Possible story-based areas for end-game

[Exn]

COP was a pain in the ass to do with pickup groups for a very long time, and really only static groups got through with it. It was a poor design choice. At the same time, totally open, no-requirement end-game content is bland, boring, and doesn't give any sense of satisfaction. I'm looking at you, WOW.

Also that said, there's really no reason not to instance end-game raids. If the argument is "well in Sea you could go to X, Y, or Z", then I can simply give Salvage as an example, or WOW's Naxxramas raid as examples of non-linear, but instanced raids. .

CoP was actually pretty awesome for me, some of my best memories there. I completed all of CoP thru pickups (and this was ofc way prior to Abyssea, I started XI right after ToAU came out) but the key was I was totally comfortable leading and organzing the parties. Just took a little research online of the battle strat, and they only spend up to an hour or so finding the members I need/want. I also always jotted down my party members when doing missions because I'd look for them again (if they weren't completely useless) for later missions and could get my groups together quickly because of that.

It was a good experience for me, but I can understand it being a pain for those who'd rather not try to form their own parties. I couldn't always take everyone who may have done an earlier mission with me, and even long after I completed CoP, I'd still see shouts for those same ppl trying to get that same mission done, like 6 months later.. You either had to catch the hype when the expansion was released, or take initiative and setup and organize the party yourself (different from just recruiting 6 members and being like 'uh, so what should we do now..?')

Salvage was one of the few things in XI I barely touched, only entered it once (I was still focusing up maxing out my AU rank and grinding Nyzul) but I didn't realize it was an instance. I thought they were separate zones, like Dynamis, that only one group could enter at a time? Either way, yea XI did have it's instances, but it wasn't like the instanced content we get these days, which are pretty linear indeed.

[Wolfie]

CoP was actually pretty awesome for me, some of my best memories there. I completed all of CoP thru pickups (and this was ofc way prior to Abyssea, I started XI right after ToAU came out) but the key was I was totally comfortable leading and organzing the parties. Just took a little research online of the battle strat, and they only spend up to an hour or so finding the members I need/want. I also always jotted down my party members when doing missions because I'd look for them again (if they weren't completely useless) for later missions and could get my groups together quickly because of that.

It was a good experience for me, but I can understand it being a pain for those who'd rather not try to form their own parties. I couldn't always take everyone who may have done an earlier mission with me, and even long after I completed CoP, I'd still see shouts for those same ppl trying to get that same mission done, like 6 months later.. You either had to catch the hype when the expansion was released, or take initiative and setup and organize the party yourself (different from just recruiting 6 members and being like 'uh, so what should we do now..?')

Salvage was one of the few things in XI I barely touched, only entered it once (I was still focusing up maxing out my AU rank and grinding Nyzul) but I didn't realize it was an instance. I thought they were separate zones, like Dynamis, that only one group could enter at a time? Either way, yea XI did have it's instances, but it wasn't like the instanced content we get these days, which are pretty linear indeed.

I did COP before TOAU, but they relaxed it some in TOAU as well (and you also had new jobs, gear, and battle mechanics to use).

Don't get me wrong, being among the first 20-something people who got Sea access on the server felt good, and the zone's design will always stand out to me as among the best in any MMO I've played.

But reflecting on it now, after years of playing and trying other MMOs, putting end-game content at the end of a very long, hard, and multiplayer-required quest chain frustrates a lot of people. What's worse, is that if very few people actually get to do that content, you've basically wasted money, time, and effort creating something that your playerbase won't really get to enjoy.

You need a mid-way between gating your content, and laying it all out from the beginning. I was a huge fan of Salvage, Dynamis, Assault Missions, because they had some fairly minor entry requirements, and you built up to the later stages by completing previous stages. I was also a fan of how attunements were done in WOW:BC; you needed to do a few 5-man dungeons to get access to the entry level raid, an effort that took at most a day if you dedicated your time to it. Every raid after simply required you to beat the previous one.

What I don't like is FFXI's Sea that most people didn't get to see (heh) after months of trying; and new WOW-style raids that can all be hit up as soon as you reach max level, even if you haven't completed the previous tier.