The new Standard of Gaming?

[Farore]

...just focus on the things in life that aren't "boring."

Life is boring. That's why I play video games; it's a chance to escape reality and go on an adventure that would be impossible to do elsewhere.

You can't really just sit back and ask a game to change to your whims because you find it necessary for your enjoyment... notice how many times I referenced you.

Have you read the forums? :P I'm not the only one.

[jbizzi]

Life is boring. That's why I play video games; it's a chance to escape reality and go on an adventure that would be impossible to do elsewhere.



Have you read the forums? :P I'm not the only one.

I have read the forums and am still looking for the 1,000,000,000 page thread concerning the ease of leveling 1-50 being too troubling to move on with their lives.

Your prior comment pretty much sums up your thoughts on just about everything as far as I can tell.

[Daragust]

So why, then, do the developers of today's society feel the need to make all the content readily, and quickly, available to people who play for no more than an hour a day?

Before I say this, I want you to understand I totally get where you are coming from. I have found the continual casualisation of MMOs to cause the downfall of community and challenge.

That being said, lets look at the numbers. This is the real world, and money speaks, not passion.
A hard core player that plays 10 hours a day is getting their entertainment on a 15 dollar a month MMO at a price of 5 cents an hour. For that price, you are demanding the following: More content, constant tuning of existing content, new gear models, new enemy models and usually re-balancing of PvP. Every patch. For 5 cents an hour.

A casual playing 2 hours a day is paying 25 cents an hour. 5 times your hourly investment. For that they are asking the following. Some time, in the future, I want the same things everyone else has. That is it. They aren't demanding fixes. They aren't demanding new content.

If you are a company looking to make money, which crowd would you target?

[ExiaQuanta]

I thought Garuda Normal and Aurum Vale was already a bitch to deal with. First few runs in Aurum Vale? Didnt even get pass the first room. Got killed twice by Garuda. And im playing what people consider the easiest/laziest class to play which is Bard.

[arctic]

Thesis paper on qq

tldr;

Go play the game till you hit cap instead of wasting your time acting upset over something you haven't finished yet.

[Yshnal]

1) A long GCD, which makes combat easier because you have more time to think about what you're doing, and more time to react to what happens to you.

It might seem so, but the GCD limits what you can do at any given moment and keeps you on your toes to not spam abilities and think more strategically. Just spam them and you won't have that skill that you need at a certain point in order to keep everyone safe (i.e. stuns & interrupts).

2) Pigeon-holing jobs into very specific skill-sets and roles, which takes the thought out of creating a class, thus making it easier to understand and use.

Holy trinity and all that. It was clear that this game was based on it. Variety in MMOs is good, and if you want a bit of freedom in that regard you have both GW2 and TSW there for you, and both are decent games.

3) A very low number of abilities, which make it easier to figure out what to do, because you have very few buttons to ever push.

Not at 50. I have two bars full of abilities that I use almost on every fight.

4) FATEs that give ridiculous amounts of experience, and developers that say this is how it should be. Simply another way to expedite the leveling process.

The problem with fates is that they're the optimal alternative when you level your other classes/jobs. They don't need to reduce the exp they give, but limit the amount of fates that you can do daily receiving the full reward (similarly to levequests, but with no hard limit and just some sort of diminishing returns after you do X fates to prevent mindless farming) and, at the same time, improve the other alternatives.

5) Bosses that are just laughable and feel like a big trash monster. Making fights flashy doesn't make them hard, sorry.

Not all of them, specially at end game. Also, if you really care about really hard fights just roll a tank or a healer and you'll have what you want since level 1.

[jcw005]

The gaming industry is just that - an industry, i.e. a business. Catering to a select "hardcore" few will never be as profitable as appealing to the majority of people. Consider this example: There's a restaurant, the ElBulli, which was judged number one best restaurant in the world a record 5 times. Guess what happened to it? It went bankrupt. Now look at McDonald's. The food it serves can only barely be described as food without using ironic air quotes, and yet it generates a ridiculous amount of revenue. If you're a business, which of these two models is the more sustainable and profitable?

Edit: Just thought I'd note that I wasn't comparing FFXIV to McDonald's; it's just an example =)

[jbizzi]

The gaming industry is just that - an industry, i.e. a business. Catering to a select "hardcore" few will never be as profitable as appealing to the majority of people. Consider this example: There's a restaurant, the ElBulli, which was judged number one best restaurant in the world a record 5 times. Guess what happened to it? It went bankrupt. Now look at McDonald's. The food it serves can only barely be described as food without using ironic air quotes, and yet it generates a ridiculous amount of revenue. If you're a business, which of these two models is the more sustainable and profitable?

Edit: Just thought I'd note that I wasn't comparing FFXIV to McDonald's; it's just an example =)

This might be one of the closest analogies anyone could think of, thank you for posting. (no sarcasm intended btw)

EDIT: Analogies of successful business models, not specific to video games.

[Yoko_Kurama]

The gaming industry is just that - an industry

Thank you for this, it is the truth with no sugar coating, in martial arts we call main stream martial arts dojos Mc Dojos, i will start calling mmos like this Mc MMO's.

[Naraka]

...

BTW if you want a challenge try Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 on hardest difficulty.
Was a great challenge for me and was fun.