Time for me to leave FFXIVFollow

So true. I remember asking on these forums how people were running around so fast in the town and thinking that I needed to level archer to use "Sprint" like it was the new thief. I got super Lol'ed.

Most people rush to the end because it's where most of the content will be and that is what players want, not the devs.

Ha, you should have taken a break like... a month ago? I rushed through got a relic beat some Coil and said "OK, this will be lots of fun with more content. Be back for 2.1!"

And it's been wonderful. I'm really looking forward to the new expansion, having been logged out for a month.

Point?

Not everyone online is 50 and decked out
Not everyone who will ever play ffxiv is playing it
Fun
Excitement
Other jobs

Content has a life span for me. I've never been shy in expressing that opinion. And if me wanting loot for my reasonable efforts subsequently makes me a loot *****, then I'll accept that accusation, too. This is pretty much me saying that if I wanted to take LNC up, I could have it on par with my BLM, if not a smidge weaker after a few weeks. These lock outs pretty much assure that that can't happen and spreads it out to months. And in part at the expense of my BLM's growth, to boot.

So, let's say I got a piece of gear for the week. What's the point of me going again and incurring durability loss, thus a gil expense, for nothing tangible. Fun, you say? Will that be the case 10 weeks from now after we've possibly run it dozens of times? Odds are I would've run it with my friends to begin with, too. I really can't emphasize enough how much I ******* hate time gating, though. And I'm honestly sick of MMOs believing that we, as players, like it, too. We may know why it's there, as content certainly takes time to develop, but then this leads to the inevitable question of whether or not our money's actually being put to its best use for the game first, and then SE's other ventures.

I'm not a hardcore no-lifer, but I hate being held back just because. And this isn't even their pinnacle content like BC. I'm tired of condoning this crap with flimsy excuses like it's the RMT's fault or people won't play nice with each other. I hope enough ***** about this and Yoshi waffles in the 2 weeks we have before patch. I'd be more tolerant of once a day, as I'm sure many others would be. But if stays at 1 week? Why should I be excited? Why should I not expect more of the same in the future?

Well, if we're being brutally honest, I'd add the fact that gear progression is tied so strongly to dungeon content at the moment as a frustration as well as zero open-world endgame. A couple beastmen dailies isn't going to change the latter in any respectable manner. And crafting obviously suffers with its best being locked to i70 at the moment with CT being i80 and BC at i90. Yoshi fearing RMT is also exactly why crafting is in that situation. I've talked about workarounds before, with maybe a little dash of faith in the community not being douchebags to one another, or at least your own immediate circle of friends.

I saw Hyan make another thread about how he believes these lockouts help his demographic. I'm going to assume he's talking about casuals. I'm going to say this does nothing to help casuals at all. The people who would feel inclined to blitz through gear acquisition, were it possible here, will likely be forming their own 8-man groups (and then some if it's ever possible). They'll probably do it on Monday and not give a **** for the rest of the week to boot. Hence it being highly unlikely they'd actually want to play with the casuals, or would do so as little as possible as not to offend their delicate sensibilities. In personally approaching this from the casual perspective, I consider that maybe I have a Saturday all to myself, and thus 8 hours I could throw at CT for the sake of a secondary job. I get in and in under 2 hours with my first run, I get a drop. CT is now useless to me for those remaining 6 hours. Could I do something else like level another job? Sure. But then what I do when everything is 50 and in full DL? Make money? Why? Crafting is arbitrarily second-rate.

This is what I like to call an artificial Game Over. It happens with time gating. It happens with raiding being the only source of gear tiers after a point. It's basically a problem in the assumption that everyone can or does want to play the same way. We don't. It doesn't mean we want hand-outs, mind you. It just means we want something to do so we always feel like our avatars are growing and improving. And frankly, people need to get mad that SE is telling us we can't play a game we're paying for. Just because this problem doesn't apply to someone who only plays a couple hours a week does not mean it isn't a problem.

Solutions? Sure, I've got ideas. But I'm feeling too cynical right now to even want to express them. And this is before even considering the language barrier. Right now, the best we can hope for is that community reps see people are unhappy with this information.

I play casually, and my sensibilities are anything but delicate. You can't judge someone by their playtime. For every hardcore player who likes to dismiss someone's pathetic n00b build, there's another who enjoys patiently guiding newcomers through endgame dungeons all the time. You can't lump hardcore players into one stereotype of despising casual play nor can you lump casual players into one basket so you can conveniently blame them all for not respecting your problems.

You might not like the game mechanics SE has chosen for this game, but lavishing prejudice (on what's really a diverse group of fellow players) over it doesn't help you one bit. I'm inclined to agree that these artificial lockouts on endgame content don't server any meaningful purpose, but I can't agree with the way you've chosen to express it.

The thing is I've seen people attempting to justify the lock-outs because it will keep casuals and hardcores closer together. I'm more than aware that there are far more diverse demographics than the two extremes, but this does not actually achieve what they think it does. It is not encouragement to make them play nice or want to guide strangers. People more apt for that are doing it already, myself included with the PUGs I've picked up while running with my PLD friend as we explain bosses or offer more general tips.

I tried to explain that this actually hurts casuals, too. In fact, all time-sensitive gating does. Miss a day of Dynamis in XI? You'll never be able to make up that profit. Not get your drop in CT this week or simply not have the time time to try? Next week doesn't care. One only.

As long as someone is trying, they will eventually hit 50. As long as they run dungeons, they will eventually finish a DL set. These are not time-restricted. Do it in a couple days or do it in a couple months. I have no beef with either, honestly, as long as the person on the other end is having fun. But I also know not everyone is going to want to level all jobs. They may not care about crafting. They may do anything faster than I would or could. I don't begrudge them for that. Of course, I hold no sympathy for those who do rush and complain there's nothing to do. I put a lot of time into my character. I don't believe I rushed in the manner some may dictate. So it can get a bit nauseating for those to narrow-mindedly fault others playing how they like within reason. The underlying message they, in turn, convey is that, "The game isn't for you!"

Even if that isn't Yoshi's intent, he's saying that the more he places restrictions on content. I may be an insignificant drop in the bucket as an individual, but I'm not alone on this. I'll spend my time elsewhere, much as I'd like to see XIV thrive. So pardon me for being crass about it, but I criticize because I care.

Thing is, FFXI had these types of lockouts on the majority of its endgame events and there was no casual community to speak of over there. This is an SE thing. It has nothing to do with players who play more vs. players who play less and I really don't think the community turning in on itself to lay blame serves any constructive purpose no matter how many people think it's okay to do so.

It's probably nothing more than an obvious speed bump designed to keep your subscription dragged out longer so you don't wrap up your gear acquisitions in a month and quit till the next major patch. Maybe there's another reason, and Yoshi should certainly be encouraged to offer one of his eloquent explanations as to why. But I can tell you, I don't care about getting all the latest toys, nor do I care about how fast anyone else gets them. Barriers like this have no meaning to someone taking their time with the game; you can't put that at my feet or anyone else who plays like I do. It's SE who owes you an explanation and who need to be convinced of the error of their ways, not people labeled "casual."

Edited, Dec 4th 2013 11:30pm by Xoie

I hear you OP.

I am kind of in the same position, though I have yet not hit 50 with a single class and is kind of trying not to level if possible (Currently at lvl 42)
That end game dungeon spamming sound like not fun at all to me.

I am in a fairly good FC I think. The problem is that almost everybody else is lvl 50 now and spamming those end game dungeons, complaining about all bad groups they are in ("this tank sucks", "those dps are bad", "this healer sucks")
I wish I could find a LS, or worst case, maybe another FC (?) with demographic more similar to my playing style.

Thing is, I really, really love most other aspects about this game. I actually prefer to stay and enjoy the scenery, atmosphere, story at the fullest. And the rain! It is so freaking well done! Both the sound and sight of it!

Regarding dungeons, if possible, I like to enter them without checking ten youtube videos to know exact tactics if possible.
I do understand that other just want to clear the dungeons, so to avoid too many wipes, I checked tactics for the last few storyline dungeons.

My very best dungeon experience so far was a dungeon at lvl 32 (I think, it was an optional one) where we PUGed from different servers. None of us had ran the dungeon before. We wiped two times, realized what went wrong and then made another try ("hmmm, we get wet standing here and then all those electric monsters appear and zap us, what if we...") and cleared the bosses!
I am pretty sure I will remember that specific dungeon run for a long time, and if nothing else, it is one very positive memory I will have from this game.

It is now a week since I last logged in to the game.
Maybe I will wait until 2.1 hits, and then check out that housing stuff and maybe continue trying to level slowly.
Or possibly, start all over again with another character to see how the storyline is in the other cities.

Aint that the truth... Way different than FFXI...

I can always tell within 30 seconds of a fight how it is going to go, mainly by how much the tank is getting hit for.. If they are under geared I am thinking we are going to be fighting for our life the whole way. Undergeared DPS also can be a issue and of coarse the WHM needs proper gear. Gear in this game make a much bigger difference. People like to blame everyone especially the healer but allot of times it is a under geared tank that is the issue. We only get so much mp and only cast spells so fast and their is nothing we can do about that.

Yea I loved whm in FFXI but not as much in this game. it heal, heal, heal occasional ensuna. Not as much to do in FFXIV but if there was it would be really ruff...



Edited, Dec 5th 2013 10:25am by Nashred

This individual speaks the truth.

Edited, Dec 5th 2013 3:12pm by TwilightSkye

Not really, lockout does hurt everyone by various degrees. It's been months and the frigging Allaghan Pants of Maiming does not drop for me. Does not help when Allaghan drop is very chest specific. Tired of Primal not dropping your weapon? Hah, try weekly lockout Coil drop. Some people could go months without getting any drop by the NEED system. So the Myth Tome is very important to gear yourself up.