Are we as players afraid of a challenge?

[KitomiSaitichi]

There are various sorts of players.
The more challenging, the more fun.
The more challenging, the more frustration.

Some like challenges of memorization, some like challenges of trial-and-error, some like challenges of reflexes, others of coordination & logistics or strategy & tactics.
This can take form in the method of acquiring the most gil/profitable business, min-maxing every last ounce of damage, solving lucrative spatial/logic puzzles, commanding multiple simultaneous mechanic features and devising a success strategy or manipulating social relationships to acquire power and status.

Some just like the routine and grind of doing the same thing over and over.

Some players can't do a challenge because they don't have the time available.

As far as I can see it, most people are complacent. Not many are risk-takers, overachievers or wanting to be challenged. Most like to be in their comfort zone, living the daily grind away. This is reflected in everyday life (live as a follower, stay low, don't cause trouble).

Out of how many people do you see in real life that exploit every opportunity and are perfectionistic/super-compelled to risk to learn more, to do more and execute more? Probably not a whole lot (unless you're a CEO).

If you want to find players that like to be challenged, you will have to look at the most competitive aspects of the game.
As with most MMOs, hardcore raiding/PvP/competitive mini-games are activities that merely a fractional portion of the playerbase are good at/like to participate in. These [activities] are arguably the most challenging content that the game has to offer in the primitive/non-existent AI era.


I don't think it's that players are afraid of the challenge, some just don't see the justification behind it if the rewards are so meager. If there were exclusive glamours, items or rewards of some sort, they might be incentivized to getting better and being more proficient. Some just hate being challenged altogether because it stresses them out too much and they can't handle the anxiety associated with being labelled as inept or having demonstrable repercussions on the team that lead others to be frustrated with them (which the overly sensitive would call toxic, and the less cynical, just untactful).

Someone that wants to be challenged would demonstrate virtues of self-improvement, efficiency and optimization or technical skill, power/dominance, be more achievement/status-orientated. If we're looking purely from the game's standpoint, this would fall under the "NT" and "SP" sub-group category under Keirsey's Temperament Sorter of specialization and preference. From modest reported numbers, this is around 23 - 34% of the population. Players, especially in MMOs are also more likely introverted then extroverted just by nature of self-selection of reducing environmental stimulus. This dwindles the percentage of all possible persons of having this virtue to 12 - 17% of the population. However, the "NT" group are statistically more likely to be involved in video games than other groups. A conservative estimate would be that 1 in 4 players that you meet in-game enjoy a [game] challenge simply because of the person's nature.

So if we assume that only 1/4 of players have the propensity and predilection to enjoy any sort of challenge, then you factor in that maybe less than half have the sufficient amount of time investment to acquire the level of skill and proficiency needed to overcome said challenge, you have less than 1 in 8 players that like a challenge and are able to overcome said challenge. Add in the factor of the rewards not justifying the effort invested, and you can easily see why most of these 'challenge'-tailored content only "excites" 1 in 10 players or less enough to even try said content.

Now if FFXIV were a MOBA or FPS, this would be a whole different story.

The solution I see is quite easy. A world that is hard, has specialized content that is adjusted to be a tad harder, and has leaderboards all around or performance records at the end of dungeon runs, and everything possible to enable people to overcome challenges one step at a time (whether that be replays or whatever). A second world like the current one, where you can turn on autopilot mode and enjoy the scenery of the game with all its goodies and no stress. Of course, this isn't feasible development wise, nor does it justify the financial numbers at the end of the day, but this would solve the 'challenge/hardcore/serious-orientated/do-your-best' vs 'non-challenge/casual/relax/just-try-don't-worry crowd' dichotomy that's been popping up every other thread.