Time to Quit

[Limecat]

My boiling point was already 3.1. I didn't come back again until 4.0 and only have done so with the acceptance of the notion that the game will never be more than it is. I only played a couple months worth of SB at either end, came into ShB around 5.1 but sporadically popped in and out until 5.5. EW is the first time since ARR I've been in it for the long haul, but the instant my random amusements cease to be a draw I'll be on the way out the door again.

[Iscah]

We're at a stage where it's impossible to tell if this is a joke or fully serious.

That particular poster does nothing (to my experience) but exaggerated mockeries of "I'm happy with the game as it is" posts. They're clearly not serious.

Really? You don't understand why hard content needs good rewards?

Okay, what happens when people who seek a challenge get their one clear of it and see there's nothing to reward them for their trouble? They stop doing it. The content becomes dead content.

Overcoming the challenge is the reward. If that's not a thing that gives you joy, you don't do it. Simple as that.

If there's a material reward, people will play it to get the reward, then stop, and the content will be just as dead.

Regardless of the reward, tangible or intangible, you're still going to have some fraction of players who want to to it for the first time, and some who have the reward but are happy to step in and replay it for the sake of it.

I'm not trying to suggest going out of the way to make positive only feedback posts in addition to the negative ones but when discussing things that you aren't enjoying, it may be helpful to mention the things you are enjoying as a comparison point.

That's why posts in the vein of "my opinion on XXX", positive or negative, are not really a good thing for a forum format.

The ideal setup – and I wish the mods/community team would encourage it by starting topics to form the framework – is to make a neutral thread about the game features as they are released, and then everyone can come to that thread and say what they thought of it, good or bad.

[AwesomeJr44]

Overcoming the challenge is the reward. If that's not a thing that gives you joy, you don't do it. Simple as that. If there's a material reward, people will play it to get the reward, then stop, and the content will be just as dead.

Regardless of the reward, tangible or intangible, you're still going to have some fraction of players who want to to it for the first time, and some who have the reward but are happy to step in and replay it for the sake of it.

Overcoming a difficult challenge should be part of the reward. Without a tangible reward, content has no lifespan beyond the time it takes to clear it once. If there's some kind of decent incentive, the content will not only be ran by the general population for longer, but it will always be alive in some capacity. People still farm old Extremes to this day because there is a reward worth going for. I don't think that people are going to be doing so with things like Criterion. There just isn't a reason to justify doing so, especially if Criterion can't be unsynced.

To use another example, I'd also assume that people wouldn't bother reclearing Savage if a tangible reward wasn't tied to it. It'd get cleared once and abandoned. Because Savage has rewards, people are willing to clear it for months after their first kill. Criterion needs that carrot on a stick to get people to keep coming back.

[Theodric]

Overcoming the challenge is the reward. If that's not a thing that gives you joy, you don't do it. Simple as that.

If there's a material reward, people will play it to get the reward, then stop, and the content will be just as dead.

Regardless of the reward, tangible or intangible, you're still going to have some fraction of players who want to to it for the first time, and some who have the reward but are happy to step in and replay it for the sake of it.

A lot of people welcome a challenge so long as it offers a suitable carrot on the stick as a reward. There's a healthy balance to be struck. I like goals to work towards but I also like my time invested to amount to more than just bragging rights. Especially since I prefer to go through some content with my partner and Endwalker has provided a lot less group content in general to our tastes when compared to previous expansions.