So I've just come out of a 4 hour party built up of 4 people. The plan was to go around to the beastmen strongholds and get the Key's off the NM's that we could handle. We figured we could get the chest items that we wanted for all four of us. I wanted it to be a 4 man party because its bad enough with a party of 8 guys, all wanting a drop.

2 of us got the ring-band they wanted. Me and another guy, didn't get anything after an obscene amount of tries. I already know that Final Fantasy is notorious for low drop rates. I learned that in my days of FFXI. But when the party came to an end, (due to a link, wipe and disconnection) I realised I had grinded through hoards of enemies for 4 hours only to walk away with nothing. One could say that there is a satisfaction found in seeing my party members gain a drop, but the taste quickly becomes bitter once you don't get anything for yourself. At the end of the day, you sat there for four hours with nothing to show for it.

I can understand that a tight knit Linkshell could be willing to put up with this to fully equip the endgame team with dope gear but what of those who aren't deep into the game like that?... It's really made me question the whole ethos of an MMO. Let's not kid ourselves, we all know these games are designed in a way that demands repetition, time and luck. If this wasn't the case, then people would stop playing much sooner which would result in canceled subscriptions and loss of money for the company. They have to keep our interest and that hunger to be stronger so they cast Time Sink in order to keep us trying, playing, hoping, wanting, etc.

tl:dr below

My question is, do you think it's possible to design a super successful MMO without it being a time sink? Is it a better idea to have a super hard monster let go of its rare drop 100% of the time in order to reward the players for simply defeating it in the first place? Because in reality, the way these games are right now, every piece of awesome rare loot that we own is not because of our "hard work", "great strategies" or "skill". It's only because we had some time, a bit of of trail and error, a pinch of dedication and a whole bottle of lucky sauce.

Those Unique/Untradable Pair of Boots that are keeping you warm at night is more thanks to your lucky stars than it is to the great team you assembled. Because if it hadn't dropped, your competence as a strategist wouldn't have made a difference.

Some may not agree with that, but honestly, it's the truth... In my opinion...

What do you think?