Gathering Rant (Strong language warning)

[Petunia]

Gathering. It's fun. Relaxing. I get to enjoy the scenery that is actually pretty damn nice as I go about my day, gathering minerals and meats.
But then I get told "No".
"No, you've gathered enough. Either wait 5 hours or pay us to keep Gathering".
The FUCK, SEGA? Did you learn nothing from Square and the shitfest that was FF14 1.0?
NO ONE LIKES STAMINA!
No one enjoys being told how long they can play for. This isn't a fucking mobile game where people play in small bursts. Stamina is just the shit timer-lives system most 'F2P' mobile games do these days.
Stop trying to stuff microtransactions in like it's a mobile game. No one is going to pay for that shit.

I LITERALLY spent 5 minutes gathering before I ran out of Stamina. During a Fever too.
That's a dirty mechanic, Fever. Sure it seems cool, but then it happens when your Stamina is low. SEGA is trying everything they can to get you to pay.
Do they not make enough off of AC Scratches?

Why can't there be ways to manage Stamina in-game without the use of real money items? I wouldn't care if you had to jump through a couple hoops to get them, like how you can get +1 and +2 Grind Fail Reductions and (Full) from AC. Same with the Lilipariums. Give us ways to get this shit in-game. Maybe through the player shop too. That way it's "Pay for convenience" not "Pay to keep playing this one feature of our F2P Game".

Whats worse is you're basically REQUIRED to do this to stay with the curve and be at your strongest. I've Gathered at every chance I could, forcing Fevers to trigger then popping a 50% boost meal and using my best pickaxes and still no Planet gems. So great, NOW THERE'S FUCKING RNG! ISN'T THAT PEACHY?
"Hey, wanna make sure you're strong? Gather more. Oh, what's that? Didn't get what you want and now you're out of Stamina? Haha, don't worry. Just pay us real money and you can try again!"

Fuck you, SEGA. Fuck you.
AND STOP TELLING ME HOW LONG I CAN PLAY YOUR GAME FOR!

Of course the one mechanic I fucking enjoy is going to be gated with paywalls with no way to alleviate those in-game. Why was Gathering added? Why? So far, there's more ways for SEGA to make a quick buck from it than there are uses for Gathering in game.

[Z-0]

Gathering has been universally panned on the likes of Twitter and 2ch (along with the really inconvenient recycle shop change which affects EVERYTHING), so there's hope that SEGA will do something about it, although I kind of doubt it.

[SilkaN]

This game was designed for idiotic masochists from the very beginning.
Why are you getting so upset about it now?

[TaigaUC]

I'm pretty sure I hate Stamina for all things in all games.
It just feels like a shitty way to limit players and punish them.

I recently bought Gravity Rush HD, and that has "Stamina" too.
Instead of freedom to mess around with her powers, you mostly have to follow trails of collectible items.
Those trails include Stamina replenishing items. Without them, you wouldn't be able to fly very far.
Seems like bad design to me.

So I realized earlier the stupidest thing about Gathering is that it's not related to Crafting in any way, despite sharing similar items/materials.
It really emphasizes the fact that SEGA has no real plans for the game, they don't think about how anything relates to anything else.
They just throw stuff in, often with everything having the same or similar purpose (ie. getting stronger) but as a completely separate system.
All that does is end up cluttering everything up and confusing players.
It also feels like they have zero intention of cleaning up all these messy systems, just throwing more crap on top.

I can predict now that Episode 5 will have a new system called "Polishing" or something, which basically involves collecting rags and polishing agents from old quests nobody does.
You can them use them to "polish" your weapons and increase their damage slightly, or allow you to use a few other class skills that Gathering won't for the next year.

Episode 6: Eating. Allows you to eat food for temporary buffs. But doesn't Gathering already have that?
Well, that was Gathering! For Eating, you have to farm old maps again for new drops! Like fish!
But doesn't Gathering have that? Yes, but this is Eating! You need to farm new fish! And unlock new recipes!

Etc, etc. SEGA is just going to keep adding similar near-identical nonsense under different names, until the game dies.

[EvilMag]

Gathering has been universally panned on the likes of Twitter and 2ch (along with the really inconvenient recycle shop change which affects EVERYTHING), so there's hope that SEGA will do something about it, although I kind of doubt it.

They won't do anything about it. Gathering is gonna end up like PA crafting. :/

[Petunia]

SEGA is just going to keep adding this kind of near-identical nonsense under different names, until the game dies.

And that may come sooner than they want if they keep doing stuff like this.
Seriously, you said it best. It's a system that punishes the player for using a feature.
I only got to Gather like 5 times once the fever started. I felt like I was being punished for not getting a lucky 10-chain Fever from fishing.

[SilkaN]

And that may come sooner than they want if they keep doing stuff like this.
Seriously, you said it best. It's a system that punishes the player for using a feature.
I only got to Gather like 5 times once the fever started. I felt like I was being punished for not getting a lucky 10-chain Fever from fishing.

Why don't you complain about the other 99% of the game being affected by RNG, too?

[gabor100]

I like how they nerfed Klothos CO rewards so players feel an urge to Gather/Fish and do Yerkes weekly CO's for 300k. But Yerkes is gated behind RNG and stamina, sure I can buy more chances for $$$ but AC Scratch would be more profitable

[TaigaUC]

Gathering: RNG map placement with RNG number of harvests for RNG chance at RNG items with RNG chance for RNG rares and RNG chance for RNG bonuses and RNG chance for RNG Fever which increases RNG chance for RNG all the previous RNGs, and you can pay real money to increase RNG chance or allow yourself more RNG chances within a specified time period.

Not exactly a shining example of good game design.

[Kondibon]

I recently bought Gravity Rush HD, and that has "Stamina" too.
Instead of freedom to mess around with her powers, you mostly have to follow trails of collectible items.
Those trails include Stamina replenishing items. Without them, you wouldn't be able to fly very far.
Seems like bad design to me.

Limits are important to game design, especially in story driven games where a character's powers/tools are meant to be improve through through time. Or do you want link to start with max hearts, max magic meter, and all his items? Maybe Alex Mercer should just have everything from the start. Banjo&Kazooie? Give'm everything. Next lets do a metroid game where you get to use all the weapons and armor from the start. :/

EDIT: For the record I hate the gathering stamina system too, since all it does is artificially draw out something most people could finish in like a week. But the comparison to Gravity Rush was kinda silly.