The Final Fantasy XIV Problem.

[Jokerz_93]

You understand that there are issues when the players' learning curve do not match contents availabe for years.

One of the major problems here is that the game doesnt teach anything and prohibits any player to inform another regard a specific matter.
We can aknowledge this by reading the ToS and its "guide lines" on how to interact with another player.
We cannot disturb another player's gameplay in any way.
We can't say "you are doing wrong" because we should let others to enjoy their experience in the best way they want.
And what if is that way ruining someone else's experience?
The problem with this is that a new player is not encouraged to say for example "sorry, I don't know what I should do, please explain to me". Instead they are encouraged to stay in their ignorance.
That also ruins other's gamplay but there is nothing written down within ToS.
A good ToS should guardening both sides, new ones and vetarans.
As the things are right now, veterans are punished to run DF contents and forced to be left in silence.
Here I wonder what I should do with my experience if I can't share it.

This policy leads where we are now, where people are incapable to clear normal content above ARR's one and it scares the avarege player who will never learn nothing more what they already think they know.

Transforming the game into one more "user friendly" could be a good path to walk, im not against that but building the game around the ideology that "you dont pay my sub leave me alone" brings only attritions also because the other side could say the same.
Also, if a new player wants to learn how to play XIV, they need to rely on external websites and tools and if they want to try hardcore contents they must have those information because that mode is build around them.

XIV lack of a proper build-in jobs' guide, and because of that I'm not surprised reading and seeing people don't AoE during pull mobs and being ignorant.
I blame SE for their ignorance, not them.
It took me 8 month before someone told me where to look to improve my gameplay and I was like "why the game doesnt teach you that"?
So it can be more user friendly and bring more subs?
User friendly doesn't mean you should know nothing, that's keeping ppl ingnorant.
User friendly means an UI that's tells you everything you have to know.
It means having a system that guide you hand by hand through out everything.
XIV is not user friendly.

FFXIV has a Casual Toxicity brought and enforced from the company itself and I will not surprise if it will end up in the same manner another award winning MMO did.
You can change the direction in which you stretch the wire, but the result will be the same.
That's the Final Fantasy XIV problem.

[FireMage]

Tooltips are there. Read them. Not that hard

[Striker44]

The thing is, this help does happen. All the time. I'll agree that the game itself could stand to provide more of a guide on some of the systems, but I see people doing that constantly. I see plenty of advice given during random pug runs. I give advice during pug runs, and have never had an issue. Just don't be a jerk about it. NN gives advice. FC's give advice.

To me, this game is very "user friendly." Knowing people aren't going to be toxic to you is immensely user friendly to a new player. I'll disagree in defining it "as the game holds your hand through everything." We're humans. Most of us playing MMO's today are adults. There comes a point where we have to grow up a bit and learn some things on our own. And the game does do a satisfactory (not great, but sufficient) job of providing a variety of avenues for the community to pick up the slack in helping people learn where the game itself leaves off.

Also, if a new player wants to learn how to play XIV, they need to rely on external websites and tools and if they want to try hardcore contents they must have those information because that mode is build around them.

In all curiosity, can you point out an MMO where this isn't the case? Using things like parsing tools and looking up strats and builds on various websites that min/max everything is standard in the genre. Heck, FFXIV is one of the better ones in this regard in my opinion, since other games like WoW have their high-end fights built around people having add-ons like DBM. FFXIV is not designed like that.

XIV lack of a proper build-in jobs' guide, and because of that I'm not surprised reading and seeing people don't AoE during pull mobs and being ignorant.

In all seriousness, how often does this actually happen? Personally, I'm not sure I've ever seen it. Are we really just taking one random post by some random poster with some random anecdotal story and acting like it's normal?

So it can be more user friendly and bring more subs?

FFXIV currently has the highest active playerbase it ever has. The start of EW towered above every other expansion, and even the mid-to-late-patch "lulls" are maintaining an active playerbase significantly higher than it's ever been in the past.

I will not surprise if it will end up in the same manner another award winning MMO did.

That "other award winning MMO" went down the drain precisely because they changed their approach and started focusing development on the toxic e-sports crowd. I'm not sure what that last paragraph even means.

[AmamiyaSakura]

Some tooltips don't give you all the information. It took someone getting angry with me in a regular duty to make me look up a guide that showed that Wheeling Thrust and Fang and Claw became combo actions at level 64, because it's not in the tooltips - you need to also read the role traits to get that information. Because I was playing on a controller and had those two combos on separate bars that I switched between, I never saw the opposite button light up and so I was dropping tonnes of DPS without ever knowing it. So if it wasn't for someone being incredibly rude to me in party chat, I probably never would have figured it out.

[Delis]

Some tooltips don't give you all the information. It took someone getting angry with me in a regular duty to make me look up a guide that showed that Wheeling Thrust and Fang and Claw became combo actions at level 64, because it's not in the tooltips - you need to also read the role traits to get that information. Because I was playing on a controller and had those two combos on separate bars that I switched between, I never saw the opposite button light up and so I was dropping tonnes of DPS without ever knowing it. So if it wasn't for someone being incredibly rude to me in party chat, I probably never would have figured it out.

But it does say they become combos in the in game tool tips. Says in the traits section.

[FireMage]

Some tooltips don't give you all the information. It took someone getting angry with me in a regular duty to make me look up a guide that showed that Wheeling Thrust and Fang and Claw became combo actions at level 64, because it's not in the tooltips - you need to also read the role traits to get that information. Because I was playing on a controller and had those two combos on separate bars that I switched between, I never saw the opposite button light up and so I was dropping tonnes of DPS without ever knowing it. So if it wasn't for someone being incredibly rude to me in party chat, I probably never would have figured it out.

The tooltips give all that information...

[Kes13a]

I will have to disagree...

Could FFxiv do things better? sure could. but being unfriendly to new users? I have played quite a few mmo's and I would have to say that FFxiv is one of the more,if not the most friendly to new players.

the experience guides you fairly well through most things you need to know. is it perfect? nope, but with many many many different playstyles being catered to, it would be impossible to create a one size fits all experience. I dont know of any mmo that will show you how to "improve" your gameplay above average competency. taking 8 months to want to do so suggests a bit of laziness on your part. improvement past a certain level is on the player to do.. not on the game developers to provide.

not sure who you hang out with, but I have yet to find people in a large amount that are "incapable to clear normal content above ARR".

so yeah, I disagree on almost all points.

[AmiableApkallu]

You understand that there are issues when the players' learning curve do not match contents availabe for years.

One of the major problems here is that the game doesnt teach anything and prohibits any player to inform another regard a specific matter.
We can aknowledge this by reading the ToS and its "guide lines" on how to interact with another player.

The guidelines explicitly allow you to make polite requests:

Expressing your wishes in the form of a request, as in the following example, does not constitute a violation.

"I'm getting attacked by the enemies, can you put on your stance?"
"It would be great if you could focus on healing because I'm in trouble!"

*When offering suggestions or making requests, it's important to include your reasoning. Making suggestions/requests without a clear understanding of the reason often leads the other person to misunderstand your intention.

You can't insult another player for not playing a certain way, but you may certainly inform them of something you think might be helpful and why you think that way.

[AmamiyaSakura]

I am saying it was not an intuitive read, traits is a different section and typically lists potency increases. I did not think to look there for combo changes as a new player. It took reading an online guide to gain a better understanding.

[Derio]

tooltips do not explain how wall to wall pulls work.

Tooltips do not explain how to differentiate between magical and physical attacks. Example. P1S the bosses aoes are physical damage not magical.

Tooltips do not explain how mitigation works or how it stacks.

Tooltips often do not explain how abilites interact with other abilities of the same class or other classes.

Some tooltips are misleading. Example: Before DRK QOL in 6.1 Bloodweapon duration stated 10s when it was actually 9s

It is extremely important to read tooltips but they do not explain the whole story and even with some players playing content they wont understand until other players explain it to them. However the same time FFXIV has many job changes yearly including tooltips so its hard for them to develop a hall of intermediate or something that can assist players because it would require constant upkeep.