Dear Square Enix! Make the game harder, not easier!

[MrSmiley]

Greetings,

I’m happy to see that you adventurers are up for a good challenge and ready to get down and dirty with some difficult content!

Of course in addition to supplementing the end-game with extreme battles and other challenging content, we will also reduce the difficulty of the existing high level content at the same time, as Yoshida has mentioned in previously during Letter from the Producer LIVE.

We're always reading and reporting your feedback, but please understand that when we introduce new content and supplement higher-level events, it allows us to ease up on earlier content. (Of course there will be things added in patch 2.1 that isn't focused on end-game.)

We’ll be announcing details about the specific content to be released in the near future, but I wanted to just remind you about the general plan.

Just warning, nerfing old content every time new content comes out is a good way to make players feel their achievements mean nothing, which is bad for an mmo. Speeding up progressions somehow (though not too quickly) is a better direction to take as opposed to simply making it easier/easy which makes players feel their effort was wasted and likely less liable to redo with other players.

Why try not when it will be handed out later?

edit: also, if your going to make harder content while making older content easier, doesn't that create an odd jump in difficultly for players who come in late?

[Xerius]

Just warning, nerfing old content every time new content comes out is a good way to make players feel their achievements mean nothing, which is bad for an mmo. Speeding up progressions somehow (though not too quickly) is a better direction to take as opposed to simply making it easier/easy which makes players feel their effort was wasted and likely less liable to redo with other players.

Why try not when it will be handed out later?

edit: also, if your going to make harder content while making older content easier, doesn't that create an odd jump in difficultly for players who come in late?

With the way that power creep works this is the way MMO's have always been anyway. You do new content to get gear that's better than the gear you already have which in turn would make older content easier anyway, they're simply skipping the middle-man.

[Xatsh]

snip

After a expansion all our work is worthless anyways... so why does it matter. New gear higher levels better stats. Yoshida thinks this will keep people happy and playing it is honestly the opposite effect but what ever devs will learn the hard way. It is the mainstream progression model. Make people work hard then make all their hard work pointless next patch. The old gear treadmill, worst invention of the modern mmo that ARR is stupidly embracing.

If gear is worthless nerfing the content is the obvious choice honestly.

[Kane]

nerfing old content every time new content comes out is a good way to make players feel their achievements mean nothing, which is bad for an mmo.

Yeah, I can't really fathom this. If level caps are going to be raised, new classes implemented, etc., then content should get easier on its own, allowing people to catch up.

As it is now, a player is kind of an idiot to bother attempting to devise a strategy for a hard fight knowing full-well that in a couple months that very content will struggle to help you complete it. It's more efficient in all ways just to wait and get the rewards handed to you than to fight to earn (soon to be outdated) gear as soon as it becomes available.

[Joypad]

Just warning, nerfing old content every time new content comes out is a good way to make players feel their achievements mean nothing

Your achievement was getting stuff done the moment others could access with binoculars. And given that you're a good player and clear new content, it will remain that way.

SE takes the typical WoW approach. Am I the only one who is NOT surprised?

[Takeshi_Eiketsu]

Greetings,

I’m happy to see that you adventurers are up for a good challenge and ready to get down and dirty with some difficult content!

Of course in addition to supplementing the end-game with extreme battles and other challenging content, we will also reduce the difficulty of the existing high level content at the same time, as Yoshida has mentioned in previously during Letter from the Producer LIVE.

We're always reading and reporting your feedback, but please understand that when we introduce new content and supplement higher-level events, it allows us to ease up on earlier content. (Of course there will be things added in patch 2.1 that isn't focused on end-game.)

We’ll be announcing details about the specific content to be released in the near future, but I wanted to just remind you about the general plan.

You guys are amazing! I love how you make content more accessible for those that can't play it yet! Keep up the good work!!!

[Klutz64]

I don't know, I personally don't like the idea of nerfing older content for more accessibility. Just because I play through the game slower than others doesn't mean I don't want to experience the same level of challenge when I get to that content.

[Hawklaser]

I don't know, I personally don't like the idea of nerfing older content for more accessibility. Just because I play through the game slower than others doesn't mean I don't want to experience the same level of challenge when I get to that content.

I don't want to see content nerfed just for the fact of making it easier for everyone. Some fights however may currently be over tuned, as I remember SE saying when they tested and tuned fights for XI if they thought PLD should have Aegis for the fight, they tested with the whole group having Relic items and other bleeding edge gear for the content. This kind of tuning often is based around the highest common denominator, and it is entirely possible to forget some of the gear used to test it may not be obtainable until after that fight, or that people do not have the mechanics of the fight handed to them on a silver platter. Just a couple of examples of this from XI are Absolute Virtue and Pandemonium Warden.

[Morg]

If for some reason I can't beat turn 5 before it's nerfed, it's going to feel really horrible. I know my group feels the same way. Each week the fight naturally becomes easier as you collect more raid loot and mythology. Additional content that drops relevant gear might also meet the same ends.

[Yrusama]

Of course in addition to supplementing the end-game with extreme battles and other challenging content, we will also reduce the difficulty of the existing high level content at the same time, as Yoshida has mentioned in previously during Letter from the Producer LIVE.

I strongly disagree with the decision to reduce fight difficulty. I want the pride of beating it as it is now, rather than get handed a dumbed-down version of it. Or am I supposed to flaunt that I beat "The Navel: Mystic Quest"?

Rather than reduce fight difficulty, introduce nice gear that makes it easier naturally. In 1.0 Ifrit was introduced before class abilities were altered, and he got easier after that, and easier still after jobs and artifact were introduced. There is no reason to blatantly nerf a fight for the sake of duty finder traffic.