The Weekly Cap - Am I completely disillusioned?

[DragonSlayer45]

Along with what everyone else mentioned, I consider the weekly cap to be the carrot on the stick. You want to get _____ piece but you don't have enough Esoterics tomes to get it. You know you'll get it next week. You get the piece the following week, and you move on. Repeat until you get the full set. Its there to keep people paying and playing.

The weekly cap is nothing new to this game. Its been throughout ARR and I imagine it'll continue through Heavensward and probably beyond. Do I wish they could try something different? Maybe, but I'm of the mentality of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." There's nothing wrong with the weekly cap, and I'll take having gated progression over farming the same instance over and over for the one piece you want that will never drop, that a lot of MMOs have done. I also imagine we would see a lot more complaining topics if it was the latter.

[Purrfectstorm]

The reason that there are daily/weekly bonuses and content lockouts is to keep people subbed. But a fun game would also keep people subbed. However, SE has chosen not to rely on intrinsic motivation alone by using these bonuses and lockouts. While this might make it more likely for players to remain subbed, it creates addictive behavior that might push some players away from the game. For example, who hasn't felt that they had to log on to do x, y, z or they would fall behind? Sure, in the short-term SE wins because that player is logging in every day, but SE will lose in the long-term because players will start to find grinding roulettes and challenge logs and capping tomes tedious rather than fun. When players realize it is addiction rather than enjoyment that is driving them, they will quit and find healthier ways of spending their time (that don't require their doing x, y, z every day, for life).

[justinjarjar]

The reason that there are daily/weekly bonuses and content lockouts is to keep people subbed. But a fun game would also keep people subbed. However, SE has chosen not to rely on intrinsic motivation alone by using these bonuses and lockouts. While this might make it more likely for players to remain subbed, it creates addictive behavior that might push some players away from the game. For example, who hasn't felt that they had to log on to do x, y, z or they would fall behind? Sure, in the short-term SE wins because that player is logging in every day, but SE will lose in the long-term because players will start to find grinding roulettes and challenge logs and capping tomes tedious rather than fun. When players realize it is addiction rather than enjoyment that is driving them, they will quit and find healthier ways of spending their time (that don't require their doing x, y, z every day, for life).

... sounds like speculation on your part, and no MMO creates enough content to work beyond gated content. I agree the grind is not "fun", but it allows the game to continue to be, MMO's are flawed majorly in the way that they need people playing to work/run. While a single player game does not need anything to keep it going, since it ends. Talking about addictive games LoL and Dota2 are prime examples of games that create addicted players (and have some of the most toxic communities). I mean if you play an MMO with casual mind set with other causal mind set players you tend to have more fun since having the best gear matters less and clearing the new content now is less of a concern. Meaning you can do stuff on your time and the gate is not needed, but many (most dare I say) want the best gear and raid gotten/done now, not in a month when their friend "bob" catches up.

[Purrfectstorm]

... sounds like speculation on your part

It is speculative in that I don't know the minds of every player who plays, but it is not purely speculative in that I know many players, including myself who feel that way. I started playing FFXI after it was out for like 8 or 10 years and I had no hope of ever catching up to other players. I think this actually made the game more fun because I played at my own pace. SE still had a loyal subscriber for 2 1/2 years. But I've been playing FFXIV since launch and I find keeping up with other players to have as many negatives as positives. Some of the most fun I've had playing FFXIV is just starting a new character and looking at the game world with fresh eyes ("so THIS is what leveling up is like these days!") but the caps interfere with that experience ("ugh I still need tomes for this week on my other character").

For me, FFXIV has become about a list of chores that I must do every day/week

- check gardens
- adjust market prices
- assign ventures
- cactpot
- roulettes
- hunts
- tomes
- scrips
- Alexander loot

Of course, one could reasonably argue that I don't have to do all these things every day, and I know that. However, the game systems create the feeling of need, and I don't like it. I feel like the pace of play is determined for me. For example, I can't seem to get a T12 party (just for completion's sake). T12 is the only turn I'm missing from Coil but I missed that window of time where people actually cared about it. Likewise, Alexander Savage has been out for less than a week and I still haven't been able to join or form a static for it. I should have tried to do so sooner because now it is already "too late" (for those who think I should try harder, I spent 5 hours of my Saturday night in PF looking, really sad).

[Gyson]

The cap is low enough right now to allow people who can't spend all-day-every-day in FFXIV to reach the cap (along with everyone else) simply by doing a couple dungeons per day, and then spending the remainder of their gaming session enjoying some other in-game activity. That's not a bad thing. The higher the cap is, the harder it becomes to reach it without making it your daily focus, particularly for those with limited play schedules. And let's not pretend most people are satisfied with the idea of the week ending and not having reached the cap. Everyone wants to feel like they managed to progress each week as much as the game allowed them to.

Yes, for people who have copious amounts of game time on their hands, it can be a drag (since it minimizes the advantage of having more time). However.. you already have more time to play the game than others, so try to find some pleasure in that.