I Think I finally know what it is

[Adire]

I stopped reading and OP lost all credibility when I saw him say nothing is wrong with FFXIV.

The game is not perfect, end of story.

[RyuRoots]

Aside from *long* having dropped "gamer" as a self-descriptor partly due to living skidmarks who support things like gamergate making me ashamed of the term, I basically agree with you, OP.

No reading, no friendliness, no patience, speedrun only. These seem to be the popular guidelines of playing FFXIV and why roulettes are literally the only time I bother playing with randoms instead of strictly with friends.

[Wade]

Re-read his post and just ignore "true gamer" - he's right on all counts as far as games dumbing down due to a change in the player base - the problem we have now is so few games cater for the people who like a challenge more than instant gratification - both play styles are fine but there's a huge bias towards quick wins.

I miss FFXI up to the end of CoP - after that it just started getting easier and easier and I lost interest. CoP - 8 parts to it, hours and hours of effort, nothing given to you - I miss it a lot and I struggle to find things that give that same level of challenge and thus insane gratification now.

Poorly chosen words? Yes. Quite right about the instant gratification? Totally. Eorzea is a world of blame and numbers with a few challenges, but then the challenges eventually get dumbed down (echo), sometimes way too soon. The gaming population is not fairly represented anymore in most games.

[Teleste]

Precisely. Good points my friend. After playing FFXI for a couple months before HW launch, I can see exactly what you mean. It's very important to not get rushed with our goals and really enjoy the journey while we explore the game world. I've noticed this method of playing the game has become very rare due to game developers removing the overall depth of games in sacrifice for mainstream popularity.

I look forward to seeing this "enjoy the journey, explore the game world" mentality spread like a viral-concept as many game developers return to the sandbox-style player freedom and game depth that we all unknowingly desire.

Perhaps the gaming community needs a good meme to express what we're struggling with here. Perhaps circulating this "enjoy the journey, explore the game world" meme would help virally-inject this idea into the collective consciousness and amplify our chances of success.

Cheers

[Aldora]

I don’t really think that something like a “True Gamer” exists, since everyone plays games the way that satisfies them the most. As long as they enjoy playing games (it doesn’t matter if they play MMO’s, FPS, Point-and-click Adventures, Cellphone games, or Solitaire), then they are basically “Gamers” already.

I would rather describe them as “Involved Players”. People that involve themselves into one or more aspects of the game. But, that would also apply to being “Involved” in getting the most DPS out of their class, be the first to clear content on a server, be better than the rest. That’s just their “thing”.

Just as long as they don’t belittle others or downright insult them for not meeting their “requirements”.

A True gamer will Maximize his character on his own. He does not need others opinions to utilize his own character.

I don’t really agree with this statement. The reason why is that people like me want to get the most of out their classes and puts effort into learning how to play their classes, gear them up and constantly try to improve themselves with the class they play, but also improve themselves as a player in general.

However, there are times, where someone like me would hit an obstacle with which they are having trouble to overcome. In cases like that, it’s good to do research on how other play that same class / tackle the same content and ask for their opinions on how they can improve themselves.

A prime example would be me, picking up tanking about 2 years ago. Learning how to tank was a long arduous journey, which often made me think if tanking actually suits me as a player. It often made me think that i should just quit tanking and stick to healing/dpsing. But, by talking a lot to a friend and discussing playstyles, tanking rotations and strategies, i eventually ended up tanking along side him in Coil.

As we progressed through Coil and other high-level content, i was still struggling to keep hate in specific situations. I would start talking to the people i was having trouble keeping hate from, for instance one of our DPS in the Coil static. I was trying to get a grasp on how he managed to gain hate so fast, that i was having difficulties keeping up. Afterwards, i would talk to my fellow Coil tank and discuss how i could counter these hate generation spikes.

After a lot of talking and practice, i have improved myself to be a worthy member of the Coil static and clearing all 13 Coil turns as one of their tanks.

I simply could not have done so without their help, so asking and listening to opinions from others isn’t a bad thing if you can actually learn something from them and improve yourself in the process.

[Novaura]

I Remember a time when all classes where picked and played. Not because of their 1337 damages or because a specific class guaranteed a spot in a raid, But because they genuinely felt connected to that class and playstyle.

On behalf of all the Dragoons, thank you for getting it where so many who are ignorant and have never played as Dragoon, do not. You are the prime example of a gaming purist.

[Eidolon]

I miss FFXI up to the end of CoP - after that it just started getting easier and easier and I lost interest. CoP - 8 parts to it, hours and hours of effort, nothing given to you - I miss it a lot and I struggle to find things that give that same level of challenge and thus insane gratification now.

****, I still remember being one of the first people in Sea on my server. I remember earning that Airship battle. I remember being amazed at how it was 45 bloody minutes long for a single encounter, and yet all my friends and I stepped up to the challenge. We all came together and those were some of the people I've been closest to.


I remember back when I was a White Mage as my first character in the Dunes. I had recently hit the level for Curaga - and the game was so new and 'difficult' to me. I didn't even know what a curaga was outside of the previous games I had played. One of the other players guided me to Selbina and bought it for me to help the party. And then I quickly died in the next pull not realising how insane the threat was on it.

I've gone from being a Tank, to being a healer, to being a support, to all ends of the spectrum as a player in MMO's. in FFXIV, I think there's something that has that same powerful draw that FFXI Had to me. Maybe it's the world. Maybe it's the mythos. Maybe it's the combat system. But it's caught me like a hook far better than any other MMO since FFXI has. And in my opinion, contrary to OP, it's the same people he hates.

I love how friendly people are. I love how focused people are. I love tackling challenging content with my friends. I love setting up party finders and getting clears for people - even if you guys consider me a scumbag for putting "Clear-level only" or kicking people who clearly don't belong. I love working together with my freinds overcome the very same challenges I overcame b ack in Chains of Promethia.

[Kore_Hyperion]

+1 OP

/10char

[Freyar]

General public has grown up. Time is more valued now.

[VarinaVashai]

*claps*

I agree with every word you ranted, and its far to common to see the examples you described.