Does the game need to be a bit riskier?

[Kiurai]

I asked a similar question on the ffxivdiscussion subreddit but, in terms of future content (5.4 and onwards I suppose):

-H ow risky do you think the devs should be with the creation of content? (Job design, encounter design, world design, housing design, etc.)

- Do you think they should play it safe like usual? (Content cycle is predictable as to what is included in it.)

OR

- Do you think they should be riskier? (More original concepts in the aforementioned [encounter, job, gear, housing, etc.] design decisions.)

[DPZ2]

They tried 'riskier' concepts, and the audience was not enthused. One word: Diadem.

[Vahlnir]

They tried 'riskier' concepts, and the audience was not enthused. One word: Diadem.

That wasn't even risky content to begin with. It was one giant zergfest.

[Enla]

They tried 'riskier' concepts, and the audience was not enthused. One word: Diadem.

To be fair on that, Diadem wasn't well designed either the first or second time they brought it back. It was basically the content equivalent of throwing someone out of warm bath and into the Arctic Ocean. The third time they implemented it it was much better, and had they implemented it that way to start off with they could have then slowly expanded upon it to add combat zones for people to exploit for higher quality returns. FF14's biggest issue when they attempt to do something new is that they don't warm the players up to it. They just yell GO and expect people to adapt and because of that it took them almost five iterations on the same basic concept to get it close to being right for most of the community.

On the flip side there's the Baldesion Arsenal. It's riskier content, but because we already have had multi-tier raids in the game and because of how Eureka introduced the logos system it was much, MUCH easier for people to get into and love. It expanded upon an existing piece of content in what felt like an effortlessly natural way and if more of SE's attempts at newer content varieties were implemented with half as much care as BA, they wouldn't all be so divisive.

[lolicon09]

Personally, i prefer how Jobs used to be in Stormblood, and how Dungeons and Raids used to be in A Realm Reborn (except the chests on levelling Duties of course), compared to how things currently are

[Leareaux]

While I'd like to see things like more complex dungeons, I will argue that their current cycle has proven to be successful with the majority. And yeah some content might be kind of stale almost immediately but they keep it coming pretty consistently every 3 months. Predictable in that case is a good thing.

[linayar]

To be fair on that, Diadem wasn't well designed either the first or second time they brought it back. It was basically the content equivalent of throwing someone out of warm bath and into the Arctic Ocean. The third time they implemented it it was much better, and had they implemented it that way to start off with they could have then slowly expanded upon it to add combat zones for people to exploit for higher quality returns. FF14's biggest issue when they attempt to do something new is that they don't warm the players up to it. They just yell GO and expect people to adapt and because of that it took them almost five iterations on the same basic concept to get it close to being right for most of the community.

On the flip side there's the Baldesion Arsenal. It's riskier content, but because we already have had multi-tier raids in the game and because of how Eureka introduced the logos system it was much, MUCH easier for people to get into and love. It expanded upon an existing piece of content in what felt like an effortlessly natural way and if more of SE's attempts at newer content varieties were implemented with half as much care as BA, they wouldn't all be so divisive.

OP asked for risky content. If you're going to warm players up to it first, then where's the risk?

And that's why the answer to the OP is no. This game does not need to take risk. It can, but it doesn't have to, and if it does, do it for a side content that people can accept or not and it won't matter in the end. The main contents can be as predictable as ever in terms of regularity.

[StriderShinryu]

It's a tough question. While there are certainly some elements to the game I would like to see them take more risks on, there are also some areas I personally already enjoy and would probably not like to be changed. Plus, as others have said, it hasn't always worked out very well when the devs have decided to do new things or do things differently. And, yeah, you have to consider that many players are just really locked in to how they play FF14 anyway such that they would essentially force their way on whatever content came out regardless (and then complain when it didn't comform to the way they wanted to do it).

[Jirah]

the game is absurdly easy and every step so far has been in the wrong direction in terms of difficulty. case and point the jobs getting "Streamlined" a very polite way of saying butchered

[Kiurai]

The general consensus in the thread from the subreddit was that the devs should be more risky in certain aspects. Job design for example, in ShB playing it safe to maintain a strict balance between various jobs lead to the homogenization of the the Tank and Healer roles, whereas they were more varied and distinctive before. They also usually said that HW had more unique mechanics instead of reuse of older ones (I don't entirely agree with this stance but I understand it) when it came to encounter design. IMO they should take more risks but in moderation not change the foundation of the game expac to expac ala WoW. some manner of stepping out of their comfort zone (seeing the popularity of the recent expac they have atleast some resources to try new things I would hope) to spice of gameplay and keep people around longer.