Has it always been like this or...?

[NekokoCatseye]

Hello there. My name is Nekoko Catseye and after a long and arduous journey I have finally reached Operation Archon and the end game content! The Cape Westwind trial was a bit rough, mostly because it took a long time to assemble a party and one of our healers never connected... but we finally emerged victorious and it was a great feeling.

The Castrum Meridianum was where it all went wrong... I should have sensed it when I noticed everyone else was geared far better than I and one of them was complaining about '45 minutes of cut scenes', but I didn't catch on until after the first few when I realized that I was missing out on every fight. No one else was watching the cut scenes and refused to wait for me while I did. As a Paladin I thought it was laughable that they could complete the dungeon without be, but apparently in an 8 man, everyone is expendable.

I asked them very politely to wait, explaining that this was my first time and I was just trying to enjoy the story I'd worked so hard to reach. I never expected the insults or laughing that followed as they continued to ignore my requests and allow me to be locked out of every boss. So my choice became to enjoy the cut scenes but not take part in any of the fighting, or do the dungeon but miss out on all the flavor that was supposed to come with it. Neither choice sounded very favorable and merely being forced to choose ruined the experience for me.

One of the party members in much less than helpful tone insisted I could watch the cut scenes in the inn later and that I was wasting everyone's time. Sure, and I could also look them up on youtube but that's not very immersive either, now is it? I couldn't believe that other players would push to the end game as I had and then not take time to enjoy the story.

But then the secret was revealed. These people had all done this dungeon over 50 times and was simply grinding out some obscure piece of currency with which to buy better gear. Apparently the payout was considerably higher as long as they had at least one new player with them. That meant, since I was the new player, I was boosting their gains by being mocked and shunned from enjoying my own first time experience.

In part I blame the creators of this otherwise wonderful game by making such an exploitable issue. Party members should not be able to initiate boss fights will others are watching cut scenes at the very least. Sadly, I fared no better in The Praetorium despite begging my so called 'party' to wait for me at the very beginning as I tried to enjoy the storyline. By the time I missed out on the fight with Nero I'd hate it and simply quit the dungeon. I hope those scumbags missed out on the bonus Soldiery, but I refused to play with people like that any longer.

So my question is... has the end game always been this way? Is there no one left who wants to play through the dungeon at a reasonable pace so I can appreciate the content I worked for? Is there nothing that can be done to prevent this sort of content and player abuse? Why does Square reward such toxic behavior? I was practically in tears when I left FFXIV last night and for the first time I actually wanted to cancel my subscription and uninstall. If this is the sort of treatment I have to look forward to, I shudder to think what people will say if I ever play with less that optimal gear or I don't perform perfectly as a tank >_>;

Sorry for splitting up my post, apparently there's a 1,000 character limit? Anyway, I appreciate anyone who reads all this, I just needed somewhere to rant.

[Wournsfeik_Untawhasyn]

The point of the reward is to get people who've done those duties in there again, as there's no gear drops in that duty that would bring someone back.

The issue you were running into is not the developers for trying to make sure you'd have anybody running Castrum and Praetorium at this point, it's on the players who felt the need to yell at you for the very thing they did when they first entered Castrum.

Praetorium isn't much better. Honestly, I'd suggest trying to get a Party Finder going on your server asking for a group, offering your first time bonus as a reward so that you can experience Praetorium without the vitriol if you're worried this will repeat itself.

(Also, you can edit your post to get around the limit)

[Viridiana]

Unfortunately, it has been like this since a few weeks after launch, really. Even though at the time it made little sense to be farming Castrum and Praetorium for Tomestones. Speaking of which, expect something similar when you go to do Praetorium.

Now, you'll probably get suggestions to form a Party Finder group to go through and watch the cutscenes. This is a valid option, though I don't see why it's people's first suggestion. Alternately, you can try normal Duty Finder again and hope for better luck. Sometimes you will get groups that don't mind waiting, but it's not something I would count on. That said, if you're one of the tanks, you can try finding another tank or some healers to stack the odds in your favor.

Edit: Seeing your third and fourth posts. . .

This is *mostly* true for Castrum and Praetorium. Though, you'll probably also get a rushed Garuda Hard Mode, too. Other than those, though, most dungeons wind up turning into speed runs as much as possible. Obviously, if you're a tank just reaching that content level, people shouldn't expect speed runs, but expect the occassional a-hole. Basically, your next few dungeons are probably the worst for this.

Also, for the 1k character limit, you can just edit your post to go past it.

[Zabuza]

Try to think of it from their point of view. If you already know what happens in the cutscenes and you've done the dungeon like 50 times, do you want to be forced to stand there for 40 minutes doing absolutely nothing because one player wants to watch the cutscenes? I agree that them mocking/shunning you was incorrect if they were doing so, but I don't feel you should be hating on them for going through the boss fights and finishing the dungeon either.

[TheRogueX]

Try to think of it from their point of view. If you already know what happens in the cutscenes and you've done the dungeon like 50 times, do you want to be forced to stand there for 40 minutes doing absolutely nothing because one player wants to watch the cutscenes?

I don't feel "forced" to wait for someone new to enjoy the content. That's the view of the impatient and uncaring who are just in it for their tomes.

Tell me, who's the selfish person in this scenario: Person A is reading a book, his bus arrives, and 7 others get on, person A then says "hey driver, don't drive off until I finish this chapter". Or is it the 7 other people sat on the bus, who want the driver to go about his route and not wait for that 1 person? If you answered the 7 people, you sir, have serious issues.

LOL. Flawed analogy is flawed. No one ever got on that bus for the first time specifically to read the last chapter of that specific book. Not "Person A" nor any of the other 7 people.

A better analogy would be this: Movie Theater A is playing Movies A-C of a triology, and wants to have the theater filled for a "full experience" after the first playing of each so that no one is in an empty theater. They offer lots and lots of gift certificates every day so that people will return to watch a random movie.

People returning get tired of watching the movie, but feel obligated and entitled to the gift certificates, so they complain that they can't just fast forward through the slow, non-action-packed parts of the movie. The movie theater caves and gives them a way to fast forward through 90% of each film. So they do, and they bitch at the people who are there trying to watch the whole movie the first time, saying "Just watch it on Netflix at home later."

[Zabuza]

I don't feel "forced" to wait for someone new to enjoy the content. That's the view of the impatient and uncaring who are just in it for their tomes.

So the one person who expects seven people to sit around for 40 minutes twiddling their thumbs just for them when they could easily watch the cutscenes later at the inn is the altruistic one.
The seven other people who don't wait to sit around 40 minutes waiting for one person who could watch the cutscenes later are selfish jerks.

Does not compute.

If you want to watch the cutscenes during the run, you can. If you want to do the boss fights, watch the cutscenes later in the inn, it's that simple. You can't expect 7 other people to wait 40 minutes on you. To me, that is pure selfishness.

How is the seven other people's reason for queueing up any less important than the one person's reason for queueing? What if they need the soldiery tomes for something? Obviously they wouldn't of queued into it otherwise. By majority rule, the seven are more important than the one. Since the one can watch cutscenes in the inn later, I really don't see how it is so detrimental to their experience.

Look, I get it. It sucks that new players have to face this. But it's reality. There's no best solution to this. If an incentive wasn't placed for veteran players to queue up for these dungeons, new players would be facing much longer queues. Would you rather have that? Ultimately, it's SE bad on this one for putting the cutscenes in the middle of the dungeon like that.

[Wournsfeik_Untawhasyn]

This is a valid option, though I don't see why it's people's first suggestion.

The reason it's a first suggestion is with PF you can define the agreed upon parameters for the run before even setting foot inside the duty. In this case it's a simple one, you want to be able to enjoy Praetorium for what it was meant to be, not miss the entire gameplay of the dungeon or all the story of the dungeon, as the OP's luck was with Castrum.

I knew about the issue with Castrum going in and chose to suspend my disbelief so I could play with everyone and go back and watch the CS's later. But when I gave my wife the opportunity to experience correctly later, I noticed that the CS's include your party if you aren't watching them from your inn room.