Thread: The Current Status of FFXIV Patch 3.1 and How to Address it Moving Forward

Originally Posted by Kaurie

I would say that generally speaking hardcore content has a trickle down effect on two types of players. Casual/crafting type players make gear/food/potions etc which then sell for more via markets from hardcore player demand. Midcore raiders tend to look up to hardcore and aspire to be on that skill level - I know there is one guy in my raid who during coil would post these Lucrezia speed clears on turns that we were working on clearing.

It's probably impossible to quantify how much of an effect this "trickle down" has, if it even has one.

What's the actual economic impact of hardcore raiders on the non-raiding population? Could a similar economic impact be generated simply by having a larger pool of less-hardcore raiders?

How many of the people who "look up to" or "aspire to be" raiders like the top groups:
- keep playing based on that, when they might otherwise have quit?
- continue to raid based on that, when they would otherwise have given up?
- actually change anything they do in the game, based on that?

Would the person in your raid group who watches videos of Lucrezia speed clears have stopped raiding if those videos didn't exist?

Originally Posted by Velhart

Should ask the people who are able to clear raids before the next horizontal patch hits.

That would fall squarely into the category of anecdotal comments that I mentioned, rather than actual evidence.

Besides which I've been a part of that group at various times, both in XIV and other games, and I think that at best it's an unproven premise that you absolutely need to have ridiculously difficult content that only the upper echelon of players will even see in order for an MMO to be successful.