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

[Folsom]

Part of the post doesn't really make any sense, trying to separate "boss mechanics" and "player mechanics." I am unconvinced that a switch to more focus on being able to master a DPS, tanking or healing rotation (which rely just as much on memory or reaction as scripting does, since you're either doing a rotation, using a priority system, or playing whack-a-mole, which is all healing becomes if scripted mechanics are replaced with randomness or tank-and-spank) is going to be significantly more fun, especially considering that repeatedly doing the same thing more often makes you more bored than less often. So if there's more focus on keeping up DoTs as a Summoner, for example, Summoners will then get bored and complain that their rotation isn't complex enough and fights are too boring, etc.

The simple fact is, what you do to accomplish your role's goal with the buttons on your bar are mechanics. What the bosses do to damage you are mechanics. Shifting more focus from one to the other sounds like it might increase fun, but chances are it will neither make the game more nor less fun (because you'll be doing the same sharing of boss and player mechanics when you do a fight again, rather than mostly boss mechanics or mostly player mechanics, but it's not going to change significantly in future fights with any particular boss) and just be a novelty for a bit for people who aren't used to it.

Finally, anyone who has used Raid Finder in WoW or used the Duty Finder for CT will also know that frustration for all but the hardcore players (who become frustrated for different reasons, but tend not to use random match-making as much) will come when players can now work fine with simpler or less focus on mechanics, but can't, for the life of them, meet a DPS check even with fancy gear.

The feeling that there is a problem automatically causes people to think of things they don't like, and then label that thing "the problem," when often, the problem is actually something different. Perhaps the problem with "end game" is that there isn't enough variety in content, and because of that, people feel like they have to do particular things, like Extreme Primals and BCB2, which is content they might not like. So they blame that content for failure to satisfy, all while assuming that because they don't like it, "the majority" of people also don't, and identify things that frustrate them in that content. However, it's clear that other people do like the content, and that changing "the mechanics" would just trade off on alienating people. So the answer might not be that mechanics need to be changed or different, but more content for different players needs to be introduced.

That, unfortunately, is a tough thing to expect of developers. They can only produce so much content at once, and so it will necessarily be limited in some way. That doesn't mean they don't recognize it might be a problem and try to deliver more variety in the future.