A bold proposal for harmony

[Katachthon]

Thank you for reading this post, and I welcome feedback.

Here I propose a system satisfying both types of players.

For paid players, a casual mode for MSQ dungeons&trials is accessible.

For free-to-play ones, only the hard mode is available.

Thank you for you time, and feel free to ask! ♥

[jdtuggey]

There is already casual mode for dungeons and trials, it's called Duty Finder. For the people who want it easy and no pressure, there's trusts.
Some people who are complaining right now would probably be happy with what you're pining for, but most want to clear the same content as everyone else.
IE: The most popular post is about the raids, nothing to do with story.
You're basically pining for the game to tell them they can't, and here's a consolation prize. :P
At what point do we say "it's enough, we don't need to bend over backwards for everyone", that "not a single game will cater to everyone" and "it's okay if this isn't for you, for everybody's sake, look for an experience that is instead of changing this".
Realize this might seem mean, but a majority of the people who are pining for easier difficulty are mean waaaaaaaaaaaay beyond the majority of people who say no, and empathize much less with our perspective lol. It's all about them.
Also, at what point do we realize that this is a MMO, and like, I don't think they want to split their playerbase and add friction for a player who's been playing this with trusts for 90 levels and decides to try with players.
If someone can't play this, it's okay, I can't play counter-strike anymore because am honestly terrible at it, feels like am probably too old, and that's okay lol.
There's some other stuff for me, like FFXIV, but here, am on the opposite, some players who can't play it want to take my experience away from me. Do you see how repulsive this debate is from my side ? lol.
And we're painted the villains. :P

Another thing is... Even the most hardcore raider will do story, and they might want it to be engaging too.

It's weird to me, people don't do this with any other kind of entertainment. If a movie is too graphic for us or in a style we don't like, we don't watch it, we don't ask for changes.
The "harmony" side of this would be these players realizing that the content just came out, that no one is overgearing the content, that the expansion is barely a month old, everyone is still learning it, everyone is barely edging over the minimum ilvl, that a huge influx of players came in and that probably lowered the average skill level... All of these things make it so you can rely less on other people or on gear, which make the content seem harder, but none of these things are the content actually being harder. It's a tiiiny bit faster paced, it's barely perceptible lol.
There's plenty of players out there willing to help people who are struggling, but having a positive attitude and wanting to learn is step 1 to that, I think.
All I see from the other side is demands that the game gets nerfed or twists itself into offering alternative paths. They don't want help or learning.

What about the most obvious solution: Asking for help ?
I already see the easy "social anxiety" response, welp, if you never try to get over it, you never will.
I have social anxiety too, and lookit me nyooming on the forums and in-game. I developed that skill.
On the other hand, maybe we can ask ourselves "is a massively multiplayer game for you" ?

[Katachthon]

There's some other stuff for me, like FFXIV, but here, am on the opposite, some players who can't play it want to take my experience away from me.

Oh you think it's difficult? How unfortunate.

I fall asleep more in the new dungeons now.

I am proposing a real hard mode for hardcore casual players like you,

further lowering the output/input ratio, and for free.

And the true casual players can enjoy their paid service as solid as before. Thank you.

[jdtuggey]

If you fall asleep more in the dungeons now, why are you torturing yourself ?
If it's gonna be a push pull of "You weren't doing good before, now you are, but I am not", why not defer to the people the game actually belongs to.
Just let them cook.
Also let like... More content come out. Even if you don't do savage, savage raiders will lift everybody with them. Crafted gear is coming out next week too. People will get used to this new pace too.
Of course when you compare the experience of being grossly overgeared in content we've done on repeat for 250 times to a slight increase in pace + barely edging over ilvl + content people haven't learned, it feels like it's more difficult, but we're missing critical context here.

Then, is it free to make changes like that ? That's debatable. I see it as "Square Enix has a pool of resources, and resources that go towards X don't go towards Y", you don't know if implementing this would be frictionless.
I know that everytime I tackle a coding job that I think will take 10 minutes, it takes an hour and a half.
Also, if Y is something I'd care about that is scrapped to instead make another X for people that don't really want to engage with the game, I'd consider that a cost I'm incurring.

Here's a scenario: There was complaints about the normal raids. To me, the normal raids aren't harder than the content in dawntrail. Suppose they take normal raids down to accommodate less talented players, and they make this new tier "Dawntrail difficulty", it will become the defacto difficulty, cause it's where the average of players are. The game itself will be telling people that they can only do lesser contents, and they don't deserve the same rewards as the average of the playerbase. I don't think anyone wants to hear that. An even better argument is that the difference in difficulty is so small, is it really worth it ? lol.
If they make it harder than dawntrail difficulty, dawntrail difficulty for the normal raids was perfect for me. I find myself in a gap again and I'm the one who has no engaging content... Again. Either I adjust up, or compromise down. :P

Though I do want more content that would help people bridge between extreme and experts, I don't think offering the same track again, but "nerfed" is the solution.

I also think you misunderstand the kind of player I am. I feel hardcore is a mischaracterization.
I feel am the true casual here, being casual has nothing to do with being good or bad at the game ?
Like, I don't care that much for the game (it's still my favorite game! I still care, but reasonably so), I let my sub lapse more often in endwalker because it just wasn't as interesting. I didn't even complain. :P
I feel like the player who cares to the point of feeling their experience is ruined by a slight change in pacing are way less casual than I am and way more involved in the game, even if it isn't "optimizing dps" and "clearing content".
Like, letting sub lapse and just playing something that's more interesting to them isn't even an option to them. I've only heard that once in all of these discussions.

I'd say these people that are in limsa 24/7, don't even close their client for sleep, make a tea parlor in their large house in shirogane, farm for glams/minions and nothing else, visit balmung quicksand, runs to player hosted events, have 529057230597 modded assets, and are really mediocre at clearing content are a million times less casual than I am. I'm using hyperbole to make a point here. :P

Also, paying for the game doesn't entitle you to the game being for you or you even liking it.
You could turn this against me for sure, but I never complained against the state of the game, I just don't play it when it doesn't work for me.
The devs just naturally gravitated towards a status quo that fits my needs better, and I'm here saying I like it, and I don't want it to change.
If the changes are truly abhorrent to you, nothing will send a louder message to square enix that just playing something else.
The question is, would there even be enough of these "louder messages" to even change things even if 100% of the people that disagree with dawntrail changes did so tomorrow ?
Only square enix knows, that's why I trust their choice. Pretty sure they have already considered the cost/benefit relationship of your solution. ;o

I am not targeting you in any way, shape or form in this post. When I say "you", I generally mean someone who disagree with the dawntrail pacing changes.

[Akonyl]

a lot of words

You are responding with far too much effort to a bait post.

[jdtuggey]

You are responding with far too much effort to a bait post.

I do tend to give too much credit to people, thanks for grounding me. :P

[Katachthon]

why not defer to the people the game actually belongs to.

I've paid for the game and played since 2019,

and you are saying the game does not belong to me?

Are you trying to harass or bully me out of this game? Wow.

Impressive attitude, impressive.

[Kazeshindo]

Thank you for reading this post, and I welcome feedback.

Here I propose a system satisfying both types of players.

For paid players, a casual mode for MSQ dungeons&trials is accessible.

For free-to-play ones, only the hard mode is available.

Thank you for you time, and feel free to ask! ♥

This makes absolutely no sense to me.... Everyone playing beyond SB is forced to subscribe. So how exactly does this help in any way/shape/form? I'm a paying player who enjoys more difficult content, this doesn't seem to fix any issues that people who are complaining about the difficulty I enjoy are taking the time to write about. On the other hand, I don't want my difficulty lowered just because I pay my subscription. This seems like something that should be the other way around. Add an option to increase difficulty for those who choose to pay, and allow only normal/easy mode for those on the free trial.

[NovaStella]

1. There is no free-to-play mode for this game. Only a trial with many features removed. It is a pay to play game.
2. I've only seen casual players as perma-trial players. It needs to be the other way around, honestly. People wanting harder content pay for the game, otherwise you can't do any ultimates or current savage content. (This is a bit of a joke, I don't think this is a good idea at all.)
3. Honestly just buff trusts to be the easy mode. That's it. I've seen some players use DF instead of trusts because you have to be able to do the mechanics with trusts, and in DF someone can carry you. Just make trusts the "please carry me" option.

[NightHour]

or those casuals can learn to play the game at a basic level.

You don't need to be hardcore to be decent at the game.