Why punish players who just want to play DoL DoH?

I don't think this is about punishing. Its just they way they designed the game. While the crafting and gathering jobs are very comprehensive, their design focus is around story and combat and that dictates their design choices. This has really been the way since the beginning. You cant even get a mount without doing the story. Its just the design and generally they create limitations in their game as part of that design. They can't design the game to facilitate everyone's desired way of playing without having either unlimited resources or making compromises that may effect the quality of their game.

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Originally Posted by Umo

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Judging by the ineptitude found so commonly among adventurers in DF often, I think many of them would be serving Eorzea and Hydaelyn better by being chefs rather than fighters. Just saying!

There is nothing wrong with providing a DoH/DoL person a DoH/DoL way of getting to the DoH/DoL content in Heavensward.

As much as I love the combat and questing in this game, I can completely agree with the OP in this regard. There is just something really enjoyable about the DoH and DoL classes, and I can understand that a lot of people would rather focus on playing them than playing combat classes. In fact, with the exception of my main, I've put far more time into my DoH classes and my Fishing DoL class, than I have all my other combat classes combined....

I'm not fond of the MSQ barrier that blocks out Heavensward in the least. If I hadn't of known that it existed, I probably would still be focusing on leveling my classes rather than having pushed the story to get it done for Heavensward. With so much "side" content in the game, it seems a bit ridiculous to force players to focus on the story just to progress. Don't get me wrong, I love the story, but making it mandatory past a certain point is just alienating players who either don't have time to focus on it, or who prefer focusing on more social aspects of the game. Players just coming into the game are going to be particularly hurt by it, as that's almost 350 mandatory quests and dungeons they'll have to push through before they can get to the expansion, classes, and content that everyone will be talking about......

The story related combat content in this game is way easy as it is and can be gotten through pretty quickly. Just focus on getting that stuff done first and then spend the entire rest of your time with what you like more. The idea that the way it's set up is 'punishment' for people who prefer crafting and gathering is a rather sensationalistic exaggeration. And this is coming from someone who is max geared in all crafting and gathering classes with every lucis tool and all master book 2's obtained.

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Originally Posted by Adire

There is nothing wrong with providing a DoH/DoL person a DoH/DoL way of getting to the DoH/DoL content in Heavensward.

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Except that would require SE to write a completely separate story for what is a small minority of the player base, which would take time and resources away from other parts of the game.

They have one story, and everyone, old or new, needs to complete that story to access the new areas. It's the most efficient and inclusive way of doing things.

I've never seen an expansion in any mmo that has a nearly 350 quest requirement before allowing access. Its almost always just a level cap requirement with a few small storyline quests to get people acclimated. Nevermind the barrier for people who would rather be crafting/gathering. Thats a prohibitive barrier for potential new players who might see all the cool stuff in the expansion adverts and want to join in. Nope. Do these 300 or so quests first.

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Originally Posted by LunaHoshino

Except that would require SE to write a completely separate story for what is a small minority of the player base, which would take time and resources away from other parts of the game.

They have one story, and everyone, old or new, needs to complete that story to access the new areas. It's the most efficient and inclusive way of doing things.

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What makes people who want to do DoH/DoL stuff rather than combat less important than anyone else? Gating the content in the first place was not very efficient or inclusive, and gating it behind a ton of combat quests was not fair to people.

Besides, it could be as simple a feature as making a GC-like representative with "Ishgardian seals" or something. You have a daily cap of seals you can get, you get a lot of them from turning in hard to craft items (similar to Ixal quest items maybe, but with much harder difficulty) or a few of them from turning in easier things to craft. Trade in enough seals, you get access to Ishgard for "helping the war effort against the Dravanians".

A new questline would be great, but there are simple alternatives too.

Honestly, they should add a short quest-chain which unlocks Ishgard for level 50 Crafters/Gatherers... they can enter Ishgard through alternative means to the MSQ.

Ok then what do you propose? What is the incentive for people to do a crafting/gathering class only and no fighting at all? What's the story behind it all? What keeps the player coming back to craft and gather to extend their subscription? How does their story run along side the main story?

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Originally Posted by Yuri_Hyuga

Honestly, they should add a short quest-chain which unlocks Ishgard for level 50 Crafters/Gatherers... they can enter Ishgard through alternative means to the MSQ.

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I think if they did add some kind of prerequisite for gatherers/crafters, it should be quite long at least. If it was short and easy, it wouldn't be fair to combat oriented players who did the entire main storyline.