Give MSQ skippers a SKIP IT ALL button already

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Originally Posted by Bryson

??? FFXIV has never once said that... I've been here since ARR Phase 1 Beta. At no point in my 12+ years have I read/played the story.. I've skipped quite literally every single cutscene (given they provide that as an option for like 95% of the cutscenes.. I just afk if it isn't skippable).

Mandating someone be interested in something just because you are, is a weird take.

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I don't know what you mean.

Forcing you to still hammer through every bit of dialogue and cutscene is because, as a mainline title in the Final Fantasy franchise, it's a story driven JRPG first and foremost. Ignoring that story is your choice, and no one is stopping you even if most discourage it, but I do sit on the side of the argument that spending hours skipping the story to get to the end just feels like you are cheapening your own experience. And I do wonder what it is about this specific game that hooks people like you. I feel like we're playing different games.

I've bought skips for my alts. I've skipped cutscenes I've already seen. It's very convenient to have the option.

But I can't relate.

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Originally Posted by RedLolly

I don't know what you mean.

Forcing you to still hammer through every bit of dialogue and cutscene is because, as a mainline title in the Final Fantasy franchise, it's a story driven JRPG first and foremost. Ignoring that story is your choice, and no one is stopping you even if most discourage it, but I do sit on the side of the argument that spending hours skipping the story to get to the end just feels like you are cheapening your own experience. And I do wonder what it is about this specific game that hooks people like you. I feel like we're playing different games.

I've bought skips for my alts. I've skipped cutscenes I've already seen. It's very convenient to have the option.

But I can't relate.

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Would be much more convenient if we weren't forced to pay basically a full game price just to start the alt and if MSQ progress would be shared account-wide.

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Originally Posted by RedLolly

I don't know what you mean.

Forcing you to still hammer through every bit of dialogue and cutscene is because, as a mainline title in the Final Fantasy franchise, it's a story driven JRPG first and foremost. Ignoring that story is your choice, and no one is stopping you even if most discourage it, but I do sit on the side of the argument that spending hours skipping the story to get to the end just feels like you are cheapening your own experience. And I do wonder what it is about this specific game that hooks people like you. I feel like we're playing different games.

I've bought skips for my alts. I've skipped cutscenes I've already seen. It's very convenient to have the option.

But I can't relate.

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I was respondin to the claim "FFXIV saying no, read and play the story." I don't "read and play the story" I mash esc key and pick skip cutscene.

I agree we're playing different games. I see that as a good thing. Your experience isn't impacted by me skipping cutscenes and not caring about story at all, and vice versa.

Raiding hooks me. Played wow up until early mop. quit wow cause I didn't like the direction it was going. Got an arr beta key.. been here ever since. The only thing that would improve my experience is msq being 100% optional. By that I mean.. no endgame being gated behind msq. Obviously I'd never believe they'd do this. but I'd love if they did.

I play ffxiv because it's an mmorpg (barely imo but still).. For me, it being a final fantasy game, is irrelevant.

tbf there are a lot of players who loved the story aftr giving it a try. players who would have instantly skipped without second thought if they had the possibility.

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Originally Posted by Bryson

yes? it's not a some bombshell revalation that pressing the esc key prompts you to skip the cutscene if you so desire. I've done this every patch of every expansion.. and there's always players right next to me, doing the same thing. Which is why Day 1 of every expansion's early access, you see a bunch of players in pf farming the ex trials already.

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Of course I know you can skip cutscenes, it's just... You didn't get curious what you were missing out on? Not even once?

Can I get a "skip raid" button that just let's me go and collect all the rewards? No? Then you can suffer an unskippable cutscene or two. Heaven forbid every piece of content in the game not cater to you already

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Originally Posted by StormChase

This might sound harsh but if you have zero interest in the story then you shouldn't be playing a role-playing game.

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this game lost the right to say that after it wrote dt as poorly as it did
people are totally justified in wanting to skip after that mess

also the devs themselves dont mind if you skip, long as you pay. by selling story skips, they're effectively admitting that the story isn't a big deal and if you're willing to hand them 20 bucks or w/e, they'll let you ignore it. this isn't a hill worth dying on, friend. not even the devs care. and the writers we have right now clearly don't give a shit about making a good story.

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Originally Posted by Avoidy

this game lost the right to say that after it wrote dt as poorly as it did
people are totally justified in wanting to skip after that mess

also the devs themselves dont mind if you skip, long as you pay. by selling story skips, they're effectively admitting that the story isn't a big deal and if you're willing to hand them 20 bucks or w/e, they'll let you ignore it. this isn't a hill worth dying on, friend. not even the devs care. and the writers we have right now clearly don't give a shit about making a good story.

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Knowing players won't give future MSQ the time of day doesn't exactly give them an incentive to improve their writing.

I wish they would add a MSQ skip at the start of each expansion. All I care about is crafting, fates, and side quests. I could care less about the MSQ and wish they quit locking crafting behind it.

SE devs: We put a lot of time and money into making this story and we'll be damned if we're letting you skip it. Now go talk to Wuk lamat for the 1000th time.

May I remind people that this thread was made in reaction to the latest interview that was published where the producer stated that they had to take into account story skippers when designing the msq? Didn't it occur to any of you that maybe that's because they're taking story skippers into consideration when creating the main story that we're also missing out on a ton more interesting sections like the mini investigation of the last patch (7.3), and arguably the only genuinely good part of that patch story to boot? And if that's not the case, then I'm again, just reacting to what the producer said and taking it at face value.

In fine, I always think I've seen it all with certain bigoted af segments of the community, but this thread still managed to surprise me. Telling people how the game should be played and enjoyed and that the way they do it has to be the only way is frankly completely unhinged on its own, but also failing to realize that pushing the skippers away from the story design instead of continuing to take them into consideration would literally benefit everyone or at least not affect msq enjoyers in the slightest, is also indicative of nastier agendas (actually hating on a certain subset of the game population enough to just want to see them gone, even though the proposal would literally not affect anybody negatively).

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Originally Posted by Kahnha

Yoshi P should not be talking off the top of his head, he is really kicking a hornets nest.

Square is going to retire him eventually it sounds like...

If there is a story skip button then they lose out on the writing they boast about very detrimental to this MMO this sounds like they are planning to drop writing quality.

I mean if story skippers can skip it they have to consider that everyone will skip so if less people are seeing the story less thought has to be put into it.
Why would people that went through the story up to this point waste their time doing the up coming msq?

That's a Stupid idea... very stupid.... the only skip people should get is being able to progress up to the current xpack.

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Call the idea stupid if you like, in the meantime your idea that everybody would skip makes zero sense: if a valuable chunk of the players like the story, as evidenced by all the bigots in this thread or people like myself, why would they skip? I sure ain't skipping even the very mediocre, lacklustre story of Dawntrail (I skipped nothing and I keep talking to all the NPCs, do all the sidequests...).

If they skip then the story failed to grab their attention, that's about it. They're already skipping anyway, how would condensing all the skips into one button per story segment (until the next solo duty / dungeon / event) would be any different?

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Originally Posted by Valence

Call the idea stupid if you like, in the meantime your idea that everybody would skip makes zero sense: if a valuable chunk of the players like the story, as evidenced by all the bigots in this thread or people like myself, why would they skip? I sure ain't skipping even the very mediocre, lacklustre story of Dawntrail (I skipped nothing and I keep talking to all the NPCs, do all the sidequests...).

If they skip then the story failed to grab their attention, that's about it. They're already skipping anyway, how would condensing all the skips into one button per story segment (until the next solo duty / dungeon / event) would be any different?

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Because the devs want people to buy the story skip if they're skipping. They want people to either pay for the skip or pay for a sub as long as possible while they grind through msq, and if msq gets easy/timely to skip without paying then they lose that revenue source.

*I dont like that they do this and I think they shouldn't sell any sort of skip but that's sadly how it is

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Originally Posted by StormChase

Of course I know you can skip cutscenes, it's just... You didn't get curious what you were missing out on? Not even once?

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honstely i played till mid HW and then i just got bored with the msq, forked over 20 euros and got spit out at endwalker and it was honestly the best decision i ever did when it comes to enjoyment of this game, dont get me wrong i love a good story but ff14's story is told in such a boring way i just dont wanna put up with it

The story is an economic decision. They sell skip potions. Simple as that.

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Originally Posted by StormChase

You didn't get curious what you were missing out on? Not even once?

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The biggest issue i have here is that you are often demanded to rush the msq to unlock the next extreme trial.

Day 1 blind experiences are unique, as even on day 2 people will already start talking about guides or optimal strategies they 'heard' (half of the people just watch the guide). Even later on day 1 this already starts to become the behaviour.

So yeah, this realy will get people towards skipping the msq. I would at least delay the extreme trial by 1 week to give some time to follow the story. Just like they did with savages (and im aware that this would then mean a 2 week delay for those, which to me is still fine).

And yes, afterward then going back to follow the story feels like a bad idea as you had a massive spoiler already given to you.

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Originally Posted by UkcsAlias

The biggest issue i have here is that you are often demanded to rush the msq to unlock the next extreme trial.

Day 1 blind experiences are unique, as even on day 2 people will already start talking about guides or optimal strategies they 'heard' (half of the people just watch the guide). Even later on day 1 this already starts to become the behaviour.

So yeah, this realy will get people towards skipping the msq. I would at least delay the extreme trial by 1 week to give some time to follow the story. Just like they did with savages (and im aware that this would then mean a 2 week delay for those, which to me is still fine).

And yes, afterward then going back to follow the story feels like a bad idea as you had a massive spoiler already given to you.

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Yeah, I'd delay it by a week so people aren't encouraged to rush.

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Originally Posted by StormChase

Yeah, I'd delay it by a week so people aren't encouraged to rush.

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mhm yea give us even less todo on patchday

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Originally Posted by StormChase

Of course I know you can skip cutscenes, it's just... You didn't get curious what you were missing out on? Not even once?

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literally never once in my 12+ years of playing. My sub has been active since Aug 2013. I couldn't care less about the story.. I play solely because it's an mmorpg.

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Originally Posted by StormChase

Knowing players won't give future MSQ the time of day doesn't exactly give them an incentive to improve their writing.

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How's that functionally different than selling msq skips and allowing people to mash esc key to skip 99% of all cutscenes?

You can't trick people into caring about something they don't. If they care, they follow the story.. if they don't.. they won't.

I think it's perfectly fine if someone uses the tools available to skip the MSQ if they choose. What is not fine is wanting more tools. I've played MMOs since 1999 EverQuest. One thing I have always appreciated about this game was the design decision that the main storyline would be the limiter for everything. All optional content branches off from it. Really no other MMO does this, even those who are more story-focused. It's a uniqueness that XIV has that pays respect to its roots as a Final Fantasy game. There's really no reason to make it any easier to skip than they already do. If someone doesn't want to manually skip through content, they pay for the ability. That's a fair balance and follows the game design.

Then keep enjoying the producer going about trying to balance out what they put inside the msq between story enjoyers and story skippers and telling us that they may not improve the experience everywhere because of the latter I guess, if you believe so strongly that everybody should be forced through the story for whatever reason.

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Originally Posted by Bryson

How's that functionally different than selling msq skips and allowing people to mash esc key to skip 99% of all cutscenes?

You can't trick people into caring about something they don't. If they care, they follow the story.. if they don't.. they won't.

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IIRC Paid MSQ skips don't include the current expansion, and skipping cutscenes is still more involved than pressing a button that takes you to the dungeon.

they shouldn't sell story skips those should be free or at least account wide I'm very sure this won't be taken into account because square needs money but it is the most sensible thing to do.

That said because the game is marketed as a story driven MMORPG you shouldn't be able to just buy a skip of the current MSQ the only ones asking for that are like 1 - 5% of the active player base most people want the story to be better or are just indifferent (Fine with how we skip story atm).

Would be nice if the books could also skip the current expansion, If it did that and we only had to do the current .x patches then I'd probably consider buying one if I wanted to make a character in another server or something.

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Originally Posted by StormChase

This might sound harsh but if you have zero interest in the story then you shouldn't be playing a role-playing game.

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That's a very short-sighted view. Live service MMOs (should) offer more than just a story. If those who enjoy the game exclusively for other reasons were to leave, it would be worse for everyone.

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Originally Posted by StormChase

IIRC Paid MSQ skips don't include the current expansion, and skipping cutscenes is still more involved than pressing a button that takes you to the dungeon.

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correct. My preference is what wow does.
Expansion launches. Hit max level however you want.

I find it weird that people who enjoy MSQ, prefer I mash the esc key and skip all the cutscenes.. as opposed to you now.. just hitting max level however I want.

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Originally Posted by StormChase

Knowing players won't give future MSQ the time of day doesn't exactly give them an incentive to improve their writing.

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Their incentive to improve their writing should come from wanting to sell a product that people will buy. These writers aren't children. They won't fall apart if people don't like their work.

My free time isn't infinite. Nobody's is. When I choose to spend my time viewing or reading something that someone has written, I'm trusting them with my time (and in this case my money) to provide an enjoyable experience. When that trust is let down multiple times by god awful writing that insults the intelligence and the good will of anyone exposed to it, then I'm well within my right to stop trusting them with my free time, and the ball's back in their court to earn it back. All I'm asking for here, in agreement with the OP, is for a way to do this easily. I'm going to skip regardless. Just let me do it easily.

Post-ARR being such a notorious slog does the same thing btw. People go through like 80+ fetch quests, and in many cases it's so bad that they quit the game entirely; in some cases, like mine, they enter Heavensward exhausted and burnt out and not really trusting the writers to do right, so they're tempted to skip even then. But you know what? At least it has the banquet scene; at least there's a good payoff. And at least it leads into heavensward kino. The writers effectively said "hey, thanks for hanging in there, here's a sign of our intentions going forward," and most people saw that and hung on and were rewarded by HW being a banger of a story. That's how you win people back after a slog. What payoff is at the end of dawntrail's hot mess? Nothing but more panicky backpedaling. More story that feels made up as they went along. More uncertainty: "uhh-- uhhhh... here's a cute kpop looking antagonist...! uhhh p-please dont be mad, h-here, look, the Ascians are back!" like bruh, c'mon now. It's obvious that the writers have lost faith in their abilities. Maybe some lead writer left? I don't know. It's not my business to know. I just know that I'm no longer trusting it with my time. Forcing me to slog through more of their bad writing to preserve their own ego ("they won't want to improve unless you're forced to endure their dogshit writing!") is not the solution. I'm still going to skip. I'm just going to do it manually.

This on top of just selling story skips because not even the guys running the show really care on a fundamental level if you skip, as long as you pay them. If they truly believed that the MSQ was a valuable experience imperative to one's enjoyment of the game, they wouldn't let you skip it for 10 dollars or whatever. But they do, because even they're tacitly admitting that it isn't worth doing by providing you a way out of it even on a fresh account with no prior clears. The writers don't care enough to provide a quality experience, as seen by DT which felt like a rough draft that desperately needed editing. The big money execs at the top don't care as long as you pay them to skip. Why on earth should I feel bad? Gonna be honest, your post sounds like you care more than literally -any- of the staff do, which is sadly where we're at now with this company. I've been feeling that way for a while, albeit about other elements of the game that I won't get into. It just feels like the fans care more than the people who're being paid to care, and it's sad as hell. Because of that, I don't think this is a hill worth dying on. You're not going to be the one to convince me to give 7.4 a shot. That's on the writers, and it seems like they don't really care atm.

And the funniest part of all of this is the reason we won't get what OP is asking for, is because it'd affect their ability to sell story skips. If you could skip the story without a cash shop option, why would you pay for one? That'll be the reason we never see something so basic, not even for accounts with a character that's cleared the msq already. This entire thread is a waste of time. OP won't get what OP wants, because there's money standing in the way. MSQ fans won't persuade skippers to give the story a chance, because that job is for the writers, who don't care and haven't for a while. We're all just wasting time in here, so I'm going to go, but good luck.

As someone with 4 characters, I'm slogging through the msq for a fourth time.
I would totally be for having a “I’ve seen this before, let’s move on to the end” button.
BUT only for those accounts that have actually completed the msq once already.

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Originally Posted by StormChase

This might sound harsh but if you have zero interest in the story then you shouldn't be playing a role-playing game.

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This might sound harsh but there is no roleplaying in this game especially msq. There is even no branching in story based on "choices". Entire msq is worthy being watched on youtube, nothing else.

If anything this game needs account wide msq progress so it becomes alt friendly.