The Image of FFXIV

[AwesomeJr44]

But since they're actively attracting people like this and giving them absolutely no reason to improve, their own stance seems to be part of the problem.

This has always been the problem. SE doesn't treat us like children because we are stupid. They WANT their main payers to have the mind of a child and thus design their content for said children. Children who don't complain when the content slop they're fed isn't real food. You can already see this with Endwalker. Endwalker is lazily made slop, yet the 'majoritah' eats it up like good little piggies. These 'guide' videos are only a part of their training.

[Avatre]

But since they're actively attracting people like this and giving them absolutely no reason to improve, their own stance seems to be part of the problem.

They've been needing to dumb down a LOT of jobs due to how people refused to learn. They've changed a lot of mechanic tells(like stack markers - which I think was one of the few decent changes - to be all the same)/dungeons to be easier/more linear(or completely remove a mechanic that made a dungeon challenging, like iirc Aurum Vale - originally had some sort of "poison gas" element to it, but they removed it - was before my time though, so only have hearsay about it).

It's not them changing it to attract people, it's people demanding change because they don't want to actually get better a lot of the time.

[Deveryn]

They've been needing to dumb down a LOT of jobs due to how people refused to learn. They've changed a lot of mechanic tells(like stack markers - which I think was one of the few decent changes - to be all the same)/dungeons to be easier/more linear(or completely remove a mechanic that made a dungeon challenging, like iirc Aurum Vale - originally had some sort of "poison gas" element to it, but they removed it - was before my time though, so only have hearsay about it).

It's not them changing it to attract people, it's people demanding change because they don't want to actually get better a lot of the time.

The thing people are bitter about with Aurum Vale is Coincounter (and similar mobs) now having a clear telegraph on abilities, where you used to have to know your Swipe from your Swing. Eye of the Beholder didn't have a telegraph either, but with enough attempts, you would see it's a half donut. (Everything else is the same and there are still many wipes happening at the entrance.)

This is one of the things that was inconsistent in the progression of the game, where you would have all these telegraphs, then suddenly you don't get them on a mid-level boss. As we get more and more dungeons and other instanced content added, I think it's important to have that consistency if there's an expectation for people to go back and do older content. It gets to be too much to remember.

[DPZ2]

I was pleasantly surprised by the videos. They are spot on for describing the leveling and gameplay experience for the first 20 levels of the game to someone who is either new to video games in general or MMORPGs in particular. I'd pass along the link to friends who haven't touched a video game since college when video games as a genre of entertainment were only starting to take off in the mid '80s. Meanwhile, most of my high-school friends are already grandparents.

They are not tutorials for current players. They are not tutorials for players who are coming into the game who already have experience playing another MMORPG. They are a marketing tool. The sooner folks realize that an introduction to the basics for a game they have never played is something new players will find useful, the better.

For experienced or current players ... the only true guides and videos out there are mostly

* massively outdated
* aimed at a hard-core player audience
* mostly blank when it comes to discussing the 1-90 player experience

That last includes discussions of mechanics, instances, using the market board effectively to purchase (not sell) something, and the best of the non-max-level rotations.

It took me 5 years to get to the point where I could play Black Mage with any specific level of expertise past ARR. The tools and rotations kept changing every expansion and 'guides' stuck to how to play your best at max-level in raids. I really don't need a string of icons showing the 2-minute opener for a job at end game as "here's the rotation, but only until the next expansion comes out. Don't use it at lower levels, because most of the stuff we discuss requires you to get to 70 first"

I have yet to see a content creator discuss the best means of leveling from 1 to 50, for instance. I include sites such as icy-veins, which looks more and more like wowhead every day. Most of the people who visit these forums have already "been there-done that-threw away the T-shirt".

[VelKallor]

To briefly touch on the video series, I think it is important to consider that the players of FFXIV are of a mostly adult or late teen audience

Funny, thats not what you said here

While I admittedly haven't had the time to read each post in this thread, I just wanted to chime in and say that I'm not sure that making MSQ content easier in order to not exclude older players is a good thing. Why would someone in their late teens or early 20s want to play a game that was also designed to accommodate for the reaction times of someone significantly older? I do think that having a set target demographic in terms of age is a good thing, especially in terms of difficulty level.

[VelKallor]

your country lost a war against emus

We shall fight them on the beaches
We shall fight them for sandwiches
We will never surrender....

[Shibi]

We shall fight them on the beaches
We shall fight them for sandwiches
We will never surrender....

Pesky things too! When I was a wee lil tyke we were in the car with my Gran at Healesville and one waked up brave as usual and poked it's head into the car window to steal her bag of chips. I will never forget her shreak - and how hard we laughed.

[VelKallor]

Pesky things too! When I was a wee lil tyke we were in the car with my Gran at Healesville and one waked up brave as usual and poked it's head into the car window to steal her bag of chips. I will never forget her shreak - and how hard we laughed.

Look at it this way Shibi..we have a perfect weapon if we ever do go to war with the emus.

We can disguise ourselves using an emu-lator.









I'll just see myself out....

[TaleraRistain]

I watched them all. Only thing that bugged me was how the catboy said Ifrit.

I think with the idea in mind that they're probably aimed at those with little to no gaming and/or MMO experience, they're very helpful and informative guides. They've got some charm and humor to them, which makes watching them fun. I don't know being adult or late teen means that someone can't enjoy the animated visuals or the cheerful atmosphere. They seem to me that they would be an effective marketing tool. They really don't seem to be intended to go in depth, just be something that someone can use to get their feet under them.

[Elkanah]

Honestly the whole thing looks like the videos they show you at work when you're first hired. They're corny/cheesy- somewhat silly and also kinda stupid. But it gets the point across (somewhat). My only complaint about the videos is that they need to remove the blue quests from specific things and categorize them with the story (like the dungeon quests for side dungeons needing to be in the same pile of blue quests as say hildiband)