Letter From the Producer IX.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

Yeah. I mean if you go inside a dungeon, see other people fighting, but can't join them, it might as well be instanced.

It's like that all over the world though. Once a mob is claimed, players can't just jump in.

1st, open world NMs and the arena are an example, where players would team up andf take on a monster with, in your own words, "other people watching". Where it gets artificial is where multiple groups are taking their potshots at the Poporoon Dungeonmaster with a crowd, or even a line if a certain dungeon gets popular. What is keeping said adventurers from joining in on the battle against Poporoon before his death machine torches Ul'dah? If they can join in, how can the dev team keep the battle hard and challenging? It would be better for each dungeon to be held in an instance, that way each group that joins in gets the full experience and difficulty of being the group sent in from Ul'dah to stop Poporoon's plans, having a crowd of adventurers at Poporoons door or pop point is what I mean by "Artificial".

Reading through some of these posts I had an idea for a possible solution for Instanced Dungeons vs Open Dungeons:

Maybe they could make the actual zone/dungeon open for anyone, but the actual content instanced much like the Guildleves are. So, for example, say you had a series of quests that you had to complete before facing the boss. You could go to the dungeon, pop your quest, and all your actual quest mobs would pop but only your party could fight them, but other groups could watch.

Thanks. You make some good points and some points that I am still confused on.

1. Open World NMs. I'm leaving Arena's out because nothing exists like this in FFXIV and I've never played or watched anything like this. While I agree that NMs are an example of Open World content, I don't see how it is a good example of what I am speaking of. Typically, people go to fight NMs in an already established party. You don't go out to Uraeus' spawn point and spam "LFG to kill Uraeus!" do you? If another group happens along you while you are fighting Uraeus, though, they are likely to stop and watch to A.) Cheer you on, B.) Take note on strategies or C.) Watch you fail. It would be much the same in the suggestion I posted.

2. I was saying that the overall dungeon could be 'open' while the content inside could be 'instanced' much like our guildleves are. This would limit the monsters, minibosses, and main bosses to the party that popped the leve, just like the guildleves do.

3. You do make a good point about main bosses though. I could easily see a line forming to pop a boss fight, and it would definitely look artificial if multiple groups were popping the same boss fight at once. But maybe they could make just the final boss an instanced fight.

Again, I'm not against instanced dungeons. I'm just generating discussion on what COULD be an acceptable solution for both sides of the coin.