the normal content is too easy

[Jojoya]

We have to deal with them yes, but it doesn’t mean content should be balanced around them. I understand there’s people with limitations, and that’s perfectly fine. Trusts exist now, they’re even making trials trust-runnable now too. So what’s the excuse at this point? People who don’t think their good at the game or people who have limitations have the options available to continue with the msq despite all that. So why can’t things be tuned up a bit more?

Unfortunately, Trusts are designed for those who are uncomfortable in social situations, not for those with physical limitations.

How do you know that where MSQ is tuned now is not at the limit of those with the limitations? How many others with limitations already had to quit the game because the tuning was too high for what they could handle?

How are you harmed by difficulty being at the level it is? The game is still accessible to you. Making the difficulty harder will remove accessibility for others.

You can play this game when you're in the mood for casual story mode, or for the harder content you can unlock once story mode is completed. If you aren't in the mood for story mode but don't have the other content unlocked yet, there are plenty of other games to choose from that will give you the difficult content you desire and you can return here when you're back in the mood for story mode.

[TaleraRistain]

You can play this game when you're in the mood for casual story mode, or for the harder content you can unlock once story mode is completed. If you aren't in the mood for story mode but don't have the other content unlocked yet, there are plenty of other games to choose from that will give you the difficult content you desire and you can return here when you're back in the mood for story mode.

I think this is core to the problem. Whatever changes may have been made in job or encounter design, this has always been a theme park MMO. It's never been something that was developed in a manner to be someone's only game or something where the game gives you hard reasons to need to log in and accomplish things every single day. There's always been a bit of our needing to find our own reasons by partaking in content available. And I think a lot of arguments come from this expectation of being kept busy every minute in whatever someone's given content is. But your suggestion is the sort of thing the devs advocate. They want us to enjoy what we like about XIV and then if we're away a bit, it's still here for us to enjoy when we get back.

[ForteNightshade]

I think this is core to the problem. Whatever changes may have been made in job or encounter design, this has always been a theme park MMO. It's never been something that was developed in a manner to be someone's only game or something where the game gives you hard reasons to need to log in and accomplish things every single day. There's always been a bit of our needing to find our own reasons by partaking in content available. And I think a lot of arguments come from this expectation of being kept busy every minute in whatever someone's given content is. But your suggestion is the sort of thing the devs advocate. They want us to enjoy what we like about XIV and then if we're away a bit, it's still here for us to enjoy when we get back.

The issue with this design philosophy is they simply don't make enough content to sustain it. Look at the upcoming 6.1. Here we have a patch intended to last us four months and unless you're attempting Dragonsong, none of that content will take more than a week. Even if you casually farmed Endsinger, it would still only take a few weeks. Everything else is one and done story content. Which is far from a bad thing. In fact, I welcome it. However, once you've completed each quest, there's nothing else. So we're taking breaks for 2-3 months at a time. I don't necessarily want FFXIV to demand my attention every waking second like some MMOs do but I'd like to more than a week's worth of content. It continues to baffle me why they delay the relic for so damn long when it's the ideal grind content to keep people occupied. Granted, longevity as a whole has been something FFXIV struggles with badly.

[Ronduwil]

Here we have a patch intended to last us four months and unless you're attempting Dragonsong, none of that content will take more than a week. Even if you casually farmed Endsinger, it would still only take a few weeks. Everything else is one and done story content. Which is far from a bad thing. In fact, I welcome it. However, once you've completed each quest, there's nothing else. So we're taking breaks for 2-3 months at a time. I don't necessarily want FFXIV to demand my attention every waking second like some MMOs do but I'd like to more than a week's worth of content. It continues to baffle me why they delay the relic for so damn long when it's the ideal grind content to keep people occupied. Granted, longevity as a whole has been something FFXIV struggles with badly.

The patch is not intended to last month four months. There's a widely referenced Yoshi-P Q&A where a player asked how he was expected to keep his motivation up between content droughts. Yoshi-P's reponse was to play another game for a couple of months and then come back to FFXIV for the next content drop. SE isn't Blizzard. They don't introduce a bunch of busy work into the game to artificially extend its longevity. Once you've exhausted the content, you're encouraged to do something else and come back later. I personally think it's better that way.

[TaleraRistain]

The issue with this design philosophy is they simply don't make enough content to sustain it. Look at the upcoming 6.1. Here we have a patch intended to last us four months and unless you're attempting Dragonsong, none of that content will take more than a week. Even if you casually farmed Endsinger, it would still only take a few weeks. Everything else is one and done story content. Which is far from a bad thing. In fact, I welcome it. However, once you've completed each quest, there's nothing else. So we're taking breaks for 2-3 months at a time. I don't necessarily want FFXIV to demand my attention every waking second like some MMOs do but I'd like to more than a week's worth of content. It continues to baffle me why they delay the relic for so damn long when it's the ideal grind content to keep people occupied. Granted, longevity as a whole has been something FFXIV struggles with badly.

It's not intended to last 4 months. It's the content we're getting and then four months later we'll get more. We can make it last a week or whatever amount of time we want. There are players in this game who could make that content last the entire time. I'm not one of them. I tend to be a content piranha for what I enjoy. Then I go back to an old goal or whatever.

We also don't have all the details about the longevity of all planned content. We don't know that the Omega series or Tataru's line won't be intended to provide some sort of reward we work toward. And they're making changes to try to make PvP rewards more accessible. That's never been my content but it's still content for players. And some players finish relic steps on what, day one, day two? There is absolutely no way SE could ever make enough content for players who consume it like that. And their design has never been to do so. We partake of what we want. We find goals or rewards we want to work towards. And sometimes we take a break here and there or spend some nights on something else.

[george357]

if you don't like normal do hard and leave the first alone for the normal players it keeps us busy

[Supersnow845]

if you don't like normal do hard and leave the first alone for the normal players it keeps us busy

That’s half the problem there isn’t enough hard content, we get what 4 savage fights every second patch and maybe an ultimate once an expansion, plus savage gets easier and easier every expansion to the point current ultimate is basically old savage

Plus there is a difference between “the third alliance raid should be like old orbonne” and “make the MSQ force you to clear savage to progress”

[KizuyaKatogami]

Having limitations or being less skilled is not a reason to say those players don't get to play with other people. People should be able to play multiplayer or single player and enjoy the game regardless. It's not a situation of "you're not good enough for people so go play with bots."

They can play with other people, no one is saying they can’t please don’t put words in anyones mouths. My point is, if they find that a trial or dungeon is too hard for them, then trusts exist to help them. But we shouldn’t be balancing content around such a niche minority. Which, before you bring it up, i can already say that the minority of players with disabilities that actually hinders their playstyle to an extreme degree are much more of a minority than those asking for some harder normal content.

As for the other people though, i’d like to think harder normal content would actually help people improve. I don’t think anyone is asking for savage level mechanics in normal content lol. Just a slight increase in difficulty to not make the content so absolutely boring and braindead. You have people in here literally saying they’ve dozed off during dungeon runs because it’s not engaging enough. There’s people literally falling asleep out of boredom for the game. That is a major problem.

[Xirean]

They can play with other people, no one is saying they can’t please don’t put words in anyones mouths. My point is, if they find that a trial or dungeon is too hard for them, then trusts exist to help them. But we shouldn’t be balancing content around such a niche minority. Which, before you bring it up, i can already say that the minority of players with disabilities that actually hinders their playstyle to an extreme degree are much more of a minority than those asking for some harder normal content.

As for the other people though, i’d like to think harder normal content would actually help people improve. I don’t think anyone is asking for savage level mechanics in normal content lol. Just a slight increase in difficulty to not make the content so absolutely boring and braindead. You have people in here literally saying they’ve dozed off during dungeon runs because it’s not engaging enough. There’s people literally falling asleep out of boredom for the game. That is a major problem.

Then the solution would be to find a way to bring that engagement up without alienating people who just can't operate at a higher level. I will not ever agree with the idea that people with disabilities don't get to play the game. If you raise the difficulty without keeping those needs in mind then you risk making it unplayable for them. I also don't like the idea of majority or minority. Accessibility is my concern. Do I think the state of the game properly reflects that? No. Do I think it can be improved? Yes. But I want those improvements to be done without throwing others under the buss.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Then the solution would be to find a way to bring that engagement up without alienating people who just can't operate at a higher level. I will not ever agree with the idea that people with disabilities don't get to play the game. If you raise the difficulty without keeping those needs in mind then you risk making it unplayable for them. I also don't like the idea of majority or minority. Accessibility is my concern. Do I think the state of the game properly reflects that? No. Do I think it can be improved? Yes. But I want those improvements to be done without throwing others under the buss.

That’s exactly why i bring up trusts though. People can still have that engagement without difficulty by running trusts. No one, again, literally no one is saying they can’t play the game. You’re making up scenarios that no one is even stating. The people advocating for more engaging and slightly harder normal content aren’t going around saying f people with disabilities. But i will say it is incredibly difficult to balance a game around the minority with disabilities. But that’s why trusts are a very good option for them. They can get the full msq experience without having to worry about difficulty and they can go at their own speed. It’s a win/win. If at some point they want to play with other players, there’s loads of casual content tailored to that. Deep dungeons,maps, i would say eureka/bozja but i haven’t a clue if that’s too hard with people with disabilities.