Are we as players afraid of a challenge?

[Khalithar]

I'm somewhere in the middle. I like a decent challenge, one where there is some margin for error, and not one where one goof = one death/wipe. It's actually other players that can make it a drag. It's kinda like sports. It doesn't build character as much as reveal it, and there's a fair amount of hypocrites out there. It's when I get pitted with other players - especially whiny ones - that can make it dreadful.

I basically feel the same as this. Saves me time typing out the same thing!

[Hasrat]

Problem is not every player equates challenge with fun. Creating challenging general content alienates the players that don't enjoy the challenge. General content (in your example, simply traversing the overworld) should be accessible to all players no matter their type. Your challenging content should be shuffled off to the side, where you can still enjoy yourself, and others can carry on without being forced to do things they don't enjoy.

Always need to keep in mind that fun is a subjective experience (and so is challenge, for that matter). Game needs to keep a balance to appease the audience it hopes to keep.

[Nutz]

Yeah, I'm not sure. I know I hear a lot of people complain that the open world is too easy, but there's not currently any reason for it not to be. If they wanted to move away from instanced content then maybe something like this would make sense.

Just from a balancing standpoint this is a nightmare. On day 1 you can make the monsters incredibly beefy and players will plow through with sheer numbers. A patch or so later and any new comers trying to get through the same area are stranded or have to rely on stealth because everyone else has already moved on.

The way this game is balanced currently, with most classes within the same role being reasonably equal, and definite roles required for most content, 'challenge' as many players see it, is impossible. There's so little going on outside of damage received/ healed/ dealt and dodging that there aren't really any interesting variables. A large portion of the community sees that something is possible and concludes that it's easy. If it weren't possible it wouldn't be reasonable, but there doesn't seem to be room in people's perception for an encounter to be winnable and difficult, largely owing to the fact that people feel like becoming familiar with the encounter should be taken for granted so any difficulty you have before you know exactly what's going to happen at any given moment is moot.

You can argue that that perception arises from the style of game that we're playing, and that might be right, but I don't think that there's any real way around it without making very drastic changes to core aspects of the game.

[Bixillarla]

No thank you. I don't want a dangerous outside where you have to have a party to get anywhere. Keep the challenging content in instances for those who want they can do it and those who are casual can avoid it.

[Zumi]

Wouldn't really work due to the sheer number of players who play the game. If you look at open world content hunts for example they die in seconds when they are popular due to so many people wanting the seals. Can't really set up complex mechanics in a lobby environment.

[Moomba33]

Afraid? I dunno. I feel like I'm just not interested honestly.
I play games to relax primarily. If there's a difficulty option I'll play on Normal. If there's a cheese strategy for beating a super boss I'll take it.
In XIV I wait for Ex Primals to hit the DF and I don't touch Savage at all.

I'm not interested in struggling and needing a group for daily activities like traveling, gathering, ect.
Lack of Midcore content is a problem for a lot of people in XIV. I can accept the developers making a few harder zones to appeal to them but I don't want it to become the design of the game as a whole. Fixing Diadem could be a good start.

[thunderbreak]

I'm afraid of challenges where I have to rely on other players.

[Headhunters]

ahhhhh

the San D'Oria > Jeuno 1st walk at lv 20~21. Memories.

[Windi]

Windi PSA here,

Don't confuse challenge with difficulty. Challenge is a broader subject that deals with how an individual solves a problem; difficulty deals more with how hard that problem is to solve. All games, including this one, provides some challenge, it's just that some challenges are more difficult than others. Typically, in games aimed towards broader audiences, the challenges presented early on are easily or intuitively solved, while, gradually, more complex solutions are required later on.

In that regard, the reason I'm not keen on strong overworld monsters at the start is that there is little the player can do to work around it, with the current system in place. Following the steps you proposed in your OP could help, but I question whether many players would be willing to do anything you mentioned or just put the game down as a whole?

[Jynx]

In that regard, the reason I'm not keen on strong overworld monsters at the start is that there is little the player can do to work around it, with the current system in place.

Mainly why I would only consider something this scale to be tackled in an expansion style advancement. New mehcanics would need to be made for these zones, large sprawling and have multiple areas of interest allowing division of player mass to discourage over-crowding.



XI took this approach in two ways to ensure player concentration never became a big concern for most of it's open world content.

1. The three starting cities: Player decisions of three starting areas allowed the developers to reasonably expect 1/3 of the total game population to be in one of the starting areas.
2. Areas of Oportunity: In the early game there was at least 20 or so viable "Areas" that players could actively level up without much competition or interuption even at the most busy of times.
3. Spread out...again!: As players leveled up they would spread out even more rather than start to concentrate in areas. Up until the "Dunes" phase where it encouraged grouping up players would slowly spread out on a large map looking for stronger prey and in doing so make room for the newer players behind them.
4. Group up!: Once the dunes phase was hit it allowed players to concentrate in larger masses while still having many areas of oportunity for leveling allowing for a vibrant but busy overworld to function.
5. Monsters don't mess around: I often see people say a higher level player could troll lower levels by training monsters on people trying to complete the content but XI actually tackled the "Train" issue later in it's life by making monsters still chase a character to the death (Or any agro loss mechanic) but once lost they would "Phase" back to their spawn instead of leaving a trail of death.

New systems and mechanics would have to be put into place to allow more dynamic open world interaction but I feel it would be well worth it. Sure there will be cases of people zerging areas with sheer numbers but there could even be interactive game mechanics to counteract that such as player density causing areas to go under alarm and dynamically interacting with the size of the horde of players coming at it.

Other such things as day/night monster cycles could also be ways to encourage times of peace for more casual players to traverse and night time dangers (And rewards) for those who would venture out at night.

There is no shortage of interesting ways we could make the open world a viable part of the game and foster a sense of community.