Player Drop Off and Accessibility/Diffculty

[Halfrek62]

I know there has been a lot of chatter about player drop off recently, and it has mostly been attributed to lack of content. However, I think there may be another factor at play here, and this is coming from a personal pov, so please hear me out.

There is a player base in this game that likes to do stuff at max level and ins't doing the latest difficulty dungeon ... they enjoy housing, glam and a myriad of other things, which has been the attraction of ffxiv in the first place ... and this for a long time has been the draw of the game for many players, including older players, disabled players, those who may play for themselves, with their children, or even grandchildren in some cases. They happily made their way through the MSQ, making mistakes and learning, not burdening other players with their lack of speed and reactions, and making their way via duty support to end game.

However, come DT and things changed.. The speed with which aoe's are chucked out is ridiculous for some players except almost professional players. Yes, we can work out our mistakes, yes, we can move when need, but not at that speed. Not as an older/disabled player.

I think that it's not only the lack of content, diffuculty of content or whatever ... I think alot of older and/or disabled players that enjoyed the game and invested a lot of money through subs and/or online store purchases, have now decided it all too much and cancelled their subs. They cannnot progress any further, especially if, as Yoshi has said, it will get even more difficult.

I know my post is coming from only one part of the fandom, but I also know that many other parts are unhappy, so what should they do ... or will they go down the Blizz route and not listen to anyone?

[Atreus]

So what is your proposed solution? And what instances are you saying are difficult? Because just saying the game is too hard is vague and likely to get hostile responses from the other side of the community that finds this isn't nearly challenging enough.

[Alicie]

> they enjoy housing
Which is not available to 99% of the people
> glam
Which is all in ffxiv store

I think we need to address elephants in the room. Yes, elephants, multiple ones.

[SkankyRoe]

> glam
Which is all in ffxiv store.

This statement is, quite literally, 100% objectively false

[Azurarok]

My take's been that MSQ dungeons shouldn't have been made faster or had telegraphs hidden until last minute, or at least not have been so strict on their enforcement. The last boss of the Cenote dungeon's got some strangely strict positioning with the knockback mechanics, and the second boss of the latest one catches quite a few players with the one move where a bunch of aoes go off one after another. The phoenix down change did help counterbalance it a little, but it should've happened much earlier.

Also you know what isn't as strictly enforced in normal content? DPS checks.
Playing a job well, while encouraged, is a lot more optional in comparison and job complexity allowed players to adjust the challenge for themselves but we don't even have that now. They went a route where the game caters to a much more specific crowd than it used to.

[Mecia]

Put the ''difficulty'' back into jobs.

[yesnt]

Add an accessibility mode to the game for casual content. Let disabled or older players get simplified hotbars. Give them more and clearer instructions to solve mechanics. It does not hurt me.

[CCheshire]

> they enjoy housing
Which is not available to 99% of the people
> glam
Which is all in ffxiv store

I think we need to address elephants in the room. Yes, elephants, multiple ones.

Wdym the NA demo timer released 2k-3k empty plots and we've all spent the last few months bidding on them and I see 4 open FC plots on my small Aether world ward but there's 150 open plots overall.

Also, we have many free in-game glams, like we just got a diving suit from the Moonfire rewards during the summer.

@Halfrek62: Finally, are the "professional players" in the room with us now? I'm quite bad at games, and for solo RP fights, we have the Very Easy setting.

If it's too much, SE will always continue to nerf content over time as we get better gear, and for most 4 man duties you can play as DPS where there's zero expectations beyond carrying some feathers for emergencies.

FWIW: I wouldn't mind more accessibility settings like reducing VFX and AoE spam during hectic raids and not making the arena red/orange the entire time on top of glowing blue orbs.

[Myotis]

if more people would be able to clear the raids each tier nobody would lose over it there are still ultimates to prove and shine.

Futher accessibility could help revive the content if it could also provide a valuabe rewards.
For now I can't start FRU because i'am unable to find people to learn from start the previous 4th fight. - And after weeks the situation doesn't change for me as people are not intrested in doing the outdated content.

I don't trully understand what is there to gain if the hard content is being made by 3% of total ammount of people.
I ain't want to play a dead game where i'am unable to socialise because others just left.

Wasn't XIV made to be for everyone?

Edit : I want to add that DDR over the long-term is tiring as you ain't feel skilled it's another dance and position to memorize where most of the boss indicators are just messy and flashy with the FX from the game - not mentioning the responsibility.
Long term it's not pleasurable it's just annoying and right now it apprears that majority of people feel like it. After all we dropped 75% of playerbase and the game feels really empty.

Tl:dr - more people can clear the content in the game the more people are in the game due to sense of accomplishment and satisfaction making a game for top 3-7% cleares where who knows how many of them cheat as after all the top teams are cought on cheating all the time on each ultimate - leads to a place where we are today.
Alone - without friends to pair up and have an enjoyment.
It's a video game guys - not some life achievment.

[Alice_Rivers]

My problem with savage isn't the "difficulty", it's just a memory game at the end of the day, my issue is that it's just a memory game - there is no skill expression, the mandatory damage is carefully calibrated to not kill you as long as the right buttons are pressed and the fail damage causes a wipe then and there, no room for healers to save the run, no room for tanks to do anything to save the run, no room for good dps players to beat the dps check anyway just "you slipped up, back to the start." From what I'm told Ultimate is the same but longer.

In terms of dungeon and trial content, I feel like partywide damage should be twice as high and thrice as often, that'd give healers an actual purpose to exist, tank busters too should be at least 50% stronger, if not 100%. Mitigate or die, also get healed or die and yeah, if tanks die on account of healers not doing their jobs then I'll be the first to complain with them about those healers not doing their jobs.