What happened to fun for fun's sake?

[NocturniaUzuki]

Does everything need a material reward now? Do we all only care about how fast we clear battles so we can move on to the next battle faster?

Every time I go around advertising for eccentric activities in FFXIV, such as 4-player Royal Menagerie, I get bombarded with the same responses, and it blows my mind. Here are some examples:

"Why 4-man it?"
"You can't undersize current content."

What blows my mind is that people somehow don't seem to comprehend the fact that they, and all of us, are playing FFXIV for fun. It's not our job. We don't just do this for money (not that everyone hates their job, of course). All of us are playing for fun. So why 4-man? Why not ask "Why 8-man it?" It's the same response: because that is what the player feels like doing, and it's fun for them.

It also blows my mind (though somewhat less so, seeing as people so rarely actually do anything outside of the norm) that people don't even know how to undersize current content. I've actually had people continue to deny that it's possible even after I give them the very logical explanation of how to do it (which is launching with 8 players, four of whom drop out immediately).

The same problem applies not just to doing odd party compositions, but also to any content that doesn't have a reward. A vast amount of the playerbase seems to consider anything that doesn't have a material reward as being completely pointless. All old content is done unsynced because it's faster. And faster is always better, right? Because the only thing that matters is getting those WT rewards faster so we can go get that gear faster so we can go get those materia faster so we can go get those mounts faster.

So what do you do when you've already finished WT and already have the gear and already have the materia and already have the mounts? Judging by how people get bored after they 'finish' a new expansion, and how the game population declines over time, the way it was before Stormblood released, I'd say they quit. So then, we're all speed-grinding the game to max everything ASAP... so we can quit. Does this make anyone else's head spin? I mean, if your end goal is quitting, then why play the god ____ game in the first place?

/rant end

[ChexMix]

something something instant gratification

[whiteblade89]

....hwat?
/10

[Mikhaill]

I don't think it's even possible to 4 man RM. O_o

[ADVSS]

So what do you do when you've already finished WT and already have the gear and already have the materia and already have the mounts? Judging by how people get bored after they 'finish' a new expansion, and how the game population declines over time, the way it was before Stormblood released, I'd say they quit. So then, we're all speed-grinding the game to max everything ASAP... so we can quit. Does this make anyone else's head spin? I mean, if your end goal is quitting, then why play the god ____ game in the first place?



/rant end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vs7AVPLjBY

actually yeah you try to do it on WAR with the new changes

[NocturniaUzuki]

I don't think it's even possible to 4 man RM. O_o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTWoy2MxNDQ&t=9s

[ADVSS]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTWoy2MxNDQ&t=9s

Why is it always the hero in the pig outfit?

[Mikhaill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTWoy2MxNDQ&t=9s

Well, I stand corrected...GJ.
What was everyone Ilvl? No one is hurting as hard as I thought they would.

[Katryn]

While I'm not about to four man RM anytime soon--I'll be doing it for the first time tomorrow--I do agree with the core of what you are saying. So many people seem grumpy and impatient and unhappy in game and it kinda baffles me. Of course, it's possible that this is because I returned to ffxiv about a month before Stormblood and went through all the 2.0 add-on content and all of Heavensward before going through Stormblood at launch. Everybody needs to play however will make them happy, but I definitely do random things that don't necessarily tie into getting my next piece of gear.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are early in a new expansion. Most people are either strolling through the story, or they've steamrolled it already because they want to raid.

I don't find varying motivations a problem--I'm generally more concerned by the attitudes that can accompany it.

At any rate, I wish you the best of luck with your RM group!

[YitharV2]

MMO players are weird because they do things for the rewards.

I think this post from TERA forums explains it nicely. The person is talking about 3v3 arena, but I certainly think it applies in general, at least from what I've seen.

I agree with most of what you said but not this part. Its a weird thing in MMOs that people just don't do things because doing it is fun. They have to get some kind of reward or they won't bother. I don't like any kind of reward system in pvp because the reward should be pvping. If it isn't rewarding the game is broken.

The irony is that Tera has by far one of the best action combat systems in any game of this type, but the combination of ELO, bragging rights, gear disparity and the reward systems mean that 3s is never going to get an influx of new players. At best you'll get a slow trickle as players no longer need to be driven by incentives like gearing up. There are so many reasons not to play 3s. Protecting your ELO rating, grinding credits for better gear etc.

Competition naturally develops over time if a game is active and has healthy reward systems and player match making. So later on when you have a healthy scene, you can bring in ratings and bragging rights and prize money. but if you introduce these things too soon with the wrong incentives at play, it can really break a game.

Going back to Counter-Strike before the leagues and clanbase and all that, there was a game that lots of people played because it was fun and fair. You didn't care about losing, you weren't doing it to get something else. You wanted to play just 1 more match because it was really fun (after playing for 2 hours straight).

But theres nothing really fun about waiting 30 minutes in queue to get wrecked by a team thats 300 average rating above you and has better gear. The goal is to get more people hooked on the game, not turn them away from it.

The first time I played 3v3 was like 4 seasons ago and we were all in newly minted Conjunct. Literally the only players who were queuing during EU primetime and morning/weekends were Overpower teams because Overpower and feeders were the only teams we ever played in that season. So we got wrecked by Bluepoo and friends because they had better gear and more experience and we wiped afkers every other match. The experience has been off putting, even though some of the best times I've had in Tera were in the arena.