Is progressive content or the community to blame for player skill gap?

[Rinari]

As a new player, I'd like to thank all of you that have the patience to lay down a bit of strategy before a big fight. The game teaches you things like 'don't stand in the bad color' and 'do your skill rotation', but doesn't cover things like running from 1000 ton swing (no bad color ground effect), the distance based damage on Titan's quake thing (run to the edge), or that it's probably ok for DPS to handle certain varieties of adds without the tank running a boss all around the battlefield. As a new tank, I feel compelled to watch videos as dungeons get more complex, but the videos usually only cover basic mechanics of a fight and not overall group strategy...and I can't always remember everything anyway.

I've found the FFXIV community to be wonderful. I haven't had a single bad experience yet with anyone getting angry or impatient. I'm sure it will happen, but it seems very rare. Overall, people have been very patient and helpful.

[Ama_Hamada]

Anyone see those people that have all levels bank but the one 15 that is required to unlock the class while having the job they are on be the only thing they leveled? I think part of the issue is allowing people get to level 50 in 4 days, then having no clue what to do. I did a MSQ roulette where both healers where new to it and undergeared for the megapulls and people kept megapulling and wiping despite me trying to explain that both healers are new. Both of them had like level 47 book and other things, and had no idea you could enter it with that low gear level.

Basically the game lets you get to x point too fast. Part of the issue is giving out too much experience points and leveling up too fast. If you level too fast you go not gain much play experience. Is getting cross class abilities a requirement or just made for customization and make things easier? If you are trying to base a game to level up different things for abilities, then why allow people to be 50+ and only 1 other class to 15? you are not going to get experience like that.

Also why do we have situations where one tank is trying to tell another tank don't just randomly provoke bosses? You are either MT or OT. I had a The Weeping City of Mhach where someone inexperienced kept randomly provoking bosses. Ever since the first boss the other tank was trying to tell them to stop it. The one tank said it in a harsh way and was being a bit arrogant though so people where on the person's case, the one that knew what to do. Finally on the last boss, the random provoking was causing problems and MPK people from the turning the haircut. The experienced tank commented see this is what i been trying to explain all this time, then when others told the other tank to stop doing that, they ran to the edge and literally sat out the battle (using the /sit emote)

I am not sure how to fix this other then putting tutorials on how to do rotations, how to do limit breaks, explaining the different damage by the types of limit break, how to play with more then one tank, so on. Also slower experience gain?

[CGMidlander]

Skill gaps are related with personal motivation and interactions. In addition to practice and experimentation, most good players in most multiplayer games interact with relevant communities and partake in, or at least look at theory crafting. High level learning doesn't come from in-game tutorials.

[Dorander]

Skill gaps are related with personal motivation and interactions. In addition to practice and experimentation, most good players in most multiplayer games interact with relevant communities and partake in, or at least look at theory crafting. High level learning doesn't come from in-game tutorials.

This exactly. Lack of motivation to actually learn about anything is why there is a skill gap. That's why there is such a divide between the so called "elitists" and "casuals." The "elitists" take the time to learn how to play optimally in all content, while everyone else just decides they are going to wing it, and get hostile toward anyone who questions their play style.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

If I were to play any of the dps classes/jobs I'd probably be one of the "bad players". I just have no interest whatsoever in learning whatever finger gymnastics are required to put out acceptable dps. It's one of the primary reasons I stick to healing. I don't want the stress of micromanaging combos, rotations, x buff that allows me to use y skill, juggling an mp bar, etc. I have enough self-awareness to know when I can dps between heals and when I can't, I know how to not stand in bad, and I'm fairly good at picking up on new mechanics once I've seen them once or twice. That's the extent of my "skill".

Don't get me wrong, I can handle a tank who goes balls to the wall nuts with pulls in dungeons. I can perform adequately or even above average on most of the extreme primals, but at the end of the day I am not looking to "get better" or to "learn to play". What I'm looking for is a relaxing enjoyable gaming experience that isn't going to stress me out. In the interest of not letting my "badness" affect other players I avoid content I know requires "skill", such as anything Savage. I'm not looking to "work hard" or "git gud". I'm looking to enjoy myself without stress and with relatively simple (as far as I'm concerned) gameplay. The WHM and SCH both fit the bill for me. No stress, no expectations outside of keeping folks alive, not standing in bad, and dpsing when incoming damage is light.

[Kosmos992k]

If I were to play any of the dps classes/jobs I'd probably be one of the "bad players". I just have no interest whatsoever in learning whatever finger gymnastics are required to put out acceptable dps. It's one of the primary reasons I stick to healing. I don't want the stress of micromanaging combos, rotations, x buff that allows me to use y skill, juggling an mp bar, etc. I have enough self-awareness to know when I can dps between heals and when I can't, I know how to not stand in bad, and I'm fairly good at picking up on new mechanics once I've seen them once or twice. That's the extent of my "skill".

Don't get me wrong, I can handle a tank who goes balls to the wall nuts with pulls in dungeons. I can perform adequately or even above average on most of the extreme primals, but at the end of the day I am not looking to "get better" or to "learn to play". What I'm looking for is a relaxing enjoyable gaming experience that isn't going to stress me out. In the interest of not letting my "badness" affect other players I avoid content I know requires "skill", such as anything Savage. I'm not looking to "work hard" or "git gud". I'm looking to enjoy myself without stress and with relatively simple (as far as I'm concerned) gameplay. The WHM and SCH both fit the bill for me. No stress, no expectations outside of keeping folks alive, not standing in bad, and dpsing when incoming damage is light.

Agreed 100%.

No need to "git gud" if you already get "it", and you clearly do get "it".

[LineageRazor]

I very much question the assumption that "some players don't want to learn and just want to be carried" as any kind of significant portion of the population. I seriously doubt there's any players out there who are honestly satisfied with being bad. Rather, they don't believe that they are bad in the first place. The ones who dismiss advice from others do so because they believe they are doing just fine, and don't want to change their habits just because some stranger they met in an instance tells them so - especially if that stranger is condescending or rude about it (or they perceive that player to be condescending or rude).

Players want to succeed at the instances they run. Players want to be valuable contributors at the instances they run. The disconnect occurs when you run into players that BELIEVE they are valuable contributors, when they actually aren't. These are the toughest people to teach, because they believe they do not need to be taught. But players that consciously decide to slickly coast through the system, riding on the coat-tails of better players? They do not exist. Or, if they do, are extremely rare. Don't assume that players that repeatedly fail mechanics that you see as easy as not caring. Obviously, they care - they wouldn't be in the instance if they didn't want to win.

Many people also forget that raid awareness is a learned and practiced skill, and that we were all n00bz at one point.

A lot of good advice in this link - though I'll admit I was a bit bemused that around a third or more of it was dedicated to lecturing on having the right mods and how to tune them. The author seems to take it at a given that all raiders will be using mods to alert them to various game mechanics. It's not even, "Oh, hey, you should be using mods to alert you," but rather "Well, obviously you're using mods, but here's how to use them right." Honestly, I find that pretty sad, and I hope that this game never reaches that state. I've never played WoW, but if it requires reliance on such things to be successful in endgame, that speaks pretty poorly, either of the game design, or of the players.

[Zojha]

I've never played WoW, but if it requires reliance on such things to be successful in endgame, that speaks pretty poorly, either of the game design, or of the players.

I am preeetty sure a great many people are already using the trigger warnings for A11S optical sights, so you can react before you can see the balls.
Right now, it's not standard to use it because, well...it's technically forbidden! But the moment official AddOn support is granted, the floodgates are more or less open and in the end, content designers will design their encounters around these AddOns.

[Kosmos992k]

I am preeetty sure a great many people are already using the trigger warnings for A11S optical sights, so you can react before you can see the balls.
Right now, it's not standard to use it because, well...it's technically forbidden! But the moment official AddOn support is granted, the floodgates are more or less open and in the end, content designers will design their encounters around these AddOns.

I hope not, the designers should never design to functions that are not part of their own game. That disadvantages players without those add-ons by making them (the add-ons) in effect mandatory.

[Yonanja]

I think that if there's anything to blame, it would be the games "lack of challenge". Outside of a handful of encounters, there's really nothing that pushes people to try to perform better. Pretty much all content can be completed while "half-assing" it. I'm not saying the game needs an average difficulty like that of savage or anything, but when your party pretty much can spam one skill each, die left, right and center, mess up almost every mechanic of an encounter, and still manage to beat it? It's a wonder the game even fosters ANY players capable of completing savage XD