What this game should do to increase longevity

[linay]

They actually could. You don't need the world to be nearly destroyed to start a new storyline. The new one could run parallel to this one or even open when you hit level 30 or something. Have a new area open and travel there where we get caught up in some new msq shenanigans. There are so many ways to open up a new storyline that has nothing to do with the current one. The garleans are not world encompassing after all, just in our little corner of it. I am sure other nations know whats going on, but it would be akin to the American civil war when you live in India.

This would also give people who are not maxed out across the board new ways to level and open the door to something different than our standard dungeons, primals and 24 man raids. There is literally no limit to what they could do.

And that would be jarring because you're potentially leaving plot points unresolved or you'll mess with the timeline of the story too much.

[Razard]

....

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I don't see how this adds longevity.

What I'm hearing is basically. Stop the main story and just make a different story. That in no way adds longevity.

Plus, it alienates those who like the continuous story, while there is no guarantee of people coming in for new different story.

[AnimaAnimus]

And that would be jarring because you're potentially leaving plot points unresolved or you'll mess with the timeline of the story too much.

Not if each story was its own thing. Going back to my previous example. If you wrote a book about a political coop or existential threat set in India that was happened in the same time line as the US Civil War, how could there possibly be any unresolved plot points? Even if the main protagonist was American, there would be no cross over because the story you are reading occurs completely in India.

Many games handle story telling like this and it actually works incredibly well.

What I'm hearing is basically. Stop the main story and just make a different story. That in no way adds longevity.

Conclude. No one is asking them to just stop it bluntly. Just bring it to a conclusion so we can have something a bit more refreshing than "ascians did it" "garlemald did it" or "allagans did it". Every story needs to have a conclusion, otherwise you get the author adding ridiculous things to keep the story flowing. This is why many TV shows are stopping after 3 or 4 seasons even if they are highly popular. Because they have a natural stopping point and if they just keep adding and adding it becomes convoluted and actually destroys the story they wanted to tell.

[SamRF]

....

I'm actually genuinely curious why my suggestion sounds so ridiculous to you, I have the feeling you may be misunderstanding what exactly I mean cause what I'm suggesting really isn't that radical of an idea (also unoriginal probably).

[SamRF]

I don't see how this adds longevity.

What I'm hearing is basically. Stop the main story and just make a different story. That in no way adds longevity.

Plus, it alienates those who like the continuous story, while there is no guarantee of people coming in for new different story.

The endgame community will get less and less newcomers if things go forward the same way. The MSQ is stacking with each expansion, it already takes hundreds of hours to reach endgame. Players at endgame will stop playing for variety of reasons (bored, switching game, dying irl) while there will be less and less new players coming into the endgame because they're stuck in ever increasing MSQ. I'm sure many players don't make it past the MSQ and stop playing (long) before reaching endgame, a few 100 hours is a lot of dedication.

To give an example, I can't imagine the average WoW player who is used to fast combat having the patience to go through those hundreds of hours of MSQ to get the point when combat will start getting faster and more interesting. Hell, they might not even have the patience to reach lvl 50 with how incredibly slow combat is in this game in lower levels. If they use a story boost right now, they won't enjoy or understand latest expansion because they didn't experience past story and character development. This is why I suggest starting a new saga so there's a point you could safely level boost your character to while still being able to enjoy and understand given story.

[linay]

Not if each story was its own thing. Going back to my previous example. If you wrote a book about a political coop or existential threat set in India that was happened in the same time line as the US Civil War, how could there possibly be any unresolved plot points? Even if the main protagonist was American, there would be no cross over because the story you are reading occurs completely in India.

Many games handle story telling like this and it actually works incredibly well.

I'm thinking from the present state where there is an overarching story. If they manage to resolve everything, then we can start fresh.

That said, I also wouldn't like it if every expansion is self-contained with nothing to link from one expansion to the next. They can do it after every few expansions, but there should be continuation and even recurring characters and such between several of the expansions.

[SamRF]

I'm thinking from the present state where there is an overarching story. If they manage to resolve everything, then we can start fresh.

That said, I also wouldn't like it if every expansion is self-contained with nothing to link from one expansion to the next. They can do it after every few expansions, but there should be continuation and even recurring characters and such between several of the expansions.

I'd say have 2 or maybe 3 expansions for 1 saga. Give free level boost to the start of each saga. E.g. current saga ends at 6.0 --> 2nd saga starts 6.0 and will end 8.0 --> only give free boost to start of 6.0, even when current expac is 7.0.

Boost to the start of latest saga, not the latest expansion.

[Daemius]

Ascian crud is being wrapped by the end of 6.x patch series. 7.0 will be a fresh saga, maybe not with ALL new characters, but we'll be done with empire vs alliance and ascian machinations by then most likely. So your suggestion of people not having to go through all the current storyline to enjoy things is already kind of solving itself

Source: Yoshi-P has alluded to 6.0 being the end of the Ascian arc countless times over the years in live letters and interviews, here's one for the sake of having a direct link.
https://gamerescape.com/2016/11/15/f...-fan-festival/

Specifically within that article he states towards the end of question:

At the current state, we will need up to 6.0 to finish everything. (laugh)

[Jaelommiss]

It's not inaccurate to say that the story presents a very real obstacle that blocks new players from end game content.

Consider an MMO player who starts playing the game after hearing great things from his friends. He pays $60 for the complete edition and starts playing. After a few quests he takes a look online to see what the fastest way to reach end game (where his friends are). Imagine his shock to learn that he has 694 story quests, plus another 30 or so class quests before he can do ANY of the content that he wants to participate in. MMOs are known for the grind, but even so that's a huge 100+ hour requirement that can't be avoided. There's no alternative leveling process. You can't do things your own way. SE tapes you to the train and railroads your entire progress to cap.

The good news is that there's a level boost for $25. It brings you up to the end of the previous expansion. That's fairly standard for MMOs now. The bad news is that it does nothing for that mountain of quests you have. You can skip those too, but you'll need to pay another $25, plus you still have no choice but to do the 106 quests from the latest expansion.

So here are your choices as a new player:
1) Spend $60 and 100-150 hours following an undeviating path to reach end game
2) Spend $110 and 20-40 hours following a segment of that path to reach end game

Both of those present massive obstacles to someone who isn't sure whether or not they'll enjoy end game, and the problem grows with every new expansion. When is it unreasonable to expect people to complete the story before they can participate in harder content? Clearly some people here don't think 700 quests is too much. What about next expansion when it reaches 850? Or 1000 in the expansion after that?

Why do we need to force people to go through the story? Why isn't someone allowed to level up by grinding dungeons or fates if that's what they want to do? With all the optional content in game, why aren't people allowed to say "no thanks, I'd rather do something else to level up"?

I enjoy the story on the whole and I don't want it removed from the game, but I can't understand why some people feel that it must be forced on everyone who plays the game. Unless something changes, the inflating obstacle to entry will gradually restrict the number of new players reaching end game.