All Purchasable Copies of FFXIV Should Have a Level Skip / Story Skip

I do generally agree to a degree, it's hard to tell people "this game is so good" which it is, but then they spend it alone 99% of the time and there's very few things you can actually do together.

I understand WHY Square wants people to start in ARR, but I also acknowledge it's probably not the best tool in terms of getting people into the game.

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Originally Posted by Ankhira

I do generally agree to a degree, it's hard to tell people "this game is so good" which it is, but then they spend it alone 99% of the time and there's very few things you can actually do together.

I understand WHY Square wants people to start in ARR, but I also acknowledge it's probably not the best tool in terms of getting people into the game.

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You'd be spending it alone either way when you really think about it.
I can't say that afking in limsa is all that worth while. Which is what they'd be doing most of the time. (unless paradoxically we're gonna say they can start leveling an alt job lmao)

And that's sort of my problem when people bring this up.
Yes, it takes a long time to get to the end game (not so much max level, you'll gradually outpace level/quest quite rapidly, actually)

But I prefer that over MMOs becoming "Play the expansion"

See I don't really care how underprepared or uninvested it would make somebody.
Or even about the story. I've known people who put their heads down and somehow managed to drill through all the expansions in a week or two.
Some it takes several months.

There's nothing missing from the start of the game to the current expansion; they're missing out on doing it the conventional way. All events are level 15.
And most people have the story of X raid log friend who skipped all the way, who really enjoyed that there NG+ fr fr
Okay, well, if they had a good time in reverse, why couldn't they enjoy it the other way? What's missing? Again solo msq leveling vs afking in limsa?
We can't even really make the glam argument because now you can glam anything at any level.
(Unless we count dungeon gear, but wouldn't it be cool to get to that dungeon in due time and be excited over level syncing and just getting it in a few dozen runs?)

Expansions build on top of each other. They expand out, that's what they do.
When you reach the end, you're raid logging, or you're a masochist, and you really love doing Duty Roulettes for no foreseeable benefit.

It's not exactly like you need to level up together and hold their hand through every experience, ya know? And it's not like starting from the end makes you spend more or less time together.

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I mean I look at our direct competitor WoW and I'm just sad. You never really get to experience the World of Warcraft. It's all just sorta smooshed together, directionless (unless we count dungeon grinding to max level), incoherent.

I've seen new players experience that, and I can't say that's any better.

At least if you even mildly invest into FF14, even if you're going at it on your own, at least it feels like the events are happening directly to you as if it was the first time. I think that's special.

Perhaps there's a weakness in both. But I'd rather be weak this way.

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Edit*
Also, not to be coy, but it is an option to skip or boost in the game. It just costs money to do.

Kinda be silly to buy a game just to pay to skip playing it.

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Originally Posted by Zsavooz

The MSQ is why I stopped playing this game.

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Of course you did.

Final Fantasy XIV is a story driven game and let me tell you if you are not into it then this game is not for you nor your friend. Do not come here and try to ruin the game for others that actually play it and knew what they were signing up to. There are plenty of other games that offer 0% msq, combat only. Go play those!

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

If you want your friends playing this game, you want to play WITH them. Are you seriously going to invest months and months of playing MSQ with them?

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short answer: YES
long answer: ABSOLUTELY YES

I'm actually about to start a new adventure with a friend next week

I actually agree with this and I love the MSQ. Expecting a new player to sit through several hundreds of hours of MSQ content just to play with their friends is probably hurting this game more than its helping.

I seriously don't get it. Why does people makes alt in XIV?

I mean, in WoW, I'd understand. Playing every classes, every race, being on the horde or alliance side. But in XIV? There is no race bonus. You can level all your jobs on your character. We can data travel, so it's not like back in the days where you couldn't play with your friends because they were on the "wrong" server...

There is A LOT of content to do, especially if you try to get all the achievements. Every content is also redoable. The "maybe" only thing I'd see is if you had a nostalgia of the MSQ, but you are asking to skip it so it's probably not that (and there is the new game + anyway).

The only other reason I'd see is to have a different avatar... but then again, just uses a phantasia... ?

I really don't get alts... but anyways, I don't disagree, I guess that they should give this option anyways for those who wants an alt... It's probably not something hard to implement for the dev team..

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

If you want your friends playing this game, you want to play WITH them. Are you seriously going to invest months and months of playing MSQ with them? Come on, you're not. And trying to bring friends into the game is hard enough.

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I did it many time, and I'd still keep doing it. And the reason is that it simply gives me a reason to do the old content. I don't have to be the same level than my friends. There is an item sync anyways. So yeah, when they are not enjoying the story and cutscene, it's always my pleasure to jump in a dungeon or trial with them, or to do the raids with them for their first time. I also don't call them the mecanics, even if I know them - I let them enjoy the surprises.

When I bring friends to XIV, I simply tell them 2 things
1- Try to survive ARR, because the design is different of the other expansion, it was made at a point where there was very few things to do in the game and the story/quests is very long, sometime boring.
2- Don't rush too fast to get to the end, take your time, enjoy the journey - in a few months, you'll be anyway on the waiting train, waiting for the new content to release. No need to rush to get there.

So long it’s an option, I don’t see why not. If a player isn’t invested with the story after first exposure, they won’t be even if you force it to their plate. In fact that would just drive them away. Admittedly an anecdote: I have exactly a friend who skips to endgame during late ShB & skips all CS in EW. He still plays to this day, he doesn’t give a f about the story. He just likes to play with his CWLS. The only ‘issue’ here is SE wants to monetize this gesture so I’m afraid they simply wouldn’t want to let this money off the table for the sake of player convenience when they’ve been doing this… idk how many years now?

This isn’t as large of an issue compared to the slogfest that is solo gameplay pre lv70/80 imo.

I see no harm in it.
If people wanna do the story ng+ exists, but it'd be nice for people who just want to play with their friends first.

More options for how to play the game are only a good thing