Is it me or noobs get dumber each year?

[Velamont]

I swear when I started playing it wasn't so damn bad. And there were more buttons too + resource management (at low levels that is)... But now I keep seeing those horrible abominations that can't tank/heal two mobs, deal no damage (literally) and just can't do anything that even remotely requires brain usage. What the hell is going on?! At this point if I see 3 sprouts in roulette I just give it a test pull and leave to go do some fishing because it's just more efficient and enjoyable that way...

[Lixire]

Playing every day and doing all of the roulettes. I did have some issues with that in 7.0's launch but when all of the MSQ tourists have left, player quality was basically the same as it did in Endwalker

[Shield]

The average player is awful, flatly.

Sprout or vet, console or PC, Coke or Pepsi, at the end of the day if you plucked 4 people at random, 3 of them are probably trash.

[Velamont]

Originally posted by Shield:

The average player is awful, flatly.

Sprout or vet, console or PC, Coke or Pepsi, at the end of the day if you plucked 4 people at random, 3 of them are probably trash.

Nope. At high level everything is ok. There are a few outliers but generally everyone is pretty decent.

[MOSLEY]

It's a symptom of CBU3's design philosophy. If you try to make something idiot-proof, the world will deliver to you a better idiot. They keep lowering the bar and the playerbase is playing limbo.

[Shield]

Originally posted by Velamont:

Originally posted by Shield:

The average player is awful, flatly.

Sprout or vet, console or PC, Coke or Pepsi, at the end of the day if you plucked 4 people at random, 3 of them are probably trash.

Nope. At high level everything is ok. There are a few outliers but generally everyone is pretty decent.

True. I mean, if the standards are things you mentioned in the OP like taking mobs, doing damage, etc etc, the bare basics, yeah, high-level is largely free of that... mercifully. You're right.

I just think high-levels aren't immune to being terrible, either. Just in less obvious ways than the tank not knowing stance. And I find strangers became easier to play with when I accepted the fact that they're probably going to suck, but hey, maybe I can be pleasantly surprised that nobody dies in boss 1 of the evil carnival

[Stormy Dawn]

Depends a lot on your data center, too, at least when it comes to NA. I can't really vouch for the other DCs out there, but I assume they have similar issues.

I have my main on the Aether data center and my alt is on Crystal. I notice a substantial decline in player competency when I'm playing on my alt. It's not just a stereotype to say that the average Crystal player is garbage - they are. The amount of RPers really lowers the average. The amount of level 100 tanks I get that can't figure out how to hold hate, how to pull wall-to-wall, who would rather sit there and chit-chat between every pull instead of getting the instance done, etc.. it's infuriating sometimes.

That's not to say there aren't good players on Crystal, but there are drowned out by the utter casual who have devoted all of their remaining brain cells to working on their Carrd website.

Like.. don't get me wrong. I love RP. I used to do it quite a lot, though not as much in this game, but there is a time and a place and a duty (when you aren't with a complete party of like-minded individuals) isn't the time to. Put your pen (and perhaps less savory extremities) away and put your game face on.

[Velamont]

Originally posted by Stormy Dawn:

The amount of level 100 tanks I get that can't figure out how to hold hate

Excuse me what?! I sometimes finish dungeons with stance turned off because of how easy it is to hold agro in this game. Wtf is that? I can't say I've seen many of those (except for mentors). Our bane is Cerberus players same thing but for another reason...

[causality]

If you haven't figured it out by now that this a casual game marketed to casual players then I don't know what to tell yah.

[Coffee]

maybe play for fun instead. Its a game, not a job. The only time you shouldnt play for fun is when you are a streamer or do games in some ways as an actual job (as in you get paid for it), then its...well...a job.

Its why I quit WoW. Everyone who plays treats it as a job, and me myself and I kinda game. No one cares about anyone in WoW. In FFXIV, almost everyone in-game is really friendly and welcoming.

[MOSLEY]

Originally posted by Coffee:

maybe play for fun instead. Its a game, not a job. The only time you shouldnt play for fun is when you are a streamer or do games in some ways as an actual job (as in you get paid for it), then its...well...a job.

Its why I quit WoW. Everyone who plays treats it as a job, and me myself and I kinda game. No one cares about anyone in WoW. In FFXIV, almost everyone in-game is really friendly and welcoming.

Having goals and achieving them is fun for a lot of people. It shouldn't be a surprise that those people gravitate towards games, like MMOs, that provide them with a lot of potential goals. You are not the arbiter of fun. You don't get to police how people enjoy games.

[Coffee]

Originally posted by MOSLEY:

Originally posted by Coffee:

maybe play for fun instead. Its a game, not a job. The only time you shouldnt play for fun is when you are a streamer or do games in some ways as an actual job (as in you get paid for it), then its...well...a job.

Its why I quit WoW. Everyone who plays treats it as a job, and me myself and I kinda game. No one cares about anyone in WoW. In FFXIV, almost everyone in-game is really friendly and welcoming.

Having goals and achieving them is fun for a lot of people. It shouldn't be a surprise that those people gravitate towards games, like MMOs, that provide them with a lot of potential goals. You are not the arbiter of fun. You don't get to police how people enjoy games.

thats fine. But if they start insulting people because they might not be as good or if they are disabled in some way (like me I am deaf+lack use of my left arm, though the second thing is cause some employee/co-worker crushed my arm at walmart when we were stocking shelves more than from birth like first thing. Though to clarify, I can use it a bit, just not that great), they are ruining the game for others.

[MOSLEY]

Originally posted by Coffee:

Originally posted by MOSLEY:

Having goals and achieving them is fun for a lot of people. It shouldn't be a surprise that those people gravitate towards games, like MMOs, that provide them with a lot of potential goals. You are not the arbiter of fun. You don't get to police how people enjoy games.

thats fine. But if they start insulting people because they might not be as good or if they are disabled in some way (like me I am deaf+lack use of my left arm, though the second thing is cause some employee/co-worker crushed my arm at walmart when we were stocking shelves more than from birth like first thing. Though to clarify, I can use it a bit, just not that great), they are ruining the game for others.

Which is pretty rare to see unless people are joining parties for content that they aren't able to complete or performing so poorly that they're causing things to take drastically longer than would be considered normal.

I've cleared an ultimate with a guy who has one hand. The overwhelming majority of cases of people "underperforming" are just non-disabled people with no regard for other people's time refusing to learn how to play the game despite pouring hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into it.

[causality]

Originally posted by MOSLEY:

.

I've cleared an ultimate with a guy who has one hand.

Plogons have really come a long way. Maybe even I could clear TEA now.

[MOSLEY]

Originally posted by causality:

Originally posted by MOSLEY:

.

I've cleared an ultimate with a guy who has one hand.

Plogons have really come a long way. Maybe even I could clear TEA now. :cuphead:

He's on console so he's 0 plogons, 1 hand and better than half of the splatoon/rotationbot users.

[causality]

Originally posted by MOSLEY:

Originally posted by causality:

Plogons have really come a long way. Maybe even I could clear TEA now.

He's on console so he's 0 plogons, 1 hand and better than half of the splatoon/rotationbot users.

To be fair FFXIV isn't mechanically difficult or complex at all. Stand in a safe spot and watch mechanics resolve, wow.