Balance, Homogenisation and Encounter Design: The Problem.

[SaberMaxwell]

Duty Finder, or Party Finder, (or anything that make you play with random people) does not negate social interactions even when most people stay silent. I really don't understand your point, after all, DF is not that different from PF or spamming a general channel.

No need to go around looking for a party when you can just push a button and BAM, you're in a queue. No need to hang out near the dungeon or raid entrance and possibly--I dunno--socialize with people nearby who might have similar interests and goals to yours, possibly making some friends.

Just click, queue, enter, and never see that party again once you're done.

[Dzian]

No need to go around looking for a party when you can just push a button and BAM, you're in a queue. No need to hang out near the dungeon or raid entrance and possibly--I dunno--socialize with people nearby who might have similar interests and goals to yours, possibly making some friends.

Just click, queue, enter, and never see that party again once you're done.

This is why so many free companies and groups of friends fall apart. because the game is essentially encourages anti social behaviour..

In a party with some friends. well i'm sorry you can't proceed on this quest until you tell them to sod off..

in a piece of content in general i'm sorry you cant ask a question cos you must mash the hell out of your skills.

oh 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, or 10+ of you want to go do something. hahahahah not a chance.... 4, 8 or GTFO. unless you counts fates or unsyncing dinosaur content.

got your weekly raid clear well sorry you cant go help your friend get his because you'll screw his loot drops.....

everywhere you look you're discouraged from being social

[linay]

This is why so many free companies and groups of friends fall apart. because the game is essentially encourages anti social behaviour..

In a party with some friends. well i'm sorry you can't proceed on this quest until you tell them to sod off..

in a piece of content in general i'm sorry you cant ask a question cos you must mash the hell out of your skills.

oh 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, or 10+ of you want to go do something. hahahahah not a chance.... 4, 8 or GTFO. unless you counts fates or unsyncing dinosaur content.

got your weekly raid clear well sorry you cant go help your friend get his because you'll screw his loot drops.....

everywhere you look you're discouraged from being social

Free companies and groups of friends fall apart because they choose not to socialize with each other.

You don't need to be in a party to socialize.

There is room to ask question even in combat, and can use voice chat if you're with friends/FC/static.

3 people can run any non-solo content together, 5-7 people can run any 8-man content together. Any combination of people can separate into multiple parties, including the 3 people doing solo content at the same time. Being social can be flexible.

The last part is true, but that's for a reason, and you could've gotten your clears together if you wanted.

Everywhere you look you can find a way to be social, even in a randon DF group that you may never see again. Being social is a player attitude, not a game mechanic. I've seen people socialize during an MSQ roulette run.

[Dzian]

You don't need to be in a party to socialize

Generally you kinda do. Socializing to many people means doing things with other people. and in xivs context that generally means being part of a group.

Seperating into multiple parties isn't really socialising either ts segregation. if you and 8 or 9 of your friends all got together and went to a restaurant for a meal would you split up into 2 or 3 groups or would you have 1 big table for the whole group?

XIV is much the same. if 5 of you want to go and do something together what do you do? do 4 of you go do expert and exclude the 5th? of you go with some random pugs to fill the group that might have there own agendas that dont mesh with your goals.

XIV is much the same this is why people have wanted FC content since early beta's. content that wholegroups of people can be a part of and take part in. that was one of the ideas behind the old concept of FC's having the power to summon primals. and it's that kind of group interaction and team work that people have wanted for a long time.

it's been a long standing complaint that it's impossible to include everyone in things because there's nothing to do. the closest thing to fitting content would be canals/aquopolis with its flexible party sizes but even thats limited.

It's not sociable if a player has to leave a group of friends in order to progresss in a quest. sociable would beif that palyer and his friends could actually go do that whole quest together. rahter than each of them having to do it alone...

how often do players leave free companies because they dont feel a part of the group? how can they when it's impossible to include them..

recent example of personal experience was when HoH came out and 5 of us wanted to static it.... ummmmm?

[linay]

Generally you kinda do. Socializing to many people means doing things with other people. and in xivs context that generally means being part of a group.

Seperating into multiple parties isn't really socialising either ts segregation. if you and 8 or 9 of your friends all got together and went to a restaurant for a meal would you split up into 2 or 3 groups or would you have 1 big table for the whole group?

XIV is much the same. if 5 of you want to go and do something together what do you do? do 4 of you go do expert and exclude the 5th? of you go with some random pugs to fill the group that might have there own agendas that dont mesh with your goals.

XIV is much the same this is why people have wanted FC content since early beta's. content that wholegroups of people can be a part of and take part in. that was one of the ideas behind the old concept of FC's having the power to summon primals. and it's that kind of group interaction and team work that people have wanted for a long time.

it's been a long standing complaint that it's impossible to include everyone in things because there's nothing to do. the closest thing to fitting content would be canals/aquopolis with its flexible party sizes but even thats limited.

It's not sociable if a player has to leave a group of friends in order to progresss in a quest. sociable would beif that palyer and his friends could actually go do that whole quest together. rahter than each of them having to do it alone...

how often do players leave free companies because they dont feel a part of the group? how can they when it's impossible to include them..

recent example of personal experience was when HoH came out and 5 of us wanted to static it.... ummmmm?

So it's only socializing if all the people get to do it together at the same time? What if HoH can be done with 5 people and there are 6 of you? What if raids can be done with 40 people and there are 45 of you? Sometimes some people will be left out unless every content can be done with flexible party size, but that doesn't mean the game is anti-social.

[Dzian]

So it's only socializing if all the people get to do it together at the same time? What if HoH can be done with 5 people and there are 6 of you? What if raids can be done with 40 people and there are 45 of you? Sometimes some people will be left out unless every content can be done with flexible party size, but that doesn't mean the game is anti-social.

The point i was aiming to make is many people play games especially MMO's to play with other people and do things together with there friends..

Of course not everything has to be able to include everyone but at the same time there should always be options that allow everyone to be included.

when 3 - 4 of you aredoing the same msq quests atthe same time why not be allowed to do them together. a lot of people would find it much more fun sharing the experience with friends.. where as doing it alone at the same time other people are doingiot alone just isnt the same..

This is why people have wanted FC content since the dawen of time (or time as far as ARR is concerend)

[linay]

I meant there's no point in there being multiple jobs of the same role in the game. If the jobs are "Tank", "Healer", "Caster", "Melee dps", and "Physical ranged dps" then no one needs to level multiple jobs to be able to participate in top content either. And if the differences between the jobs are only cosmetic, then they may as well condense it down to that level.

I know what you meant, but some people choose a job simply for the aesthetics, so there is always a point to have multiple jobs even within the same role, not to mention with different roles.

The point i was aiming to make is many people play games especially MMO's to play with other people and do things together with there friends..

Of course not everything has to be able to include everyone but at the same time there should always be options that allow everyone to be included.

when 3 - 4 of you aredoing the same msq quests atthe same time why not be allowed to do them together. a lot of people would find it much more fun sharing the experience with friends.. where as doing it alone at the same time other people are doingiot alone just isnt the same..

This is why people have wanted FC content since the dawen of time (or time as far as ARR is concerend)

I get that, but it's one thing to want the game to accommodate people doing more things together, which I would support, and another to say the game is anti-social because it doesn't have more of those accommodations, which I would disagree.

[Driavna]

No need to go around looking for a party when you can just push a button and BAM, you're in a queue. No need to hang out near the dungeon or raid entrance and possibly--I dunno--socialize with people nearby who might have similar interests and goals to yours, possibly making some friends.

Just click, queue, enter, and never see that party again once you're done.

I was about to edit my topic to acknowledge your point. And you are not wrong, however, players are to blame too. Some will rather complain over and over about how bad all dungeons parties are, how all extreme farm parties are traps, how the new loot system sucks over and over than solving the problem by joining others with similar objectives. In fact, that behaviour was also present in many MMO's before the standardization of similar tools to FFXIV DF.

Anyway, since you asked: Yes. In fact, if Phanteon is released at some point and turns out to be an acceptable game I will leave FFXIV for good (ok, perhaps I will sub from time to time to finish the current MSQ plot :P). But I will also leave FFXIV if at some point they do something similar to GW: Nightfall, that's my line (even if I agree with many of Dzian points).