Game Design Concepts that the Devs and Playerbase has Forgotten

[ThorneDynasty]

Okay, and I already proved SB at least has more solo instances, so..?

First you claim there's just as much combat/action, now you are arguing that actually having more combat quests doesn't matter?

[hydralus]

Okay, and I already proved SB at least has more solo instances, so..?

First you claim there's just as much combat/action, now you are arguing that actually having more combat quests doesn't matter?

I never claimed there is just as much combat/action. I said it's weird you people are acting like it was ever a large portion of the gameplay. There is less combat, absolutely. It's been a downward trend with every expansion. Less combat, more cutscenes. However I will say that the amount of combat prior still seems like you're whining about 5% vs 8% when compared to what the vast, vast majority of what the actual game content is. See, an hour of combat (outside of dungeons/trials) in 20+ hours of walking and reading and cutscenes does not strike me as something to look back to as an example of "balanced" combat vs story. It's still heavily, heavily tilted towards story. I mean if you were happy with HW/SB's level of combat integration then good for you, I guess. To me it's insignificant.

[ThorneDynasty]

"I admit there is less of thing but I don't understand why people complain there's less of thing."

Such a mystery.

(Even by your estimation there used to be 60% more action content by the way)

[Kyragos]

Thinking in terms of game design, I've been seeing a lot of talk about things that the FFXIV Devs seems to have forgotten, or just dropped, and the playerbase growing so used to it that they're now pushing for that direction for this game's design.

1. Just Let Them Play - Link

[...]

2. Let Them Skip - Link

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3. Echo Chambers - Link

[...]

If anyone has more examples, pleased do share. I think it's important to talk and be reminded about good game design to better our games.

First of all, Sakurai is not the guidebook of game design. You are doing here an argument from authority, a fallacy. Sakurai have only worked on Kirby and Smash Bros. He is certainly not a reference for all genres.

Then, did you even watch the videos? In the second one, at no point he states the player should be able to skip the whole story in one go, which is actually something FF XIV already allows, for a fee though. He talks about skipping and pausing cutscenes, besides useless splash screens. He is completely right about that, this is something I learned when studying game design, but FF XIV already does that for the most part. I would also add that he mentions that online games differ!