Transmigration the Charming wrote:
Gear level won't be the same kind of issue in this game as it was in FFXI. The best gear only requires a group of friends from your FC and it's not terribly difficult to down the current content from what I've been told by those who have. It won't take finding a static group that has 10 hours to farm sh*t just to spawn a boss to have a chance @ one piece for 1 of 18 people in line. The design just isn't that way anymore. There is nothing to worry about.
While I see your point, I disagree. I think it *is* something to worry about, because if it's left as is, it'll only get worse.
I want this game to grow and succeed. While I also hope that what Shona said comes true to a certain extent (with the goal of, ideally, separating the chaff from the proverbial wheat), I want this game to see success. That means the availability of all aspects of content to all peoples. Not a casualization of things (as is often the concern) but more the potential for a person who may not have the time to dedicate to a "raiding" FC or LS yet still wants some kind of character progression with a given job.
Gearscore (not the mod itself per se, but what it represented, and the people who abused it) took the personal nature out of WoW. Instead of sizing a person up and making a judgement yourself, you let this mod tell you at a glance whether or not the person was worthwhile. I met plenty of amazing players who wore greens and blues in vanilla WoW, not to mention BC and Wrath. I raided with them, did pvp with them, and eventually they got better gear. But had those people come along months later, they would have been stonewalled by a large majority of the playerbase who erroneously believe that gear somehow equates to skill.
And that last bit is what I fear most. Not elitism, in any definition provided. Not a misuse of a mod. It's the idea that if you aren't geared then you need to "git gud," but we won't accept you to the party in order to get access to the stuff you need to "git gud." It's a catch-22, and nothing makes a player feel mired in hopelessness (and more likely to quit) like knowing you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
To be fair, I've met a lot of GREAT people in FF14 so far, both on server and off. It's so nice, having that old FF11 feeling from before. But I see it in Coerthas, Mor Dhona, and Western Thanalan....the echoes of Barrens chat. The "***** you and how you feel, it's just a game, get over it nerd" attitude that underlies so many 'net interactions. Gearscore, and what it implies, is just another manifestation of that. And quite honestly, if I wanted that, I'd go to WoW. But I don't want that. I want Final Fantasy. I want standards sure (realistic ones), but to take a number as the sum total of a person's worth, like some kind of HR employee running applications through a word filter, checking for buzzword matches? **** that and **** anyone who believes that way.
So I can either sit back and let it be, watching it get worse as time goes by, or I can say "No, this is *not* ok" and try to do something to stop it.