The general player base needs to improve

[KaivaC]

This is an open discussion about bad play on the NA side of things. Particularly in endgame content, but what I’m about to say applies in dungeons past level 50 and 24-man raids. Regardless of server latency, bad computers, and the like, there is still a huge amount of players who are playing in content that they obviously don’t belong in. I’m not referencing players going in for the first time, or even the second time, or really even in practice parties; in weekly clear parties, farms…there are still players who don’t know what in the world they are doing, and yet either are the first to point fingers or rage quit because the fights we’ve been having lately do not allow them to be carried due to iLVLs.

I’ve spoken on this before through Rabanastre, and even now, months after release, there are still a crazy amount of players who struggle to deal with Mateus, let alone Hashmal. Struggle as in, fail to understand mechanics, keep dying to the same stuff over and over again, things like that. Obviously, if this is a player’s first couple of times in content such as this, my comments don’t apply to them. But players who have been through endgame content multiple time, who have cleared, who know enough about a fight that they can't be considered new to a particular fight anymore...

…I really don’t know no other way to say it nicely. They need to stop wasting folks’ time.

That’s what I want to say, but that doesn’t help improve the overall NA playerbase. So now I turn to the OF. Combat skills for most classes have been neutered enough that players should have a general idea of how to do their rotations. Other than SMN and possibly some other DPS which I have little to no experience with, what else can the devs do to get the playerbase on a much higher level?

Obviously, non-story dungeons should have their difficulty increased beyond more mobs with harder hitting attacks (honestly, that doesn’t help anybody learn their classes when all you do is spam AOEs). I’m interested in other ideas, too. Because honestly, after a Rabanastre run I did a few weeks ago which failed 3 times at Mateus, this week’s run at O5S which just completely failed, and a group that I joined through Mentor Roulette that couldn’t even beat Garuda Ex, I feel like the general base is pretty bad. Obviously not all players – but in general, the base for NA is….bad.

Don’t believe me? This exists for a reason: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...ry.-Let-s-vent.

This isn’t me being elitist, though the uninformed may think it is. I honestly just want the general base to get better.

[KDSilver]

Sadly, I think nothing can be done about it.

Players who aren't willing to learn still won't no matter what you add in the game.
Aside the game, a lot of infos,guide and such can be found, so it's pretty easy if you want to learn a fight,your rotation ect...
There are forums, videos, mentor system, discords...

The "core" issue (if i can say it like this) is that dev team wanted FFXIV to be an experience like every other FF from the serie. That's not a problem itself, but it attracts players who only come for the main story quest, sidequests... My point is, the game has been designed to also be soloed a bit. So it results with a playerbase that come on this game without being really interested by the MMO experience.

From everything I've seen in this game for so long and my personnal experience, I think and feel like, if someone wants to gets better, they already made their own research, ask questions, warn their party about their own game experience...

So that's a matter of personnal goal, but also everyone's behavior.

I'm not saying I like it, neither that I wouldn't want it to change, but these are currently the true facts.

[KaivaC]

snip

True, true. But even the main series have fights that you can just braindead fight through. The most prominent examples that come to mind are the eidolon fights with 13, and Yunalesca from 10. I used to not include anything from the Crystal Tower raids, but with alliance roulette being as popular as it is right now, I have to include them. Sure, one could say that there are new players, but 7 times out of 10, the majority of all 3 alliances will have veteran players.

[Shouko]

Sadly, I think nothing can be done about it.

Players who aren't willing to learn still won't no matter what you add in the game.
Aside the game, a lot of infos,guide and such can be found, so it's pretty easy if you want to learn a fight,your rotation ect...

This is the problem with gamers of today, instead of figuring it out via trial and error they let someone else tell them how to play their job, aka they go to a guide and do rotations, BIS, what jobs are "meta" what aren't, what's the best for this or that. Millennials tend to rely on guides far too much.

[Vahlnir]

It mostly depends on one's experience I guess. In Rabanastre at least I haven't had that many problems. First week what a bit chaotic, but that's to be expected. After that I think most people got it down pretty well. Most, not all. However, some people simply didn't...and still don't wish to learn. This applies to any and all content that requires just a fraction of a brain. They're happy going in and making things awful for their fellow party members. Such players are out there, and they always will be. My personal experience though is that there isn't quite as many as people would think.

[KDSilver]

True, true. But even the main series have fights that you can just braindead fight through. The most prominent examples that come to mind are the eidolon fights with 13, and Yunalesca from 10. I used to not include anything from the Crystal Tower raids, but with alliance roulette being as popular as it is right now, I have to include them. Sure, one could say that there are new players, but 7 times out of 10, the majority of all 3 alliances will have veteran players.

Yes, but when they are playing alone on a game X or XIII, their fails won't have consequences except for them. So they don't really care.
The problem is, if you come on a MMO with that state of mind instead of thinking as a party and your contribution for it, well we know what it looks like.

Let's checks some threads some times.
I've really seen more and more thread asking for X content to be soloed.

In the end, dev team design choice was as good as bad (good for personnal experience, cause FFXIV really is interesting to discover aside from trials and raids) (bad because less and less people think about their contribution as a whole party and are selfish)

[Vnolan]

what else can the devs do to get the playerbase on a much higher level?

Damage meter and tips on loading screens that can also be accessed through menus.

[Callinon]

This is the problem with gamers of today, instead of figuring it out via trial and error they let someone else tell them how to play their job, aka they go to a guide and do rotations, BIS, what jobs are "meta" what aren't, what's the best for this or that. Millennials tend to rely on guides far too much.

There are an awful lot of broad generalizations in there. You want to maybe narrow that down a bit so you're not painting literally millions of people with a brush the size of the all outdoors?

[RiyahArp]

Why? because you had three bad runs out of how many hundred good ones? Two of which can be seen as decently hard content? (synced garuda ex, o5s.)

[Kerwin]

There are an awful lot of broad generalizations in there. You want to maybe narrow that down a bit so you're not painting literally millions of people with a brush the size of the all outdoors?

It's bait. Not even high quality bait at that.