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

[Velo_Vandore]

I don't like the idea of reducing the difficulty as patches are released. When I play a single player game, I will often dabble for months or years, but eventually I aim to complete the game 100% on the hardest mode. I have achieved this with several games many years after I started playing them and it's very satisfying to eventually reach my goal.

Just because another player puts in more hours per week does not mean they are more skilled or capable of completing challenging content that me. If my ambition is to experience and conquer the most challenging battles the game has to offer, I feel the current plans to reduce the difficulty of content after a set time pressure me to play quickly or more frequently than I'm comfortable with (I have RL commitments, such as job and family, and other hobbies as well. I don't want to treat the game as a job).

Even if the difficulty is only reduced slightly, this would still not be my preference. Because I take my time while playing and play less frequently than some, I will always be playing easy mode.

I do understand that leaving content at "end game" difficulty after new content has been released would make it difficult for many players to progress to the new end game. I also understand that at any given time the difficulty curve of the game should gradually progress towards the final content, and that leaving ex-endgame content difficulty unchanged could result in a situation where the lvl.50 raids are equally as hard as the lvl.60, 70, 80 and 90 raids (which probably wouldn't make sense).

If the content difficulty must be reduced after a time (which I agree it probably should), please leave the hard option there so slower players don't miss their chance. It's kind of cool that the Coils of Bahamut exist now before the preceding dungeons is released (creating an awesome challenge for extreme hardcore players), but I'm also kind of sad that soon that challenge will disappear forever, and I'll never see just how hard it was or get my chance to face it at that difficulty. The game is one big time trial now!

I know the developer can not please every player, and perhaps my situation / preference is not common, but I would truly love if the hard mode could be retained in some way for ex-endgame content (as an additional option), so I've posted here to express that wish.

I hope someone can understand my feelings on this. Edit: Looking back over other posts, it seems many players do feel the same way! I hope the developers can understand our feelings on this.

A slow player does NOT necessarily = a player who wants easy mode only!

A player who wants to experience the most challenging content does NOT necessarily = a player who wants to commit many hours per week to playing with a focus on efficient progression!

[LiadansWhisper]

When I play a single player game, I will often dabble for months or years, but eventually I aim to complete the game 100% on the hardest mode. I have achieved this with several games many years after I started playing them and it's very satisfying to eventually reach my goal.

This is not a single-player game. And those who post on the forums are a tiny, tiny fraction of the people who actually play the game. So don't think that any "majority" on this forum (in either direction) is representative of the player base as a whole. It's not.

The people you refer to as "you endgame raiders" is not just players that rush to end-game. As someone has written before there are people that cannot play as often but still want to enjoy the end-game as it was planned and not just a washed out version just because they were not able to play more than few hours everyday.

If Yoshida wants to help the casual players in beating some events he could just add casual content that adds tiers of equip that closes the gap a bit without "ruining" the current gameplay.

I am not someone who "rushed" to endgame. I've been busy juggling my life, my WoW raiding (which just kicked into high gear a week after FFXIV dropped), and playing this game. Yet I was able to get to 50 over a week ago (I think it may have been two) without playing for 12 hours at a time. If I can do it, so can you. It's your own damn fault if you're not to 50 by now. And I don't understand how you could be "not geared enough" at this point. I'm completely geared out from AK runs, and I will have enough tomes to buy my first piece of AF +1 by the end of the week. I didn't even get to do the "speed runs" and I'm still doing just fine for gear. So I really don't understand this idea of, "omg, I might not be able to participate!" I could participate - if I wanted to. But I don't want to put forth that amount of effort when I'm also balancing a raiding schedule in WoW.

I also still don't understand this rage on the part of raiders who are already clearing the current content at the very idea that some "casual scrubs" might be able to see the content they've seen. Dear lord, the idea that people will eventually get to see the content they paid for. How dare Square. *eyeroll*

[ZohnoReecho]

This is not a single-player game. And those who post on the forums are a tiny, tiny fraction of the people who actually play the game. So don't think that any "majority" on this forum (in either direction) is representative of the player base as a whole. It's not.



I am not someone who "rushed" to endgame. I've been busy juggling my life, my WoW raiding (which just kicked into high gear a week after FFXIV dropped), and playing this game. Yet I was able to get to 50 over a week ago (I think it may have been two) without playing for 12 hours at a time. If I can do it, so can you. It's your own damn fault if you're not to 50 by now. And I don't understand how you could be "not geared enough" at this point. I'm completely geared out from AK runs, and I will have enough tomes to buy my first piece of AF +1 by the end of the week. I didn't even get to do the "speed runs" and I'm still doing just fine for gear. So I really don't understand this idea of, "omg, I might not be able to participate!" I could participate - if I wanted to. But I don't want to put forth that amount of effort when I'm also balancing a raiding schedule in WoW.

I also still don't understand this rage on the part of raiders who are already clearing the current content at the very idea that some "casual scrubs" might be able to see the content they've seen. Dear lord, the idea that people will eventually get to see the content they paid for. How dare Square. *eyeroll*

I'm already 50 and working towards DL but I don't see your line of thought? And anyway, even if I wasn't, it's my fault if I'm not doing endgame 3 weeks from the start? It's mandatory that someone has to bring a DoW/M to 50 to enjoy the end game instead of working on a crafter or a gatherer from time to time? And what about players who didn't start playing yet? You say you didn't rush but instead it's what you did.

[Jeronlmo]

This is not a single-player game. And those who post on the forums are a tiny, tiny fraction of the people who actually play the game. So don't think that any "majority" on this forum (in either direction) is representative of the player base as a whole. It's not.


I am not someone who "rushed" to endgame. I've been busy juggling my life, my WoW raiding (which just kicked into high gear a week after FFXIV dropped), and playing this game. Yet I was able to get to 50 over a week ago (I think it may have been two) without playing for 12 hours at a time. If I can do it, so can you. It's your own damn fault if you're not to 50 by now. And I don't understand how you could be "not geared enough" at this point. I'm completely geared out from AK runs, and I will have enough tomes to buy my first piece of AF +1 by the end of the week. I didn't even get to do the "speed runs" and I'm still doing just fine for gear. So I really don't understand this idea of, "omg, I might not be able to participate!" I could participate - if I wanted to. But I don't want to put forth that amount of effort when I'm also balancing a raiding schedule in WoW.

I also still don't understand this rage on the part of raiders who are already clearing the current content at the very idea that some "casual scrubs" might be able to see the content they've seen. Dear lord, the idea that people will eventually get to see the content they paid for. How dare Square. *eyeroll*

They can see the content fine on youtube, you make the game pointless to play by outdating every bit of content every 2-3 months, I could literally quit, come back in 2-3 months and steamroll everything we just did with ease, that is the problem, if you want to win/see the content, suck less. This game is far easier than even FF11 was, FF11 wasn't scripted fights, this game is 100% scripted on every single fight, people having problems on titan still haven't noticed that titan uses an exact rotation every single fight based on how many jumps he's done. There is not a single fight in the game where you cannot pre-cure every attack before the mob even does it.

All of you seem to think that every endgame LS cares about world first or something, which means nothing. Those from games other than WoW care only about being efficient, your world first means nothing if only 8 of your members in a LS of 50+ people can clear it, your LS is worthless because you left people to rot while you brag about it.

Anyway, the point of this is, if you nerf content just to hand it to casuals so they can "see it", you make everything those who cleared it before it was nerfed invalid. They just wasted their time and could have waited for the nerf, you broke any form of efficiency. If you want this game to actually come down to nothing but statics (which most of you will not be apart of) just like WoW is, then continue this path, my LS is currently fighting the actual mechanics of the game by rotating people endlessly in multiple groups through coil each week to make sure everyone gets equal shots at gear and hindering ourselves to a degree in the process, SE is literally only a step away from making what we do impossible.

[Seraphel]

First of all, this discussion has happened in a lot of mmo's on one hand you have the "hardcore" players who sit around running raids all day, and getting angry if someone they see as "less skilled" players get the gear they have, on the other hand we have the casual players who buy the game, want to enjoy it to the fullest and have fun with it until endgame, where they are put down by hardcore players for not being hardcore themselves. You can't just say "they can see the content fine on youtube" thats not why you buy a game, if you went to gamestop, bought a game, came home and it was a youtube video, you would not be satisfied, instead of increasing or lowering difficulty, can't we just keep it at a level where both new / casual players can do it, and still have the hardcore players be able to do it aswell. Yes i understand that some of you enjoy a challenge, thats not everyone though, some people like feeling "heroic" in a game where you are made out to be "heroes".