EreRant #7
Looks like many of the people that read EreBlog are more casual players, so this rant has you guys in mind.
Cats and dogs. Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Star Wars and Star Trek. There are many great feuds worth getting fired up over, but in the realm of Final Fantasy XI, few cause more drama and bad feelings than when casual and endgame players come into conflict.
First, you have your casual endgame player. They’ve got a job pretty high, maybe even two. They’ve probably been playing the game for a decent amount of time, but they never really took it that seriously. Maybe they have a wife and kids or a job that takes up a lot of time so they only get to be on a few hours a night, not quite long enough for major events. Maybe they just refuse to let FFXI approach becoming a job and don’t do anything in the game that they don’t terribly like. Either way, they’re a bit flighty as far as endgame players go - you never quite know when they’ll have a busy few days and only be on for a half hour here and there, or just disappear entirely for a week or more.
On the other hand, you have your hardcore players. You log on, they’re on. You log off, they’re on. You log on the next day, there’s a good chance they’ve been on all night. It can be hard to say if they’re insomniacs or perhaps just a sleepless variety of alien lifeform. They’re either meriting, wanting to merit, or boasting about their merits. Or maybe they’re the person that shows up to Dragon’s Aery a half hour before the window starts. They’re totally gung-ho about endgame events. This isn’t exactly to say that they’re even good at the game (see EreRant #1 about this strange phenomena) but what they may lack in skill they sure make up in event attendance.
Taking either school of thought to the extreme leads to inevitable unfortunate drama-related incidents. In your extreme hardcore endgame shell, people are initially wowed by the absolute killing power and ability to get things done that a shell like that possesses. Over time, perhaps weeks, perhaps months, the awe wears off and it becomes little more than a grind - a grind that takes up large amounts of the day, every day, with little time for yourself. Certain linkshell members slowly begin to resent having to devote extreme amounts of their day often to get gear for people they never particularly liked in the first place. People begin to plan to leave once they get a certain item and sometimes drop their pearls the day after they get it. Drama is magnified because the stakes are so high - when someone leaves your linkshell after dozens of people spent months of time to get them a relic, people are justifiably angry, and if it happens enough times, frustration turns to disillusionment with the system. Burnout rate is high among members, officers, and even leaders due to the massive workload. Sometimes peaceful transitions are possible from one leadership to another, but other times it results in the total destruction of the shell.
On the other side of the coin, the extremely casual linkshells have a totally different problem. These types of linkshells are usually united around the leadership of one, dedicated person. As such, the individual members rely on that person to schedule everything and have absolutely no drive of their own to get things done. If the leader can’t be on for some reason, you can rest assured whatever event they had planned will be cancelled with little more than a “so I guess we aren’t doing sky, huh?”. When this happens too many days or weeks in a row, the people with even a little bit of will to upgrade their character’s gear will quietly begin to look for a more dedicated linkshell. There will always be a group that stays in the shell “because they love the people there”, even if they have to inwardly sigh and cross the more difficult to obtain items off their personal checklists for any time in the foreseeable future.
Now, most of the endgame linkshells on any given server don’t fit so nicely into one of those categories. There are only a couple nazi-ish linkshells per server that demand absolute hardcore participation. There are considerably more casual shells, but many of them are so laid-back as far as endgame goes that I’m a bit wary of calling them endgame shells at all. The majority of endgame shells fall somewhere in an uncomfortable middleground between the two camps, trying to keep both simultaneously happy, and that’s where things begin to get interesting.
While there are some ideological differences between casual and endgame players, it’s when the items drop that the arguments really begin. No matter if you’re hardcore or casual, you’ll usually want the same sort of items, since items are good no matter how often you play the game. If an item goes to a hardcore player, the casual people will moan that those hardcore guys get everything and they’ve been in the linkshell X number of months and still don’t have anything worthwhile. If an item goes to a casual player, the hardcore members scream that it’s going to waste since that casual guy will not be on very often and it would have gone to much better use in their own hands.
In any major conflict between casual and hardcore endgame players, the hardcore camp will almost always win, mostly because it’s very difficult to make a strong argument against them. FFXI may be just a game, but it’s a game where teamwork is required, and the people willing to put forth the effort usually make the rules. The hardcore people are the ones that fuel the desire for events, and events lead to shiny stuff, and shiny stuff leads to everyone feeling more powerful. There are usually more hardcore people than casuals in an endgame shell, as doing endgame is most of the reason of joining one of those shells in the first place. It’s a dangerous precedent for linkshell officers to rule against the hardcores, because it’s the equivalent of saying to the linkshell “we don’t care as much about endgame as we used to. You might want to start looking for a different shell.” Instead, the officers strive to keep the largest number of people happy and will gladly do so at the expense of Casual Mr. NotOnAlot. In short order it can go so far as to have the linkshell rules specifically forbidding membership to people that aren’t as hardcore - be on for our events or we’ll break your pearl!
The problem with always favoring hardcore people over casual players when making rules is that, while every linkshell has exceptions, most FFXI players don’t stay in one camp or another for more than a few months at a time. One month, someone will want to slow down on events so they have more time to level their new job up, and will begin to resent being pulled out of exp parties for Fafnir camping or the like. After they’ve spent the time and the gil to level up their job, however, they’ll be rearing to go and bring it to every possible endgame event, even if it’s not a good job for that event, and they’ll be frustrated by the people that don’t want to go fight Jormungand just for fun and would prefer to be in experience party instead. These trends are cyclic, and rightfully so, as it fits human nature to not do the same old boring thing over and over with no change.
In a perfect FFXI world, there would be no major conflict. Everything would work like assault points. With assault, each item costs a certain number of points, and you get points by completing assault missions. Assaults are easy to find a group for and only take a few minutes to beat. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to get the points for your items; once you have them, you’re assured of your reward. The hardcore players could grind assaults every day and get what they want in a couple weeks. The casual people could do a few whenever they have time and take a lot longer, but be assured of their gear when they finish up. Everyone could get what they want at their own pace and there wouldn’t be any room for complaints.
Unfortunately FFXI is not like assault points. Linkshells only do certain events on certain days and many of them require large-scale participation. If a casual member isn’t around to get city dynamis wins, they can’t go to snow zones. If a casual member isn’t online during sky god farming, most linkshells don’t want them to lot when the items drop since the people that did the farming would feel shafted, as if their effort meant nothing. Point lists and attendance sheets are created to track who is doing the most to benefit the linkshell and when it’s all said and done, most linkshells want to give items to the people they know will put them to good use to benefit the shell and be around when they are needed.
This isn’t to say that casual players will never get anything they want out of endgame. Depending on the shell as well as the player’s job and overall demand for items, casual people can do rather well as far as loot goes. But casual players will always be picking at the leftovers, and when it comes to the stuff that really matters, those snow zone dynamis relics and those kirin drops and those jailer torques and earrings, they don’t realistically have a strong chance.
Ultimately it all goes back to having a strong sense of linkshell community and a sense of everyone being friends, because you always want to see your friends happy. Sure the hardcore people will get more stuff since they’re online more often, but it is not a major deal to also give your more casual members what they want every now and then as well. Linkshells that fail to acknowledge this will inevitably alienate one group or the other and begin to slide towards hardcore despotism or casual indifference. They will eventually lose the spirit that is endgame - completing difficult challenges with your friends and having a great time while you’re at it. Sadly, for most linkshells, fun is a concept that most people have to give up when they equip their pearl, but there are still a few groups straddling that uncomfortable middle line and doing a bang-up job at enjoying the crap out of this game.
Cats and dogs. Pepsi and Coca-Cola. Star Wars and Star Trek. There are many great feuds worth getting fired up over, but in the realm of Final Fantasy XI, few cause more drama and bad feelings than when casual and endgame players come into conflict.
First, you have your casual endgame player. They’ve got a job pretty high, maybe even two. They’ve probably been playing the game for a decent amount of time, but they never really took it that seriously. Maybe they have a wife and kids or a job that takes up a lot of time so they only get to be on a few hours a night, not quite long enough for major events. Maybe they just refuse to let FFXI approach becoming a job and don’t do anything in the game that they don’t terribly like. Either way, they’re a bit flighty as far as endgame players go - you never quite know when they’ll have a busy few days and only be on for a half hour here and there, or just disappear entirely for a week or more.
On the other hand, you have your hardcore players. You log on, they’re on. You log off, they’re on. You log on the next day, there’s a good chance they’ve been on all night. It can be hard to say if they’re insomniacs or perhaps just a sleepless variety of alien lifeform. They’re either meriting, wanting to merit, or boasting about their merits. Or maybe they’re the person that shows up to Dragon’s Aery a half hour before the window starts. They’re totally gung-ho about endgame events. This isn’t exactly to say that they’re even good at the game (see EreRant #1 about this strange phenomena) but what they may lack in skill they sure make up in event attendance.
Taking either school of thought to the extreme leads to inevitable unfortunate drama-related incidents. In your extreme hardcore endgame shell, people are initially wowed by the absolute killing power and ability to get things done that a shell like that possesses. Over time, perhaps weeks, perhaps months, the awe wears off and it becomes little more than a grind - a grind that takes up large amounts of the day, every day, with little time for yourself. Certain linkshell members slowly begin to resent having to devote extreme amounts of their day often to get gear for people they never particularly liked in the first place. People begin to plan to leave once they get a certain item and sometimes drop their pearls the day after they get it. Drama is magnified because the stakes are so high - when someone leaves your linkshell after dozens of people spent months of time to get them a relic, people are justifiably angry, and if it happens enough times, frustration turns to disillusionment with the system. Burnout rate is high among members, officers, and even leaders due to the massive workload. Sometimes peaceful transitions are possible from one leadership to another, but other times it results in the total destruction of the shell.
On the other side of the coin, the extremely casual linkshells have a totally different problem. These types of linkshells are usually united around the leadership of one, dedicated person. As such, the individual members rely on that person to schedule everything and have absolutely no drive of their own to get things done. If the leader can’t be on for some reason, you can rest assured whatever event they had planned will be cancelled with little more than a “so I guess we aren’t doing sky, huh?”. When this happens too many days or weeks in a row, the people with even a little bit of will to upgrade their character’s gear will quietly begin to look for a more dedicated linkshell. There will always be a group that stays in the shell “because they love the people there”, even if they have to inwardly sigh and cross the more difficult to obtain items off their personal checklists for any time in the foreseeable future.
Now, most of the endgame linkshells on any given server don’t fit so nicely into one of those categories. There are only a couple nazi-ish linkshells per server that demand absolute hardcore participation. There are considerably more casual shells, but many of them are so laid-back as far as endgame goes that I’m a bit wary of calling them endgame shells at all. The majority of endgame shells fall somewhere in an uncomfortable middleground between the two camps, trying to keep both simultaneously happy, and that’s where things begin to get interesting.
While there are some ideological differences between casual and endgame players, it’s when the items drop that the arguments really begin. No matter if you’re hardcore or casual, you’ll usually want the same sort of items, since items are good no matter how often you play the game. If an item goes to a hardcore player, the casual people will moan that those hardcore guys get everything and they’ve been in the linkshell X number of months and still don’t have anything worthwhile. If an item goes to a casual player, the hardcore members scream that it’s going to waste since that casual guy will not be on very often and it would have gone to much better use in their own hands.
In any major conflict between casual and hardcore endgame players, the hardcore camp will almost always win, mostly because it’s very difficult to make a strong argument against them. FFXI may be just a game, but it’s a game where teamwork is required, and the people willing to put forth the effort usually make the rules. The hardcore people are the ones that fuel the desire for events, and events lead to shiny stuff, and shiny stuff leads to everyone feeling more powerful. There are usually more hardcore people than casuals in an endgame shell, as doing endgame is most of the reason of joining one of those shells in the first place. It’s a dangerous precedent for linkshell officers to rule against the hardcores, because it’s the equivalent of saying to the linkshell “we don’t care as much about endgame as we used to. You might want to start looking for a different shell.” Instead, the officers strive to keep the largest number of people happy and will gladly do so at the expense of Casual Mr. NotOnAlot. In short order it can go so far as to have the linkshell rules specifically forbidding membership to people that aren’t as hardcore - be on for our events or we’ll break your pearl!
The problem with always favoring hardcore people over casual players when making rules is that, while every linkshell has exceptions, most FFXI players don’t stay in one camp or another for more than a few months at a time. One month, someone will want to slow down on events so they have more time to level their new job up, and will begin to resent being pulled out of exp parties for Fafnir camping or the like. After they’ve spent the time and the gil to level up their job, however, they’ll be rearing to go and bring it to every possible endgame event, even if it’s not a good job for that event, and they’ll be frustrated by the people that don’t want to go fight Jormungand just for fun and would prefer to be in experience party instead. These trends are cyclic, and rightfully so, as it fits human nature to not do the same old boring thing over and over with no change.
In a perfect FFXI world, there would be no major conflict. Everything would work like assault points. With assault, each item costs a certain number of points, and you get points by completing assault missions. Assaults are easy to find a group for and only take a few minutes to beat. It doesn’t matter how long it takes you to get the points for your items; once you have them, you’re assured of your reward. The hardcore players could grind assaults every day and get what they want in a couple weeks. The casual people could do a few whenever they have time and take a lot longer, but be assured of their gear when they finish up. Everyone could get what they want at their own pace and there wouldn’t be any room for complaints.
Unfortunately FFXI is not like assault points. Linkshells only do certain events on certain days and many of them require large-scale participation. If a casual member isn’t around to get city dynamis wins, they can’t go to snow zones. If a casual member isn’t online during sky god farming, most linkshells don’t want them to lot when the items drop since the people that did the farming would feel shafted, as if their effort meant nothing. Point lists and attendance sheets are created to track who is doing the most to benefit the linkshell and when it’s all said and done, most linkshells want to give items to the people they know will put them to good use to benefit the shell and be around when they are needed.
This isn’t to say that casual players will never get anything they want out of endgame. Depending on the shell as well as the player’s job and overall demand for items, casual people can do rather well as far as loot goes. But casual players will always be picking at the leftovers, and when it comes to the stuff that really matters, those snow zone dynamis relics and those kirin drops and those jailer torques and earrings, they don’t realistically have a strong chance.
Ultimately it all goes back to having a strong sense of linkshell community and a sense of everyone being friends, because you always want to see your friends happy. Sure the hardcore people will get more stuff since they’re online more often, but it is not a major deal to also give your more casual members what they want every now and then as well. Linkshells that fail to acknowledge this will inevitably alienate one group or the other and begin to slide towards hardcore despotism or casual indifference. They will eventually lose the spirit that is endgame - completing difficult challenges with your friends and having a great time while you’re at it. Sadly, for most linkshells, fun is a concept that most people have to give up when they equip their pearl, but there are still a few groups straddling that uncomfortable middle line and doing a bang-up job at enjoying the crap out of this game.