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

[Azadross]

I would rather hope developers don't make balance decisions solely on people complaining on forums. Honestly, I don't think they do, not in general.

Sure, complaints might make them take another look at a given area, but any sensible developer should have data logged that would show them how difficult the content really is for the community - how many times attempted, how many times failed, how many deaths occurred, etc.

The question, I guess, is whether these particular developers are sensible; well, I'm happy enough with the direction they've taken things so far, so I can't say I'm too concerned. Admittedly, I'm also just looking to have fun, not be a super hardcore "FFXIV is my life" sort of player.

Unfortunately that isn't how it works, SE are already taking notice of what is being said on these forums. Which is exactly what I've seen happen in other games where changes have been implemented due to the vocal few that have made them the easiest most convenient games you can imagine, in fact so convenient that they were no longer worth playing due to being utterly boring and easy.

Most of the time the changes I've seen made in games where the developers try to please everybody end up not pleasing anybody, people will complain regardless. I would much rather SE have a clear vision for their game and stick to their guns, then take the players along for the journey with them instead of trying to cater to everyone.

I've never enjoyed games that are ridiculously easy, they just aren't memorable. Look all over the Net and see where people talk fondly about the struggles they overcome in games years after the event. The thing you won't see is someone talking about that content where there was absolutely no challenge which if you asked them about it a week later they probably wouldn't even remember it because it was so insignificant.

Do I want to see the game punishingly difficult? No, but I do at least want to be challenged rather than breezing through with no real sense of accomplishment.

[BrainWoodstock]

Garuda dont need a nerf, that fight is possible with random people so why nerf it.

[Jynxii]

You know what makes HM Primal fights hard? Having to carry people that come into them under geared because they think once they hit 50 and have their AF gear they should be able to do every piece of content. The amount of players I have seen in HM Garuda today sporting a full set of AF gear is rediculous; It is like having your Ifrit weapon suddenly means you can do Garuda as well.

The people that want 'easy epicz' are the same people that will jump to the next 'big' MMO because 'the game is too easy and boring', or not renew after the trial month; at least give it a couple of months to see who is still around and cater to them.

Also, multiple difficulty dungeon design is horrible. It doesn't play as "do HM if you want a challenge!", it becomes "do normal mode to gear up for hard mode!". Why not just have something that is challenging from the get go? Not impossible, but challenging that people actually need to work at and become better players to beat? You don't have to play the game 12 hours a day or turn the game into 'a job' to become a 'good' player, you just need to not have poobrain. I think some people could really use content that doesn't just give them gear and actually requires them to use their grey matter. It would set the genre and the player base up for better things, instead of the content that we've gotten in the past 5 years in 'mainstream' MMOs.

Edit: From the content I've experienced thus far (everything but Bahamut's), things feel really spot on for difficulty. Some of it is hard/challenging which becomes 'easier' after you've learnt it, with half of it being gear checks (DPS, HP or otherwise).

[MomoOG]

Lets be honest here you are not looking for "challenging" content. You are just looking for exclusive gear that you would only be able to obtain due to having more time on your hand.

[Jynxii]

Lets be honest here you are not looking for "challenging" content. You are just looking for exclusive gear that you would only be able to obtain due to having more time on your hand.

Exclusive from the people suffering from poobrain?

The OP didn't ask for content that takes hours to clear, he asked for challenging content that can't be facerolled. Even some of the 'toughest' dungeons in Vanilla WoW (You know, when things actually required so skill/coordination) didn't take hours to clear, they were just challenging, and once you learnt the mechanics (and got a bit of gear), you could cruise through them in 3-4 hours.

Like everything, guides will be published, and even 'hard' content will be doable by people that put in a little bit of time to gear up before hand, and make an effort to learn something instead of calling BS mechanics or lag. Elitist or not, if you want to do 'end game' content/raids, and can't be bothered investing the time to get a full DL set before trying to burden yourself on 7 other players, then you need to re-evaluate your position.

A full darklight takes a bit of time to get; are you suggests HM Garuda / Titan should be doable with AF gear? Don't worry, a lot of people seem to think this as they pop up all the friggen time.

[Arminus]

Make the game easier, make the hard modes harder. Problem solved. The casuals can do the normal stuff, the challengers can do the hard modes!

In hard modes each trash mob should have AT LEAST 547 million HP, and should do about 1 million damage each unmitigated hit. The bosses should each have at least 650 billion HP (MINIMUM!) and should hit for 50 million damage per hit.

[Axke]

Well its simple as this To hard for casuals - stop play huge income loss, cause we all know there are more casual than hardcore gamers,

So they need to make sure easy enough for them other wise they will just Quit u might think thats a good thing, but then Se will lose a lot of income and then might happen to V1 dead mmo

[Kraggy]

you could cruise through them in 3-4 hours.

LMAO, because people with real-lives can devote 3-4 hours uninterrupted to play a video game.

Fact is, as Blizzard admitted years ago and is more true today than ever, raiders are in the words of one of Trion's CM team "a SMALL MINORITY" and that holds for any MMO you care to name. As such the developers don't need to pander to these elitists because they don't bring in significant revenue and are not as important as they like to think they are.

If the vast majority of players don't get to see content, then things are broken.

[SakuraOmega]

LMAO, because people with real-lives can devote 3-4 hours uninterrupted to play a video game.

Students and the unemployed, probably, most others, no.

Fact is, as Blizzard admitted years ago and is more true today than ever, raiders are in the words of one of Trion's CM team "a SMALL MINORITY" and that holds for any MMO you care to name. As such the developers don't need to pander to these elitists because they don't bring in significant revenue and are not as important as they like to think they re.

what world do you live in? Cant devote 3-4 hours ? If you realy want your items you will Work out a time table. If you realy dont care, of course you wont have time. And You do have weekends. Any person can allocate 3-4 hours if they want to do something. Even tho you have 100% work, kids wife etc. You can make it work. If you cant well then you shouldnt realy play mmos and think your getting endgame

[Ruisu]

Final Fantasy was always incredibly easy and facerolly and broken and casual. Except for the NES version of FF1, but that version was terrible anyways.

That said, I'm enjoying that I'm not all that good at this game. I would love to see content get harder from here on out.