Game is in a desperate need of challenge.

[Rakashu]

Before every one jumps on the hate bandwagon and starts calling me an elitist or any thing like that, I'd like to let you know that I am casual in every way possible. I put in work on this game only on the weekends, and with maybe 4 hours a day. I am in no way shape or form an elitist, not any more at the very least.

That being said, I still recognize that this game is in desperate need of a challenge to bring to the players. I'm not talking just challenging encounters, or a one off event that's extremely difficult to obtain; I'm talking on the whole. A community can only live so long as there are things to do, goals to work towards, be it through solo or community content. With out those people begin to lose interest, and at the end of the day the only thing bringing them back is familiarity.

What I'm talking about specifically are items; items which can be extremely hard to achieve, and show that you've put in a great deal of hard work and hustle to obtain. Armor, accessories, weapons, mounts, companions, and minions. A whole slew of different challenging, difficult things which allows a player to stand out amongst the rest, and furthermore allows those who want to put in the effort to do so, to play on a regular basis and work towards something.

Back when I played World of Warcraft before any of the expansions came out there was plenty of this content; you had extremely rare and difficult to achieve mounts, either through rare drops or through grinding out faction content. You had epic gear which could only be obtained through raiding with a dedicated team, or rare (blue) gear which could be equally as hard if you relied solely on pick up groups. There were weapons with various degrees of drop percentages, even legendary weapons which required lengthy quests and a great deal of money; pets too, which could be sold for tons of money or shown off to every one else. Factions provided you the opportunity to work towards something, and really create a personality with your character, some easy to grind through, and some very difficult.

It kept people going, kept them playing. Even if you were a casual player you would still try to grind out the content and try to pursue the lure of obtaining these things, because it could mean that it would potentially make you filthy rich, or you could just show off. Currently, FFXIV lacks this severely. Every thing can be obtained simply by queueing up for a group and running around for an hour at most. There's nothing worth being crafted, nothing worth showing off as the guy right next to you has the same crap. Introducing harder, more difficult content, rarer items, factions, and the like will not only help keep people playing, but it would also possibly help revitalize the economy.

I've never played it, but from my understanding even FF11 had a ton of stuff like this. Weapons and armor that were exceptionally rare, to the point where maybe only 1-2 people on the server had them. Crafters were able to get recipes or produce products that only a few could or were willing to make that were highly sought after. These are the things that motivate people to keep playing, not ultimately just logging into a barbie dress up simulator.

Before any one complains or moans about how it isn't fair how some people can get stuff and others can't; get a grip. Real life is the exact same way, you put in the work, you have the motivation, and you get stuff done. The content that is currently out there, and will be released isn't exclusively for one group of people. It's for every one, even for the person like me who can only put in maybe 4 hours a day on the weekends. The point that's trying to be made is that there needs to be content beyond that, something that makes me wish I actually had more time to put in the game, something that makes you think about it all day while your slugging away at work or what ever it is you do. Not being able to finish up with every thing over a limited time on a weekend; that's just pathetic.

[TheUltimate3]

I won't disagree. But you have to really think about how you would go about grinding said rare items.

Because killing mobs with a .01% drop is not something people will want to do, and they will scream. Loudly.

[Kule]

I think a lot of the achievement rewards would be considered pretty hardcore to get.

[Skyhound]

YoshiP already said that he doesn't want 0.001% drops, primarily because that doesn't reward surpassing a challenging obstacle. RNG is not hardcore and does not present a challenge, it's gambling.

I actually prefer more things like the EMs. Content that is difficult to defeat but has a DEFINITE reward at the end which acts like a trophy of you having downed that tough boss.

[KiriA500]

I won't disagree. But you have to really think about how you would go about grinding said rare items.

Because killing mobs with a .01% drop is not something people will want to do, and they will scream. Loudly.

Unless you're playing XI, then it's great.

[DarkslayerG]

I agree with you partially, in that more content needs to be added into the game. But there's only so much you can do to stretch out quests before you are simply asking people to grind and play the ridiculous RNG game. Regardless of what you think, most players do not enjoy this. Hence why the hardcore crowd is always significantly smaller than the general player base. You could prefer doing stuff a million times for rewards, which is fine. But the truth is most do not.

There's also the problem with how much time they can use to dedicate content to please the "hardcore" crowd. From a business perspective, it's dumb to throw a lot of resources to a small part of your player base.

[Doo]

You get the best gears just running low lvl content in this game. It's not going to change, everyone gets rewarded.

[TheUltimate3]

Unless you're playing XI, then it's great.

Actually bringing up XI I have a question.

Based on what I've seen people say, XI had recently (if such a word can be used) changed their play style and now it's far more casual friendly and what have you. Is this a true assessment of the game as it is now?

[Seif]

I think a lot of the achievement rewards would be considered pretty hardcore to get.

While that is certainly true. To most including me the metagame really isn't part of the core game at all.

[silentwindfr]

the gears is not the reward... beat the challenge is the reward. gear is a means not a purpose, people tend to forget it thanks to some game. the gear is here for help to beat a boss.
a good example is twintania, you need to be full 90 for beat it. the stuff don't have special meaning outside allow you to try harder challenge.

RNG is a bxxxxx any game that rely heavily on RNG are a pain... some people can be really lucky and get the item they need directly. and some people can be freaking unlucky and never see this loot for years!