The Other Side of The (Raid) Force

[LalaRu]

Some comment I had read, made me think about it.

Let things stay this way: I am a bad player. Bad, it means I'm no skilled to make difficult things, my reflexes are not enough to pass Titan ex for my entire life, and all things like that. Let it say I recognized it, not everyone is smart same way, not everyone is always the "first of the class". I just have to deal with it.

Now my question is:

Is it right I cannot experience the story behind raids as the Coil?

Good or bad thing, gaming community tends to isolate players like me. Yes I find nice people that bear with me and do not kick me, but all places requiring everyone being smartiest than me, I will hinder party and will not pass those places. Even if accepted as I am by party, I will not pass that duty, disband comes first.

Now, I acknowledge the game must be fun for all, and some difficulties are there to be overcome, so I am the first to admit that asking for something being easied, is same selfish as asking it being more difficult by the expert players and makes me no better.

So, how do this situation can be handled? I thinked about it a lot. I know old raids will be nerfed and nerfed over the time, so it maybe possible I can pass maybe one or two years after it first came. But is it right I must wait years to experience its story? Not the loot, not the glory, not the achievements. Just the story behind it.

So I came to a possible solution, that I'd like share with you all to see if I am just crazy or have some sense:

It will be a new kind of duties, maybe I call it with some shiny name, "Chronacles of the era" duties, that they will be classical 4-member duties, with content as the Raid one, with same cutscenes and about same look and feel, but the content (and rewards, so no one wonders about them) reduced to a 4-member duty, and no much harder than some of the normal endgame duties we have.

I think, with that kind of duties, people like me can enjoy the full story without hindering expert players on their Raids, and no more drama about how much raid is difficult or not. This is just an idea, but why not, lets share it with you all

[JimboTCB]

WOW got around this by making tiered difficulties of the same raids, so that just about anyone could experience a version of the raid content and all the storyline stuff that went along with it. I get the impression they're going that way in HW, with "normal" Alex being pitched at somewhere around CT-level difficulty, and the hard version being the "actual" raid content. But yeah, I'm bad and lazy and will probably never get around to doing coils either, so that's a huge chunk of storyline I'm missing out on.

[Nezm]

WOW got around this by making tiered difficulties of the same raids, so that just about anyone could experience a version of the raid content and all the storyline stuff that went along with it. I get the impression they're going that way in HW, with "normal" Alex being pitched at somewhere around CT-level difficulty, and the hard version being the "actual" raid content. But yeah, I'm bad and lazy and will probably never get around to doing coils either, so that's a huge chunk of storyline I'm missing out on.

I've always liked this approach - though I do think it works best with the 3 distinct tiers.

[Balipu]

Yes, a lot of people love the story but aren't good enough for raids. They miss out on a lot. I'm also stuck at T9 and can't get passed it. On the other hand those who are good enough to do it need to get rewarded with something that doesn't become outdated in the next patch. There is no right answer. Or rather there will be one for Alexander, but the coil will remain as it is.

[VarinaVashai]

While i understand your desire to experience the story within content that you have yet to complete.

as you asked "Is it right I cannot experience the story behind raids as the Coil?" short answer would be yes it is right.

But that is only true if you give up, part of wanting to complete the story of any content. Is that you aswell as your friends work togheter to overcome a challenge and achive something togheter.

And if we look at it from the other perspective of those that want even harder content, is it fair that all content is made easy just so everyone can experience it? Too remove any need to work and improve and challenge oneselves? I dont think that would be fair or reasonable.

There needs to be different types of content in a game for many different players, fun,easy,difficult and so on. And we as players need to focus on what we ourselves choose to value, and acknowledge when some content is out of our reach at that very moment. But that is no reason to give up just because something is difficult, work hard maybe you will clear it maybe you wont. But that is no reason to surrender and wish for easier access.

However with Heavensward the raids will have a storymode and hardmode, so they are going the same route as Blizzard did with world of warcraft.

As for right now and the content in ARR i understand your desire to experience the story, as do i since i have not completed it all myself yet. But i wouldnt want to see it being made easy for the sake of convenience.

[Elazu]

Now my question is:

Is it right I cannot experience the story behind raids as the Coil?

Yes, it is. There is already a lot of stuff to help not-so-good players beat content. You can outgear it, you get Echo, you can get help from better players. Or... and this will sound completely crazy to a lot of the playerbase: Get better yourself.

[Kitfox]

What do you mean by "experiencing the story"? It's very well possible to look at youtube, or whatever to see the cutscenes and learn what happens in the story. But maybe you're not actually interested in the story, but actually want to complete the content, and experience the rewards after overcoming obstacles? What is it that you really want?

Is it right one cannot experience the story behind raids as the Coil? Yes, I think it is right. Because the story in this case is a reward for winning at a game. That's how games are, you get rewards for winning at games. If you don't win the game, you don't get the rewards. If one sincerely just wants to know what happens in a storyline, it's very well possible to find out about it outside the game, without winning, or doing the content. In RPG style games, getting to know the story is a big part of the rewards and a driving force for the player, in single player games as in MMOs. So I think that it is ok to have it as a reward and not as a handout.

If you want to experience content in the way that you win at things to get rewarded the story, then you'll be able to do it if you become skilled enough, the content becomes easy enough, or you are helped through the content by other players.

This is how games are. We're playing a GAME, not reading a novel or watching a movie. Story being a part of the rewards is for the players of the game. I'm sure many will document the story somewhere outside the game so that people other than players can see and experience it.

[Kathryn]

Yes, a lot of people love the story but aren't good enough for raids. They miss out on a lot. I'm also stuck at T9 and can't get passed it. On the other hand those who are good enough to do it need to get rewarded with something that doesn't become outdated in the next patch. There is no right answer. Or rather there will be one for Alexander, but the coil will remain as it is.

Yeah I completely agree with you, I tend to miss chunks of the raiding content due to having to be in hospital a lot some months with radiation therapy and I fall behind a lot and when I return the only real way I can get through Coil atm *im on T9 also* is to pay for it as most of my linkshells and fc are in the pre expansion lul and mostly offline, But I cannot pay for these runs and I don't really want to be carried as I like to pull my own weight plus I don't have 60m gil sitting around >.>

[Malevicton]

Why should this be different from other games? You can't see the ending of Mass Effect without beating the game, you can't see the final ffvii scene if you don't beat sephiroth...

The coil fights themselves are part of the story. The cutscenes are what happen after the fight. Why should you see the postfight cutscene of a fight you didn't participate in?

I feel for you if you can't beat it and all, but I don't see why people think this is a unique problem to MMOs or to ffxiv. You have to do content to get the story in pretty much every video game ever.

[Kathryn]

*Snip*

Fair argument but where story is concerned everyone should be able to see it ESPECIALLY when they pay the same sub fee as everyone else and the difference you spoke about between this game and Mass Effect etc is those games are designed to be completed by 1 player and diffeculty in single player games is very scaled to be beatable, an mmo requires a party, Have you tried getting a party for things like T9 at the moment? It's impossible I've been trying for 2 weeks since i returned to the game from radiation therapy and now I will have to wait until after Heavensward and hope I can convince people to help me breeze through it with overpowered gear just so i can see those aspects of the story I am missing.