Recognizing parasistic game design decision

[Shougun]

Yes, mandatory participation was not listed as a requirement by Josh, or his sources.

But, the thing is, people like the OP are pointing at minigames and calling them parasitic... However with the definition of "can be removed with affecting the rest of the game", this covers most of FF XIV because as I said, dungeons are the only things that you couldn't get rid of.

As for sucking away form mechanics without adding anything back... There's very little of that. Most of the content exists because of the mechanics, not for them.

The biggest pile of parasitic content on a technical level is the Golden Saucer. Should the Golden Saucer be removed because it's "parasitic", or is it fine because you literally don't ever have to go there if you so choose?

Okay, awesome, thank you for clarifying because I thought I was going mad having watched the video twice lol.

Also I agree with some of your comments on why the definition needs more tweaking, I even like that stipulation that it's less problematic when it's not required (systems that come and go, as fun side games, but because they're not required they're not really parasitic). I think there are a lot of different issues going on that makes the conversation potentially murky almost instantly, like how to clarify if something is abandoned vs "finished". Deep dungeon doesn't need to be updated as it's finished content, and it largely feels that way, meanwhile squadrons feel like they're abandoned and clearly could have content added to them.

Perhaps the video wants to clarify that they could be fun but they ultimately don't add to the game as a whole, such that they're not always 'wrong' but they don't end up adding to the experience as a whole. Given the name parasitic it does make it sound like the only angle to view it as is "Bad", like you never want that design ever. Yet under such thought, I think a lot of systems (given OP video's rules) would fall under not adding them, like wouldn't mini-games?

I just wanted to be clear that I wasn't making an argument by announcing a problem I saw the whole thread given that the OP video, watching it, seeing it does actually qualify some of our systems, and noticed it seems like everyone is using a different meaning for the same catchphrase.

Seemed like we were having unnecessary messes with everyone holding different colored items and saying it was the same thing lol.