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

[Gormogon]

The few last posts were really interesting as it seems to me that is some understanding between each party (also I don't like casual and elitist terme). Something I feel that would be nice and allow further constructive discussion would to make a summary of what each party wants, making expectations the clearest as possible (for exemple, what is fun ?), and prioritize them. Next step would be to find a system that fullfils those expectations.

Personally it boils down to.

A.) Those that want content to be joyful.
B.) Those that want content to be exclusive.

Those part of the B camp have a very big issue with A because they interpret joy as only meaning lazy and easy. No matter how much you say otherwise and no matter how many times it is explained and showcased they wont hear it.

It's an issue that hasn't be resolved for decade but throughout that course of time I've only heard 1 Lead Designer give his 2 cents on the matter.

[Iriadysa]

I'm not going to answer to the rest of your post because this will be my last one here and I can't really be arsed to spark more arguments, but let me address this bit.

No, you don't have to memorize, but it sure helps a lot, because you're multi-tasking combat too. So if you know the next 3 moves that are coming up you can prepare for them and focus more on the combat.

Once again that comes down to bias, this may be easy for you, you are probably a very skilled player, but for many others they need to memorize at least the critical sections or they get overwhelmed.

I understand there's encounters that are impossible to beat for some people. And I argue that if they cannot beat them they should not be nerfed just so they can, end of story, because the content that can actually be marked as "impossible for some people" is Titan Ex, Twintania and Coil 2.

Titan Ex next patch will no longer be required to access Leviathan and Moogle, which effectively is like giving everyone a free kill.

By the time Coil 2 is open to the masses (I assume by the time Coil 3 hits, so 2.4), T5 will most likely not be a prerequisite to enter it as well as free entry to any turn, just like Coil 1 today.

Personally it boils down to.

A.) Those that want content to be joyful.
B.) Those that want content to be exclusive.

Those part of the B camp have a very big issue with A because they interpret joy as only meaning lazy and easy. No matter how much you say otherwise and no matter how many times it is explained and showcased they wont hear it.

It's an issue that hasn't be resolved for decade but throughout that course of time I've only heard 1 Lead Designer give his 2 cents on the matter.

When you describe the people on group B to your grand children don't forget to add the fact they had twisted horns and wings as dark as their souls.

[dejavutwo]

Personally it boils down to.

A.) Those that want content to be joyful.
B.) Those that want content to be exclusive.

Having content be difficult has nothing to do with being exclusive. Some people have fun overcoming something as a team. My most memorable and satisfying moment in any MMO was when my raid took almost 3 weeks to learn a fight, at 2-3 nights/week of attempts on that boss (Lady Vashj from WoW). Completing the fight not only put our skills to the test, it forced us to learn to work together, trust each other, and how to organize our strategies for each players strengths. After clearing that fight future fights were all much easier and quicker to learn partially because of the group cohesion we built up during that incredibly difficult fight.

Keeping a certain level of difficulty on content does also have the benefit of giving the game a smoother difficulty curve. If T4 was a bit more difficult, and T2 couldn't be done enrage method, then Coil pt.1 would have a very steady difficulty curve and T5 would not have been nearly the culture shock that it is.

Providing content to cater to players who like overcoming challenges is not a bad thing, and making it easier as time goes on to make it more accessible is not a bad either. SE is doing everything they can to balance their demographics with not only the content easing, but also alternate paths to gear of almost equal quality such as Novus and Crystal Tower.

Whether your a hardcore player who has cleared everything, or a more casual player who is stuck on a fight waiting for the next round of CT/Echo, its a slow process and takes patience.

[Gormogon]

Having content be difficult has nothing to do with being exclusive.

So you're telling me that 100% of the player base can complete it and not the so so small percentage?

[Kuwagami]

So you're telling me that 100% of the player base can complete it and not the so so small percentage?

please be honest. As much as I dislike the actual concept of rope jumping, 100% of the playerbase can complete the content (except blind people, if there are any... ). The factors included in the fact that they don't are not related to the possibility to do it.


They *can* do it. It has been made so that it is possible to clear it. However, the factors lag, other people, time spent in, personal learning curve (to name a few) will prevent them from succeeding. But this has nothing to do with the fact that they *can* do it.


Out of the people who have not cleared T5, there are :
=> those who never tried
=> those who don't know the fight yet
=> those with no static who did not find the good PUG yet (a whole lot of people fall under those 3 categories)

=> those with lag who can't get past dives, or twisters.


except the last category (which will have a hard time finishing it unless their connection gets fixed), all people could spend time learning, and eventually, maybe, get a kill, depending on their own learning curve, their party members, and some luck.


The problem isn't really here you know...

[Gormogon]

snip

The emphasis is on "can". A lot of points are gonna rely too much on "some have" scenarios. Yet those that don't also rely on a lot of individual points of "most have not".

We can repeat that endless cycle or we can address the issue.

The percent that has cleared all of the First Binding Coil of Bahamut we can literally make a massive list of "circumstances" that allowed for those individual clears from 2.0 to 2.2 and the percent that has cleared up to T9 a smaller list since the current luxuries for the First Binding Coil of Bahamut don't exist for the Second Binding Coil of Bahamut. An equally big list will exist for the other side as well yet it will do neither side justice because they are all "individual" circumstances.

While you may not see it that way. The problem from there was brought here and here has relevance to there since it's part of the same service.

Everything stated about end-game is not a myth nor is it a problem that is new to MMO's. Issues like these should be given importance and a sound solution and conclusion needs to be given for the better of Eorzea and all player bases hardcore, elitist, mainstream, and casual. Whatever happens will obviously affect someone.

[dejavutwo]

The emphasis is on "can"...

I haven't leveled all my crafting classes to 50 because it takes to long, and is too difficult to manage all the different items. Some of the recipes call for 6+ different ingredients! SE give me all my crafting classes!

Its impossible for SE to cater to every demographic with every piece of content. If you hate it so much there is plenty of content outside of coil, and come next patch you will have crystal tower. CT will allow you get get sands and oils which will let you upgrade your weathered gear to i110, many of which are better than coil gear for a lot of classes.

[Gormogon]

snip

Sorry but it isn't an impossibility. It only takes time and if devs can't find a solution on their own, they never come to the community for suggestions and make poll regarding which would be the overall acceptable compromise or multiple solutions.

Also "over gearing" applies to a small group "df + lockouts removed + echo" covers way more ground.

[Grizzlebeard]

I haven't leveled all my crafting classes to 50 because it takes to long, and is too difficult to manage all the different items. Some of the recipes call for 6+ different ingredients! SE give me all my crafting classes!

I see what you did there.

P.S. You failed by the way.