First off, I want to preface this by competition does not equal world first clears, that is just the form I used for an example as the ones pushing for those tend to hit the out of content wall first. It can be anything from as small as trying to out agro the other DPS in the group, trying to clear more floors of PoD/HoH than any other group. I kinda went through the quoted posts below and bolded parts that hint at what I am getting at.
You also have to look at what drives people to seek out a challenge. More often than not, it has to do with seeking improvement. What drives the desire for improvement? Usually its pride in what one does, or a competitive drive, sometimes both.
The problem however is it also creates a skill divide, while I haven't cleared Titiana EX yet, I haven't particularly found her hard either.
Kinda like the Aenc Thon and Hashmal fights on Steroids and also in reverse at times? I could see a lot of fun times if had to pass a dps check while the only place could do damage was on an Aenc Thon style tight rope and the boss could also actively push try and push you off as well.
This would be the harder one to solve long term, the closest thing I could think of currently would be finding a way to mix FFXI's Moblin Maze Mongers, XIV's PoD/HoH with crafting. Crafters make the peices that lead to the generation of a mystery dungeon style of raid, iLvl determied by the peices, using pre-existing content to fill it in with crafting materials as the rewards. Including special materials used to make/upgrade new gear for use in those raids only as well higher iLvl dungeon peices. The problem lies in how to distribute the drops in a way to keep it from just being rng grind fest, or resorting to lockouts or punishing people who dont do it constantly.
So Nims and MonteCristo both just kinda want something challenging and lasting that would create more of a long term goal it seems. One of the things I really liked about FFXI's RME's... they were awesome long term goals. Too bad every MMO ignores crafter endgame for the equation on things like that. They really could take overmelding materia like 10 steps farther with monster drops and a robust crafting system. And really any time investment peice of gear, I feel should have an upgrade system in place. You make V1.0 ultimate weapon, 1.1 boss comes out, it drops you a Ki to upgrade the weapon to be equal tier to that bosses drops.
Though why do you really seek out the challenge and want to improve? Is it because you take pride in your play, or you want to do better than some of the other players you hear about? Out of all the others, you are the only one that did not mention anything that drastically jumped out more on the competative side, other than compare to your superiors. And many not only want to learn from their superiors, they want to surpass them.
And LadyKairi is a fine example of why a handful of dungeons or raids should be designed to be released at an initial dificulty of savage/ultimate, and then retuned for the other dificulties. Titania - Titania Ex, and Innocence-Innocence Ex kinda showcase this slightly. To me, it seems like Titania was done from low to high, where as Innocence was done from High to low. If LadyKairi has done both, I'm curious as to which she preferred.



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