Player Drop Off and Accessibility/Diffculty

[Xapapetsu]

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?

I hate saying these things, but we need to quit using old age or disabilities as an excuse for not learning how to properly play. We're playing an MMO, let's be honest, 90% of us are old 40+ and I have inattentive ADHD, so realistically I fit that category of not being able to do high-end content because I'm old and I can't catch on to mechanics quickly because of lack of focus, but here I am running savage an ultimates. There are FFXIV players with multiple missing fingers or even missing arms that run high-end content. It's not a lack of ability we're talking about when it comes to difficulty it's a lack of willingness to adapt and grow. If people worse off than us can do high-end content why can't casual players learn normal content.

[Masha_Awandah]

I hate saying these things, but we need to quit using old age or disabilities as an excuse for not learning how to properly play. We're playing an MMO, let's be honest, 90% of us are old 40+ and I have inattentive ADHD, so realistically I fit that category of not being able to do high-end content because I'm old and I can't catch on to mechanics quickly because of lack of focus, but here I am running savage an ultimates. There are FFXIV players with multiple missing fingers or even missing arms that run high-end content. It's not a lack of ability we're talking about when it comes to difficulty it's a lack of willingness to adapt and grow. If people worse off than us can do high-end content why can't casual players learn normal content.

Because not every disability is the same. I'm personally lucky enough that the worst I have to deal with is hands going numb while gaming, but when it does happen I have no choice but to endure the pain until the end of the duty or stop playing entirely.

Learning is a lot harder when your hands don't move properly, and that's just my example. I'm sure there's plenty of other people with different issues than yours or mine.

[RajNish]

In my opinion over this topic, we've been seeing a consistent crack in the community between the old design and the new and it's not going to get better over time. That's on them for changing the game's genre halfway through.

I completely agree. The game is clearly heading in the wrong direction. Fights haven't felt like role-playing for a long time now; there's no lore, no interesting strategies, no Warrior of Light as such, instead there's a crowd of 4 or 8 people running around the field like headless chickens until they learned the mechanics, or running like robots once they did, that's all.

I have inattentive ADHD, so realistically I fit that category of not being able to do high-end content because I'm old and I can't catch on to mechanics quickly because of lack of focus, but here I am running savage an ultimates.

I hate saying these things, but we need to quit using "here I am running savage an ultimates" as an example or response to all the criticism. You see, if you enjoy and have the opportunity to spend hours battling and tormenting yourself with low-quality content and memorizing endless AoEs, that's your choice, but that doesn't mean other people enjoy the same things. The problem isn't even age or disabilities; the problem is that developers only see one way to make content more challenging.