What this game needs is NOT more dungeons

[ShinigamiB06]

Let me say right off the bat this isn’t whining about lack of content. This is a thread by a player that legitimately loves ARR, and legitimately wants ARR to improve and prosper. So i want to offer some constructive criticism.

On to the topic at hand. Like title says, what this game needs is not more dungeons. It’s more diversity and innovation. What I mean by this, is that by the time you reach end game, you only have three gameplay choices: dungeons, primals, or pvp. (I’m counting coil as a dungeon) So let’s break that down. Primals are definitely great. Short battles, but extreme difficulty. Gotta love them. Dungeons, well they are part of any MMO. It’s nice to have them, but nearly impossible to make them the flagship of an MMO. And lastly there’s pvp. PVP is amazing because it is always a fresh challenge since you are facing against other people. But seriously, there is only one map and one game mode.

Anyways, diversity and innovation. This game needs something of its own. Other than the fact that it allows you to play all classes with one character, I can’t think of a single other thing that this game has that no other mmo does. SO SO many clones out there. How do we justify that ARR is not a clone of other mmos? It needs something that makes it unique.

As for diversity, add different gameplay options to the game. Don’t just keep adding more dungeons. There are so many great ideas for different gameplay out there, it’s unbelievable that ARR is limited to dungeons, one pvp map and mode, and primals. Here are some suggestions:

How about an arena or coliseum? A place where the waves of monsters are endless and you compete to set a record of how far you can go. And make it so that every week there is a different challenge, like no armor or poison always on. Imagine the possibilities.

How about adding more maps and game modes to pvp? Maybe modes like castle siege, or owning territory. I know capture the flag is being worked on.

Maybe some persistent events. Even if they are instanced, how about making events that last hours and players come and go and progress happens. Have some kick ass event where the surrounding environment, nature and buildings, change based on how well you are doing in the event.

What about a game mode where you can use vehicles or weapons (not your class weapon -_-) you crafted? This would have an added bonus of stimulating crafting economy.

Why not do some collaborative gameplay between DoW/DoM and DoH/DoL? It could be something like warriors or mages protect or escort DoH/L. it’d be dope to have to find a safe place and craft in the middle of a fight.

Even if the ideas i presented here are terrible, please at least take out of it the big picture i was trying to present: We need more innovation and diversity.

And if anyone posts their own ideas, ill make sure to add them to the OP for everyone to see.

EDIT:
I loved this idea so much, im posting it in the OP. Props for the idea:

A dungeon that FORCES players to alt. Where one fight needs more than 2 tanks, some other cant be tanked at all, some enemy can only be damaged by ranged dps, some reflect magic dmg, some fights requires additional 2 healers etc. Just make it necessary to complete every single fight with same group of players, so that u have to change job, not player.

[Derceto]

I can be partially on board with this. Some decent mentions.

I couldn't care less for more boring hallways myself. Design some long term progression quests or mechanics into the open world. Coming to mind..... trial weapon quests in FF XI for example. Not to say I want a copy/paste of that, just something along those lines. Something that takes some time, in the world instead of instanced hallway, with a worthwhile reward at the end, that we can do with friends without being limited to 8 people. Things along these lines at least for those of us that like open world objectives. This game definitely needs more world involvement.

[BearGrylls]

Dungeons are the main reason I play MMOs. Working together as a group to beat content, playing your role, thats the main draw for me. I've never really understood the boner people have for open world content personally, but I can agree that more options are good.

Also I think frontlines PvP is scheduled for 2.3.

I also have a feeling we won't see any complex or innovative new stuff til they drop PS3 support.

[SarcasmMisser]

Dungeons are the main reason I play MMOs. Working together as a group to beat content, playing your role, thats the main draw for me. I've never really understood the boner people have for open world content personally, but I can agree that more options are good.

It's a minority opinion and SE has good reason to believe most players prefer instanced dungeons they can kick back with a few hours a night. Even though it's fashionable to post about the terminal decline the game is in, something that is posted in every MMO forum (especially the ones Blizzard runs, ironically), the overwhelming reception and continued success of ARR provides ample positive reinforcement to SE of their current design decisions.

http://2p.com/5080929_1/Final-Fantas...-flamedust.htm

See this, which flies in the face of every forum doomsayer. The 1.8 number is thrown around a lot, but 500k a day when we are before a major patch is something to be happy about. Note the wording "passed", meaning it's actually on the increase. People as a majority like the dungeon theme park mmo format, it's just that a minority post on forums about it.

Also it's always an unfair question to ask if someone is for more options. No one is against more options, but SE like all companies has finite resources so it's a question that ignores the fact that they have to choose. I would like the world + a unicorn too.

[Derceto]

the overwhelming reception and continued success of ARR provides ample positive reinforcement to SE of their current design decisions.

No offense really, but..... there has been no proven "overwhelming reception and continued success" just yet. They posted one quarterly report stating that ARR sold well, as I would expect with most newly launched games. The initial launch window is "typically" the highest in sales, which was why XIV 1.xx was a clearly evident dose of failure right out of the gate. Will have to wait and see what their numbers look like at their next report. The concerning thing being the fact they haven't announced surpassing 1.9 million people in.... how many months now? 500k daily users isn't terrible, but it's hardly an "overwhelming reception". Especially considering that a portion of those numbers are just RMT.

What I would be more curious to see, is peak concurrent users as of say.... Thursday or Friday after most people have finished their "weekly" checklist. It has to be obvious that SE will use the absolute best numbers they can in their statements. Their wording is used to paint the 'best' scenario they can to give the image of success and popularity. Sad thing is, that the best they have painted so far, isn't terribly impressive. Seeing the game's price slashed after such a short period isn't exactly reassuring either. Low price = Low demand. Seeing Sony raising the price of their PS4 in Canada in response to it's high demand. Or retailers having raised the price of WoW shortly after it's launch to slow the sales.

In any case, SE really needs to cater to more than just the "hardcore" or just the "casual". No mmo since 2003 has matched WoW's design approach success. Actually.... no mmo since 2003 has even been successful using WoW's theme park design. Successful being, able to maintain their subscription design intact. F2P, or outright shutdown has been the end result of them all.

As for Blizzard's forums being polluted with negativity as well? Well.... their numbers are virtually cut in half from it's peak success. I'd say the backlash on the forums should have, and should currently, be taken seriously.

[Susanoh]

It's a minority opinion and SE has good reason to believe most players prefer instanced dungeons they can kick back with a few hours a night. Even though it's fashionable to post about the terminal decline the game is in, something that is posted in every MMO forum (especially the ones Blizzard runs, ironically), the overwhelming reception and continued success of ARR provides ample positive reinforcement to SE of their current design decisions.

http://2p.com/5080929_1/Final-Fantas...-flamedust.htm

See this, which flies in the face of every forum doomsayer. The 1.8 number is thrown around a lot, but 500k a day when we are before a major patch is something to be happy about. Note the wording "passed", meaning it's actually on the increase. People as a majority like the dungeon theme park mmo format, it's just that a minority post on forums about it.

SE has been saying "1.X million players!" for several months. Considering that last September, the game was at about 1.5 million registered users and 600k subscribers (source: http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ne...14q2slides.pdf), it's likely that the "1.8 million players" is the total number of box/licenses sold.

My guess is that SE isn't going to be talking about the total number of people paying a subscription fee outside of their financial reports, because saying "1.8 million players!" sounds a lot nicer and people often confuse it for the total number of paying subscribers.

[Doo]

More diverse content and a more complex battle system. Oh and interesting trash mobs that just don't do easy to dodge aoes.


http://25.media.tumblr.com/d212cad2d...3c3o1_1280.jpg

[Musashidon]

nty, all don't put effort into anything till i get mah gold saucer.

[WellFooled]

I'm all for more options (like SarcasmMisser said, how can anyone be against options?) but dungeons are some of my favorite parts of MMOs and are what I'm most excited about in 2.2. ShinigamiB06's suggestions are all very cool and I would be interested to see them implemented, but its hard to focus on your good suggestions when I feel the content I like is under attack because of your title :P

[Noshpan]

Personally, I love doing quests. I would like more quests, not dailies perse, just more quests that weren't gated behind parts of the story.