So what the Japanese think of PSO2...

[SolRiver]

Why are there so many complaints about casual game?

It is not like having a bit of weaker stat will give you much trouble at all going through the stage. In fact, it is more fun if you have trouble going through stages...

Either way, I am still waiting for that ultimate mode. If ultimate mode is still easy, that's when I will start to weight my options carefully. (I dream of PSE burst that make you work, with a lot of dead team mates, at a beautiful beach seaside resort as bonus) Actually... why doesn't PSE burst spawn bosses anyway?

Though, I can't say I am spending too much time on this game aside fashion.

[Porkmaster]

I haven't read the last couple pages so I don't know if it's been stated, but seriously: A community consists of more than one person. People have different views.

One guy will fucking love dressup dolls. Another guy won't give a fuck. Even just this small community of JP PSO2 players on PSOW is incredibly fragmented with its viewpoints, with people thinking the costumes are fantastic and others wanting strictly weapons and thinking costumes are a complete waste of money since they don't improve stats at all.

You don't get to just say "the community" and then make a statement like that. That's not how things work. It's the same as politicians blurting out anything involving the term "american people." It's complete bullshit. You could have literally two people, in the entire country, that want something, and I could justifiably state "american people want..." We have neo nazis? "American people wish Hitler was never killed!" We have holocaust deniers? "American people sincerely doubt the holocaust actually happened." Stop it.

Okay, except you're turning what I said into something completely different. When I say "the community," I mean the entire community, not just a section of the community. The complaints are universal.

[gigawuts]

But they are not universal. Even in this very thread people are saying they're fine with the model, or that they find the game plenty entertaining even after a year.

"The community" is an assortment of people with differing views. This is the entire nature of a community.

Sega is following the money. And they should - it's easy profits. This is more indicative of an issue in society as a whole than our little niche in it, if you can even call it an issue. Gaming used to be for "gamers," which is to say people who liked video games as they used to be. Games today are not trying to appeal strictly to those people - they're trying to appeal to anyone who will cough up money. Two million people spending 10 dollars is more than five hundred thousand people spending 20.

It's just good business.

[Cyclon]

The complaints are universal.

No, most of them are not. It just so happens that positive feedback is the only thing that gets argued against around here anymore. If I were to come and say this game is absolute shit not worth playing, nobody would say anything(wait, that's inaccurate, some would agree).
This place is here for people to unload their frustration meter; it's therapy in a way. Bad therapy too, since people only leave even more frustrated, so it only gets worse and worse.
I can honestly say that pso-world is a terrible place to be for anybody who enjoys this game. That's saddening really.

[BlankM]

You disagree because it isnt the case for you, or because it isnt for everyone? Believe me I dont have issues finding party as someone that's quite social. But not everyone is. You shouldn't have to be is what i'm saying. The game should bring you together itself without requiring any effort to do so.

Aside from that, you're calling one of the encouragements more enemies, more exp, more loot. But does that result in more fun gameplay? No because with more people the game becomes piss easy. That's why I raised both points together(difficulty and partyfinding) to be adressed in that post.

Later content in the game like AQ and whatever arent available untill late in the game. You tell the person that found the game coincidentally, trying it out, only finding no one to party with. Or the guy that loved PSO1 and gets attracted by the name, finding it strange that nobody joins his party. I use the "find all party" option quite often to join random parties, and the reactions i get is very expected. They'll say things like, "Oh wow someone joined"

You're looking at it way too much from your own perspective. Like I said, "I" don't have issues finding parties. Many others do.

No, I know that other people have difficulty finding parties. I'm saying that they could easily find them if they were looking for one of those three things.

Thats the thing, the game is not only designed around grinding, but encourages it heavily. There is little incentive to solo or challenge yourself.

We agree on the fact that its poorly designed and not encouraging to newer players, but we have different reasons why.

Yes I'd like the game to be more fun and hence encourage players to work together to accomplish something, but I would also be happier if solo play wasn't so terrible. So first SEGA needs to give us a reason to do something, and then they can work on making said something engaging. Otherwise you will have the same problem of people only doing specific quests once they hit a certain point. Because face it, the likelihood of them offering fun objectives for teams that require skill and co-operation is low(Derp Extreme Quests), while the likelihood of them upping monster levels, increasing spawns for solo play, and increasing quest rewards is actually within reason.

[gigawuts]

And I just wanted to add for completion's sake since I always assume people are aware of certain things but in the end they never are - Sega has intentionally broadened who the community actually encompasses.

Before, when the series was P2P, the community was any paying customer. That's pretty specific. Now? Now the community is anyone with an account and five dollars 500 yen in their hand. Accounts are free, and people are encouraged to invite their friends and get them to play for nothing at the very least an hour to get to level 10 for a reward in the form of those tokens.

This is intentional. Sega did this because not only do many more people with less money result in more profits, but because they can cherry pick customer feedback to appear to be the good guys, as stated by other people. The havoc they've created in the community gives them free reign to do whatever the fuck they want, because somebody somewhere will have sent it in a feedback form. All they have to do is search the database for the one idiot that requested another loli face if they want to add a loli face. "Players are demanding another loli face, so we here at Sega are delivering!"

More than that, that's part of the business strategy with restrictive updates. Release new content that is HEAVILY pre-nerfed, HEAVILY restricted, or HEAVILY grindy, then when players understandably wish it was less obscenely time consuming to achieve anything at all (all the while some fanboys players are defending Sega's every action) they bring it down to the level they actually want. This is not an usual strategy. It's F2P 101.

[Kierto]

The problem is also that forums like these just serve as pain relief. People bitch and moan and that makes them feel better temporarily or feel 'they aren't alone'. Then log back in and keep going, lol.

If you want to change anything, you have to stop paying/playing or complain directly to Sega where possible and in Japanese obviously.

Of course why should Sega care. All of us use 20% boosters like candy ($16 worth of scratch), recolor tickets ($28 worth of scratch or $2 if lucky), grind protects ($2 per use), Stamina/Spirita Boosts ($2 each) have storages full of AC parts or costumes (if you are a Cast you might have easily over $100 worth of scratch parts in storage), every non default accessory your character(s) have is $2 each, the list goes on and on. You all routinely TACO (or play Market Star Online with your $6/$16 shop/premium) so you can buy more of the real money items as soon as they are released so the incentive is there for that rich dude to scratch more. The money is bolded because that is all Sega see when they look at how well this game is doing.

Don't kid yourselves either. In the hours directly after now bi-weekly scratch the game is a flurry of activity (check your friend lists.. even if its an unsociable hour in your timezone), the market explodes, everyone runs around in new colorful costumes and things like the Fashion thread are awash with new screenshots of the new shiny that has come from a real money purchase somewhere.

You might not personally pay much but there are those who clearly are throwing fucktons at this game. Just search for 7* costumes at Visiphone and see how many pages you get (hint: the max it will display is 20 at any one time). Each item has come from at least $2 worth of real money.

Sega struck gold with this game and it is performing far and beyond their expectation. Things at this point will only change if that does. As much as we may want it to Waifu dressup isn't going anywhere.

[Porkmaster]

"The community" is an assortment of people with differing views. This is the entire nature of a community.

No shit. I'm not saying everyone has the same view, but the majority obviously agree that lack of gameplay due to focus on costumes is an issue. Yet people continue to support the very thing they have an issue with. Does that make sense to you?

If someone has an issue with something, why the fuck would they keep throwing money at it? That's obviously what is happening, because it's just not possible to say it's not, considering SEGA continues to churn out costume after costume while still ignoring gameplay improvements.

Seriously, how hard is it to stop supporting something you have an issue with? All we have to do is fucking stop and the game will fix itself.

[gigawuts]

List me the people frequently paying for AC scratch with their own money that frequently complain about the abhorrent lack of content and say there are too many costumes.

(That's what [citation needed] means, BTW, it means you've made a statement without any proof and should really show some proof)

[LordShade]

While I know the game has a few issues, I don't think they're as grandiose as some make them out to be.( and really, the only ones that I really have a beef with are Rare drop rates, and Dudu, but seriously who fucking doesn't have issues with these..) I still give my 15 dollars a month just for the premium set. And that probably won't change until the day I say 'Wow, I'm really really bored of this.'

I even do AC scratches when they come out so I can make a quick meseta buck from the JPs that overpay on the new costumes and accessories.