Quote Originally Posted by Veltaine View Post
so i read along here somewhere about a themepark... lets take that analogy somewhere


how do they redesign the superman rollercoaster to amuse the thrillseekers, and then ppl like me? who hate dropping more than 5 feet IRL... they arent gonna do it.. why should ifrit cater to everyone as well? hes the superman rollercoaster of the game, reserved for the hardcore players.. and besides.. its not like you cant beat the regular ifrit fight, right?

at a themepark there are many things to do, as well as in an MMO.. by no means should everything be created equally.. theres content for casual, and theres content for hardcore.. take it or leave it

your playing a game.. enjoy it for what it is, i do
An interesting way to place an argument, using the themepark analogy. I understand what you mean.

However, I have to ask, what will happen to those who would LIKE to hop onto these rides? Should we be greeted with a disclaimer before we fight Ifrit, like most of these "extreme rides" do at themeparks? This is a bit of a silly counterargument for me to make, but I'm trying to illustrate the point that if the platform allows for it, the system should be as inclusive as possible.

An actual, physical themepark will obviously have limitations on who can enjoy it; a video game is comprised of a virtual environment and lines of programming code.

The former is not easy to adapt for a paraplegic who wants to ride the Screaming Tornado, while the latter has the ability to be adapted to various software and hardware solutions to allow that same paraplegic person to play the game.

The principle I am going by is that video games, by their very nature, should be as inclusive as possible without sacrificing the thrill, challenge, and rewards that hardcore players crave from their game experiences. Thus, the solution would be to add variable difficulty modes that does not infringe on the "original" hardcore experience.

It's really quite simple, and if the hardcore players don't like the lower difficulty options, they can simply opt out of those modes and choose only the most difficult mode. This would have no impact whatsoever on the prestige factor of the encounter. In fact, it could even be a way for hardcore players to beat their chests and show off their manliness in a player exchange that would happen as follows:

Casual Player: "Hey, I beat Ifrit on One-Star difficulty, I think I'm ready for two stars."

Hardcore Player: "Oh, well, have fun getting inferior drops from two stars. I've only fought Ifrit on Three Star difficulty, and I got an Inferno Lance drop!"

I hope this illustrates very clearly that the variable-difficulty-options that I've been advocating on these forums will not hurt the hardcore players at all, but instead gives options to players whose skills are "inferior" to hardcore players.