Keybound Brawler is too long

[cauliflower]

I suffer from pretty bad hand pain, and keybound brawler has felt like torture. I can handle general play and typing, but the length and intensity of typing here really causes me trouble. If it was just a single round or two, I'd be better with taking breaks in between, but with the way it is, I am really hurting trying to get any of the rewards. Sadly I'm being punished for slow typing forcing me to play more even more rounds, it feels like a cruel joke. The whole event just feel horrible for me. While I don't wish to take away others fun, I'm pretty sad, and I hope future events keep people like me in mind!

[Jeeqbit]

Some of my runs were actually really fast. But still, lots of typing whether it's fast or slow.

[Laerune]

When majority is AFK, reach wave 2 is a miracle.

[Clerith]

What’s the deal with all these AFK players, anyway?
I have played 20 matches so far – in one of them, we had a player who was AFK. In total, we lost 5 matches. The other 15 rounds went smoothly.

[JenSha]

When majority is AFK, reach wave 2 is a miracle.

THIS. I didn't even know there was a wave 2 until I read about it here! Tried 3 runs, failed all in the 1st wave despite me typing like a maniac. Got 15 currency/run and when I saw the amount I needed for the full glam set I just gave up because my hands were tired.

[UkcsAlias]

What’s the deal with all these AFK players, anyway?

A lot of people dont care about playing, so they just want to be carried into wins, which is possible with 2 good typers. They only have to focus on games that reach round 3 then.

Its very easy rewards for not doing anything. Once you got the mgc for all items, there are barely any gains (those coffers cost far too much mgc to make them worth it), and its just for the achievement. There are plenty of people that already semi afk in the saucer. Probably watching youtube, a movie or some series, and just joining the gates when they show up. Occasionally typing a word to avoid getting afk kicked isnt a lot of extra effort for them.

[Clerith]

A lot of people dont care about playing, so they just want to be carried into wins, which is possible with 2 good typers. They only have to focus on games that reach round 3 then.

Its very easy rewards for not doing anything. Once you got the mgc for all items, there are barely any gains (those coffers cost far too much mgc to make them worth it), and its just for the achievement. There are plenty of people that already semi afk in the saucer. Probably watching youtube, a movie or some series, and just joining the gates when they show up. Occasionally typing a word to avoid getting afk kicked isnt a lot of extra effort for them.

Well, in this case, I simply stop typing too as soon as I notice that someone isn’t even making the slightest bit of effort.
That way, we get kicked out quickly, no one earns any points, and I can find a new group - or wait till friends come online.
I’d rather invest my energy in rounds where we can actually reach the gold chest, instead of having to work twice as hard for people who couldn’t care less.
But as said - so far I only noticed it once. Could be that it is a lot worse on other servers.

[Infindox]

THIS. I didn't even know there was a wave 2 until I read about it here! Tried 3 runs, failed all in the 1st wave despite me typing like a maniac. Got 15 currency/run and when I saw the amount I needed for the full glam set I just gave up because my hands were tired.

? I have *never* failed wave one. I failed at wave two a few times because of my teammates and an unfortunate lag my end and of course several wave 3s. I find it almost impossible to fail there because as long as one person is trying you'll pass.... But maybe I'm wrong about that.

[UkcsAlias]

Well, in this case, I simply stop typing too as soon as I notice that someone isn’t even making the slightest bit of effort.

I did the same. And being top scorer with 10k points...

They realy should have implemented some sort of queue that considers 'skill' (we name it that way, in effect its just an afk punisher):
Give people a hidden 'rank' that can be between 1 and 20, starting at 10.

Each block of 5 ranks gets their own queue (so 1-5, 6-10 etc). Which only widens if the queue took too long (30s+).

Winning a match adds +1 and negates any deductions (even as lowest scorer, since you win no punishment should be done)
Being top scorer adds +2
Being 2nd highest adds +1
Being 3rd doesnt do anything
Being lowest scorer applies -3 (reduced by 1 for each competed stage. being last on stage 3 only results in -1 then).
Being below 10% of the top scorer applies -3 again (this is realy to punish afking hard).

This means that you are most likely going to start in one of the afker tiers. Making it very easy to get out of as any of the -3 is highly unlikely against an afker, and if you clear waves the punishment will be almost non existant.

As afkers constantly will get -4, they will stick at the bottom pf queue. And -6 is enough to instantly drop you to the afker queue.
Yet a bad player is highly unlikely to drop into such queue, since they wont be matched with very high scoring ones either. They might not win, but at least they are in a group that shows motivation. And within such groups, reaching round 3 isnt difficult (and wins are pretty much possible). And most important: repeated wins put you in the top queue very stable, because penalties arent applied.

This is a trivial matchmaking system to implement. And i wonder why they didnt think of that. As dev you should always think about how people will break your game, and in this minigame case afking is a very obvious one (it happened already on the fall guys event. its not even new). The lazyness they did here is now causing frustration.

[Straticus]

Same, i have carpal tunnel in my upper arm/wrist and this game is absolute torture for me. Even after one game with me holding back and trying to not stress it too much my arm is already tense and sore.

I don't understand how the devs thought this was a good addition to the game. Its hell for people with accessibility concerns, and FFXIV is usually good at accessibility.

Plus you know, most controller friendly MMORPG adding a non controller friendly minigame is pants all on its own even.