Thayos wrote:
Quote:
This is a easy fix, and that is make DF server specific. That will make people care more about their reputation because they may run into those people again. Will that mean less chance of a party? No because at the rate it is going people are starting to avoid DF.
I think having a cross-server duty finder is still totally fine and helpful for farming purposes. I'll even go so far to say that having DF pull from within servers wouldn't really improve the social scene.
In my opinion, one of the biggest problems with the social aspects of FFXIV is that you can only be in one FC. When hanging out in cities, I don't see anyone shouting about looking for or starting up new linkshells, nor do I know anyone who even uses linkshells anymore. People only care about their FCs, and the game restricts us to having just one. Especially with people saving up for housing, players are literally becoming financially invested in their FCs, making them less likely to ever leave to try other groups.
It's actually the opposite for me.
I have a linkshell that contains a group of players I first met in this game when I joined my first FC. We went our separate ways when we wanted to raid but, thruogh this LS, we keep in contact all the time despite being in different FCs.
I really like my FC but at the same time, that LS contains members that I would consider family.
You can see it around your server too. There is most likely an Odin/Behemoth watch LS. There probably is a LS that recruits only a certain race just for fun. So on and so forth. However, you will probably never see people advertise for these LSs (except for Odin/Behemoth watch). I find it a little sad. :\ People should treat LSs as ways to bridge the community.
But there aren't many things you can do within your LS besides seek people for help on certain things if you don't know them personally already. Crafting FC? Most people are self-sufficient right now with crafts. Weekly event static like Assault and the like? No content like that so no point. I suppose you could form a static of people you want to farm mythology with.
Outside of that, there isn't really a reason. You do what your FC is doing because you're locked out (coil) or you don't do what they're doing because you don't need them. This is where socializing would come into play...but that role has been taken up by duty finder.
As for which demographic to choose...
I touched upon this topic in another post. Right now they're trying to cover all demographics...which is fine: if they had the resources to do so. This approach might get you some money off of the initial purchase and sub for a few months but that's it.
What you desire is long term players. To do this, you need to have two separate teams working full time on both casual and hardcore aspects of the game (much like WoW does). You can't just decide to cater to one demographic one patch and then another demographic the next. You lose people this way: especially when you wait 3 months between patches!
2.1 gave us a hint about possible directions this game is going. 2.2 is going to tell us a lot about this game in a very obvious way.
Edited, Jan 30th 2014 8:51am by HitomeOfBismarck