The New Aggro-Icon

[Peregrine]

Doing behests or even random leve group and seeing people run into a herd of STOP SIGNS is just sad. So I don't think you can say its entirely un-needed when people still don't have a clue.

That they still die with it on is proof that it's not needed and in fact only hurts them. That's just the thing. There's nothing you, I, the devs, or anyone can do to keep THE BADS from their inevitable deaths. As much as they insist on us keeping them alive, they insist on their own demise all the harder once we do. If it's not knowing if the mobs agro or not, it will be not knowing if they can survive running past them anyway. The blessed irony in all of this agro icon business is that the same kinds of players who died to "not knowing if a mob agroed" are the same kinds of people who don't pay attention enough to catch agro icons anyway. Hence, the agro icon does them absolutely no good and only serves as entertainment for us as we watch them continue to die in the same way they always have. The only thing agro icons really do is to bring your faith in humanity closer to what it should be, instead of blissfully thinking what you think now.

Actually, go ahead and keep the agro icon. It's fun to watch. No, I take that back you CANNOT do that for the good of humanity.

Because unfortunately there's a big downside to caving in. The only thing that making the world safer accomplishes is that they just get worse. Undeniable evolutionary mechanisms kick in. Without Darwin's pressure to keep their wits about them, they lose more wits and don't pass it on to their children. They and their children enjoy a nice population boom as the threat doesn't pick them off, until their wits reach a new low point. At that time, a new threat will start picking them off and will be the new "I don't know if that mob agroes or not so my solution is to run in there idiotically and probably die then complain how it's everyone else's fault." They will be right where they were, except even more witless.

Again, you cannot keep them from their predestined demise. Depriving them of it only makes them demand it all the more.

[Galamantyl]

Meh.

Don't care. The days where there was some risk to a game are long-gone now. Can only make do with what people whined for.

[Jynx]

Eh I'm pretty bummed about the agro icon in general as well as spoon-feeding mob levels like this. But whatever it wont change my game experience that much and at least I can turn them off if I want to and just blacklist everyone in my linkshell who feels the "need" to inform me of what I'm fighting or meerly walking near.

[Soda]

It's hilarious to me that people's definition of "spoon feeding" and "challenge" is that we're able to see a monster's level and whether or not it will aggro us. If that is the definition of "challenge" then I see a dark, dark future for this game.

[graiman]

obliviously like everything in life there are pros and cons,
i for one am grateful for this because i have a really bad memory i would run tirelessly into mobs that agro, because i will forget that they do that
and i will get very frustrated and it detracts from the game for me, BUT thats just me
for those of you with a memory better than that of a fish, turn it off!

[BelgianRofl]

This is closer to 2011 than one would think. [LINK]

Soon, our houses are all going to be made of rubber, and our plastic cars won't go faster than 8 miles per hour. We're all going to be laughing at shows like, "Ow my balls!". It is inevitable, and we're seeing the beginning of it.

I'm surprised SE doesn't just go ahead and start everybody off at rank 50 with ten-trillion gil, god-mode, and flying.

[graiman]

This is closer to 2011 than one would think. [LINK]

i seen that film! was good

[Griss]

Yay Numbers. Take that colorblindness!

[Dreamer]

Yay Numbers. Take that colorblindness!

Wow, I hadn't even thought about that. That's probably the reason they stuck with the starburst instead of just a red version of the non-aggro icon - people who are red-green colorblind wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

[Abriael]

Wow, I hadn't even thought about that. That's probably the reason they stuck with the starburst instead of just a red version of the non-aggro icon - people who are red-green colorblind wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

Yep, color blindness is a problem in gaming that developers are getting increasingly aware of. Not sure if this is the reason behind this particular implementation, but it's very possible.