FFXIV can be improved to make it more appealing to all sorts of players
On September 10, FFXIV got Eorzea Census 2015 back and shared the latest data to come out of Eorzea. I see this data and to me, it shows how the game's difficulty curve may be too steep for lesser-skilled players such as myself. I have reached max level in easier games, but find myself discouraged from quite getting there in a game that forces grouping to advance the story.
I will never play a tank or healer because of the immense pressure these roles entail. I have seen too many tanks and healers berated even if they are clearly new players. To me, a game shouldn't shoo away novices or people who just aren't as good as those who devote immense amounts of time to learning the system inside and out. Those players should stick with other people of like mind and let people of different skill levels hang together to learn with less fear of judgement.
It actually does hurt people's feelings when you get angry and people seem to forget that. I think it's sad that the game itself features a scenario of a character being harshly berated and shunned by her peers for a bad run in a dungeon. I believe the intention was to make you sympathize with players who make mistakes or just don't "get" the mechanics of the game and treat them gently.
Notice that crating has a higher rate of max-level characters.
I think a solution would be to have some kind of check box system of telling the game what kind of player you are and what kind of player you want to group with. You could mark yourself as "beginner" or "intermediate" or "advanced" for instance. You could say you don't want to group with max-level players the first time you play the game (my brother-in-law just ran into a problem where people got angry at him for looking at cut scenes in a latter dungeon which is ridiculous because he'd never seen them). We have enough stock of FFXIV Gils for selling!
The game knows if someone has never completed a dungeon. Why are we being grouped with the bored level 50? The immersion is broken.
I also don't understand the requirement for a "balanced" team the first time you enter a dungeon. I think letting our Chocobos or retainers (we do train them and arm them, after all) join us, like the companion system in SWTOR would be a great way to get around a LOT of these problems. That fills in the gaps and would also solve a lot of the above mentioned issues.
"But this would make part of the dungeon harder, like having to disable X in X boss fight!"
Okay, just flash a warning that it will be harder. Let the player assume a level of risk.
I also do not like that so much depends on the size of your Free Company. I run a very tiny one of three members and we will probably never unlock all the things other FC's can. I don't think any feature should be determined by a popularity game. I'd rather associate with people I trust and get along with. Not some anonymous corporation of players I could never fully get to know.
It's a beautiful, rich game, but I feel it could be improved and made even more appealing to all sorts of players, not just the ex-FFXI crowd.
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I will never play a tank or healer because of the immense pressure these roles entail. I have seen too many tanks and healers berated even if they are clearly new players. To me, a game shouldn't shoo away novices or people who just aren't as good as those who devote immense amounts of time to learning the system inside and out. Those players should stick with other people of like mind and let people of different skill levels hang together to learn with less fear of judgement.
It actually does hurt people's feelings when you get angry and people seem to forget that. I think it's sad that the game itself features a scenario of a character being harshly berated and shunned by her peers for a bad run in a dungeon. I believe the intention was to make you sympathize with players who make mistakes or just don't "get" the mechanics of the game and treat them gently.
Notice that crating has a higher rate of max-level characters.
I think a solution would be to have some kind of check box system of telling the game what kind of player you are and what kind of player you want to group with. You could mark yourself as "beginner" or "intermediate" or "advanced" for instance. You could say you don't want to group with max-level players the first time you play the game (my brother-in-law just ran into a problem where people got angry at him for looking at cut scenes in a latter dungeon which is ridiculous because he'd never seen them). We have enough stock of FFXIV Gils for selling!
The game knows if someone has never completed a dungeon. Why are we being grouped with the bored level 50? The immersion is broken.
I also don't understand the requirement for a "balanced" team the first time you enter a dungeon. I think letting our Chocobos or retainers (we do train them and arm them, after all) join us, like the companion system in SWTOR would be a great way to get around a LOT of these problems. That fills in the gaps and would also solve a lot of the above mentioned issues.
"But this would make part of the dungeon harder, like having to disable X in X boss fight!"
Okay, just flash a warning that it will be harder. Let the player assume a level of risk.
I also do not like that so much depends on the size of your Free Company. I run a very tiny one of three members and we will probably never unlock all the things other FC's can. I don't think any feature should be determined by a popularity game. I'd rather associate with people I trust and get along with. Not some anonymous corporation of players I could never fully get to know.
It's a beautiful, rich game, but I feel it could be improved and made even more appealing to all sorts of players, not just the ex-FFXI crowd.
You may also like:
· Some suggestions for improving Final Fantasy XIV [2015-09-14]
· Final Fantasy Event - The Rising 2015[2015-08-28]
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