Balance, Homogenisation and Encounter Design: The Problem.

[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?