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

Originally Posted by Fendred

Without going into specific MMOs, it is difficult to talk about why certain MMORPGs crash. The biggest problem of the last decade was developers copying WoW's system down to the letter and trying to put a new coat of paint on it. SWTOR was a monumental project with a lot of hope behind it that turned into the colloquially named "Tortanic" due to every aspect of its gameplay being a direct WoW rip off. The real issue though, came after the release, where the developers blamed the quickly bleeding player base on a lack of end game content, when clearly many of the players were leaving before they even reached end game.

Wow, way to have zero understanding as to why recent MMOs like SWTOR failed. Protip: it didn't fail because it has vertical progression which you seem to be blaming everything on.

FFXI lasted for a solid 9 years (abyssea launch) until it started to really lose most of its base (WoW took a sizeable bite out of it but it still maintained a steady 500k subs while other MMOs came and went, barely lasting a year or 2)

The current market be damned, all it shows is it's a volatile, fickle group of people who either don't know what they want or got burned by the failings of traditional MMOs. This is why I still love XI and feel like it was a model that just needed improving, not discarding. Can check my other threads for more detailed posts as I'm not about to rehash the pages and pages of examples I've given, but suffice to say if it ain't broke don't fix i, which is exactly what's happened both post 1.23 XIV and post-abyssea XI;


For all the improvements ARR's made (and it has fixed just about every gripe I had with XI) it's thrown away what made XI such a good, lasting and (IMO) revolutionary game.

Instead of patching in more and more HM dungeons... And no one plays them. It is very very obvious, I don't see anyone looking dungeon party in FC, LS, PF, shouts, etc.

Why bother making content when no one wants to do them. Not even casuals are doing them. Casuals are mostly doing EMs and Coil 1-4.
In 2.2 HM halati will be obsolete the next day after it's release.

I suggest SE look into FFXIV's itemization. Or even make HM dungeons more exciting and challenging than wasting time making them a cake walk that no one ever walks to walk through again.

Originally Posted by Ketra

Why bother making content when no one wants to do them. Not even casuals are doing them. Casuals are mostly doing EMs and Coil 1-4.
In 2.2 HM halati will be obsolete the next day after it's release.

There's a lot wrong with that I don't know where to begin.

Considering that Yoshi's own internal data directly goes opposite of what you're saying...you're not only wrong, you're proven wrong. Roulette has been a boon for the "casuals" and not so casuals. Most dungeons are still played.

XIV is fucked. I hope I'm wrong, but with the way things seem to be going it seems much more likely than not.

MMO's since WoW have been disappointment after disappointment and I'm honestly losing my faith in the genre as a whole.

Originally Posted by Hvinire

Greetings everyone,

To clarify specifically about dungeon difficulty, as the game progresses, we're planning to offer players the Echo buff to make themselves stronger in order to challenge older content, not necessarily just lowering the difficulty of the dungeon or encounter itself. Also, those who wish to complete the dungeon without assistance may remove the Echo buff.

While there are no plans to give bonuses to those who cleared content before the addition of the Echo buff, we did submit the feedback that some of you had for more horizontal progression on rewards.

Well, it's a start. At least you guys are listening to us. We don't want you to simply rehash FFXI, we just want to see that this game lasts as long as it has and exceeds XI's success. We want ARR to be the best FF it can be!

Originally Posted by Hvinire

While there are no plans to give bonuses to those who cleared content before the addition of the Echo buff

Hvinire - please tell the development team that a lot of the community simply does not want to lose old challenges. At any given time a real life situation can prevent someone from playing this wonderful game you have all slaved over to create. I think most players would like the "option" to play challenges that they were unable to initially participate for one reason or another.

Please tell the development team that there is still a demand out there to fight Twintania under its original conditions (Maximum item level of 91 without an echo buff). You could please a lot of players by implementing these "Time Capsule" achievements. One such achievement could be "Complete the binding coil of Bahamaut Turns 1 through 5 with a maximum item level of 91 and without the use of an echo buff).