Casual vs Hardcore

[Eekiki]

By the way, if there are any female 30 year old virgins out there, let's talk. Hit me up.

[Darkillumina]

The trick is in the balance. I am a staunch defender of Launch FFXI to around 2007, yet dislike the direction of 1.0 FFXIV. I and I assume many others want some of the challenge that made FFXI so great to be carried into FFXIV. As I said in the Bioware thread, there is a market for a more in-depth MMO experience.

That being said for any MMO to thrive in today's crowded market you need to incorporate as many people as possible while still offering sufficient challenge to make the game last for more than 3 months. Let's break it down.

Currently, there is nothing really to differentiate casual with hardcore aside from these hastily implemented relics. In addition I believe the term casual is thrown around much to dismissively and people treat them as if they are a sub-human race. What we have to realize is that their feedback is valuable in making a game succeed or fail as is the feedback of players who classify themselves as hardcore. I absolutely hate it when the community picks on those who can't devote as much time to the game. In the end it hurts the game and it hurts the community. The FFXI community had a similar problem. Everyone should have the ability to play a MMO regardless of time commitment. Ridiculing these people as many of you are doing does absolutely nothing for the game.

As I said the trick is to bring everyone into the fold. The solution is thus, content. Looking back at FFXI when it was released, I was on three sports teams, was prepping for entrance exams to university and had a plethora of extra-curricular activities to participate in. Yet, when I logged on to FFXI, I never once felt that I was being ostracized due to the difficulty. There was simply so much to do. Even when relics were released there, It didn't bother me one iota because the game had many other things to focus on that gave me a sense of fulfillment for my time commitment.The relics in XI were the cherry on top of the cake.

The problem with XIV is that SE timed the release of these relics quite poorly. They released them more than likely to tide people over until 2.0. However, what they didn't take into the equation was that they were releasing it using an outdated quest system that will be scrapped in 2.0 and utilize content that the majority of the people hate. Many realize that this is just a massive time sink and as there is little else to do it has created the chaos that we have seen on the forums in the past 2 weeks with the few who are willing to grind this out making fun of and belittling those who do not want to participate in this quest, while they in turn ridicule the so-called hardcores.

In XI people didn't complain about the grind to get relics to the extent that they do now because there was simply, CONTENT. FFXIV at this point in time does not have adequate content, hence why the release of relics were so poorly timed. SE should have utilized a quest progression system and less grinding to release cool looking Artifact weapons and saved the Legendary's and Relics for 2.0 when there will be a lot more to do. All they have succeeded in doing right now is divide the community and create two distinct camps around the vague terms "casual and hardcore."

Everyone can agree we want more content, more difficult content and content that caters to all. Give us a taste of it all and people will be happy.

[HiirNoivl]

FFXIV at this point in time does not have adequate content

I agree that the life of this thread is sustained by boredom. u.u

[Velhart]

FFXIV at this point in time does not have adequate content

I agree that the life of this thread is sustained by boredom. u.u

This is basically FFXIV in a nutshell right now.

[Alhanelem]

I think it needs to be a difference between hardcore and casual players, why does the casual player that only plays 1-2 hrs a day or less should be able to get the same gear/weapon as the guy that loves the game and has nothing else to do than play...

The other side can just as easily flip this around and say why can't the guy that loves the game and has nothing else to do than play find something more fufilling to do with their life.

These groups of people can coexist, there is no good reason why they have to butt horns. I'm not really sure what you're complaining about anyway. I don't see any "casuals" playing for 1 or 2 hours here and there that have full darklight or a relic weapon.

[Doho]

i choose not to adhere to these frivolous labels any longer!

from this day forward I declare myself Hard Casual!

[HiirNoivl]

Ow! Soda... in nose... >.<

[Dawiichan]

People need to understand the difference between not being able to advance and not being able to advance as fast. Realistically, a casual player will never be able to not advance in anything. However, what most people that want a bigger gap between hardcore/casual is that the hardcores shouldn't be capped so the casuals can catch up faster. Kind of like how fatigue worked, a hardcore could grind all he wanted but eventually reach restrictions, but a casual could go at his pace and advance at a ratio that is higher than the hardcore's.

Personally, I think this is why I believe hard mode in dungeons are a wonderful thing. Casuals can experience the same content without having the spend as much time but the people that spend more time in the game can advance at a faster rate and go against a more difficult challenge at the same time. This is why I'm happy that Yoshida said that he will add this in 2.0.

I myself am completely against on how XI worked. Needing a countless amount of time to actually advance in the game is not good game design. However I do agree with things such as a party reaping more rewards than solo.

[Elka]

I would just ask that the content is accessible for both.

I don't have that much time to play but that doesn't mean I don't like the challenge. I like the fact that if I only have a few hours to play, when I do, I can get a group of friends and do Ifrit, CC, w/e. I don't have to worry that to fight Ifrit I need to log on a spawn window when my RL agenda is free and then see if I even get lucky to claim. That does not mean I want an easier fight or better drop rates, I still have only 2 totems and 0 weapons and I will still feel accomplished when I finally get one!
Obviously by the time that happens a "hardcore" will already have all of them, but at least I still have a shot at actually enjoying the content, the challenge and reward of it.

Once again do not aim for easier just that its actually accessible. I played FFXI as a student with tons of free time and was "hardcore" for most part. When I had no time to play seemed impossible to achieve goals, so it would be nice that it wasn't extremist this time around.

[HiirNoivl]

Start looking at hardcore vs. casual as a skill and determination description instead of as time played in a day/week/month at no point should anyone paying for a game be told, oh you don't play enough/month to enter that dungeon and get [item].

Most the hardcores I know don't play AT ALL. They play for 2 weeks straight, burn through the content and vanish with their lewt. It's definitely not the TIME. It's all in the approach and attitude towards the content and other players. If someone throws a good part of their lives on hold to play 2 weeks of FFXIV and burn through content for 12 hours straight, with mechanical effeciency, that's my version of hardcore.

Most people who play do the same thing of course, but not in such a condensed period of time. My Luminary hatchet took 4 months to get. For hard cores it was 2 weeks. But we both logged the same amount of hours.