Quote Originally Posted by Hyrist View Post
For god sakes, yes. You're overgeneralizing.

What cause mob monopolization was in part the horrific spawn rates yes, but also what effectively lead to window camping.
... And so how on earth am I generalizing when I say that HNM drops and HNM `monopolization` were a result of linkshell motivation and organization?

Quote Originally Posted by Hyrist View Post
By no means, what soever should any reasonable person be on call at ungodly hours of the morning just so they can go and farm a mob who has unique Best In Slots - period.
And so what does this have to do with anything?
I want to just begin before you take offense in stating that I have no doubts you're a great person with good intentions here. That said, when you say things like this I sort of get the feeling that you've never been in an organized and effective endgame linkshell. At least not one that was fitting for you. Based on how jaded you seem to be regarding HNM `monopolization` I'll assume not one at all.

A linkshell is not an individual. A linkshell, obviously, is the sum of all of its individuals, individuals who will be online and play at differing times, with differing availability. If an HNM has a a window that is two days long, that does not mean an individual had to stay awake for 48 hours straight staring at a bush where a Dragon might pop. An `individual` does not kill an HNM; a linkshell does. If Tiamat pops and you are not online that is fine. Your linkshell kills it and one of your friends gets the drop. You log on and are happy to hear the news.

If you're not online and neither are any of your friends, another linkshell will obviously kill it and you go about your business and in 3 days when the window opens again the possibility of a pop emerges as something your linkshell might be able to do that's outside whatever schedule it has set.

You, the individual, didn't have to be online for every Tiamat, every Cerb, every KB, every KV, every this or every that to attain a drop, because your linkshell exists when you're offline just as much as it does when you are online.
Eventually you're online for a pop, a claim, and a kill, and eventually, by virtue of being a member of your linkshell, you acquire a shiny new drop.

So this acting like you had to stay awake for 72 hours straight at a time to kill an HNM, or compete with people who were doing so, isn't based in reality.

Quote Originally Posted by Hyrist View Post
That's artifical difficulty, not ACTUAL difficulty. There was a reason why people 'unmotivated'. The spawn conditions on these monsters were completely unreasonable by any important standard, and defending said system by saying "Oh it's the Casual's fault" is infuriating. - a system that says you have to be at the ready 24-7 for a video game and be willing to spend 12+ hours at on sitting and/or rotate shifts. That is wrong on a humanitarian level - not a question of 'if you're dedicated enough.' You flatly should not have to be dedicated to that point because it is detrimental to real life.
Again, you're looking at this from, with all due respect, an entirely selfish and self centered point of view. You do not need to be online 24/7. Your linkshell, however, needs to be active enough and large enough to be able to cover a fair amount of the day to participate in certain window opportunities. Now you might say "well that isn't fair that you need a big or organized or active linkshell" but that is the point of these monsters. That is their audience, so to speak.

Ultimately, where I suspect our main disagreement arises from is in you seem to believe that all content needs to be at the ready and easily attainable and accessibly at all times. What an MMO needs is to have a good mix of content that is readily available and accessibly and plenty of things to keep people enjoying themselves every day with added content that isn't to break the routine.

HNM's are supposed to be rare. They're supposed to have long windows. They're supposed to be relevant and sought after long after their released, rather than farmed to death on instant or 1 hour pop timers until they're no longer interesting like (not that they're HNMs) Dodore, Great Buffalo, etc.

"Me, me, me" is what i'm taking away from your posts. What you seemingly do not understand is that HNMs are not about you, they're about the world, they would be about Eorzea, they're about the environment, they're about rarity, prestige, etc.

If you have plenty of instanced dungeons, plenty of Limbus, plenty of this, plenty of that, to log on to every day, for whatever time you can and want to dedicate to the game, why on earth would it offend you so much that there are other things that will not be there waiting for you? That there are things beyond that to aspire towards?

There was PLENTY of great gear in FFXI. It isn't like you were the laughing stock of Whitegate and completely incapable of venturing out into the wildnerness if you didn't have HNM drops from head to toe.

I just don't understand why if people have plenty of things to do, and there's plenty of fun content in the game, that they would be so offended that there were other things, greater things, higher level things, that they could not yet do and wasn't laid at their feet wrapped with a bow.

My HNM linkshell in XI did plenty. We also couldn't beat Absolute Virtue...We couldn't beat Pandemonium Warden... yet the existence of these mobs didn't at all offend me - It motivated me and inspired my curiosity.