Does the game need to be a bit riskier?

[Kiurai]

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

I don't think every job needs to be ultra complex and the base content doesn't need to be hyper difficult. It should have a mix of both in the main game and not just in savage/ultimate. I agree it's too easy, (like implementing only easy/very easy modes on already easy solo instances lol) but it shouldn't be hardcore all the time either

[Hycinthus]

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.

I agree with more complex dungeons. I’m not sure whether it’s being dumbed down to take Trusts into consideration, but I feel the level of complexity of dungeons, not that it was hard before, became simpler even with 5.1,5.2,5.3.

Hero’s Gauntlet is so much simpler than many ARR dungeons. Same thing with Academia Anyder.

I felt more in danger from Temple of Qarn's bosses than to to 5.1-5.3 dungeon bosses.

[Crushnight]

HW was the take bigger risks expansion

-Diadem v1 and v2 both devolved to zerg a particular island or just afk while everyone else does the work while waiting to get a chance at a weapon more powerful than SB levelling dungeons until Doma Castle. They were flops for different reasons.
-Lords of Vermillion, a RTS minigame in an MMO, it was expansive, it continuously still has at least 1 developer working on it to this day, it was an alright failure of a big feature for a patch. 3.1 is not the worse patch in the game's history just for the wait time (5.3 is pretty close, both have good reason by the devs 3.1 being they needed holiday time,5.3 Covid obviously) but because the content released within the patch was really not what people wanted even the relic had the unidentifiable step which forced you either have 2 alts or know 2 people who have different specialists to complete(weren't too easy recipes to hq with base gear too).
-Aquapolis was introduced, a success
-PotD added, another successful venture
-Orchestrion, a success
-2 difficulty raids, Normal mode was successful however Savage was an entirely different story, the original A3S is known as static breaker for a reason, we didn't have cross world party finder until late HW, Gordias is the single biggest raiding content mistake the devs have ever made and the repercussions are still being felt to this day(hello those who wanna argue they don't have to Dps as a healer, this raid tier proved you wrong long before E8S, tanks going Dps stance, meta being the end all be all, removal of jobs from pfs, it all stemmed from this colossal mistake).Gordias Savage almost doomed the raid population of this game, it was a risky endeavour and it did not pay off. Creator savage and Zurvan EX created phase pushing as a way to make fights easier.

SB had some risks(Eureka,Hidden Canals,Character role battles,Doman reconstruction, Ultimate) but those were mostly built on an existing system already in place(Diadem, Aquapolis, battles, Custom deliveries/Idlyshire, Savage).

ShB risks are even smaller for battle content (Bozja) but much larger for crafters and gatherers (an overhaul, adding ranked, Diadem v3, relics for them that hasn't been seen since ARR, Ishgard reconstruction), honestly it is a risk to put more resources into crafted and gathering content , has it paid off that depends on how invested you are in what was risked.

Do also bear in mind ShB is still not over and we still yet to see what these farms are going to be about which is another risk they have taken.

[Jin-]

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

This. Now i dont know how jobs were in Stormblood but i can say that in Heavensward they felt more different than now, mainly speaking about tanks and heals. And ARR dungeons felt like a dungeons. Now dungeons are just straight line to run. I repeated this for years but we need more dungeons like Aurum Vale. Dangerous and exciting. Obviously nerfs have neutered it but its still better than most of the dungeons in the whole game

[Amnmaat]

Riskier isn't the correct word when it comes to people asking for a more engaging open world or when people ask for relic quests to start at the beginning of the expansion around 6.01 or 6.02, even 6.03.

Those are very safe suggestions.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

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

It tickles me how Diadem will, without fail, get some kind of content update in every expac. I can't wait for 6.0 to take place entirely in the Diadem in order to force people to actually do it.

[Reyna_Balmore]

I don't think every job needs to be ultra complex and the base content doesn't need to be hyper difficult. It should have a mix of both in the main game and not just in savage/ultimate. I agree it's too easy, (like implementing only easy/very easy modes on already easy solo instances lol) but it shouldn't be hardcore all the time either

Jobs individually aren't the problem. It's the homogenization of an entire class that's an issue, such as tanks and healers.

[Bearded]

Risk means you stand to lose something so no the game mechanics do not need to become riskier.

However, for some they may want certain content to become more challenging.

SE needs to leave the MSQ alone - it needs to be available for the masses, for those who do not seek out the great challenges. It's there to guide, educate and inform the players really. To prepare them for the greater challenges.

The "end game" content for some may lack a challenge but that may be in part their fault as they have done it over and over again. Repeat something enough times and it becomes easier. However there is no simple fix for this due to the fact that the development cycle is somewhat limited and SE is acutely aware that they must not make any content too difficult or people will simply scream complaints.

SE is more aware than anyone on their players numbers and how many actually run each type of content and they allocate development time accordingly.

[Shurrikhan]

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

I'm not sure if a system which pursues a nearly lowest possible ratio of development time to time played metrics thereby inflated should be called "risky"...

[kaynide]

I think the game is too far along for a revamp. Should their next mmo, should they decide to do one, be riskier? Sure. I think FFXI was a sweet spot for difficulty in that there was some expectation of multiple failures before getting success.

It was fun, but it would absolutely turn off a lot of players in today’s market. Case and point I would never want to play it from the beginning again.