What is Midcore? Why does it matter?

[R041]

I almost think we should just ditch the terminology altogether; There's enough discourse on these forums to demonstrate that casual/midcore/hardcore are not only subjective, but also regularly change definitions respective to the scope of what is being discussed.

For example, all three terms (Casual, midcore, hardcore) can be invoked to describe different levels of savage+ raiding groups, and tend to be based on time commitment, skill-level and ambition. Yet, when we're talking about the full scope of the game, the terms are almost always applied instead based on what types of content someone is interested in. This creates a lot of confusion, willful and otherwise, wherein people aren't operating with shared definitions of the terms they're mutually using.

I've started to just say things like "We need more content like X" or "Content like X but with the difficulty of Y" because the subjectivity around 'midcore' is too confusing in many cases.

I'm not a fan of pigeonholing these terms, so the thread title is mostly to annoy people. (sorry not sorry) lol

I just know I used to have content to do, and now I don't. Nothing feels engaging as someone that doesn't want to mindlessly grind out materials, craft, fish, repeat boring dungeons with boring rotations. I need excitement with rewards, but without forced commitment, and allows for dynamic and quick coop.

[TaleraRistain]

Kind of funny that original PotD fits all those criteria.

[Jeeqbit]

Content that isn't serious enough that you need to be good at it, but that isn't so easy that it's over-telegraphed and you don't even die when you aren't good at it.

I agree that Extremes are like midcore content but the problem is really a lot of people are too anxious to join an organized group, and large-scale content like Bozja or Eureka made it more approachable for them because they are just 1 amongst 50 players messing things up, so nobody is likely to single them out for messing up. Once they discover they actually can do this content and are good at it, maybe they will feel more confident getting into extreme or savage.

There is also just more fight variety in something like Bozja than there is in Expert roulette, and it ends up more social which is part of the point of an MMORPG.

[R041]

Kind of funny that original PotD fits all those criteria.

It kinda does - But it's so old and played out, I have hundreds of runs. I'm mostly talking about what engaging content EW has to offer.

What's unfortunate for POTD though, is it doesn't really take advantage of the MMO part of the MMORPG. It's an extremely quiet and lonely experience until someone messes up, and the actual difficult floors if you want to coop require a premade. So, it really doesn't fit.

Could you imagine if POTD were just open floors to 200 that you took at your own pace, and you saw other people running around at random? That's kinda what I'm looking for.

[TaleraRistain]

It kinda does - But it's so old and played out, I have hundreds of runs. I'm mostly talking about what engaging content EW has to offer.

What's unfortunate for POTD though, is it doesn't really take advantage of the MMO part of the MMORPG. It's an extremely quiet and lonely experience until someone messes up, and the actual difficult floors if you want to coop require a premade. So, it really doesn't fit.

That's why I said original. The first 1 to 50. It did at first. You could actually fail floors back then and we communicated a lot more. People just ran through it and got what they wanted from it so it became just the way to level up alt classes. This is unfortunately the way anything with interdependency goes in XIV unless they give continually changing rewards like with roulettes. There's always a new tomestone coming out and new things to buy with it. When these social experiences have fixed rewards, they eventually die out.

[Berkin]

I almost think we should just ditch the terminology altogether; There's enough discourse on these forums to demonstrate that casual/midcore/hardcore are not only subjective, but also regularly change definitions respective to the scope of what is being discussed.

The one thing that's not subjective is the significant gap between current Ex's and the hardest content before it, which would be normal raids and alliance raids. It's a substantial increase not only in mechanical difficulty, but in time commitment and personal responsibility as well.

There's really no other gap as large as this one if you were to lay out the content as stepping stones:

Guildhest(lmao) - Dungeon - Trial - Alliance/Normal Raids - *void* - Extreme trials/Early Savage - Late Savage - Old Ultimates - DSR/TOP

A few things to note:

-Having easier Extremes helps a little bit but as soon as we're getting into asinine body checks like Golbez it's really not much different than early savage.
-Had they done Criterion correctly it would serve as a better bridge just like Bozja/Eureka stuff did, but as it is it's just another Savage.
-DD would probably also work as a bridge difficulty wise if it wasn't for the huge time commitment and personal responsibility.
-You could also argue that over gearing Ex's and early savage fills that gap but not only does that feel silly it also means we're still getting no """midcore""" content on odd patches, only on even patches due to new gear.

I don't think it's a hard problem to solve though, with Exploratory content and an actual middle ground in Criterion being the obvious solutions.

[R041]

Content that isn't serious enough that you need to be good at it, but that isn't so easy that it's over-telegraphed and you don't even die when you aren't good at it.

I agree that Extremes are like midcore content but the problem is really a lot of people are too anxious to join an organized group, and large-scale content like Bozja or Eureka made it more approachable for them because they are just 1 amongst 50 players messing things up, so nobody is likely to single them out for messing up. Once they discover they actually can do this content and are good at it, maybe they will feel more confident getting into extreme or savage.

There is also just more fight variety in something like Bozja than there is in Expert roulette, and it ends up more social which is part of the point of an MMORPG.

I'm gonna say it.. Red Choctober is true Midcore. lol

[ChonkGoblinSuprem]

it is some bs y’all made up so that your whining about the game being too casual can’t be written off by telling you to go play the hard content that is already available

/thread

[R041]

it is some bs y’all made up so that your whining about the game being too casual can’t be written off by telling you to go play the hard content that is already available

/thread

Bro got mad at the headline. lol

When your MMORPG forces all 'mid' content to require wading through Discord cliques and calendar shuffling instead of natural engagements, I think we have a problem.

[Ivtrix]

it is some bs y’all made up so that your whining about the game being too casual can’t be written off by telling you to go play the hard content that is already available

/thread

lol lmao 10