Is the new Ultimate too hard?

[VictorSpoils]

Only been a week and even non-cheaters have already made it to the last phase. You can start panicking if two more weeks go by and there are still no clears.

[Wingale]

Well, let's see what FFXIV community think about the contents

The Hard Raid : THE RAID IS TOO HARD TO CLEAR!!
The Easy Raid : THERE'S NO HARD CONTENT AT ALL IN THE GAME!

[Conadrium]

Ultimate is hardly a selling point, especially given how few ever complete it. It likely falls into the category of labor of love with how little it's actually engaged.

I can't say much about making it more enjoyable to watch as I legit don't enjoy watching much gameplay. I'd rather be playing.

World first races in WOW and the MDI get decent viewership at difficulty levels the vast majority of the player base will never see. it’s an actual problem when a fight is so tightly tuned that’s it’s simply not fun for anyone involved.

[RitsukoSonoda]

World first races in WOW and the MDI get decent viewership at difficulty levels the vast majority of the player base will never see. it’s an actual problem when a fight is so tightly tuned that’s it’s simply not fun for anyone involved.

In terms of watching gameplay I get bored within minutes of vids of ppl acting "pro" or trying to portray themselves as such. The gameplay streams and videos I do enjoy are ones of people actually playing a game to enjoy themselves (or torture themselves with horror games, souls likes, and things like Mario party with friends).

[Payadopa]

It’s too hard because you need real life coordination.

So every MMO without a single player mode is? lol C'mon. Ultimate is certainly not for me, but that mindset is pushing it. The vast majority of the game is too easy. Let raiders have that one.

[Amarande]

So basically the end result of having fight design that is so rigid and scripted. There's only so many ways to combine the same mechanics before it gets to be too much.

Yep, and most "outside the box" mechanics turn (or turned, since so many were in fact experimented with during Coil) out not to work because the technical structure either can't handle it well or permits too much room for exploits (that had massive ramifications for all players, eg. it's why we're not allowed to hop, skip, or teleport anymore, just rapid slide ... resulting in later WTF moments like why you can't imitate a certain NPC in the level 73 dungeon).

I've pretty much said it before, sadly. Eitherys and its universe have many, many tales left to tell, but FFXIV is really fast becoming rather played out, practically speaking.

World first races in WOW and the MDI get decent viewership at difficulty levels the vast majority of the player base will never see. it’s an actual problem when a fight is so tightly tuned that’s it’s simply not fun for anyone involved.

This, too. Even worse is that there's an increasing sentiment that games don't have to be fun - that they can just be jobs and sports, like any other. Increasingly, top players of this sort are more professional e-sportspeople rather than gamers as we used to know them, with all the baggage that sports brings along with it (Reminded of the Yankees steroid scandal and the Patriots spying asterisk, etc ...).

The really tough question is if a MMO can survive anymore without the extra hype of esports, or if the sad reality of business is that it cannot (It may well be the latter, since MMOs known for their chill and adoring playerbases routinely wither to a shadow - e.g., SWTOR or LOTRO for which even top tier licenses - ones especially popular with traditional "geek" populations at that - aren't enough to make them more than small players, or COH which everyone I know who played loved but nonetheless apparently wasn't good enough business to keep online).

In terms of watching gameplay I get bored within minutes of vids of ppl acting "pro" or trying to portray themselves as such. The gameplay streams and videos I do enjoy are ones of people actually playing a game to enjoy themselves (or torture themselves with horror games, souls likes, and things like Mario party with friends).

Yep. Competitive/technical/speedrun just really isn't that interesting, unless maybe you're watching it for content-help purposes (like watching a Savage clear to get an idea as to how the fight actually goes). I've kept tabs on the Doom community (probably the original competitive PvE scene) for many years, and there for instance, I actually can only watch some levels as 100% runs anymore - the straight speedruns are too artificial and often skip far too much of what are often favorite levels of mine to feel happy watching.

LPs and torture-myself runs, those are actually fun to watch. Like the guys getting frustrated over Baldi's Basics or the Via Infinito or Kaizo ...

[dspguy]

Content that has been out for a week hasn't been cleared? In some ways, it is a shocker given how quickly most content is cleared. Apparently it is so hard, people were "forced" to cheat.

[VictorSpoils]

Well, it's officially been cleared by at least a few groups now. Guess that makes it easier than DSR? And I don't think there were complaints about that one being too hard.

[Kazhar]

And I don't think there were complaints about that one being too hard.

There were millions of complaints about DSR being too hard. It was and it's still one of the biggest static breaker we've had in the game.
So much that the general reaction to Yoshi-P's claim that they didn't intend to make anything harder than that was a sigh of relief, even from the most hardcore part of the community.

Well, it's officially been cleared by at least a few groups now. Guess that makes it easier than DSR?

It took longer to clear TOP than it did to clear DSR, by the way, with twice the amount of pulls necessary.

[DixieBellOCE]

The top players are having a difficult time progressing in this Ultimate. For a bystander, it feels boring, uninteresting and unfun to see how the top players are progressing. Is it asking too much for a slightly easier and more fun Ultimate? I am sure the Dev team did their best to make this a great Ultimate.
I would like to do this Ultimate but the bar is set very high. I think it will cause a low turn out for people attempting or completing this new Ultimate.
How can we make this a better Ultimate? I cannot wait for the top players review for this fight.

Well it is a CURRENT ultimate fight, it's meant to be the hardest fight in the game.

You would like to do this fight, as would i. But looking at lodestone, neither of us have even cleared P8S, the BARE requirement to even participate or even have a say on this fight.

Unfortunately its just how the world works, If the content is too hard for you personally, then that's bad luck, and you have to get better.

Not saying it to be rude, I'm in the exact same predicament at the moment.

I just have to get better.