Difficulty of normal content.

[Merrigan]

the risk of what? getting eyes from people who don't agree with you?

Ah, there it is: the message that will make people say ‘I'm sorry if things go wrong, I never thought it would go this far’. In a pinch, but you already know this because the dangers of persecution on the net have already been demonstrated many times: mockery in the comments on the video in question; the intervention of communities that are far from benevolent; the fact that the conversation leaves the place where it was initially posted, which is frankly unpleasant because it's out of your control.

You'd frankly have to be naive (or in very bad faith, which I suspect you are) to think that you only risk getting a few sideways glances when people disagree with you on the internet.

[VanillaWafer]

some players are just not as good, incapable to learn it (time restraints, living / distraction restraints, brain or psychological restraints, etc. etc.), not saying content has to remains boring AF, but mechanical difficulty is not the only solution

There are plenty of players with what you have described and manage to do content on their own time. Heck, I'm pretty sure that there are players with disabilities that manage to do EX and Savage content.

I say this as a first time mom with an 8-month old (at the time of writing this.), and I got through M1-4 just fine at my own pace.

Sure, you can argue that there are other people with more dire circumstances, fine. But it is up to you, the player, to manage around that in your life. That should not fall onto the game's responsibility all the time, even though it has a lot of accessibility options already implemented in. Doing an Expert Roulette, or a Normal Raid, while eating a meal should not even be a thing. You kinda are supposed to be aware, learn and finally answer to mechanics.

Don't want to do that? Like I said previously, there is always DoH/L to do. Make money selling raid food!

Listen, I've been playing this game since 2.0, and this whole difficulty thing isn't new at all. It keeps happening with every expansion and it's like we're not learning at all. It will get resolved as we go along and getting better gear.

The game caters a lot to casual players as it is. At the end of the day, Dawntrail is still new and we're promised a lot of neat optional content that caters to all walks of life, it seems.

Sit back and chill.

[Deejudanne]

Ah, there it is: the message that will make people say ‘I'm sorry if things go wrong, I never thought it would go this far’. In a pinch, but you already know this because the dangers of persecution on the net have already been demonstrated many times: mockery in the comments on the video in question; the intervention of communities that are far from benevolent; the fact that the conversation leaves the place where it was initially posted, which is frankly unpleasant because it's out of your control.

You'd frankly have to be naive (or in very bad faith, which I suspect you are) to think that you only risk getting a few sideways glances when people disagree with you on the internet.

Mind elaborating what kind of awful things people will get here for having different opinions in a video game?

[Merrigan]

Mind elaborating what kind of awful things people will get here for having different opinions in a video game?

It's not about having different opinions. It's about asking honestly: have you been following the conversation?

[Grandvichy]

I struggle to believe that struggling to beat a RAID boss, and having to do Valigarmanda 4 times warrant the game director and content designer to put limits on their creativity and put a stop on the game's advancement/evolution in general.

You should ask yourself if you are unable or unwilling to grow with the content. I believe that you are physically and mentally unable to comprehend the concept of being shown mechs, then learn them. There are issues there, and it is not the game design.

You don't enjoy struggling in fights, you don't like when orange circles and rectangles now come in different shapes and sizes, you don't like the game. It is frankly insane to ask for content to be clearable first try on release date, despite having to wait half a year for it (Or 2+ years for people that only do MSQ).

It's okay to not do optional content and it's okay to stop playing the game when you don't enjoy it, nobody is forcing you to do anything. In fact, you, as well as everybody in the community will be much happier if as many of you that exist would stop playing FFXIV.

Dying in raids and trials is not the end of the world, nobody will search up that info in your job applications or rat you out in your eulogy.
And so continues the cycle. You've made up your mind, there are 88 pages of replies beating a dead horse.

[Aryn2382]

I'm going to say something that might be reaching, but I think of two things when I look at this thread, and it's that people are both afraid of failure and afraid of success.

You shouldn't be afraid of failure--failure here has the least amount of punishment ever. Failure in this, failure in life, is there to teach you to better yourself.

You shouldn't be afraid of success: winning doesn't put on a new standard, the only standards you have are for yourself, ignore what others say.

Find something you enjoy in life, and try not to let your fears and anxieties become the trouble for others. Look inward before you look outward.

[Banggugyangu]

I haven't read most of the thread, so if what I'm about to say has already been said, then my apologies, but I'll address the premise of this thread with a few statements. I want to preface this with a stance explanation: This is not meant to be an inflammatory response in any way. This is not meant to be insulting or dismissive.

1: Failure is OK. Failing and learning is the very heart and soul of MMO gameplay. The stakes are so low in FFXIV that failing is not punishing in the slightest. Learn from each failure and do better next time. This is also the foundation of prog raiding, but obviously in a much more punishing circumstance.

2: No one should ever strive to remain at the same skill level from start to finish. While everyone has different skill levels in the game, and that's ok, when you start an expansion, you SHOULD be worse than when you finish it. That means that your skill when you begin the game at ARR should be night and day different from your skill when you enter the arcadion. Now, the starting line and finish line for each individual player can and will be different, and that's totally fine, but if you end with the same skill level as what you start with, then what's the point of playing the game?

3: Yes. The Arcadion, and the battle content in general for DT, is higher than the same respective content in previous expansions, but not to the exaggerated amount that the OP insinuates. It's arguable that the easiest Extreme trial would be Zodiark, and the hardest Arcadion fight is not even remotely close to the difficulty of Zodiark EX. I would argue that Warrior of Light NORMAL is harder than Zodiark EX, and that was a shadowbringers trial.

4: If you're struggling with the mechanics in a fight, there is absolutely NOTHING WRONG with putting a quick "Hey, I need to focus on mechanics next pull to figure them out" and then either JUST 1-2-3 or even don't worry about damage at all and just focus on learning the mechanics. In a normal raid, you don't have a rage timer. You can literally fight the boss for an entire lockout by just surviving and never doing any damage. If you need to focus on learning mechs and not hitting your damage buttons, then just tell the party. As long as you're actively trying to learn, no one is really gonna care. The few unreasonable people that would will get over it.

Simply put, properly designed games scale the difficulty as the game progresses. This is normal and good game design. The difficulty scale in DT FEELS more exaggerated than it actually is due to the decrease in difficulty that EW had. Rather than get upset that the difficulty is increased, your best bet is to stop worrying about failure and focus on learning and overcoming the hardship. Rather than get frustrated over the difficulty, I would recommend learning to enjoy the growth process.

[Deslyxic]

Xeno just uploaded a video. I think he and Arthars have a big overlap in viewers so I don't expect as many "git gud", but I'll be here to receive the guests, nonetheless.

[PurebloodPriscilla]

Casual isn't the same as being bad at the game.

I normally have very limited time to play, that doesn't mean that I want the content I have time for to be a complete braindead cakewalk like it was during ShB and EW.

Stick to non-instanced content if you can't even grasp Normal mode mechanics.

[caffe_macchiato]

Can we cut it out with "the game maybe isn't for you anymore". I think we grew too accustomed to tell that to new players that criticize the game without finishing ARR, but you don't understand how awful is to say that to a person that sunk god only knows how many hours into the game, that the game they love is kicking them into the curb for no fault of their own, and you don't understand how disheartening it is because it's not being said to you.

And rest assured that the people that don't enjoy the game anymore won't be playing it, only WoW players keep playing a game they actively hate and even they have a limit.

This is the "new Final Fantasy XIV". Because the reviews and the story are so bad, the only people who are buying Dawntrail are those who want to play the endgame content. FFXIV is no longer for general audiences, it's for those who've already mastered the content and want harder content. So all of the elitists have come out of the woodwork now that they finally feel it's safe to do so, and are spilling vitriol everywhere. I've even seen your post referenced in game, without anyone prompting it. They're so overjoyed that they have an expansion "just for them" and they want to make sure that no one else can ruin "their moment".

Until we get massive edits to the Dawntrail MSQ or a new starting point for new players, this is how FFXIV is going to be from now on. Odd how WoW is going to be the MMO for general audiences again for the first time in 20 years.