Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Rajan]

I hope the producers take this into consideration, at least.

I've played FFXI and FFXIV for well over a decade and don't bother with EX fights anymore.
One should never log on and feel upset after ten minutes.

[Iriadysa]

Oh wow... this is horrible.

This is basically an apology to gear and stat carried gameplay, which is the lowest common denominator of gameplay there is.

In a game like XIV, being an old school target style MMO game, the only real way you can ask for a player to be skilled is to introduce mechanics that kill you in a fight regardless of your "gear or level". The post keeps on going about how, pretty much, you should be able to be carried by gear if you have better gear.

Horrible, definitely not my kind of game paradigm.

Then again, I play XIV while waiting for something to replace the now zombie TERA to arrive to the market, so I'm probably the minority playing a game like XIV and maybe the guy is right that it should appeal to the broader audience that wants gear-carried content clears.

[IndigoHawk]

I agree that complicated mechanics are unfun with pugs yet too easy / boring for coordinated groups.
It's too hard to find pugs who can do EX/Coil mechanics. When the fight is over, there's no satisfaction or fun, only relief.

If FFXIV doesn't want to make hardcore content that fewer than 10% of people play, then make both hardcore and mainstream versions. Echo isn't enough. Nerf the mechanics that are too tough for mainstream and turn the fight into "you can overgear this to make up for your lack of skill".

Or keep EX and Coil for hardcore, and make other content for mainstream. But don't expect to pull mainstream players along with just a buff, then wonder why they quit because they're not having fun with mechanics.

[NovaUltimatum]

The thing is FFXI is still active you can play it and the fights have not changed almost everything still is tank and spank the fights are easy compared to FFXIV you tank and spank the boss and collect your gear.

I can't stand the ignorance that comes from posts like this. People don't realize that old-FFXI which is what the blogger was talking about is not the same as the current FFXI. They've changed it now so it's closer to item level dependence and there are more one-shot mechanics just like FFXIV.

Overall, well formed post OP. I'd be interested to see what the Japanese forums think of the arguments.

[Rose-Wild]

Scary post. This would make the game easy and boring as hell, we would clear stuff extremly quick and we would be without content.
Also no one will force you to run stuff like t7, when the new coil comes out you will be able to go for t9. Like you can skip t2 now.

The content wouldn't have any challenge at all because after enough playtime you will hardly get better at your job...

He repeats a lot the fact that it's not about him clearing content or not but in the end it's all about that. He clearly lacks exp at end game and wants to be able to derp fights without taking any effort to learn the fights and get better.

[subteraneanbird]

I'm pretty sure if you wanna do absolutely nothing at all and pretend that's engaging that Runescape is still up and running.

[Kiokin]

Well written post, but I disagree with all of it. It's basically saying that a paradigm where skill > gear isn't good, and that gear should trump skill a majority of the time.

[Garlyle]

Or keep EX and Coil for hardcore, and make other content for mainstream. But don't expect to pull mainstream players along with just a buff, then wonder why they quit because they're not having fun with mechanics.

I'm pretty sure that this is the route they're taking anyway. We wouldn't have things like the Zodiac Weapon Saga, Hullbreaker Isle, Tam-tara HM, Ramuh (Hard), Soldiery Gear, or upgrade items dropping in CT2 coming in 2.3 if they didn't care about continuing to provide for those who aren't taking on EXs/Coil.

They create the challenge content to actually be challenge content.

I do agree that there are better ways to handle accessibility to content than the echo, mind you.

[Kluya15]

As others have said, OP presented his points but I basically disagree with all of it. Made me think he wants the game like FFXI where instead of actually learning the mechanics of the fight and applying them, you'd just chainspell stun and go to town with the most powerful abilities, breaking the fight in 30 seconds.

[Rose-Wild]

This is extremly wrong because if you make fights easy you will lose both casual and hardcore players. Casual players would quickly finish coil and leave till the next patch and then you will see the same from hardcore players but they would probably not come back to play something that easy.

The solution for people like him is what WoW made. Make 2 diferent modes for coil, normal mode with less mechanics and lower gear as reward, and hard mode with all the mechanics and better gear. But we already have that with CT.