So... How about a Golden Saucer?

[SnowTiger]

I think it'd be best to have the place centralized, to better accommodate the multiplayer stuff... But there would be plenty of ways to spread it around without losing that aspect.. For example, say they put a quest in, so if you want to compete in the tournaments for a given card game or w/e else, you have to go challenge some npc at some encampment to a match, and if you win, he sends word back to the saucer that you're a worthy opponent and blah blah blah, you know how that goes... Bam, tier 1 tournaments for that card game unlocked. :P

As far as the whole real content vs. 'this' sort of content... Well, I'm sure a lot of people will insist that the game needs 'real' content first.. But think of it this way... If SE releases 'real' content, like an NM, raid, dungeon, or w/e else... Everyone bumrushes it and is done with it in a fairly short span of time, mainly after they get all the rewards from it. Content that delivers on pure fun rather than gear, has much more replay value. You can go spend hours playing games and cards and choco racing, etc, and it would keep a lot of people happy and amused, which if anything, would buy SE more time to carefully construct that 'real' content without having to worry as much about rushing it out.

And after sitting on the thought about the crafters lounge a bit... That seems like an even better idea... Every single crafter I've talked to who had made serious progress in crafting, like near or at 50 in at least 1 craft, had various methods of staying amused while crafting. Watching TV, multitasking, w/e. Personally, I craft in windowed mode with the gamepad set to work in the background, and surf the web or stream movies while I craft. Anyone who claims to focus 100% of their attention towards the crafting minigame, and actually hits 50 like that, is either lying, lying and botting, or just plain nuts. You can't tell me that some fun things to do WHILE you are actually synthing wouldn't be welcome. So yeah, let's get a crafting lounge... If anything, that idea deserves it's own thread. But, as much as I'd like something like that, I still don't think crafting should just be overly streamlined like some other mmo's. Take WoW and it's clones for example... You can cap a craft in like a day easy, and it's just so utterly worthless, that they may as well start everyone off with all crafts capped, or just replace the mats in the game with the finished products. I like having a system that takes some serious time and a more long term commitment to get up in the levels. I just think it needs a little fun tossed into the mix.

[Darrkness]

I fully support this idea. this is one of the main reasons why this is the first FF I've played since 8 lack of mini-games. The graphics are what drew me to this game and i cant wait to see chocobos and hopefully being able to breed and raze them... adding them to a race would be icing on the cake =)