It seems like a lot of broken records around here:
MMO vet: The game is too easy, there needs to be more challenge! All of these dungeons up to level 25 are too easy. Me and my experienced MMO buddies steamrolled through the first 6 dungeons. If you think these are hard then you've never played the first 5 dungeons of ____, ____, and especially ____!
Therefore the game will _____!
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Is this the basic argument? Because as others have pointed out we're still out of, I'd say, the majority of the game. Secondly, most of us playing now, even in beta, are probably MMO vets; when release happens I'm sure the failure rate will be much higher, especially with those newbies using the duty finder. Thirdly, SE has no incentive to make the content difficult especially in the beginning; these are (as repeated) tutorial dungeons and dungeons that are needed to be completed to access further content. (Not to mention the fact as Karl has pointed out SE has no incentive monetarily to make things any more difficult, especially early on.)
Also there's a handful of anecdotal stories, mine included, that really prove nothing about the difficulty one way or the other. If anything it seems as though the difficulty really has more to do about class balance or enmity tweaks.
My story earlier in the thread was just to show how a fight could turn out and that a well organized team can do things a regular PUG couldn't; against a boss/specific event... (although a 3 man with no tank would have ironically a very tough time with trash mobs as we did.)
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To Parallel:
In FFXI, the most fun and skillful parts for me, were soloing content. I had to create my difficulty in some respects, especially since I never made it to endgame. Groups, at least leveling groups, weren't too difficult. And really both ARR and FFXI seem to be around the same difficulty around the same levels.
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The Point:
The thing is, ARR holds your hand, or rather guides you through content. And ironically, a reason why people may think earlier dungeons in other games were harder, was because those other games did horrible jobs with introducing to content and your class.
Other games just throw you into the fray and that's not necessarily difficult, but rather seems like bad design.
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People are looking for things that are unique about FFXIV, I think the handholding and needing to pass group content to progress, is right in front of people's faces but are refusing to acknowledge it. It is a brilliant mix of FFXI and WoW and I haven't seen any other MMO do this; require people to group in a dungeon setting this early on.