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

[Gormogon]

Please name a game that pleased everyone.

That's not what's being argued since my response to that would end up not only subjective but an opinion. Regardless...

There's a reason why Riot's League of Legends is such a success in comparison to Smite and DOTA 2, despite starting so small and having ended with such a massive playerbase and community and a small yet vocal toxic environment in low/mid elo.
There's also a reason why Blizzard's World of Wacraft went from such a big success that ended up losing nearly 5m subscribers, despite trying to make it up by easing content through LFR.

There's a way to draw a crowd to your game and there's a way to keep them hooked to the point they would ignore elitism, content they can't do because of lack of skill, and much more. It's all about understand the situation more than it is about mimicking it.

Currently at end-game every approach feels like a punishment. In which I'll repeat myself again.

Coil's difficulty relies too much on 1 shot mechanics.
Alternatives progression methods are turning into excessive grinds.
Content outside of Coil and CT aren't as rewarding as Coil and CT.

Those 3 issues can easily be tackled to appeal to both the hardcore and the casual crowd. Will it take time? Sure but having communication with the playerbase is what is key.

But I mean... the nature of the genre itself guarantees some kind of time commitment is going to be required - regardless of what kind of shift takes place - if you want the best the game has to offer.

Yes and time commitments can be made to be enjoyable instead of feeling like a job or a punishment for deciding to take a certain route that isn't Coil.

Personally though the best the game has to offer is so far away that I'm patient and lenient because of it. Yet if my expectations are met or surpassed only time can tell and I can't gauge it well when Square-Enix isn't willing to show the expansion or talk about what features we can expect.

[Yukiko]

My advice to Square Enix is:
The player should be in middle and not the content.

You are playing with 2 Friends, group of 3 players, what can you do? Try that example with any number!
You are fresh level 50 or new in game, what access do you have? Can you farm novus?
You are trying to farm coil gear, can you farm freely? What if you lose all rolls on your friends?
You are fighting a boss, can you really change the outcome? Can you be the hero, or do you have to rely on others not to make mistakes?
You are crafting or gathering or waiting for mirror to drop, is the RNG really helping to motivate you? Low drop is ok if you gain the feeling "finally, never again" but dont we get the feeling "finally, but... oh no! there is more to go, not again back to start."

[gti443]

There's also a reason why Blizzard's World of Wacraft went from such a big success that ended up losing nearly 5m subscribers, despite trying to make it up by easing content through LFR.

I can't really comment on LoL, but I am intrigued to hear your analysis on why WoW actually lost subscribers in the process of catering to a strictly casual demographic rather than gaining.

[Exstal]

Also to OP, why emphasize that the blog poster is Japanese? It does not give their points any more strength over any other nationality. It is just one gamers opinion. Nationality is irrelevant.

...because the post is from a Japanese player?

[Gormogon]

I can't really comment on LoL, but I am intrigued to hear your analysis on why WoW actually lost subscribers in the process of catering to a strictly casual demographic rather than gaining.

Because they did it an expansion to late as an apology. They ignored their playerbase for nearly two years. Then as people were starting to unsubscribe they tried to remedy it by introducing LFR. Then finally got around to firing the person responsible, Ghostcrawler, who is currently damaging Riot's LoL.

[Kerberon]

Because they did it an expansion to late as an apology. They ignored their playerbase for nearly two years. Then as people were starting to unsubscribe they tried to remedy it by introducing LFR. Then finally got around to firing the person responsible, Ghostcrawler, who is currently damaging Riot's LoL.

Ghostcrawler is finally gone? If I ever get bored here it might actually be worth going back.

[Gormogon]

Ghostcrawler is finally gone? If I ever get bored here it might actually be worth going back.

Yup he's finally gone.

Sadly the damage to everything I enjoyed, class wise is pretty much irreplaceable.

Warriors Arms spec change in BC
Death Knights Unholy spec change to corpse explosion and unholy blight in WotLK.

[Meier]

Agree 100%. I love that gear doesn't allow you to just overpower bosses, that skill is still needed to handle mechanics.
Also to OP, why emphasize that the blog poster is Japanese? It does not give their points any more strength over any other nationality. It is just one gamers opinion. Nationality is irrelevant.

Because OP translated it and wanted to give credit? Also like it or not but the JP have a lot of influence on the devs. People like to know what the JP are thinking as well since a lot of people can't read their forum posts, etc. There are many reasons lol.

[ApolloGenX]

I'm not sure what the issues with over gearing are... to over gear something, you have to be able to get better gear than it drops... which means it is obsolete content. So, who cares if you can over gear it?

People keep acting like players will jut over gear current end game content and face roll it... that's not possible...the best gear comes from those places... and it's not good enough to over gear where it drops.

[Fendred]

I've come back fresh after a two month Hiatus for patch 2.3, and my experience thus far agrees with the OPs observations. Also, I completely agree with OP on the mechanics of fights being the wrong focus for end game difficulty. The design philosophy embraced by the current developers created a fight (Twintania) with little to no proper indicators for special attacks (especially when the opponent in question flies completely off the grid for dive bombs). Even the most hated primal fight in the game (Titan) gives you indicators and enough time to react to attacks.

For a new player, Twintania's abilities range from obscure and misleading to simply too fast and powerful. It is impossible for anyone to one shot Twintania without reading up the rotation and all abilities in great detail. Even then, chances of victory on a first attempt are miniscule.

Just to clarify, I did beat Twintania back in 2.1 as a scholar. I'm in between being a hardcore and a mainstream player as I move into the later years of my life.