Final Fantasy XIV has long been praised for striking a balance between accessibility and depth, but as the game continues to grow, so does the tension between its casual and hardcore player bases. Recently, that tension has sharpened into two dominant narratives: that FFXIV caters too much to raiders at the expense of casual players, and conversely, that it has become so casual-focused that high-end players are starved for meaningful content. In truth, both perceptions are wrong in the same way: neither group is being served particularly well.
The core of the problem isn’t the existence of hardcore or casual content, it’s that the systems designed for both lack longevity. Hardcore players clear Savage and Ultimate quickly and have little reason to return. Casual players finish the MSQ and are left with shallow, one-and-done side content like Island Sanctuary or beast tribes. Semi-casual systems like Criterion are too underdeveloped to fill the gap.
To fix this, I propose two foundational changes.
First, for hardcore players: FFXIV should introduce a Mythic+ style scalable dungeon system. This doesn’t mean making dungeons brutally hard from the start. Instead, it means offering a Mythic 0 version of dungeons with tuned-up mechanics like mandatory interrupts, stuns, and light team coordination. From there, difficulty could scale via affixes similar to WoW’s system or existing Deep Dungeon modifiers. We already have elements of this in the game: affixes like "Gloom" and "Auto-heal Disabled" from Deep Dungeons, or mechanics like "The Rot" originally seen in the Coil raids. There’s no reason these can’t be adapted and expanded upon for a scalable, replayable system. With weekly rotating affix sets, time-based score tracking, and leaderboard or glamour rewards, this one system could keep hardcore players engaged far beyond the initial burst of Savage content.
Second, for casual players: stop segregating field exploration content to X.25+ patches and instead build it directly into the expansion’s six launch zones. Instead of creating a separate field operation like Eureka or OC, make the overworld zones feel alive with similar systems. Add Lost Action-style abilities and let players earn them by participating in local events, exploring hidden chests, or helping NPCs. Spawn open-world CEs tied to player activity. Make mobs slightly more challenging and reward players with treasure or progress toward zone-wide goals. Most importantly, give each zone a progression track, not unlike Bozja’s Resistance Ranks, that allows players to develop a relationship with the area.
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The core of the problem isn’t the existence of hardcore or casual content, it’s that the systems designed for both lack longevity. Hardcore players clear Savage and Ultimate quickly and have little reason to return. Casual players finish the MSQ and are left with shallow, one-and-done side content like Island Sanctuary or beast tribes. Semi-casual systems like Criterion are too underdeveloped to fill the gap.
To fix this, I propose two foundational changes.
First, for hardcore players: FFXIV should introduce a Mythic+ style scalable dungeon system. This doesn’t mean making dungeons brutally hard from the start. Instead, it means offering a Mythic 0 version of dungeons with tuned-up mechanics like mandatory interrupts, stuns, and light team coordination. From there, difficulty could scale via affixes similar to WoW’s system or existing Deep Dungeon modifiers. We already have elements of this in the game: affixes like "Gloom" and "Auto-heal Disabled" from Deep Dungeons, or mechanics like "The Rot" originally seen in the Coil raids. There’s no reason these can’t be adapted and expanded upon for a scalable, replayable system. With weekly rotating affix sets, time-based score tracking, and leaderboard or glamour rewards, this one system could keep hardcore players engaged far beyond the initial burst of Savage content.
Second, for casual players: stop segregating field exploration content to X.25+ patches and instead build it directly into the expansion’s six launch zones. Instead of creating a separate field operation like Eureka or OC, make the overworld zones feel alive with similar systems. Add Lost Action-style abilities and let players earn them by participating in local events, exploring hidden chests, or helping NPCs. Spawn open-world CEs tied to player activity. Make mobs slightly more challenging and reward players with treasure or progress toward zone-wide goals. Most importantly, give each zone a progression track, not unlike Bozja’s Resistance Ranks, that allows players to develop a relationship with the area.
Continue reading...