Can't Access 3.0 until you complete 2.0-2.55

I think the Gate is being used as a heavy means of preventing RMT action. Think about it, for the most part aspects which can be seen as lucrative in 3.0 can only be gained through Ishgard and if the only way to go through Ishgard is via completing up to 2.55 that means RMT would have to complete the whole plot just to progress. That's a lot of work to enter Ishgard and then on top of the risk of being banned for RMT activity. On top of that the fact it's tied to FC in the sense of airships and such which could be the most lucrative means of making gil might also suggest that they can nab RMT whom make a FC for the sheer efforts of making gil to sell.

Ishgard is obviously gated by ARR MSQ for story reasons. I don't remember SE ever mentioning that the other zones are gated by 2.55, however.

I have mixed feelings about this one.

It really doesn't matter for me anyway because, like most everyone else here on the forums, I'm caught up with the story and can jump right in.

On one hand it is nice that they're so focused on the story that they couldn't see a way around this - you have to witness the events of the previous quests, such as with Midgarsormr, Iceheart, and Aymeric, for Heavensward to make sense to begin with. In so many MMOs there is a lot of negativity amongst players toward the story (they only care about endgame lootz) and the developers play into that by making the story less important, and it's nice to see FFXIV stick with it, as it's a core component of the Final Fantasy name. Perhaps most importantly, they clearly intend to continue with some long-standing plot points such as what primals and ascians really are, and it's incredibly difficult to try and present progress on those mysteries out of order.

On the other hand, people don't want to pay $40 to be locked out of content, and not everyone is a diligent forum-goer who finishes all their story quests. In MMOs people enjoy things in different ways, and it's tough to tell people to just deal with it because the story quests are easy anyway. Additionally, it may become more difficult to get through them as time goes on; roulette bonuses only go so far to keep old content alive. There are also sometimes ways to "cheat" at separating out story content if you plan ahead for it. Not that it directly applies to what's going on with Heavensward, but in FFXI the expansions were absolutely intended to take place in order, especially the first two. But you could still play them out of order and they used some tricks to make them make sense that way too (most notably, Esha'ntarl "filling in" for Kam'lanaut even though you know he's dead if you did them in order). Finally, there's a ton of other areas in the game where they clearly said screw the lore because they wanted to add something, for something to be more accessible, or to use lore as an excuse for game functions - female chocobos were supposed to be locked away by Ishgard but there sure are enough for the Gold Saucer suddenly, Yugiri was added to introduce both Au Ra and Ninja but players can already be ninja without story progress and most likely we be able to be Au Ra as well, ridiculous quest text like for the Crystal Tower weekly, etc.

I think the best solution is to attempt to balance things as time goes on. Allowing people into old instanced content solo and separating out some of the utterly ridiculous filler quests into side quests are two of the biggest and easiest ways to do this. That way even if people have to play through an original game plus two expansions worth of story to get caught up with everyone else, it would at least be possible and reasonably quick to do.

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Originally Posted by Airget

snip [RMT hurdle]

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While I think the motivation is largely or even solely story based, this could be a very happen consequence.

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Originally Posted by Sove92

Ishgard is obviously gated by ARR MSQ for story reasons. I don't remember SE ever mentioning that the other zones are gated by 2.55, however.

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I don't even expect that all of the areas will be gated by the MSQ. It just depends on how you get there. If, for instance, Coerthas Western Highlands is accessed exclusively by cutting through Ishgard, then yeah they might be. However, if there's a way to physically get to one or multiple new areas from existing areas (not going through Ishgard) then I believe they'll be accessible.

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Originally Posted by EdwinLi

People can use FFXI as a example but that is a different game and each of its expansion storyline were separate stories except for 1 expansion if I remember right.

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Vanilla main scenario is tied to Zilart, which is tied to Chains Of Promathia. Yet you didn't need to finish Zilart to start CoP, which is...kind of silly.

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Originally Posted by Tsukino

On the other hand, people don't want to pay $40 to be locked out of content, and not everyone is a diligent forum-goer who finishes all their story quests.

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The way I see it, people who haven't done the MSQ...have a lot of things to do before going into Heavensward. As long as they have access to content, it's not a big deal.
And since the MSQ already unlocks lots of content, people will complete it even if they don't care about the story.

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Originally Posted by Sove92

Ishgard is obviously gated by ARR MSQ for story reasons. I don't remember SE ever mentioning that the other zones are gated by 2.55, however.

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Right, but unless SE is planning to cut and change pieces of certain maps, my best bet on the matter is that you first go to Ishgard, then get your first flying mount, and with it reach the other areas. As of now, I really do not know where the connections to other areas could be, other than Ishgard's.

Im not surprised by this as XIV's a very story driven game and in that story Ishgard has been sealed for 1000 years (or something, I cant remember lol) so been able to just start there without knowing why/the events leading up could be a problem. Also we'll assume that HW main storyline is going to make reference to events in ARR (Primals, defeat of the Empire, Bahumat etc) at least making new players go through that saves on needless recaps/exposition in cutscenes for the newbies (and driving us mad screaming "I know that already!" at the TV).

Besides forcing new players through ARR keeps old content in use longer allowing for testing our new classes in old dungeons quicker, quicker leveling (for both of us) and hopefully a better breed of player by time they hit 3.0
Also I dont think getting through 2.0-2.55 should take that long these days given the roulettes, quest exp and other helps the Devs have built in.

I believe the only thought I had was

'Eh, makes sense.'

Then I went back to grilling the fish my retainer brought me.

A an MMO with linear progression, they will likely nerf the grinds and difficulty of 2.0 content.

Can't have an MMO without players after all. And if they just kept it the same, it would eventually bottleneck. That would mean less players and less income from expansions.

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Originally Posted by Bluevann

Regarding Ishgard's story, I understand WHY it is so heavily connected to the 2.0 MSQ, but then I do not understand Yoshida's statement when he says that he projected Heavensward with in mind the idea to make the players feel like "a whole new game has come out". Feels more like an extension of ARR now. *shrug*

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I think he was referring just to the volume of the content presented in the expansion.