"Casual" content thoughts

[Kaethra]

Easy is indeed a completely impossible thing to define, but I disagree that without a literal physical or mental handicap people are "incapable" of getting good at this game or any game. It's all a matter of practice and the will to improve and not giving up.

What do you do with someone who can't pass the first solo duty? Level is scaled, they cannot outlevel or outgear it. You cannot join them to give a boost. There's only two things you can do. One is to login their character and do it for them. The other is to inform them that the game just isn't for them.

I have one friend who likely falls into that category. They've been in MMOs for 15 years. If they haven't 'gotten it' by now. They're not going to. No handicap either.

[Sylvina]

What do you do with someone who can't pass the first solo duty? Level is scaled, they cannot outlevel or outgear it. You cannot join them to give a boost. There's only two things you can do. One is to login their character and do it for them. The other is to inform them that the game just isn't for them.

I have one friend who likely falls into that category. They've been in MMOs for 15 years. If they haven't 'gotten it' by now. They're not going to. No handicap either.

Never met anyone like that but it really sounds like they indeed have some kind of handicap if they've been in MMOs for 15 years and can't adapt to an MMO which isn't much different from the standard formula.

FFXIV is as standard as they come, I sense that something isn't right with your story.

[Alleo]

HyoMin, have you ever tried to imagine what it's like for genuine newcomers to MMOs? Or to gaming, for that matter. Most MMO players (heck, even myself) have a distorted view of what people consider "easy" and "hard".

I am not the one you mentioned but I did play other MMOs before this game yet FF14 with its battle system was still new to me. But people can learn how it goes if they take their time and want to learn. Between lvl 1 and the last 70 trial of the SB story is a big amount of content where you can train to get better. But if someone still does not know what certain basic mechanics are doing and cant at least do the basic of their job at 70 I do kinda wonder if they are lazy or not. If someone has a disability that hinders them that much (so that they cant even do the basics) they should inform the team about it. I am quite sure that most would be much more understanding if they know about that.

In the end this is group content and most people would not even say that you need to be a pro and perfect at it, but its just utterly frustrating to wipe countlessly at lvl 70 content because the person is just really bad at their job. This might sound harsh but if you cant even do the basic stuff and at least carry your weight at 70 then one would question if that is the right game for them.

(And no I am not a raider, I dont do savage content, I am more of a midcore casual gamer and I dont have a high bar set for others but I am still quite shocked how some perform. Its just bad when you kinda question how they are even just doing such low numbers or are constantly dieing over and over again to the same mechanic)

[SenorPatty]

About the RM difficulty...

I could certainly understand why some people considered it hard. I can see it from the perspective of someone who hasn't encountered game mechanics repetitively and those who did but played with those who haven't, thus making it "hard" enough to clear. Up to today, I still end up in dailies, especially Sirensong, where players don't know what the stack marker does. Imagine doing RM with at least 3-5 people like that and even RM can be a challenge.

Then comes the next part: Reaction to such players. Some people will explain very neutrally how some mechs work in RM. Of course, we can only hope the other players learn from that attentively and thus make RM easier or...you can get this:

"How do you not what X mech works by now? No one should have to tell you! You're a jump pot user or something?"

Which leads to

"Stfu, elitist pig. I don't play this game every single day like a no lifer"

Which leads to one more try, wipe and disband.

Honestly, I personally felt like the difficulty of RM simply lied in the patience of players: those who wanted to teach and those who would listen. Its what made any RM run either "easy" or "hard".

[Cakekizyy]

Then comes the next part: Reaction to such players. Some people will explain very neutrally how some mechs work in RM. Of course, we can only hope the other players learn from that attentively and thus make RM easier or...you can get this:

"How do you not what X mech works by now? No one should have to tell you! You're a jump pot user or something?"

Which leads to

"Stfu, elitist pig. I don't play this game every single day like a no lifer"

Which leads to one more try, wipe and disband.

Honestly, I personally felt like the difficulty of RM simply lied in the patience of players: those who wanted to teach and those who would listen. Its what made any RM run either "easy" or "hard".

Which is why I think there should be new Hall of Novice lessons that go over the various markers.

[Gravton]

I don't think people know what casual means. "Casual doesn't mean you can be lazy." Nope, but it does mean that if they are lazy then you shouldn't give a crap....because it's casual. "Players should look up guides to be bettter...." at being casual? That doesn't even make since to me.

[Tiranadel]

As someone who does have a physical disability and some social anxiety, I wanted to post how it is for me on this game. I've been playing this since January 2014.

Royal Menagerie was probably the most frustrating thing for me. I think this was the first time I actually did MSQ when it was still new vs catching up on ARR and HW when it was old. For the most part, the first two phases wasn't quite too bad, though I still messed up some. The third phase was where I had the most trouble with so many of the mechanics happening. I haven't done EX primals, Coil, and so forth when synced. The most I've done was Garuda/Ifrit duo, and Titan solo. I'm only now doing Labyrinth of the Ancients and Syrcus Tower since it's easier, for the most part. I think the issue was mainly my reaction time. If I recall, it took maybe four or five tries to get a clear. First it was some FC people and random on the remaining, but eventually got a clear when it was all FC members.

To be honest, I most likely would have taken a break if I didn't get it cleared that day. I think about the only thing that would make me quit playing would be if I was unable to use my controller. When I first played, it was as Pugilist/Monk. Thinking back on that, I'm sure there was a lot of mistakes I did like not using AOE and positionals properly. There was a break after I finished ARR before I played again. At that point I was having difficulty playing Monk, so I leveled up Ninja since it didn't have as many positionals. Once I got to 35, I did ask when AOE skills should be used. I stayed with Ninja until Stormblood when I switched to Samurai after doing Sirensong. I'm not quite sure why I switched, however. So I cleared SB as Samurai and been doing Expert enough for some 310 gear and two 330 items.

Probably a broken record by now, but I switched jobs once again. After having issues on avoiding stuff in Skalla as melee, either avoiding mechanics or the first boss not being in place for positionals, I've decided to go with Red Mage for a different view. I haven't tried the other level 70 dungeons just yet as RDM, but for the most part, I've been having a bit of an easier time now. Still getting the hang of things, but I'm most likely going to stick with this job.

I'm most likely an average/terrible player. I do read/watch guides on the things I know I'll have issues on, despite how much of a spoiler it is. The only other thing I've had issues with would be the second boss on Bardam's Mettle. For some reason, I've struggled with that every single time I've seen it in roulette. I know by now what I really can or can't do, so I won't do things like Void Ark, Omega and such, most likely staying with LotA or ST.

As for the social anxiety, it just depends on how I feel that day. At this time, I can usually put it to the side when I do roulettes, though I don't say too much. I try to say "Hello" at the start or "Take Care" at the end and reply to things if it's directed at me. I think the most talking I've done would be on a Pharos Sirius Normal run when I was still fairly new on RDM, mostly explaining mechanics the best I could.

I'm not quite sure how to describe my reaction time, but I can try to use some other games for an example. While I wasn't a great player, I could still play some games like DMC 1 - 3, the first Bayonetta, and some fighting games on Normal, with a few issues, but nothing major unless it was Street Fighter 3 or something. Skip several years later to Bayonetta 2... and it was a huge difference. I somehow got to Chapter 11 on Normal before it was just too much for my hands. So I switched it to Easy, but I left the automatic accessory off. Even with that, I couldn't defeat the last boss so I just used the accessory so I could finish the game and haven't really played it again. Seems like action heavy games is something I'll have to avoid now.

I won't deny that I'm lazy on some things, but I also try to do the best that I'm able to. I know I still make mistakes, and probably still will in the future. Like one time on the first level 70 SB dungeon I forgot to use Embolden entirely, and face palmed after the dungeon ended. As long as it doesn't get crazier than RM, I can probably still do some things. Though if does, I might have to start mentioning that I do have a disability and might have some issues because of that. Anyway, pardon the long post, but I wanted to post a perspective of one person that does have some issues.

[Minako_Nightsong]

As someone who does have a physical disability and some social anxiety, I wanted to post how it is for me on this game. I've been playing this since January 2014. Snip Snip

Our experience with this game is so similar it's scary. I did arr as a bard then I did Hw and Sb as a red mage and it took most of a gaming day to get past Shinyru. I spent the first week doing Hw content so this was week two but everyone was still new. I cannot commit to a raid team for similar reasons as yourself but I have done everything before savage and I think this game's mechanics are harder than WoW. I need to look at my hotbars to see cooldowns and procs so it's hard for me to also look at the creature I am fighting and a lot of creatures in FF14 have attacks that you need to read the screen for, such as charming eye attacks. In Wow I had audio cues to help with these but in ff14 I do not.

[Xlantaa]

This is more like a balance problem. The people who paly this game casually and don't go for the hard content is higher in number than those who go for the hard or even medium difficulty things. Right now, only Omega 3 and 4 savage and Ultimate is the harder content, the Omega 1 and 2 savage and Shinryu is the "medium"content, and the rest is the "easy" content. If you pay attention, it is more or less in the same proportion as the community game-play style proportions (If we use the casual, mid-core, hardcore "classifications,"). I must say that maybe is the "medium" layout the one who should have a bit more of content.

[Laerune]

Give us farms like with Harvest Moon games, add a Shepard class and us casuals will eat it up.