Does 14 Promote a Culture of Mediocrity?

[SenorPatty]

As the title ask, does 14 create and promote a culture of mediocrity within it? I say it has been sliding that way since ShB. The healing and tanking roles have been reduced to dull, hollow shells of what they were in HW and SB. The skill celling and floor no longer exist for these roles. DPS roles are heading in this direction as well with all the flavor and mechanical complexity being slowly striped away. See the removal of synergy and reduction of positionals, and reduction of punishment for rotational screw ups. These issues, however, are nothing compared to how the community and general attitude have shifted toward shielding the bad from valid criticism, and a general apathy towards self improvement. Even the devs have admitted to designing content in this manner. It's all quite disheartening, given 14 was at in time one of the most mechanically engaging MMOs.

Yeah, so let's talk about that bolded part for a minute.

The way I see FFXIV right now is that it's a game that has mostly two sides: an old school side (Basically anything pre-stormblood) and a modern style (anything post shb). So, the old school style is what I find mechanically engaging and it definitely appeals to a type of player. You had to pick up some skills from other jobs to give you boost in the one you were playing (raging strikes for dps, swiftcast for casters, flash from pld to help keep aggro with war, etc). Aggro was everyone's responsability, even if some people didn't want to bother with that. Repose actually had some use in terms of crowd control. Dgns were designed to put in effort in even the littlest of things like watching your footing, mobs not clustered together, etc. In my opinion, all this was busywork, to give the sense that jobs had depth...and it sort of worked but at the same time it didn't. If FFXIV back then promoted playing whatever you wanted, just like today, then it was doing a poor job at that. For example, a level 60 cleric without swiftcast was frowned upon. A dps without bloodbath or raging strikes, same deal. It was always a matter of "why didn't you pick up X to do Y?" so in the end, you--and the game--ended falling in the same illusionary pit trap that games often fell in: following the meta.

And I think YoshiP realized that, which leads me to think why he moved away from that. It's why we moved from "old school" FFXIV to "modern" FFXIV. And many a player often conflate that move with the current "mediocrity" you speak of. It's the usual wheel of thought behind convinience begetting laziness. You know, the whole "back in my day, we had to do X to do Y and it made us stronger for it." Problem is, rarely do people on that side of the equation care to admit that they also had dum dums in their time, preferring to hide behind the ideology that because things were harder, you had less dum dums. As if people were not shielding themselves from criticism back then. As if people were not messing up rotations and positional back then. As if people didn't cry foul at the first sign of being called out back then. It's almost like the Tales of DF for the duration of ARR, HW and SB did not exist and somehow, by magical happenstance, it reared its head up only during SHB and EW. Nope, clearly these mediocre players only showed up in droves during the latter expansions and now that most of the measuring skill stick is gone, it's absence has allowed these players to go full bad instead of only minimal bad.

So what's there to be done? Depends. How much apathy can you generate? Can you relegate your performance expectations to areas where it matters like Savage/Ex? Can you substract actual performance level required for an instance you know inside out minus the optimized performance level for said instance? If one is perpetually disappointed with the playerbase in general, do you recluse yourself and finally decide to only do content with your peers of similar talent? Do you use NN to hardline sprouts so you can personally sigh a breath of relief so they won't contaminate other people's future playtime (and of course yours as well)?

Does 14 promote a Culture of Mediocrity? I believe the question already has its answer with you and you simply asked with the aim of wanting relief that you're not alone in this, in your...curmudgeon feelings towards the playerbase in general.

[TaleraRistain]

I didn't notice the OP name at first and then I saw it was a Caurcas thread and that explained everything.

[Caurcas]

I didn't notice the OP name at first and then I saw it was a Caurcas thread and that explained everything.

So no engagement with the argument? Just dismissal based on notions of the OP. Stay classy 14 forums.

[TaleraRistain]

So no engagement with the argument? Just dismissal based on notions of the OP. Stay classy 14 forums.

Considering it's the 173823927329372973 time you've made a thread like this? You just worded it differently this time.

[Caurcas]

Considering it's the 173823927329372973 time you've made a thread like this? You just worded it differently this time.

I dunno, my last thread was about poor quality foot models and the one before that was about role-playing.

[TaleraRistain]

Maybe the last two, but this has come up before. If not a thread started by you, then you mention it constantly in other threads.

SenorPatty has the best piece of advice on this thread

"If one is perpetually disappointed with the playerbase in general, do you recluse yourself and finally decide to only do content with your peers of similar talent?"

Your measuring stick is high. You want the devs to change the game to exclude and gatekeep people who don't meet your measuring stick. Instead of taking actions that are in your power to take to surround yourself only with like-minded people.

[StriderShinryu]

Furthermore, it's a cooperative game, ere go it is valid to be annoyed at fellow players not trying as hard to reach the shared goal.

Yep, it's a shared goal. You're exactly right. The thing is, the "goal" for what is likely the vast majority of the player base is to experience the story, clear the content and have fun with the game. Getting better, going faster, beating the hardest things the game has to offer, etc. are perfectly valid goals to have, but they're not the shared goal that everyone is striving for. If your "shared goal" is different than what the community at large (and the developers of the game) want then it's up to you to seek out and play with those who share the game goals as you do.

[Caurcas]

Maybe the last two, but this has come up before. If not a thread started by you, then you mention it constantly in other threads.

SenorPatty has the best piece of advice on this thread

"If one is perpetually disappointed with the playerbase in general, do you recluse yourself and finally decide to only do content with your peers of similar talent?"

Your measuring stick is high. You want the devs to change the game to exclude and gatekeep people who don't meet your measuring stick. Instead of taking actions that are in your power to take to surround yourself only with like-minded people.

I am simply disappointed in the direction they went, when they had a perfectly serviceable mid point 2 expansions ago. My favorite job got dumbed down time and time again, and ultimately turned into a mess, because the original and best iteration of it was "too hard".

[Roflcopter]

Given that 90% of the players are more likely mediocre players, it makes sense to make the game more accessible and enjoyable for them. There is still high end content if you want it.

[smol_cofe]

what has been given or taken away in this game is a reflection of what the community has asked for, directly or indirectly for the most part