"Casual" content thoughts

[HoodRat]

“Casual” means people that play this game infrequently or on a more casual basis: perhaps a couple hours a day/couple days a week, or the like. “Casual” does not mean “faceroll easy” or “lazy”, yet it tends to be used that way.

By that definition, I'm a casual. \○/

[Sylvina]

Please don't use disabilities and disorders as reasons to set limits for anything. Most people with either don't like that kind of association in the first place from my experience, myself included. Actually people overcoming their supposed handicaps is a thing.

I'm not saying that having a disability neccesarily prevents you from completing content, I'm saying its understandable if it's a reason it does. Different disabilities have different effects on a persons gameplay. for instance a color blind person can still compensate for their inability to see some visual cues, but someone with only one hand may have more trouble.

[Mycow8me]

I'm not going to go find the person who posted a video of him playing with his feet due to disability on these forums but its out there. Very inspirational and he played extremely well. Makes you wonder how long he spent to adapt to be able to play that well.

[Avatre]

I'm not going to go find the person who posted a video of him playing with his feet due to disability on these forums but its out there. Very inspirational and he played extremely well. Makes you wonder how long he spent to adapt to be able to play that well.

There are very many stories/videos/articles/examples of people overcoming their "disability" to be superb gamers. And before someone says "Why is disabilities in quotations?!", the reason for that is because those people don't see it as a shortcoming most of the time, but more of a challenge to better themselves.

One story I recently read, while not for FFXIV, is for something that needs LOTS of communication. In Destiny 2 the Leviathan raid has parts where you HAVE to talk to each other to get past certain parts(in the gauntlet section the runners say which hole has light around it, and the people outside shoot the triangles NOT called; for the final boss you need to call out three symbols and kill an enemy floating above the fourth - things like that). Apparently a completely deaf team beat the raid(didn't go into specifics of how, but that's 6 people who are so in-sync - probably in the same room also to check screens - who can't hear each other).

So, it's completely possible that people will adapt and overcome whatever "shortcomings" they have to, quite likely, be better than most people who don't have that disadvantage.

[Akor]

It's a dramatically harder fight than any story trial before it. if you did it at launch, at around i300, it was a lot tougher than if you did it weeks or months later once people were gearing past it.

I dont know but i did royal menagerie on 3rd day of the early-accese of SB with ilvl 280-290 w/o my last 2 job quest on my whm. It took me 1 hour of wipe to cleare it on first try. o.o
Was it rly that hard or that group was just too good? lol

[Levy9]

There just needs to be more midcore content, tbh. There isn't much to do in the middle. The content space between easy and hardest is almost nonexistent for PvE at the moment. Savage isn't midcore content; savage 1 and 2 aren't a part of their own content cluster. They're a part of Savage Omega just like 3 and 4. It's really all one entity, the rewards and progression are all tied in together. You can't finish the progression if you don't do 3 and 4. It's not midcore content, it's simply the easiest part of a hardcore raid tier. Wouldn't it sound strange if I said the starting area in a Dark Souls game is for casual players and the later area is for hardcore players, when in reality, you have to do both if you want to finish the game?

[Ayer2015]

Some people believe that the way to solve that problem is to force people to team up for more things or make content harder, but that's just what drives the casuals (who make up the bulk of the population) away.

I just miss the days when people would join a DF run and chat while clearing content. Lately I just get people who are mute or rather rude.

[Kaethra]

There just needs to be more midcore content, tbh. There isn't much to do in the middle.

Can't say I disagree with this. But I've got to go devil's advocate so you understand what's actually going on.

The fact that you and I are posting on the forums means we're already a bit ahead of the curve. You probably do as I do and keep up with forum stuff to see which way meta's tend to go, what changes are coming down the road, and to see others' opinions to see a different take on how to do things.

We're not the average player. You might think of yourself as normal, maybe even somewhat on the lower end of the spectrum (not suggesting you actually do, just being rhetorical). But that is because of whom you choose to surround yourself with. You're likely a bit better at the game then you think in some cases.

Anyway, the point here is. You have the MSQ. Not just 60-70, but ARR and HW too. That is the baseline. That's also about 80% of the game. You've got another 15% which is the stuff you do outside the MSQ like extremes and raids. Then you have the final 5% of the game with savage. You're requesting that 15% to be a bit wider. Maybe even blend some stuff with the top 5% without going into it.

As I said. I'm not going to disagree with that. I'd like it too.

But what about the other 80%? Where the average player usually resides? Unfortunately they outnumber us, by a lot. That's how marketing is going to look at it. They're going to wonder why alot of time developing an update is devoted to content that less than a quarter of the player base will ever see. Its one of the biggest issues I have with MMORPGs. I'd love to see a game that focused on the endgame over the leveling game. But it'll never exist.

[Ayer2015]

There just needs to be more midcore content, tbh. There isn't much to do in the middle.

I really hope Eureka addresses this,

[JCharms]

There is also the failure to see that there is a middle ground in terms of difficult: take some of the posts in this thread and others, where people claim that anyone asking for “harder” or “more engaging” content are automatically demanding that it be “Savage tier.” There is a middle ground between “easy mode/Baby’s First MMO” and “savage”. Making content “more engaging” is not going to “scare away” the casual players.

“Casual” means people that play this game infrequently or on a more casual basis: perhaps a couple hours a day/couple days a week, or the like. “Casual” does not mean “faceroll easy” or “lazy”, yet it tends to be used that way.

I don't think there needs to be a middle ground as you call it, when different difficulties of said content exist.
As for defining casual, its so broad and varying that your attempt to categorise it falls way short.