Quote Originally Posted by Alahra View Post
To suggest that the SE ignore "numbers and charts" in constructing the endgame seems pretty weird to me: content clear rates and player engagement with content are one of the best metrics they have to gauge whether a particular type of content is successful (or not, as has been the case with Alexander Savage). How else are they supposed to gauge whether or not something is working or not?
Its not to say they shouldn't get some ideas based off data, at the same time, you shouldn't come to a conclusion based off of it. SE really should study end game in other MMO's and how they make them work and appealing to get some inspiration.

They did a lot of that in ARR—a lot of the game's content structure is organized in such a way as to lower the barriers for entry for the hardest content. That's part of why the original HM Primals were required to unlock Coil, and why mid-range weapons drop from current EX Primals. It's why Tomestone gear is no longer immediately at the highest item level (as it was for Myth gear at i90) (Yoshi came right out and said they did this because it encouraged people to skip raiding).

Quite frankly I'm not sure what else they could do to get people interested in challenging stuff. Those that want a challenge will seek it, and those that don't, won't, and the latter group consists of a larger portion of the player base than the former.
Its funny, because the start of ARR they structured most things very nicely. They put those barriers up to work you into raiding like the HM primals. It definitely helped teams get a feeling of how the structure of the game works before going into raids. It worked you into it. That was a good mix of midcore/hardcore end game. It is a shame that Bismark nor Ravana were used for that purpose.

Midcore/Hardcore content shouldn't take a hit because some people don't have the time or not good enough to play it. Most people never even see Heroic raids in WoW and you don't see Blizzard pulling it's plug because of it. There needs to be that goal that feels unreachable, its what drives people to continue. Nope, just dumb it down till people who are not willing to learn how to play is satisfied.

Yoshi-P's comment on "I want people to say 'ohh that really wasn't that bad'" is a terrible way to look at making your content. There needs an extreme amount of satisfaction beating content. Able to triumph over something that most cannot accomplish. That is what I was hoping Normal > Savage would be. Normal being Final Coil level and what Yoshi-P says about "ohh it wasn't that bad" and Savage testing out the best the server has to offer in players. Seriously, most MMO's do this, I really wonder why FFXIV developers are so against it. Sure different mind sets and beliefs, but its pretty clear that FFXIV is western MMO influenced.

Again, I don't think SE knows how to work out end game balance anymore. A lot of once hardcore end game players see this and a lot have jumped ship to other MMO's already. FFXIV won't die out because of it, but their raiding scene is definitely going to be considered a joke if they keep going in the mind set they are in.

Someone really needs to slap my hand whenever I decide to make another end game rant.