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northwest-cryptid · 2 days ago

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I have this kind of insane ideology towards Mabinogi but the long and short of it is that I feel a vast majority of players are actually playing the game wrong.

Okay no that probably doesn't mean what you think it does. Chances are you have heard from a lot of elitists and higher end veteran players that you're playing "wrong" and that's not it.

What I mean is this, earlier I was watching a new player on stream who was finishing G12. They seem to have come from a background of games like FFXIV and something they remarked at one point is,

"That would have been more fun with a party."

This kinda got me thinking about how they must be viewing the game as a sort of FFXIV player, they're used to playing a role in a party. However the way people play Mabinogi is more akin to being an all arounder. You do everything so that you can do anything on your own.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but I don't think it's necessarily the ideal way to go about it. See doing that means you won't need to rely on anyone for anything ever.

You might think that's a good thing, but pay attention to how FFXIV's party system works. Every single member of the party relies on the others. The Tank relies on the healer to keep them alive, the Healer relies on the DPS to burn the mobs before they run out of MP, the DPS rely on the tank to hold aggro so they don't get hit. This is how and why the party works.

If you take a tank like WAR and say "you have healing, you have damage, you can tank; you don't need anyone else." Then the extra players become nothing more than an assist, they're not a necessity. They exist because they make it easier. Which is why WAR has those things, but not nearly enough to do more than take some stress off the other players.

This gets a bit long so you know the drill.

I was talking with a good friend of mine about Mabinogi, and one of the things he was telling me was that he sort of sees it as like; sure it's fun to have everyone have to physically go run off to the raid area, fight through the enemies to get to the boss; and then actually clear a big raid encounter... at least the first time. The problem as he puts it is that it gets tiresome. You basically don't want to have to wait for the guy who forgot something to run all the way there, then all the way back, then all the way back again. Or you don't want to wait for the moon gates to rotate to the specific location you need, you don't want to have to always navigate the map.

Basically the way he explained it is like; that's all cool worldbuilding and flavor and such but after a while players get tired of it all and they don't want the magic of the man behind the curtain, they just want to do the content.

On one hand I do believe there's merit to that, I get what he's saying and it's undeniable that Mabinogi has taken steps to be more like FFXIV in that regard. However I think that the thing players really want is for the man behind the curtain (so to speak) to be necessary. They don't just want the content, that's good on it's own sure. If you give the players a new thing to do, they're going to enjoy it, but if you make it actually necessary to be done in an immersive and interesting way that's groundbreaking.

The problem is that a lot of companies view necessary as mandatory missions and quests and grinding. Not actually a fun or interesting requirement of the player.

I think Mabinogi is at it's best when you're limited in what you can do, and need to rely on others around you. They become the sort of "man behind the curtain" in a sense. No I'm not walking to this beach to mine iron to forge a blade for immersion or something. I'm doing it to be stronger because I want a better weapon. It just so happens that one of my friends is a good enough blacksmith to make the blade and I'm not a skilled blacksmith, so working together we can craft my sword.

The thing is when I brought this up he was like "no not even that, not even the mechanical differences-" and look I know where he is coming from and I get what he's saying. However in doing that he's overlooking something really important about Mabinogi, and I think most players do too.

Take any classic JRPG or just any old RPG for that matter. You have the main characters/party, and then you have the side characters who become part of the main cast but not the main party, the people who assist the party and help them in such a way as to make their journey even possible.

That, in Mabinogi; is other players. The problem comes when someone doesn't NEED those other side characters.

I mean how boring would those JRPGs be if the main character could just... do everything. They could fly the airship so the ol' jaded pilot was never met or recruited to the team. You don't get to meet the guy who can specifically forge special weapons because the main character can just do that. In fact you don't need to meet anyone, you don't need to talk to anyone; you don't need anyone for anything, the main character can just do it all.

Fuck the party, fuck connecting with people in the world and having that give meaning to the world you're working so hard to save. You can do it all yourself!

Yeah... that's not exactly very compelling is it? I think Mabinogi is at it's best when you allow yourself to slow down, stop blitzing through the story, stop mastering every talent; and just make connections with other players who are good at specific things.

These days that's not as organic of a thing that can happen, but I remember back when the game was fairly new and ranking skills was a lot more difficult. You really did have that kind of thing happening. I knew people who used to rely on my weapons, I'd venture into dungeons with them; I wasn't good at combat but I was a skilled blacksmith, if they could get me to the ore I could make them weapons and armor. Back in the day that was actually valued BECAUSE of the fact gear made by players has better stats.

The man behind the curtain served a mechanical purpose that directly effected gameplay. They weren't just dragging some kid through a dungeon. Their party blacksmith was accompanying them through a dungeon to procure ore, it wasn't RP it was mechanical. I'd still assist via campfires and food and such, since my focus was more on life skills than combat back then. I wasn't very good at cooking but I could provide the party with basic stuff to keep their stamina up and I had enough wood and bandages to help patch them up. Since again back in the day you couldn't just blitz through a dungeon spamming 80 overpowered attacks.

The thing about Mabinogi is that there's no necessity, the game doesn't need to give you a party, and these days you need to go out of your way to connect with players. Which isn't easy when a lot of players can't stop seeing everything as progression based.

I saw a wounded player earlier and started healing them just to kinda, lend a hand. They thanked me and all that and I apologized for my healing being so weak stating "I still have a ways to go before I get Harmonic Saint" to which they said "I hope this helps" and I just kinda had to stop because... no my healing is Dan 1 full EXP. I don't NEED to heal you, that's not why I'm doing it. I'm saying I have a ways to go because I know my healing is weaker than just using a potion or something. Not everything is about progression. But if I stop and say "actually I'm maxed on healing" then it becomes "why are you bragging about it after saying your healing is weak?" and shit like that (the player in question did not say this for clarification, but others have in the past, when I merely stated that I don't need to train a skill and was just trying to engage with my fellow players.)

Mabinogi is a game that lets you do anything, and players don't have a need for a party or even connections because they do everything. I love to make gear for my friends, I do Magic Craft and I do Engineering; I'm working on Blacksmithing and Carpentry. I want to be able to help arm them for whatever they're doing. I enjoy making potions and such to assist them. It's fun to be helpful because they're helpful to me. The thing is, a lot of my friends, and myself included; are good in one area of the game, and bad in others.

This isn't really intentional, it's more that I don't NEED to be good at everything because one of my friends can cover what I lack and vice versa. It creates a sense of having a party on a grander scale. I don't actually want dungeons to have to force me into a queue and wait for 4 people to ready up and worry about whether or not I'm pulling too much or going too fast or too slow or if I fuck up a mechanic.

FFXIV is hell as someone with any level of anxiety, I have to look up every dungeon, boss, and raid before I get to experience it. It's a game of spoiling myself so I don't get yelled at, and even then I get told I need to pull more; so I do and I get told I'm pulling too much... BY DPS. My poor healers just sit there trying to wrangle the piece of shit DPS who are backseating the whole experience.

I don't want that. But I understand the want for a party, because I play Mabinogi with a big party; my whole guild functions as a party. We have crafters, we have people who do combat, we have people who do more supportive type gameplay, we have people who do cooking, we have people who do alchemy. Everyone has something they're good at, and they bring that to the table.

The result is that Mabinogi feels more like a traditional JRPG where I'm getting help from the people around me to get me through the journey. I don't run a boss fight and think "wow I wish I had a party for that." I run a boss fight having used potions from one friend, swords from another; food buffs from another, armor forged by another, etc.

What's also fun is that when we DO run group content, everyone has something they're good at; so it's not 5 people spamming the same AoE bullshit clusterfuck kill the whole room magic. It's someone blinding the enemies, or freezing them, or manipulating their movement; so the big DPS melee player can jump in close and take out a big threat. It's our giant swooping in and gathering up all the enemies, or it's our Harmonic Saint buffing the party and optimizing us against a specific target based on the situation, it's my melee focused character covering the physical weakness of my mage based friends who are slinging long ranged attacks across the field to keep the enemies off me while I do so. Watching each other's backs, playing to our strengths.

That's fun. No I'm not some overpowered absolute brick shithouse who can do everything. No I'm not even that strong. But when I run content with my friends we feel like a complete party where everyone matters. Now that's not what EVERYONE wants, but the people who do want it, don't seem to understand they can have that with mabi; they just have to stop trying to play the game like they need to be amazing at everything all the time everywhere all at once.

Pick some things you like, focus on that; let the party cover for you where you're not focused.

I'm really tired so I'm not explaining it very well, but this sort of thing can make the game much more enjoyable because suddenly everyone around you is necessary; they matter and you are limited in your function, but just as necessary for the role you play.

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