Quote Originally Posted by Artemed View Post
stuff
Companies have to make a decision, and they want to bring in more money.

Also using gaming (albeit a different genre) as an example, many hardcore fans of fighting games have also made similar complaints. People argue that Guilty Gear was one of the greatest fighting games around and had a very strong fanbase that had some pretty hardcore mechanics. However, it isn't accessible to everyone because of the myriad of things you have to learn, practice, and they aren't explained to you at all. The player base that was good at the game was also very unfriendly to newcomers. The barrier of entry was very steep.

The same company later released a new series of fighter that was far more accessible. Sure, the veterans of their beloved series were taken back by the relative ease of the game and the more lenient learning curve. Many didn't continue with this new series, but most of those who continued playing were happy to have a game that they could actually play with a larger base of players. The community reformed as new members came in and are better off for it. Many actually went back and started playing the previously-inaccessible game, even.

I hated FF11 for what I played of it. I hated it immensely. It was not accessible due to the requirements and time that had to be invested before you could do anything at all. At the time, many classes weren't viable at all in most situations. I hear the story was great. I hear once you got to endgame, it was very entertaining. I wouldn't know because I didn't care to partake in the chore you had to go through to progress on a day-to-day basis. The barrier to entry shouldn't be trying to get people together or not being able to play a class you liked because it was gimped compared to others or the metagame reduced it to one particular niche. The community may have been fantastic, but when everything is just an extreme grindfest, most of the people you're going to encounter are going to be in it for the long haul.

I'm not in love with FF14. However, it is what it is. At least I can actually play and enjoy it. Yes, there are some pretty godawful players. When you have more people, that's just to be expected. Company wants to make a profit, so they're going to appeal to as many people as possible. They can make adjustments, which everyone is going to expect to happen overnight, but thinking they aren't going to try to reign in the casual audience and make things less hardcore when that's what 95% of the gaming industry is doing is just setting yourselves up for disappointment.

I truly did have an interest in many things FF11 did on paper; however, the way it was executed made it inaccessible to me and many others.