The FF theme park design philosophy is flawed

[Wildheaven182]

Designing an MMO like a theme park? I can see where it's similar in FFxiv.
But an MMO needs to be fun at all levels, like a theme park. And *all* of the rides need to be maintained, not just left in the dust to fall apart- especially when new players have to ride all of those old decrepit rides first to get to the new ones. And old content is the majority of levelling in an MMO where replayability is a major point, trying different jobs. But we still see old job quests telling players to do mechanics and use abilities that dont exist anymore or never exist outside of guildhests which were supposed to teach players mechanics.

This is why the experience gain is like being shot into the sky on a rocket, and all new jobs released start at the highest level before the next expansion. They only care about the shiny new rides. It's a huge waste of assets.

The issue is it's not sustainable. The moment you have a subpar expansion, your game will have nothing to fall back on and revenues will suffer massively.

Rapid levelling hurts sub time, but more importantly it hurts player skill attainment. This is why people complain about difficulty when fighting striking dummy bosses and puzzle fights. That in turn encourages dumbing down jobs. When levelling a new job, I often feel I level faster than I can learn it. It might seem contradictory, but it's also not true across the board.
Regardless, the game does not teach you how to play the game.

The levelling experience is hurt further by scaling. Old and even current content gets made braindead easy just from gear numbers. Aglaia is the perfect example. I felt like it had actual mechanics that would still be fun if we didnt kill the bosses before they could happen, or if they weren't so slow to use them. The lack of rng is bad too, like where aoes will be or the order. They can have the appearance of being rng and reactive, but are actually always the same.

The theme park analogy is used to justify flaws in the game as if that makes it not flawed, and it's wrong. Over time there'll be so much dead content it'll be like walking through chernobyl to ride one roller coaster.

[NegativeS]

I always felt like the game taught me plenty. The first 50 levels of MSQ are basically a huge tutorial.

If people don't understand how to play after 250 hours of marching through the MSQ, that's nobody's fault but their own. This includes newer, more complex jobs, because every job shares the same core philosophy: Follow combos, press buttons when they light up, some spells are for AOE and some are for single target.

Rapid leveling might devalue old content, but nobody is going to want to turn that 250 grind into a 500 hour grind. Keep in mind, the MSQ is still required for new players unless they shell out. They aren't on the fast track just because they don't have to play the same dungeon 30 times in a level bracket.

[Kaecilius]

Old and even current content gets made braindead easy just from gear numbers. Aglaia is the perfect example. I felt like it had actual mechanics that would still be fun if we didnt kill the bosses before they could happen, or if they weren't so slow to use them.

This honestly just seems to be the intended design. They can fix this to a certain degree by ilvl syncing the fights; they did this for Endsinger, when people started complaining that people would skip the climactic end of the fight by just melting the boss.

They choose not to ilvl sync every piece of content, and I assume it's because those old fights are meant to be easy due to the Roulette system.

[Wildheaven182]

It is intended, but I argue that it is not a good thing.
Making old content fast and easy is to make it irrelevant. I would actually enjoy syrcus tower if it still had mechanics and relevant damage output, even if it took 5 minutes longer. People could do it with full mechanics and higher damage 8 years ago, there's no reason we cant still expect the same.

[Jojoya]

But we still see old job quests telling players to do mechanics and use abilities that dont exist anymore or never exist outside of guildhests which were supposed to teach players mechanics.

Which is a good part of why class/job quests have been abandoned in favor of role quests. Jobs change too much over time to create job specific quests that have staying power.

Rapid levelling hurts sub time, but more importantly it hurts player skill attainment. This is why people complain about difficulty when fighting striking dummy bosses and puzzle fights. That in turn encourages dumbing down jobs. When levelling a new job, I often feel I level faster than I can learn it. It might seem contradictory, but it's also not true across the board.
Regardless, the game does not teach you how to play the game.

Disagree here. If someone doesn't want to get better, they won't. It doesn't matter how many times you try to force them to repeat something to learn it, they just aren't going to put in the effort.

Those interested in getting better will up to their personal skill cap. They're not going to pay attention to what their level is. They're going to focus on mastering their skills.

The levelling experience is hurt further by scaling. Old and even current content gets made braindead easy just from gear numbers. Aglaia is the perfect example. I felt like it had actual mechanics that would still be fun if we didnt kill the bosses before they could happen, or if they weren't so slow to use them. The lack of rng is bad too, like where aoes will be or the order. They can have the appearance of being rng and reactive, but are actually always the same.

I agree that the experience in old content can be hurt by power creep and poor ilvl scaling. I think SE could do a better job in that area.

The lack of RNG in mechanics is not necessarily a bad thing in normal content. Most players aren't looking for skill expression or a challenge. They just want to relax and have fun. Too much RNG can be stressful, not relaxing. Save the RNG for the content designed for skill expression.

The theme park analogy is used to justify flaws in the game as if that makes it not flawed, and it's wrong. Over time there'll be so much dead content it'll be like walking through chernobyl to ride one roller coaster.

The theme park analogy for MMOs has nothing to do with anything you said.

There is a variety of content. Players can generally pick and choose what they want to do once they've purchased their ticket and walked through the entrance gates. The deeper they go into the park, the more options they'll have. It's fine if some content is less popular than others as long as some of the player base is doing it.

If you're not enjoying the options one theme park gives, you should investigate other theme parks to see if they have options more to your liking. Maybe they will, or maybe you'll find the original theme park suited you best.

[Gortys]

The theme park analogy is used to justify flaws in the game as if that makes it not flawed, and it's wrong. Over time there'll be so much dead content it'll be like walking through chernobyl to ride one roller coaster.

Um, no. "Theme park" is also what people call WoW. The reason people call it this is because there is something for everyone just like at a theme park. Some people are afraid of heights and won't want to ride a Ferris Wheel, but they may like bumper cars or the log flume ride. Some people may not like any rides and just like to try different treats and wait for their friends. Some will only want to go on the scary rides. Some will want to do everything they can at the theme park though and experience all they paid for. This is why WoW, FFXIV, and other MMO's with a variety of content are called "theme parks".

Also, I'm not sure what theme park you are going to, but if you think "old and broken down" are what equals theme park? Then I would quit visiting if I were you.