MSQ Difficulty and Exclusion

[Packetdancer]

No thanks. Those people you don't care about leaving behind are the people I'm happy to have in my groups. I enjoy helping them. If they're bad, that's fine. I'm a good player and I can shore up their weak spots. I enjoy being their hero. I enjoy the camaraderie of failure.

Those people you want to leave behind are the ones most likely to laugh with me if we wipe. Then pick ourselves up and try again. And sometimes again and again until we get it. I enjoy that this game makes people who just want to have fun feel welcome.

This is actually a point worth underscoring.

I've mentioned before in other threads that the instances I remember the most are the rare shining ones where everyone just clicks and it's like a well-oiled machine that just plows through things... and the ones where things go so horribly wrong that you just have to laugh or else you're going to cry.

Do I remember a specific average Orbonne run from two weeks ago? Probably not.

Do I remember that Orbonne run fromlast summer where my friend and I, both playing red mage, cast Verraise 40+ times between the two of us? Oh yes. Yes, I do. That memory is seared indelibly into my brain. And while I admit that one started to get stressful at the time, it also has become an anecdote my friend and I can laugh about.

When I get an extreme trial in Mentor Roulette, yeah, I admit that sometimes it's a disaster. But the sheer, shining joy when folks do succeed -- when you explain the mechanics and they get them and suddenly things progress? Or the relieved laughter and thank-yous when people stumble across the finish line bloodied and half-dead, but still successful?

The chance of those experiences is nearly the sole reason I queue into Mentor Roulette to begin with.

(I grant, I say "nearly the sole reason" because while normally I'm easily motivated to run stuff to earn mounts or glamour or titles, something about the mentor mount's proportions just... unnerves me in a way no other thing in this game does, and I couldn't honestly tell you why. But to me the vibe is that of some eldritch horror from beyond the stars pretending to be a horse, and not quite managing to pull it off. I not only have zero desire to have that mount, it is the one thing in the game where I would consider actively grinding content to make it go away. ANYWAY.)

There's nothing wrong with asking for more challenge in optional content. It's optional. SE may want people to do it, and so they may be resistant to making it too challenging, but it's a valid argument to have. If the problem is people aren't prepared for Extremes or Savage, then as someone else said, request more in-between content leading up. But I will have to say no thanks if you want to make the MSQ more unfriendly and leave behind the people I enjoy having fun with.

Seconded on that part I bolded.

As I said earlier in the thread, I do think people are observing a genuine problem: players who do want to break into higher-tier/endgame content have few clear avenues to do so. If you reach a point where the normal content feels easy, but you don't feel ready for savage... there's not a ton of stuff in-between to help you ramp up towards it. There's definitely some, but it's mostly niche stuff that isn't as active once it's no longer current. Some of the Bozja and Zadnor critical engagements, or Delubrum Reginae's normal version, are slightly harder than average content... but with those now past their 'this is current content' shelf date, it's not the easiest content to find people to run it with.

I definitely think that's a thing the game could stand to improve on, no question.

But I think people are observing this actual problem and then seizing on a solution which does not actually properly address it, namely "clearly the MSQ needs a higher difficulty." Because no, it doesn't. Plenty of people play this game to engage with the story, and we don't need to put obstacles in their path for that enjoyment.

Would I enjoy some more difficult dungeons? Sure; I'm certainly eager to see how these Criterion dungeons turn out. But if I want challenging content, I always have the option to go throw myself at savage or ultimate stuff. ("Want to run some roulettes?" "Nah, I'm going to go get my butt kicked by church authorities and/or dragons for three hours." "DSR prog going well, then?")

(Now, if the argument is that the MSQ could do more to prepare people for other content, I will actually agree on that. Not because it needs the difficulty ramped up, but rather because there's a lot of stuff this game is really bad about communicating to players. For instance, if there's anywhere in the game where it notes that debuffs with a white bar on top of them can be cleansed by Esuna, I've certainly never stumbled across it.)