Mark of Tanaka

[Mireille]

To be fair to not-so-casual-or-hardcore players like me, I define hardcore players not only those who are willing to play this same game every day for hours on end, but also those who are willing to deal with bad game design decisions and overcome or get around them. What you call "dumbing down" (which IMO is a very bad misnomer) is my "fixing it to what it should've been".

You're making assumptions about what I mean by dumbing down. A craft system where you have to get weaver to level 35 to do leatherworking leve, and you have to get leatherworker to 35 in order to do weaver leve is broken. A system where you need 6 different trainings that can't be gotten till level 20+ in order to make level 1 items is broken. I got crafts to 50 before 1.19, and I still do leve post 1.19. I still see a lot of room for improvement in crafting, but most of what they have done and are talking about doing really is a fix.

Back in FF XI giving people an experience points reward for helping others with the Chains of Promathia Missions in order to encourage people to redo really challenging fights is a fix. Removing the level cap is dumbing it down. I remember the first time I set foot in Lufaise meadows because it was so hard getting there. I beat airship and Tenzen when they had a cap and that was exhilarating. Everyone had to know their job and do it well to beat those fights. Now a single 99 samurai can destroy Tenzen for the remaining 5 people in the party while they stand around watching and get them access to Sea. That's what I call dumbing it down. I'm all in favor of them making it so you don't get randomly wiped by passing easy prey mobs while doing the moogle NMs, but I am totally against them removing the walk, the spiggans, the linking, or the 5 fights themselves. Yes a lot of people don't agree with me on that but navigating a maze while abiding by certain rules is what makes the quest a game. Running to a ??? before you redo the fight is at best a time sink. The people you see standing nekkid clutching a moogle weapon at the entrance to Ul'dah aren't that proud without reason.

Making all the content for casual play would be as much a mistake as making it all for the hard core player. They game needs a mix to succeed. That and the fact that Tanaka is very good at making that type of content is my point.

There are plenty of people who would happily to ride a helicopter to the top of Mt. Everest so they can enjoy the view, and then there are people who want to make the climb because that's where the real accomplishment and bragging rights lie. I'm sure mountaineers would cringe at the analogy, but hardcore players are the same way for the most part. Honestly I don't mind not being the first to get something, but please don't make it a walk in the park or its no longer going to be fun.

BTW if Orcishgrapper is the same person who used to play XI on Carbuncle tell him Hi from Mireille, and ask him to say hi to Pandorous for me. I miss that little guy