Please, Developers, Please! Put an end to Easy Mode thinking

[yukikaze_yanagi]

oh really ? Because chocobos in ffxi was SO much difficult to obtain, right ? trading a gyhsal green every hour is SO hard and amusing.
Actually we know personal chocoboes require 2 things:
-ranking in a company (= quest or seals purchase)
-3000 seals. Seems meaningless to rank 50 who did dzemael, but isn't so oblius to new characters. Also, if ranking in companies mean using previus seals, we actually need to farm it)
To me the effort seems the same, if not superior.

[Rutelor]

oh really ? Because chocobos in ffxi was SO much difficult to obtain, right ? trading a gyhsal green every hour is SO hard and amusing.

I know that my gaming IQ is fairly low, for I recall adrenaline making my temples throb, while crossing Sauromugue, braving skinks and cocks... and goblins and the Yagudo, and dying at least thrice on the way there, to get to the spot where I could find the dragonflies that dropped the blasted grass. And then trying to figure out why the wretched bird would not take the third dose of his medicine. At the time I got the license, I had so little money that buying the grass at the AH seemed like financial suicide. But I was just a poor player... in love with the universe that had just opened in front of me, and I wanted to cross it on a feathered ride. A ride that seemed precious every time, since I often was close to not having the money to pay for it.

[Bled]

I know that my gaming IQ is fairly low, for I recall adrenaline making my temples throb, while crossing Sauromugue, braving skinks and cocks... and goblins and the Yagudo, and dying at least thrice on the way there, to get to the spot where I could find the dragonflies that dropped the blasted grass. And then trying to figure out why the wretched bird would not take the third dose of his medicine. At the time I got the license, I had so little money that buying the grass at the AH seemed like financial suicide. But I was just a poor player... in love with the universe that had just opened in front of me, and I wanted to cross it on a feathered ride. A ride that seemed precious every time, since I often was close to not having the money to pay for it.

Now that was a challenge with a REAL reward attached that not only got your blood pumping but created vivid memories, but I'm sure someone is going to call that a time sink...

[yukikaze_yanagi]

I know that my gaming IQ is fairly low, for I recall adrenaline making my temples throb, while crossing Sauromugue, braving skinks and cocks... and goblins and the Yagudo, and dying at least thrice on the way there, to get to the spot where I could find the dragonflies that dropped the blasted grass. And then trying to figure out why the wretched bird would not take the third dose of his medicine. At the time I got the license, I had so little money that buying the grass at the AH seemed like financial suicide. But I was just a poor player... in love with the universe that had just opened in front of me, and I wanted to cross it on a feathered ride. A ride that seemed precious every time, since I often was close to not having the money to pay for it.

A Shackespeare writing golden the pill, but the fact it's the same: chocobos in ffxi require:
-obtain 6 gyhsal greens. 1 minute from ah, more if you're so much poor, but hardly a challenge
-trade a gyhsal to chocobo
-go afk for 1 hour
-repeat for 5 times
it isn't really something i call challenging nor fun, but just a loss of time. And an unecessary one too, since chocobos are a basic form of traveling, and need to be done from a low level character. You can't expect a long and difficult quest like black belt for a chocobo, cmon...

[lenn1]

I know that my gaming IQ is fairly low, for I recall adrenaline making my temples throb, while crossing Sauromugue, braving skinks and cocks... and goblins and the Yagudo, and dying at least thrice on the way there, to get to the spot where I could find the dragonflies that dropped the blasted grass. And then trying to figure out why the wretched bird would not take the third dose of his medicine. At the time I got the license, I had so little money that buying the grass at the AH seemed like financial suicide. But I was just a poor player... in love with the universe that had just opened in front of me, and I wanted to cross it on a feathered ride. A ride that seemed precious every time, since I often was close to not having the money to pay for it.

Now imagine doing that quest when you were level 75. Do you think it would have been challenging and exciting? Most of the people asking for this to be a challenge have multiple 50s and millions of gil. Its a bit difficult to make something designed for mid 20s a challenge for level 50s.

[Rutelor]

Now imagine doing that quest when you were level 75. Do you think it would have been challenging and exciting? Most of the people asking for this to be a challenge have multiple 50s and millions of gil. Its a bit difficult to make something designed for mid 20s a challenge for level 50s.

I did that quest with my newbie friends many times, after reaching cap (when cap was 75.) My point in the message you quote was not that it was a difficult fight, or voyage. What made it so valuable, was its organically standing as a rite of passage, a sine-qua-non to obtain the coveted license, when you were at the right level. As such it had the ability to generate cherished memories, and implant an emotional link in your brain. Even if your higher-level friends helped, the whole quest was a symbolic hurdle; it appeared as a logical chore, cohesive and seamless within the cosmogony of the game, and one that evinced enough care bestowed on it to detonate an unencumbered emotional reaction. It was also great that you had the option to buy the grass to complete the quest, since I am not against options. But then you knew you were taking a shortcut. Plus you still had to figure out why the chocobo would not take his third dose. Any way you chose to go, getting the grass was only part of it, and once finished, there was an evident sense of accomplishment, and satisfaction. Plus the reward was wonderful.

Compared to that, the quest I mention in the OP seems like a clumsily patched on afterthought, makeshift, dull, and with 0 emotional value. An equivalent quest in XI would've been the Onion Brigade task, which required from you to provide the Brigade some sort of "tail" to be completed. The tail ended up not being a real tail, but a so-called variety of asparagus that the Windurstian loved to eat pickled. But you would not know that until you talked to them with the (rather common) drop in your inventory. In the meantime, you would be trying to figure out how to detach a tail from the critters in Saruta Baruta. The reward was also very gratifying (the Justice Badge was a commonly equipped item, for the neck slot, all the way up to level 40, sometimes beyond.)

And that would be only the first quest within an organically developed series, which would keep you entertained well into level 50, and would provide you with the above-mentioned badge, (and another one towards the end of the series that would be quite valuable from level 50 onwards.)

There is a big difference there. In the meantime the bunch of Stuffed Dodos is still sun-tanning on their crowded corner, on the way to Nanawa

R