Fun over FORM

[Jojoya]

I noticed it's also a trend in other MMOs,
It's because those hardcore players are most vocal, plus they pointing right things, because they strip everything to math.
I liked begining of aar when everyone was saying warrior better tank because of dps. I was playing paladin tho.
Letter was even better when they added more mechanics to classes. From there it wend down IMO

It's not the hardcore players that are the most vocal about asking for changes that lead to homogenization. They're the ones most willing to adapt and change what job they play if needed. If they usually play a DRG but the party needs a NIN, they'll switch to NIN. The job doesn't matter to them. They just want to beat the content.

It's the midcore players that make up a much larger segment of the player base that are the most vocal. They want to be able to keep playing their favorite job and hate when that job gets excluded from the metas they rely on (and random party invites) because it lacks a skill that's useful to parties. So they start complaining "I'm excluded because my job can't do this, you need to give it to my job".

The dev teams end up stuck in a quandary. Do they do nothing and risk losing those players who are no longer happy because they feel left out of group content? Do they change content so having those certain skills that cause one job to be picked over another no longer matter and deal with the cries of "you're dumbing down content"? Or do they start giving the jobs that lack the demanded skills some of those skills so those players still get a chance to participate and deal with the complaints about homogenization?

It's an unavoidable problem in MMOs, where most players are doing content in groups of random players who are only interested in beating the content as quickly as possible. It's a much smaller problem in multi-player games (not MMOs) because players are more likely to be playing with people they already know and will be more tolerant of bizarre job choices. And it's a non-issue in single player games where your choices don't affect other players so the developers can go crazy in giving you options to make your character feel unique.

[HeulGDarian]

Ill try to make this post as least complicated as posiible while also trying my best to get the point across.
SE, You guys need to stop getting rid of UNIQUENESS and FUN in exchange for your FORMULA!
now dont misunderstand what im saying -- this game is still fun, and i often find myself spending farm more time on this
soul-sucking program than i would like to, but with each expansion you guys are inching ever closer to a 1-rail game
full of 1 trick gameplay (this is primarily apperent in the HEALER role, and stated complications with BLU.)

the problem is, i can see you guys are trying to balance the game perfectly to where everything is completely fair, and
the DNGs and raids play a certain way, but in doing this your restricting future posabilities, and in turn making more
work for yourselves, and your sucking the fun out of certain places in the game.

(borrowing inspration from ff5) you guys have so many diffrent itmes and mechanics that are iconic for final fantasy games
, but you guys arent utilizing them, atleast not in a very meaningful way. It almost feels like you guys do some things
unnessecarily.
alsow me to explain in a simple way.
AST (basicly the replacement for time mage) used to have a STOP and a HEAVY, also used to have cards OTHER than just
a short lived damage buff, thoes are the things that made it further unique and fun to play... it dosent have thoes now, and what it
had was replaced with a clunkier, more complicated and unnessecary system -- in return we got no anwer to better dps moves, or
even a new ability that made the transition worth while.

BLU...well...you can just look on any forum that dicusses blue mage to know where you guys screwed up. (i mean,it was a hightly
requested job, and iconic class in the history of final fantsy, and arugably one of the coolest concepts of a class in this
game...how could u guys screw it up this bad...and all for what? a balancing act that happens throught the enterty of the
game anyways?)

apologies, this is kind of a nitpick -- i know some people like bard just the way it is, but BARD is a class that uses a
musical instrament and sings songs from the back row that stagger enemies and boost allies -- the way Bard plays in this game
is what a RANGER job with a BOW! should play like. BARD however was supposed to be a musical support class. -- again, sorry
in adavnce
(PS: i wouldnt even be mad if you guys just decided to make bard a singer-aoe-type support, and
just transition all its DPS abilities over to an actual RANGER class. im just sayin ;D)

TLDR -- you guys need to balance the GAME around the FUN, not the other way around.

i only disagree with the Blu thing . Blu is fun i wish there were more jobs like blue im glad i got to raid in the coils and alexander since i missed it by being lvl 30 during that time , plus i got a really cute mount for my effort