"Glamour is the End Game"...What do you feel when you hear that?

[AskaRay]

Goes in one ear and out the other.

I know people are joking when they say that. But at the same time, many people farm content for glamours.

I'm not joking about it.

[KeyboardFacerollname]

Depends on the person.

For some people, completing the highest level of dungeon/raid content is end game. For others, crafting the best gear is end game. For yet others still, collecting cool looking outfits for glamours is end game. And for some, these things are all intermixed. For example, you get the cool looking gear you want to glamour by completing high end group content.

[Aarik]

Apologies in advance if this thread was already made. I notice people saying it a lot in many threads and I do agree that glamour is this game's big part of end game. So I was curious how that made people REALLY feel.

*looks at my fully kitted Glamorsmith....sorry, meant Blacksmith, then looks at all the glamour weapons not selling*
....methinks it's a lie.

But in all seriousness, considering this is a growing idea, it shows the state the game is in; and it's not a good one. When an MMO gets to the state where gear becomes so utterly trivialized and useless within a few months that people only keep gear for friggin dress-up...it's a worrying tell about the current state of the game. A large chunk of the hardcore raiders have fled this game due to the rate at which gear becomes useless, and casuals that are not in it for the glamor (like me) see less and less reason to keep going, when the dev team has made it rather clear that this is the path they are going on. This current trend, combined with an ever-increasing cash-shop glamour gear list, makes me think this game will become an overly-detailed dress-up and erp MMO.

That's how I REALLY feel.

[Xatsh]

I think it defines the main problem with FFXIV as a whole.

Everything is basically glamour in ffxiv.

Current Raid gear is Glamour in 6 months (only non-glamour for an extremly short period of time)
Token gear is either the same as above for top tier tokens or pure glamour for lower tier tokens.
Entire Economy is for glamour gear/mounts/minions/housing
Achievements reward you with glamour
Dungeons reward you with glamour
PvP rewards glamour only gear
Openworld and GC rewards you with glamour only
Relics are basically glamour


Then again the people who say this game is perfect seem to be happy just playing dress-up all day. So I guess it is what the target audience of this game wants.

[Aarik]

Then again Xatsh, it may be a character longevity thing. Most (not all, but the majority) of those who enjoy the current state are fairly new at the game, typically having been on 1-1 1/2 years at most, while you and I have been on since early 1.0. We've had a long time to see this trend while they have not; it may be as simple as that...or, like you and I said, this will simply become a dress-up game.

[Kosmos992k]

I think it defines the main problem with FFXIV as a whole.

Everything is basically glamour in ffxiv.

Current Raid gear is Glamour in 6 months (only non-glamour for an extremly short period of time)
Token gear is either the same as above for top tier tokens or pure glamour for lower tier tokens.

Such is life on the gear escalator in a vertical progression game with little to no horizontal progression. What I can't figure out is why ilvl has to keep advancing so quickly. It seems to me it would be better to move the needle 5 ilvls at a time with major patches so things keep moving, but also to add some horizontal progression so gear can last 2-3 patches without being obsolete.

I would say that FFXIV is a dress up game, but it does have some elements that are, much like any MMORPG with a glamour type system.

[Gardes]

It seems to me it would be better to move the needle 5 ilvls at a time with major patches so things keep moving,

It would be better if the ilvl didn't increase at all until character level cap increase or every expansion and have all 3 raid sets and all 3 tome sets be the same ilvl but provide more bonuses depending on the combination that you wear (wearing savage gordias helmet+ savage midas necklace = extra stats).

The lockout removal and df addition when the next raid set is added still applies so there would be more reason for people to go back to the previous raids to complete the newly revealed bonus stats (people who cleared the previous raid but never got the drop they wanted) and people who are starting to tackle raids only after it's been added to DF would have more experienced players around to get assists from. The item level increase every expansion/level cap (which would be every 1-2 years) would stop the "i'm wearing the same pants i got 7 years ago" from happening.

[Kosmos992k]

It would be better if the ilvl didn't increase at all until character level cap increase or every expansion and have all 3 raid sets and all 3 tome sets be the same ilvl but provide more bonuses depending on the combination that you wear (wearing savage gordias helmet+ savage midas necklace = extra stats).

I don't think that you can make that drastic of a change in course from Vertical progression to Horizontal progression. So I was thinking that if they plan on increasing the level cap by 10 with an expansion, and the gear by a total of perhaps 80 item levels, the actual expansion can use 50 of those item levels and then each subsequent major patch can bump by 5 ilevels with the final patch perhaps going 10. Given the much larger numbers on our gear at the higher ilvls, it would seem sensible to slow down anyway.

I was also thinking that if the movement of 5 ilvls with each patch were used, youcould also provide side grade/upgrade items for older gear to keep it viable through the patch, meaning that gear would last at least 6 months before being obsolete.

[Gardes]

I don't think that you can make that drastic of a change in course from Vertical progression to Horizontal progression. So I was thinking that if they plan on increasing the level cap by 10 with an expansion, and the gear by a total of perhaps 80 item levels, the actual expansion can use 50 of those item levels and then each subsequent major patch can bump by 5 ilevels with the final patch perhaps going 10. Given the much larger numbers on our gear at the higher ilvls, it would seem sensible to slow down anyway.

I was also thinking that if the movement of 5 ilvls with each patch were used, youcould also provide side grade/upgrade items for older gear to keep it viable through the patch, meaning that gear would last at least 6 months before being obsolete.

It's not drastic. Not increasing the item levels would involve...plugging in similar numbers into the new gear. Stat bonuses from wearing combination sets already exist in the game (check the GC gear). It's not a complete horizontal progression because 1: a full eso at i210 would be 'vanilla' and would be weaker than a combo set of 210 eso and 210 lore (again, as example) which would have the bonuses and 2: lvl cap increase/expansion would hike the ilvl to say 250 and completely outclass any 210 combination any player would come up with unlike the "this lvl 15 booths is better than any gear at lvl cap so i've been wearing it for 5 years and counting" deal.

[Jim_Berry]

I'm not joking about it.

Which is why I said, "But at the same time...".