"You Will Die" Difficulty... Can I Have It?

[Zumi]

I'm not saying I'm against hard content, but is it worth developer's time to create super hard content.

This is a bell curve. If you ever learn statistics, this is used constantly


Making content that is for the farther right (like SD+1 or SD+2), more hardcore, group worth their effort? Content that 16 to 2% of player can will enjoy? Or is it, as a developer, better to make content for more left, less hardcore, group. Like at the SD-1 spot would be probably ideal, for profit. 84% of the population could handle that.

In short, hardcore content is not really cost effective from a development stand point. Resources to to appease 2 to 16% of the player base is hardly worth it.

EDIT: This is just a sample bell curve. Just used to make a point.

Oh there's a reason to make content for less then 1% of the player base. It gives casual players something they can try to work for but never achieve so they can feel like they are never done because they have not beat all the raid bosses on hard mode and do not have the best gear. Less then 0.1% of the WoW playerbase can beat Hard mode raids on current tier. Its often the hard core less then 1% that make a bunch of videos and stuff of your game which is basically a bunch of free advertising.

It's the carrot on a stick that you can never reach that keeps people playing.

[Klive]

Oh there's a reason to make content for less then 1% of the player base. It gives casual players something they can try to work for but never achieve so they can feel like they are never done because they have not beat all the raid bosses on hard mode and do not have the best gear. Less then 0.1% of the WoW playerbase can beat Hard mode raids on current tier. Its often the hard core less then 1% that make a bunch of videos and stuff of your game which is basically a bunch of free advertising.

It's the carrot on a stick that you can never reach that keeps people playing.

I know what you want, its tiered content. That does have some strengths, it gives and great sense of journey and accomplishment. Earning your way into Molten Core or Onyxia's lair was a feat to be proud of, let alone clearing them. But their is a huge problem with these as well. Tiered content has lots of bottle necks and creates huge hurdles for new players. Nothing makes a girl/bot friend love a game like "I'm sorry, you can't play with me until you finish 2 months of raiding after you hit max level." Bottle necks make it hard to progress to the next tier. You can't get a raid to help clear UBRS to key you to BWL because you are behind the curve? Too bad, try again later.

Also, you need "resets" tiered content due if you get too many tiers the hurdle becomes way too high for new players. Well that leads to another problem, such a small percentage will reach the highest tiers. As Zumi pointed out, less than 1% of vanilla WoW player reached Naxx. For someone trying and working hard to reach Naxx and then a "reset", ie expansion, comes out, that really sucks.

I will say, I did like vanilla WoW. I played it a lot and raided a lot. If FF14 had a similar path, I would be fine with that. I do accept they are walking a tight rope and not everyone is going to be happy with whatever decision they make.

[fusional]

I'm not saying I'm against hard content, but is it worth developer's time to create super hard content.

This is a bell curve. If you ever learn statistics, this is used constantly


Making content that is for the farther right (like SD+1 or SD+2), more hardcore, group worth their effort? Content that 16 to 2% of player can will enjoy? Or is it, as a developer, better to make content for more left, less hardcore, group. Like at the SD-1 spot would be probably ideal, for profit. 84% of the population could handle that.

In short, hardcore content is not really cost effective from a development stand point. Resources to to appease 2 to 16% of the player base is hardly worth it.

EDIT: This is just a sample bell curve. Just used to make a point.

and yet it's weird how all the MMOs that are failing are the ones without challenging content, right? except it's not weird at all. when you make content easy, more of the playerbase experiences it. absolutely. but they finish it fast, and then they have nothing to do. then they get bored and quit, moving on to the next game which just follows the pattern.

hard content gives players long terms goals to work towards, and that keeps them around longer. and the longer they stay around, the more the community benefits.

so in theory, your post might make sense. in practice it's wrong, as cost efficiency doesn't mean shit when saving money leads to fewer long-term subscriptions and a rapidly dying game.

[Norack]

I would definitely love it if this game was at all challenging. But unfortunately thats not the way they make MMO's anymore, or games in general for that matter imo. Heck I know this isn't FFXIV but one thing that kinda got me upset was that i bought halo 4 for the xbox i never played a halo game before or really play FPS's, and i started out on legendary difficulty to see if i could get all the achievements. That was the easiest game I have ever played i think, i would hate to see how easy that game is when you aren't playing it on legendary, was a real disappointment.

[Shikimaru]

I think a lot of FF fan (even more Japanese FF Fan) want hardcore endgame, I really don't think they'll do only easy content. I'm sure that the cristal tower and Bahamuth labyrinth will be pretty hard content (I hope). Of course they have to do easy content for everyone. But they are japanese, I trust them to add pretty hard stuff in this game.

[Elexia]

I think a lot of FF fan (even more Japanese FF Fan) want hardcore endgame, I really don't think they'll do only easy content.

They do. They want to pull in non FF fans as well, the fans used to super easy games with occasional hard encounters that you do only once.

The quickest turnoff to a casual player is something being hard/too hard or taking longer than 30 minutes to complete and SE wants to avoid alienating anyone because people WILL COMPLAIN if the content isn't accessible to their level 20 just like it is to their 50.

they should actually give us "hard" mode, i forgot what it is but didnt they change all difficulty settings from Japan since super mario brothers 2? making hard mode be hard over in japan but outside of japan they change hard mode to actually be medium, medium is easy, and easy is super easy. so there actually is no hard mode, except for over in japan.

Yes, Japan also doesn't release tougher RPGs out to the west because it doesn't mesh well with western gamers, i.e some RPGs have permanent death, something western gamers would bitch about heavily, especially in the early days, i.e:

"I put all this work into this character and s/he is completely gone?! HORRIBLE GAME DESIGN RABBLE RABBLE"

Thus word of mouth and lower overall sales they may as well not have localized it.

[Shikimaru]

They do. They want to pull in non FF fans as well, the fans used to super easy games with occasional hard encounters that you do only once.

I'm sorry but you're wrong, it is true that everyting will be easier for the eventually futur new players, but they want to satisfy the actual players as well, and we will have hard content, a lot of players already asked and they already answered, I remember a post of Yoshida talking about a dungeon with extremely hard content.

I know you're trying to say that cause you won't be disappointed if it happens, cause you said so (I do the same everytime ) but we'll have pretty hard content for sure !

[Firon]

They do. They want to pull in non FF fans as well, the fans used to super easy games with occasional hard encounters that you do only once.

The quickest turnoff to a casual player is something being hard/too hard or taking longer than 30 minutes to complete and SE wants to avoid alienating anyone because people WILL COMPLAIN if the content isn't accessible to their level 20 just like it is to their 50.



Yes, Japan also doesn't release tougher RPGs out to the west because it doesn't mesh well with western gamers, i.e some RPGs have permanent death, something western gamers would bitch about heavily, especially in the early days, i.e:

"I put all this work into this character and s/he is completely gone?! HORRIBLE GAME DESIGN RABBLE RABBLE"

Thus word of mouth and lower overall sales they may as well not have localized it.

Take it you never played fire emblem or any american rpgs cause a ton of them have hardcore mode I.E Torchlight 2.

Also a great deal of the population never beat garuda.... or Darnus normal or hard. If garuda/darnus is any indication how to content s gonna look i'm happy it can only get better.

[Norack]

they should actually give us "hard" mode, i forgot what it is but didnt they change all difficulty settings from Japan since super mario brothers 2? making hard mode be hard over in japan but outside of japan they change hard mode to actually be medium, medium is easy, and easy is super easy. so there actually is no hard mode, except for over in japan.

[Wolfie]

Kotaku link, nothx