Content geared towards FCs

[Atelier-Bagur]

The reason this definitely can't happen is simple.

FCs are not cross-world. They should be but until they are, there are a lot of "cross-world" players who do not restrict themselves to a single world.

Statics are cross-world. There are cross-world linkshell communities. There are cross-world discord communities. All of these are like cross-world free companies and cross-world raiding, hunting, roleplaying, social events, BA/DRS events and other gaming is a massive part of the game. Content like this being restricted to an FC would impact all of the people in these cross-world (and now cross-data center) communities because it would restrict them all to their homeworlds. After 10 years of building a cross-world game, I doubt Yoshi-P is going to go back.

Theres nothing stopping me from creating an FC of my own if I somehow found interest in doing FC content. Its not very hard to join one either if one pays attention for like 5 seconds in shout chat with people always trying to recruit members.

[VerdeLuck]

Theres nothing stopping me from creating an FC of my own if I somehow found interest in doing FC content. Its not very hard to join one either if one pays attention for like 5 seconds in shout chat with people always trying to recruit members.

If you make an FC then you have to recruit 10-20 players who have the same schedule as you to do the content. You have to make sure they're active in the same hours and play regularly, as well as they're good at the game in order to complete this new content.
And they have to all be from the same server as you. That content would be DoA on Materia and Dynamis where there aren't enough players for PvP queues and multiple roulettes to pop in a reasonable amount of time.

Now what are you going to do about players stranded on underpopulated servers or servers where other people don't want to do that? You're going to charge them 18 dollars every time they need to change server, and give up their personal house, in order to attempt the content?
It circles back to what I said at the start, this type of content is on its way out. WoW even made changes because their reliance on guilds caused issues if you were alliance on a horde server and just had no access to endgame, and the other way around.
Remember when PvP was based on your GC and the Maelstrom just dominated every time? That was changed to force a random team specifically because of the problem you want to add back into the game.

[Atelier-Bagur]

If you make an FC then you have to recruit 10-20 players who have the same schedule as you to do the content. You have to make sure they're active in the same hours and play regularly, as well as they're good at the game in order to complete this new content.
And they have to all be from the same server as you. That content would be DoA on Materia and Dynamis where there aren't enough players for PvP queues and multiple roulettes to pop in a reasonable amount of time.

Now what are you going to do about players stranded on underpopulated servers or servers where other people don't want to do that? You're going to charge them 18 dollars every time they need to change server, and give up their personal house, in order to attempt the content?
It circles back to what I said at the start, this type of content is on its way out. WoW even made changes because their reliance on guilds caused issues if you were alliance on a horde server and just had no access to endgame, and the other way around.
Remember when PvP was based on your GC and the Maelstrom just dominated every time? That was changed to force a random team specifically because of the problem you want to add back into the game.

so basically screw the rest whom already are in an FC. People keep ignoring the fact that I'm not even saying that whatever content they makes needs to be huge to warrant schedules, but things that you can do for that FC.

[Raven2014]

so basically screw the rest whom already are in an FC. People keep ignoring the fact that I'm not even saying that whatever content they makes needs to be huge to warrant schedules, but things that you can do for that FC.

Screwing them? You're making it sound like people in an FC are being punished, or its members are being punished for being in one. It already has its own perks, the problem here is you don't think it enough and want even more exclusive content created for it.

If seemly not having more is considered punishment, guess what. I feel like I'm being punished every day in real life.

[VerdeLuck]

so basically screw the rest whom already are in an FC. People keep ignoring the fact that I'm not even saying that whatever content they makes needs to be huge to warrant schedules, but things that you can do for that FC.

There's no punishment currently for having an FC. If you want events, run events. If no one comes to your events then that's on the organizer. The problem is not that there's nothing to do for FCs, the problem is people don't organize anything or they organize events that aren't good.
I've seen plenty of FCs run MINE raid nights, make statics, have learning party nights, farm nights, decide to pick a night to sit around and chat as they all do FATEs. It's not even just the nightclub events, there is a world of content to be done that is completely wide open to FCs to organize and do.

Forcing people to be in an FC or they just can't do content is not the way to go about it at all, no one wants that. It was also done years back with Diadem as others have pointed out and it was changed because it was universally hated by the players. This is one of those situations where we can confidently say that yes, it was tried to force more FC interactions and participation in the past through exclusive content, and it was hated so much that players asked for it to be changed.

[Saraide]

so basically screw the rest whom already are in an FC. People keep ignoring the fact that I'm not even saying that whatever content they makes needs to be huge to warrant schedules, but things that you can do for that FC.

How are people being punished for being in an FC right now?

[Jeeqbit]

An easy way to see that FCs organize events just fine is to look at the Community Finder. A lot of them talk about the events they run.

Here are a few examples I found from a casual glance.

1. "We also do weekly fc runs - mounts, wepon farms, savages new and old, events, we even have a weekly movie night on Wednesdays in discord."

2. "What You Can Expect!!! Treasure Hunt, Mount Hunting, Full FC Raid Static For Upcoming UWU, Glam Farming & Design With Our Eorzea Collection Experts, Daily Roulette Anytime, Deep Dungeons, Relic Weapons Farming, Gposing Studio & In Game Photographers, Housing Design, Heat of Battle II and Seal Sweetener II Always Active, Medium FC House In The Empyreum, Small Beach House In Mist, Discord Available, Crafting Service Available From Our Master Crafter, Just Provide The Materials!, Impromptu Concerts & Parties, Special Events Planned For The Future, Halloween Party. Thanksgiving, XMAS ECT!, Fully Improved Workshop With Master Omni Crafters"

3. "What we have to offer. Heat of Battle ll & Reduced Rates ll Monday-Saturday, crafting/gathering xp buffs on Sundays, Weekly treasure map nights, Housing in The Lavender Beds, A discord server to chat & keep connected outside of the game, Food for leveling & crafting/gathering in the fc chest at all times, Groups for farming whatever you may need! Mats, mounts, fates, relics. Eureka & Bozja. You name it! Blue mage enthusiasts"

4. "Benefits include: Free Company Buffs, Free Daily Chocobo Training/Leveling - Krakka Roots and Thavnarian Onions are also provided for free to our members. Free Company Discord, Gaming Community Discord - Free weekly/biweekly game giveaways. Free Company Mentors - A system to assist members in achieving their in-game goals. Crafting Committee - A committee that provides free gear to our members daily (up to endgame, level 90 currently). Mercenary Committee - A committee dedicated to assisting members clear content/MSQ daily. Newsletter - Our way to inform busy members weekly of current Free Company activities while they are away. Weekly Meetings - Another way to keep our members informed and many giveaways after each meeting. Fashion Crew - A team that will gear you up (For free, provided by the FC) and earn you a score of 80+ for max MGP weekly! GC turn in assistance: Our team of crafters will make you daily GC turn ins for your crafters and show you the ropes. Event Committee - A committee that explores the depths of content that FFXIV has to offer EVERY WEEK, see below. (We try to run at least two FC activities daily)

Events: Mount Farming. EX Mount Prog. Treasure Maps: We run THREE map events weekly and the Free Company provides all maps for free. Alliance Raid Night: Come join the FC as we run the latest 24 man content each week. Old School Raid Night: go back in time and clear old raid content (savage and normal). Fate Achievements. BLU leveling and Raiding. Fishing with Friends. ShB Gemstone Fates. We run Holiday events and special monthly events for our members. We always give out the best prizes and gil during these events! Jackbox Night. If there is a interest in other events not mentioned here - Bozja, Eureka, Unsync'd Raids, Sight Seeing Logs, Triple Triad, ect. We will set up events to meet the members needs/wants."

I truncated some of it, but you get the point. I got this information from the first 5 FCs I looked at. They don't seem to have any problems at all.

[Raven2014]

snip

Some FC are even creative enough to make event that's not even a content. One of my favorite was hide and seek.

- We raffle a map that we gonna use for that week.
- Every member who want to participate are given 10min to go hide anywhere on the map.
- After 10 min a couple officers will try to go and find people.
- The people who manage to remain hidden after the time limit win a prize.

They also do things like help people clear savage or EX if they had seen the whole fight and just can't find the right party. (Like not carry, but if you had put in time and effort to learn, they'll help you through the finishing line).

Another thing about FC is social vibe, the one I was in had good vibe, and because of that people hang around the FC house unless they're doing something specific. In fact, you can almost tell some have their own spot. Like you can always find this lala ontop of the stable. There a group of friends who always seem to have a pinic on the yard. And you could always caught a few people just running up and down the street in front of the house or jumping over the fence. The officers also have designate class lead that can mentor if anyone want to improve their play. And holiday? Man it's a house party on holidays.

In fact, that FC was run so well that I truly believe I would have been in it forever. Sadly, one day drama happen and it became history. But because of that I know an FC live or die not because of the content, but because of the people in it.

[caffe_macchiato]

They don't seem to have any problems at all.

Try joining one of them and see how it is when, out of 150+ people, only <10 are online at primetime.

It's time for us to realize that we've been living in an echo chamber. It's not normal for the game director to tell us to play a different game. It's not normal for an MMO to struggle in social activities. It's not normal for FFXIV players to genuinely loathe having to play their own game. Most of us have very, very low standards. The player base just doesn't seem to enjoy FFXIV like they do other games. And while one can certainly opt to play old content, or make do with what we have, players just simply aren't in the mood for that. That's why they take breaks for months at a time. It's time for Square Enix to fix that by providing more incentives for group content instead of making everything single-player like the shareholders tell them.

Or you can play other games, your choice. I'm sticking with FFXIV.

[Jeeqbit]

Try joining one of them and see how it is when, out of 150+ people, only <10 are online at primetime.

And while one can certainly opt to play old content, or make do with what we have, players just simply aren't in the mood for that. That's why they take breaks for months at a time.

All of this is a symptom of the truth, which is that if you ever used Steam, you would notice that all of the people on a friends list usually play a game or DLC that just came out for a few days, then they finish it and stop playing. When an MMO releases a new patch, they are usually playing it for a few days, then they play something else. This is so easy to see on Steam that once you've seen it, you understand exactly why SE makes patch content that can be finished within a few days. Because most gamers will only consume it for a few days and move onto the next game.

We might as well also ask the question why a lot of content only lasts 20 minutes. That's really simple as well. People come home and have 2 hours to play in the evening. They don't want to be asked to be in a raid for 8 hours as if they don't have other things in their life. That's unfortunate for people that actually don't have other things in their life, but as far as I can tell most people do.

Playing just one game like this all of the time is not something most people do but if we really want to, this is what all the achievements and lengthy grinds are for. As I showed in my previous post, all these free companies have no trouble setting up events to do this short but farmable content and the scheduling can help people with limited time get the content done.

It's not normal for the game director to tell us to play a different game.

Maybe not, but because Yoshi-P has designed the game around most people's casual gaming habits, he knows that every patch will get people to login for a few days and that he won't lose those players forever because he's designed it to work for them.

It's time for Square Enix to fix that by providing more incentives for group content instead of making everything single-player like the shareholders tell them.

Last time I checked, most of the content in the game was designed for a party except quests.