Concerns about Ultimate PF on Aether

[SeiyaSoiya]

If you are not aware of the situation...
TOP has basically destroyed aether ultimate PF.

Starting 4 weeks ago, 30-40 TOP parties began being clear only
to join you were required to show fflogs proof of having hit phase 6 (which is against the ToS to require), or it was a duty complete clear for 1 party

PF basically overnight died, pfs took 6 hours to fill, and to my knowledge there has not been a single recorded instance of a pf clear ever since.

Those who did not manage to get to P6 by then were stranded and could no longer prog, as the few p5 and prog parties took much longer to fill.

On top of that, to my knowledge there are now two global pf blacklists going on, and if you ever done any TOP pfing on aether, you have a 99% chance of being on one of the two lists.

The 40 total people that were regular pfers for TOP started avoiding each other, further increasing the time it takes to fill PFs

The situation is so insane today, primetime saturday afternoon, there are a total of 6 TOP pfs, 2 of them are advertisements, and you can no longer do TOP on any NA datacenter without a static.

As someone who only pugs and knowing it wasn't this bad during DSR, I'm heavily concerned with the state of PF.

I doubt anything can be done about it, but just wanted to raise some awareness.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I just dont get why people seeking parties cant just start their own. Its not as if you're the only special case where you're the only one amongst the raiders, Im pretty sure like-minded people will join your group.

[Themarvin]

Just report each one of them in for breaking the ToS and also SE should upheld and go by the ToS they made us all sign for being permitted to play the game.

[VeyaAkemi]

I just dont get why people seeking parties cant just start their own.

Largely, people don't like taking the initiative, especially for anything that can be perceived as "leadership", sure, it may seem easy, and it is easy for some people, but many other people have to deal with so much anxiety for things like that, that you might as well be asking them to eat a cyanide pill, in turn, it can lead to the people who are willing to take initiative for things like this to go on huge ego trips, because they start to perceive as themselves being the only thing holding things together, when in reality they aren't... doing anything, they just clicked two buttons on a MMO UI.

Is it that shocking that a lot of MMO players are nerds with anxiety issues?

[ChrisRedfield2]

Ultimate PFs are a recent phenomenon, it was basically impossible to pug ultimates in SB and early ShB. This always happens when the fight is much greater than the average raider's skill level.

There were also blacklists in ShB, and there are google docs documenting bad (either in skill or in personality) players, describing drama in detail, and it was spread around.

I'm not sure any awareness needs to be raised. Pretty much every raider at the level of Ultimates knows about this. It's why people stick to statics.

[Themarvin]

Another solution could be to do it so you can ONLY use dutyfinder for it, and you needto uncheck which parts of the duty you have done by a clear point that unlocks when at this or that phase... that rules out partyfinder entirely and also it add an actual challenge to the community, for not knowing whom they group up with and it also gets rid of the bought clears or obstructs the practise way more as well....

[Atelier-Bagur]

Largely, people don't like taking the initiative, especially for anything that can be perceived as "leadership", sure, it may seem easy, and it is easy for some people, but many other people have to deal with so much anxiety for things like that, that you might as well be asking them to eat a cyanide pill, in turn, it can lead to the people who are willing to take initiative for things like this to go on huge ego trips, because they start to perceive as themselves being the only thing holding things together, when in reality they aren't... doing anything, they just clicked two buttons on a MMO UI.

Is it that shocking that a lot of MMO players are nerds with anxiety issues?

I suppose so, but people can get over it. I consider myself having social anxiety and I still manage to form a pf when I needed to do some content that people dont run anymore (like Delibrum).

I think sometimes we expect games too much to change around us rather than us having to adapt to the game. It's why many games seem to have lost a lot of things in its design in the past all for the sake of overly convenience the player, and in an MMO's case thats a huge deal.

But thats a whole 'nother conversation.

Anyway I still think people dont realize just how simple and easy it is to form your own groups for things you want to do.

[Jojoya]

Largely, people don't like taking the initiative, especially for anything that can be perceived as "leadership", sure, it may seem easy, and it is easy for some people, but many other people have to deal with so much anxiety for things like that, that you might as well be asking them to eat a cyanide pill, in turn, it can lead to the people who are willing to take initiative for things like this to go on huge ego trips, because they start to perceive as themselves being the only thing holding things together, when in reality they aren't... doing anything, they just clicked two buttons on a MMO UI.

Is it that shocking that a lot of MMO players are nerds with anxiety issues?

I'm one of those with anxiety.

But I also know sometimes I have to step up to take the initiative to get what I want. The anxiety doesn't go away but I grit my teeth and bear it. If it gets too strong, then I take a few days off.

Best way to miss out is to expect everyone else to provide for you and then moan about why you can't get a party for content.

A lot of times, I've seen one player start a party just for someone else who joined it to take over once the party is formed. The results can be mixed but at least someone got the ball rolling.

[Equitable_Remedy]

If you are not aware of the situation...
TOP has basically destroyed aether ultimate PF.

Starting 4 weeks ago, 30-40 TOP parties began being clear only
to join you were required to show fflogs proof of having hit phase 6 (which is against the ToS to require), or it was a duty complete clear for 1 party

PF basically overnight died, pfs took 6 hours to fill, and to my knowledge there has not been a single recorded instance of a pf clear ever since.

Those who did not manage to get to P6 by then were stranded and could no longer prog, as the few p5 and prog parties took much longer to fill.

On top of that, to my knowledge there are now two global pf blacklists going on, and if you ever done any TOP pfing on aether, you have a 99% chance of being on one of the two lists.

The 40 total people that were regular pfers for TOP started avoiding each other, further increasing the time it takes to fill PFs

The situation is so insane today, primetime saturday afternoon, there are a total of 6 TOP pfs, 2 of them are advertisements, and you can no longer do TOP on any NA datacenter without a static.

As someone who only pugs and knowing it wasn't this bad during DSR, I'm heavily concerned with the state of PF.

I doubt anything can be done about it, but just wanted to raise some awareness.

That's a lot of drama for a videogame. Back in my day, people gamed for fun.

[Saraide]

As someone who only pugs and knowing it wasn't this bad during DSR, I'm heavily concerned with the state of PF.

Anyone else remember this post?

I lead a raiding static, we are doing TOP and got to phase 3. Alt character for anonymity purposes

Recently a member streamed and showed himself using a zoomhack, so I swiftly and immediately kicked him from the static, reported him and blocked him.

Yet now after 3 days trying to find a replacement, some members of the static started arguing with me and 2 of them left.

They say that it was petty of me to eff over the progress of 6 other people just to get rid of a cheater.

They say that it's okay that he cheats because he kept to himself and never talked about it.

My other raiding friends also told me what I did was a really bad idea.

So now the group that was going so well is breaking apart and it's my fault, however I don't think I did anything wrong, cheating is forbidden by the ToS.