is how MMOs will be for either a long time or forever from here on out.
These are the standards the majority wants, so these are the standards the majority gets.

So until the tables turn in favor of the super hardcore, the treadmill/recycling/hand-out
games will continue. Either play, or don't. A game like XI will never happen again.
Not in this day and age.

And just to clarify, I am enjoying XIV very, very much. I look forward to 2.16 and
2.2

**Gwaeron** · 01-27-2014 03:21 AM

Doesn't the increased item level alone make the old content easier? Seems like a way to decrease the difficulty that makes sense, better stats => easier kills. It's the god mode buff I don't get... (no, you will not have to clear turn 6-9 to get better gear, new tomestones are coming too).

**ApolloGenX** · 01-27-2014 03:43 AM

My only concern is obsoletion of content... like WoW..most the content is empty because it's pointless. You have to buy expansion packs just to stay current, but the other packs you bought become worthless.

It's like the Magic the Gathering card game treadmill. I don't expect content to last forever... but with such a linear progression path, it means there isn't a whole lot of content relevant for max level at any given time - unless they start releasing a LOT more.

**Zfz** · 01-27-2014 04:10 AM

Originally Posted by Fendred

1) takes the higher difficulty of that content away from the players that wanted a grinding-their-teeth challenge

In the live letter, it was made very clear that all we need to do is to click off the buff, and we can experience those content the way it is now.

Originally Posted by Fendred

2) No special rewards/trophies for beating the harder difficulty level that isn't the same thing rewarded at the lower difficulty level.

Some of us would say, we got to walk around with that Allagan weapon for 3 months and that's enough of a trophy. We'd be getting new trophies (gear) in 2.2, who even cares about a trophy from something we have on farm for the past 3 months already?

The problem is, even at 2.0, there exists a big difference between people who ventured into T4 in full Darklight, versus people who got there with mostly iLv90 gear. So should we get a special reward/trophy for doing it in full Darklight? It's the same problem you're presenting in your point #2.

Originally Posted by Fendred

3) they are forced to throw out the old content with this model

This exists not due to nerfing content, but due to the whole "tiered architecture" design paradigm. It's a whole different story, a whole different debate.

Thread: Patch 2.2, Accessibility, Difficulty Levels, and Throwing Away Content

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Patch 2.2, Accessibility, Difficulty Levels, and Throwing Away Content