New Jobs Gated Behind Completion of 2.0 Story?

Actually, there are quite a few places built into the game for new zone connections. Griffin Crossing, the incomplete big bridge of the eponymous fight, just needs a bit more to be opened up for a zone connection, for example. I would be surprised if we didn't get some of the 1.0 Coerthas zones back: http://www.ffxivinfo.com/images/maps...s-coerthas.jpg

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Originally Posted by Magis

Basically this. People complaining they have to play the game to get stuff.

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There are things you should need to work for, and there are things that should be provided to you so you can DO the work.

I feel that new jobs fall into the latter category, both from a perspective of maximizing fun, and also in appealing to new players considering joining the game. New jobs shouldn't be a reward for getting the job done. They should be an alternative tool FOR getting the job done.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

There are things you should need to work for, and there are things that should be provided to you so you can DO the work.

I feel that new jobs fall into the latter category, both from a perspective of maximizing fun, and also in appealing to new players considering joining the game. New jobs shouldn't be a reward for getting the job done. They should be an alternative tool FOR getting the job done.

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I would only agree to this in the context of a game where the job choice is explicitly decided upon character creation. Take, for example, WOW. You want to play another job? Tough. Roll another character.

FFXIV does not apply, as you can play any role merely by swapping weapons. In truth, FFXI didn't apply either.

Introducing access to new special abilities, on the other hand, makes perfect sense to be locked behind certain rites of passage.

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Originally Posted by Bluevann

It is a commonly accepted guess, but just a guess. Basically, since there are no zones that could bring to new areas (or does SE intend to just slice off mountains in Coerthas Central Highlands?) the assumption everyone makes is that once in Ishgard, you will get your flying mount, and with it access the other areas otherwise unreachable. "zoning" probably will not work with flying (unless they plan to patch the sky with those blue trails?), so we're assuming that Heavensturn will be more of one large open world, similar to 1.0, with areas on several levels and accessible through flying.

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This isn't true though. Coerthas Western Highlands is known to be in the expansion and it lies directly behind Snowcloak where there is already a path through the glacier ready to be opened when the expansion launches. Griffen Crossing in Coerthas is also an obvious crossing into one of the expansion regions; the bridge will just be 'fixed' when the expansion launches and suddenly you can cross into the new region.

All discussion from the devs so far has specified Ishgard as being gated behind the 2.55 story completion. I have seen no mention anywhere of the new regions within the expansion being gated as well. In theory the floating continent and other such regions would be story gated simply because you would need to unlock the flying mount from the 3.0 main scenario to get there, but the terrestrial regions should be open to anyone that has the expansion.

With regards to the jobs I'm not sure how I feel about them being in Ishgard (which is what Yoshi has stated so there's no real discussion to be had about if they will be gated now). For most players it will make no difference but for new players it may be a source of frustration.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

There are things you should need to work for, and there are things that should be provided to you so you can DO the work.

I feel that new jobs fall into the latter category, both from a perspective of maximizing fun, and also in appealing to new players considering joining the game. New jobs shouldn't be a reward for getting the job done. They should be an alternative tool FOR getting the job done.

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You're implying you aren't given this? You are given 10 jobs to choose from to "complete the job". There already is a tank, healer, and dps type job for players to choose from (with a minimum of 2 to choose from within each role). Assuming that these are indeed gated, it is just the next step along the progression line of your character (since everything is done on one char). You want the more advance jobs? Then do the very minimal work needed to get access to them.

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Originally Posted by Valkrist

If you played the game back in beta, you got access to every job regardless of quests.

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Back in Beta, you could only play base classes. No jobs. Only legacy players could play with their legacy chacacters jobs as long they unlocked them during 1.0.

Just add a 'sneak into Ishgard and check out what's happening for, uh, reasons' quest at level 30 for anyone who hasn't completed 2.55 yet.

Nothing in there really for low level people except the new jobs and it's a very messy solution, but then again, the reason I can wander around Ul'dah post 2.55 isn't exactly super convincing either. Gameplay/story segregation, just suspend that disbelief a little higher in the name of fun.

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Originally Posted by Alberel

This isn't true though. Coerthas Western Highlands is known to be in the expansion and it lies directly behind Snowcloak where there is already a path through the glacier ready to be opened when the expansion launches. Griffen Crossing in Coerthas is also an obvious crossing into one of the expansion regions; the bridge will just be 'fixed' when the expansion launches and suddenly you can cross into the new region.

All discussion from the devs so far has specified Ishgard as being gated behind the 2.55 story completion. I have seen no mention anywhere of the new regions within the expansion being gated as well. In theory the floating continent and other such regions would be story gated simply because you would need to unlock the flying mount from the 3.0 main scenario to get there, but the terrestrial regions should be open to anyone that has the expansion.

With regards to the jobs I'm not sure how I feel about them being in Ishgard (which is what Yoshi has stated so there's no real discussion to be had about if they will be gated now). For most players it will make no difference but for new players it may be a source of frustration.

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In the case of Coerthas Western Highlands, as you say, the Main Scenario, as well as random NPC banter, takes pains to note Snowcloak is currently impassable. The discovery of Iceheart's tunnels was a significant surprise. Because of this, I think this area will likely also be gated behind storyline, at least up until the point you reach Shiva in the Main Scenario storyline. From that point on, only then does it start to make sense to use Snowcloak's tunnels as a gateway to CWH. They COULD get around this by modifying Main Scenario dialogue, and changing Iceheart's tunnels to be offshoots from the main path through Snowcloak, or something, and thereby making CWH accessable from the get-go. Time will tell!

As for the "no real discussion to be had about if" bit, I'm still hoping that the part about gated jobs will turn out to be Yoshi P saying things that are actually going to be totally not what he said, like the whole housing debacle only with the truth winding up being a GOOD thing (access to jobs without Main Scenario) rather than BAD (housing is NOT going to be less expensive than Free Company housing and will be incredibly limited in availability). Not gonna call Yoshi P a liar, but clearly he doesn't always understand the logistics of the things he promises. The Dev team had to rein him in on his housing promises - maybe the marketing team will point out the impending disaster in locking all the "cool factor" in the expansion behind months of casual play.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

I feel that new jobs fall into the latter category, both from a perspective of maximizing fun, and also in appealing to new players considering joining the game. New jobs shouldn't be a reward for getting the job done. They should be an alternative tool FOR getting the job done.

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Yes, you're totally right. Let's make the advanced jobs easier to access than normal jobs!

In the same way, someone who was drew to FFXIV:ARR by the White Mage comes and realizes that he needs to labor through 30 levels of "work" and the main story at least up to Ifrit, and then wtfwhydoihavetolevelanarcanist, only after all that, he can play the White Mage.

So all those people who argue that new jobs should not be gated behind 2.55 story...are you also arguing for that all JOBs be available at level 1?

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Originally Posted by Zfz

In the same way, someone who was drew to FFXIV:ARR by the White Mage comes and realizes that he needs to labor through 30 levels of "work" and the main story at least up to Ifrit, and then wtfwhydoihavetolevelanarcanist, only after all that, he can play the White Mage.

So all those people who argue that new jobs should not be gated behind 2.55 story...are you also arguing for that all JOBs be available at level 1?

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Except those ARE accessible from the start, only with different names and symbols. A player who buys the game to be a white mage will enjoy conjurer just as much. They only differ in having some extra abilities and less cross abilities. But still, to compare 30 levels to doing all of the patches's main scenario quests is nonsensical.

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Originally Posted by Alberel

This isn't true though. Coerthas Western Highlands is known to be in the expansion and it lies directly behind Snowcloak where there is already a path through the glacier ready to be opened when the expansion launches. Griffen Crossing in Coerthas is also an obvious crossing into one of the expansion regions; the bridge will just be 'fixed' when the expansion launches and suddenly you can cross into the new region.

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Yes, Western Highlands is behind Snowcloak, like we can see here:
http://www.ffxivinfo.com/images/maps...s-coerthas.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/36hO8h1.png

But no info about Eastern Lowlands (the zone behind Griffen Crossing). It was not part of the 3.0 zones trailer.

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All discussion from the devs so far has specified Ishgard as being gated behind the 2.55 story completion. I have seen no mention anywhere of the new regions within the expansion being gated as well. In theory the floating continent and other such regions would be story gated simply because you would need to unlock the flying mount from the 3.0 main scenario to get there, but the terrestrial regions should be open to anyone that has the expansion.

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The way to western highlands is already blocked throught the glacier. It is part of the 2.x MSQ and like Ishgard it would't be logically to walk to the other side before finding the tunnels in the MSQ.

All I remember is that people was saying ninja was going to be gated behind the storyline too back when it's first appearance was only during the Leviathan part and Yugiri had only just settled into the guild in limsa. That wasn't the case and I don't believe that they intend to lock the jobs behind an even bigger storyline brick wall. I must say it is strange for them to contact them to explicitly specify that the jobs will be gated. I know they were intended to reside in the new zones but I didn't believe that it would be in ishgard itself.

Perhaps Yoshi can provide further clarification, or at least a dev could reply to this topic as it seems to be a rather big issue with the expansion in relation to new players, especially considering we currently have a lack of tanks and healers already in the game so making the 2 new potentially most exciting tank (DRK is always popular) and healer gated away which would just further put off any new potential tanks or healers.

Personally it has no effect to me I already am up to date with the story and will be intending to get into the new content asap to level the new jobs, but I do feel it would be unfair for a lot of newer people to struggle through content with a job they may potentially have little interest in, it is a very good way to make new players quit the game before they even get to try what they wanted.

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Originally Posted by Bluevann

Except those ARE accessible from the start, only with different names and symbols. A player who buys the game to be a white mage will enjoy conjurer just as much. They only differ in having some extra abilities and less cross abilities. But still, to compare 30 levels to doing all of the patches's main scenario quests is nonsensical.

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Arcanist which is also required for white mage, plays entirely different.

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

Yes, you're totally right. Let's make the advanced jobs easier to access than normal jobs!

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At no time have these new jobs been referred to as "Advanced jobs". That is entirely an invention of players on these forums. They've never said that these are going to be a "better" form of tank, or healer, or DPS, and if they're not better, what is "Advanced" about them?

Right now, the only known differences between these jobs and our normal jobs is the fact that they have no base class and apparently aren't going to start at level 1.

Since they are NOT Advanced jobs, but are in fact, just additional jobs, why should they be harder to get? What is there about these jobs that warrants the gate that's going to be there? Right now, there doesn't seem to be any reason for the gate to be there at all. And if it DOES turn out that they are advanced jobs, better at tanking, better at healing, better at DPS - I can guarantee you that the playerbase will be up in arms.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

Since they are NOT Advanced jobs, but are in fact, just additional jobs, why should they be harder to get?

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Let's see. . .For one, they have no base class; for all we know this means that you don't even need to have a similar role leveled to unlock them. Potentially, I could take a 50 MNK with no tanking experience and unlock DRK at whatever level it starts at. Second, even if it does require you to have a similar role leveled, it allows you to diversify more within that role than current jobs do. AST by itself sounds to have more versatility than CNJ and WHM combined or ACN and SCH combined. Third, we don't know yet how much experience boost (that is, free levels) we'll be getting when we unlock them, which could be enough to justify having to work harder for them.

Has any of this even been confirmed? There has been so many contradictory and confusing statements in "interviews" from PAX East that I'd rather hear from the English community representatives.

Why is this such a heated debate among level 50 players? I get that you all want to be considerate to new players, but if not being able to play Dark Knight out of the box will actually prevent someone from even picking up the game, do you really think they would have gotten further than the first few dungeons anyway?

I haven't read every single post in this 22 page thread. But SE have already said that the new jobs won't start at level 1, there's the first reason to not have them available to new players starting out. They are also jobs that - in the story - are local to Ishgard and if you can't get to Ishgard until you've completed the story (spoiler free here but you know why you can't) then how do you intend for these people who are yet to complete the story to get their job quests (if said jobs were made available)?

I have no problem with blocking these jobs behind the story content, especially since they are local to Ishgard in this world. I think there will be more reasons to have them story locked when we get further information about them (cross class skills?) but there's no point going into them as that would just be speculation.

I didn't read all those pages but I really don't see the issue here. It's an expansion! I, for one, am glad they will be gated behind the story cause the story makes you go to Ishgard! I don't see why a new player would be able to go directly there when our characters couldn't until 2.55.

I don't plan on adding more about this.. Just wanted to chime in.

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Originally Posted by ProphetMagnus

I haven't read every single post in this 22 page thread. But SE have already said that the new jobs won't start at level 1, there's the first reason to not have them available to new players starting out.

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Well of course they won't start at level 1... no jobs start at level 1. Never have. "Classes" start at level 1 and these are NOT classes. ;)

It's not the issue of having the jobs available from the start but the barrier to them being 2.55 or greater storyline is a little steep. I could understand if it required them to get 1 specific job to 30 and another to 15 to unlock the "job" much like all other jobs. Even levelling to 50 isn't such a big deal to unlock them.

But forcing a new player to lv a job to 50 that they may not want to use, then do Castrum > Praetorium > ifrit > garuda > mog > titan > leviathan > ramuh > snowcloak > shiva > keeper of the lake > nabriales > steps, plus all the fetch quests inbetween and get your ilevel to i90 to just get access to the last instance and finally after all that you can unlock DRK, AST or MCN and be the job you want, that's a good way of putting people off who may be enticed by expansion jobs to buy the game and quit before they get there.

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Originally Posted by Zohar_Lahar

Has any of this even been confirmed? There has been so many contradictory and confusing statements in "interviews" from PAX East that I'd rather hear from the English community representatives.

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That is one of the main reasons why this topic was created. Two articles posted on the same day presented conflicting information. I'm going into it assuming the quoted response from SE is true considering it was sent specifically to clarify what was an inaccurate statement. That and I always get wary when an interview gets paraphrased as you don't know how much was actually said. Despite what many people seem to think, this is not a complaint thread. I would simply like a definitive response and if it is true that such a requirement is needed before these new jobs can be played I would very much like to know the reason for that decision.

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Originally Posted by Blueyes

I would simply like a definitive response

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From Square Enix? You must be new.

The hard part is that as someone mentioned, this is more along the lines of a 'Extension' pack than 'Expansion'. Taking XI as an example, none of the stories were actually tied together, but their own little thing(Otherwise RoZ would have interfered with WoTG IIRC). Therefore, jobs 'introduced' in that area could be accessible through a quest. However, they were still gated in a form or fashion. For example, Samurai and Ninja had been in Kazham. Norg to be exact. However, you needed to obtain Kazham Airship pass before even reaching the quest starter.

My biggest issue is that its been said they wont start from level 1. Even in XI, the jobs you unlocked always started from level 1. I can forgive gating them behind the expansion story. But I really want to experience the jobs from scratch and learn to play them as I go. Starting at a specific level takes away from that experience.
In my utopian vision of Heavensward though, the new jobs would be available from the get go, to anyone starting the game from scratch. (Which is what I had hoped since I would love to play the game again from the beginning as an Astrologian or DRK).

We have approximately three months until 3.0. That should be more than enough time to get things done.

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Originally Posted by Vespar

My biggest issue is that its been said they wont start from level 1.

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That's also been ambiguous. It was later "clarified" to make it possibly sound like what he meant to say (or actually said) was that you can't start the game as one of the new jobs, and was lost in translation.

Someone sees all the cool previews for the expansion and decides to buy it, only to find out that everything they have seen in the expansion can't be accessed for another 3 months for them. There might be zones that aren't gated by the full MSQ, but they might also just be meteor crash sites that you run through to unlock Alexander or a dungeon, and can't get into without first seeing Ishgard.

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Originally Posted by Mistoltin

Because why just get Expansion sales when you can force people to grind through the entire story and rake in that sub-money.
They know that Dark Knight is a highly desired class, why would they just hand it out willy-nilly?

Still can't believe that they're tying in 2.0 into 3.0 though, gotta love having everything gated off even though you paid for it. All those newbies going through the ropes, means they're going to continue forcing us to repeat older content to get new things as well, like the roulettes and the relic grind. Oh-boy...

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Comments like these make me laugh really, really hard. Why get a story heavy game and complain about having to do the story? Final Fantasy has ALWAYS been that way.

Like someone else pointed out earlier, the way they're numbering these patches, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc. makes it seem they're trying to tell a huge story split into chapters, with each expansion being an extension into the next chapter instead of a stand-alone expansion that could tie together events that happen across the world but not necessarily dependent on each other. This offered more parallel things that still mattered. But with things in FFXIV, they couldn't get any more linear than what they have now.

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Originally Posted by Zfz

In the same way, someone who was drew to FFXIV:ARR by the White Mage comes and realizes that he needs to labor through 30 levels of "work" and the main story at least up to Ifrit, and then wtfwhydoihavetolevelanarcanist, only after all that, he can play the White Mage.

So all those people who argue that new jobs should not be gated behind 2.55 story...are you also arguing for that all JOBs be available at level 1?

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Being available at level 1, being available at level 30 like every other job and being available after getting to level 50 and gearing out to at least i100 like what seems to be the current plan are all pretty different things.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

Being available at level 1, being available at level 30 like every other job and being available after getting to level 50 and gearing out to at least i100 like what seems to be the current plan are all pretty different things.

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At least i90... not 100. Easy to craft a full i90 set, and PF/decent teamwork makes the hardest stuff... not that hard.

I vote we wait and see rather than riot about something we haven't actually experienced yet, as people are seriously lacking in supporting evidence.

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Originally Posted by Duuude007

At least i90... not 100. Easy to craft a full i90 set, and PF/decent teamwork makes the hardest stuff... not that hard.

I vote we wait and see rather than riot about something we haven't actually experienced yet, as people are seriously lacking in supporting evidence.

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Oh, thought steps was i100. My mistake.

Point remains though, if it was just level 50 that might be fine. But having to spend or grind to gear up a job you don't intend to keep playing because what you really want to do is fling robots and shoot guns is a bit of a downer.


Even putting all gameplay/lore reasons aside, I'd like them available at level 30 just for continuity.

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Originally Posted by Jandor

Point remains though, if it was just level 50 that might be fine. But having to spend or grind to gear up a job you don't intend to keep playing because what you really want to do is fling robots and shoot guns is a bit of a downer.

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We will know what gear these jobs use well in advance, and can level a base class which is fully compatible in gear requirements, be it healing, fending, aiming etc. so that you can avoid any wasteful gear growth past 50.

So I doubt this will even be a concern for most.

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Originally Posted by dice137

We have approximately three months until 3.0. That should be more than enough time to get things done.

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That's great for folks playing right now; no one in this thread should be concerned about them. But what about players who start playing the game a year from now, who saw the Dark Knight on the box, thought it was awesome, and then realize all the crap they'll have to go through before they can even be the character they bought the game wanting to be?

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Originally Posted by Lorielle

For example, Samurai and Ninja had been in Kazham. Norg to be exact. However, you needed to obtain Kazham Airship pass before even reaching the quest starter.

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The difference being, while you needed to unlock the Kazham Airship in order to access Samurai and Ninja, the only gate to unlocking these jobs was the same gate to unlock ANY job: Be level 30 on any job. If you are level 30 on any job, obtaining a Kazham Airship Pass is easy. Each and every expansion FFXI ever put out, new jobs were always accessable to anyone with a job at level 30. At every stage of the game, newcomers were limited to starting with one of six different jobs: Warrior, Thief, Monk, White Mage, Red Mage, or Black Mage, but after getting any of these to 30 they could unlock any job from the base game or any expansion.

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Originally Posted by chococo

But with things in FFXIV, they couldn't get any more linear than what they have now.

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This is one thing that worries me a bit, but it's too early in the game's life to be TOO concerned about it. The first expansion has decided to directly continue the original game's storyline. That's acceptable. However, what if the second expansion continues the story from Heavensward's end? And the third continues after that? And if each expansion locks its content behind this storyline? Years down the road, a new generation of players are deciding which game they'd like to devote themselves to. Hey, this one looiks cool, "Final Fantasy XIV: Into the Void"! Looks like I can be a Samurai, that's awesome. Oh, wait... Looks like I have to buy "Final Fantasy: Ascent of the Twelve" and play through it before I can get into Void and unlock Samurai? Um... okay... wait - looks like I gotta do "Underdusk", "Heavensward", AND the base set before even that??? Uh, no; I think I'm gonna stick with a newer MMO.

If an MMO is going to stick it out for the long term, they can't afford to gate content behind a storyline that gets longer and longer and longer as time passes. Doing so alienates new players, and new players are NECESSARY to supplement the loss of older players as they leave the game. Sure, there's a core of players that join early and stick it out come hell or high water, but this core is much too small to sustain the game by itself - or, at least, too small to sustain the game in the lavish manner we currently enjoy.

FFXI's solution was for every expansion beyond the first to have its own story running parallel to the original Main Scenario. The Main Scenario came to a fairly decisive end with Rise of the Zilart (though later quests occasionally would pick up on loose ends here and there). Chains of Promathia was an independent story that elaborated on many elements teased at in the original Main Scenario questline but required NO progression in that questline. Treasures of Aht Urhgan was pretty much completely divorced from both of those storylines. Wings of the Goddess was a time travel storyline covering a lot of the backstory for the original Main Scenario that required no progression on any of the above. Seekers of Adoulin, like ToAU, was pretty much totally independent.

In FFXI, a new player to the game was presented with a library of stories to experience, not a single story that goes on and on forever. While it was generally a good idea to do the Main Scenario, it wasn't required; they could, if they decided that wasn't interesting, instead explore Adoulin, or Aht Urhgan.

This, I think, is the RIGHT way to implement expansions. Give new players a reason to buy them NOW, not MAYBE LATER. Requiring the base game is pretty much a given. Requiring the first expansion as well, is shakily okay. Requiring a player buy every expansion in the line, and play them all through end to end is asking for trouble.

Having never played WoW, I'm a bit curious as to how they handle expansion fatigue? Presumably, they had some kind of player storyline similar to a main scenario in the vanilla set. Do new players joining now have to go through that, as well as the contents of every following expasion, in order to do anything worthwhile in the latest expansion? Do WoW's expansions introduce stories in parallel with the main story?

Why should they be given instant gratification? Level up and do the story like the rest of us.

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Originally Posted by LineageRazor

The difference being, while you needed to unlock the Kazham Airship in order to access Samurai and Ninja, the only gate to unlocking these jobs was the same gate to unlock ANY job: Be level 30 on any job. If you are level 30 on any job, obtaining a Kazham Airship Pass is easy. Each and every expansion FFXI ever put out, new jobs were always accessable to anyone with a job at level 30. At every stage of the game, newcomers were limited to starting with one of six different jobs: Warrior, Thief, Monk, White Mage, Red Mage, or Black Mage, but after getting any of these to 30 they could unlock any job from the base game or any expansion.

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Yes, I'm well aware of that. I was simply pointing out that they had a different form of gating. You couldn't just make a new character and boom. You can go be that job(which is what this big fuss is really all about).

I do not get the all the "veteran" objections to having the new classes open to new players that buy the expansion. I GET, and agree that the content (quests, story, lands, etc) should be gated past where we are now. That is pretty normal in any expansion to a game, unless the devs are making a lateral expansion and not a vertical one (think shadowlands AO (lateral to start), versus TBC/WotLK/cata/etc in WoW (vertical)).

Yoshi somewhere in the past stated that he felt that the job/class system that we saw at re-launch was not working. So to me it would make a lot more sense to just have you do the class from level 1 on up and have your cross class skills work mostly as they do now (i.e. you level up another class and some of the skills can be used by certain other classes). Having us do the combat classes the same way we do the DoL and DoH would also allow the devs to have longer more unified class story line. Another bonus would be that you could take the jobs that we have now and use them to fit into niches. Take the jobs of gladiator and maurader and turn them into plated dps/support, archers could be more dps focused and bards more support, etc.
For those that insist that the job/class stay tell me why? do you ever use your non-class "job" once you are your class? What is the benefit to having the jobs?

Face it the reason why you make an expansion is to make money, so why in the world would have an expansion that has NOTHING to entice new players?

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Originally Posted by Socomlord

Why should they be given instant gratification? Level up and do the story like the rest of us.

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Because "the rest of us" was handed the story in easily digestible chunks over a period of a year and a half. A new player will have the whole thing right in front of them from the start. The entirety of the Main Scenario is a pretty daunting thing.

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Originally Posted by Lorielle

Yes, I'm well aware of that. I was simply pointing out that they had a different form of gating. You couldn't just make a new character and boom. You can go be that job(which is what this big fuss is really all about).

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I am not opposed to gating the new jobs, but those gates should be no sterner than the gates behind our current jobs. Ideally, you should be able to access the new jobs at level 10, the same time we can access new classes. Level 30 would also be an acceptible gate, if we're going to semantically insist that since they're called "jobs" they should be accessible no earlier than existing jobs. Access at level 50... iffy, but not too bad; it's not hard to level a job to 50, but it's difficult to come up with a rationale for this restriction.

But what we're looking at here is much, MUCH beyond that. A new player needs to level a job to 50, then gear up to an ilvl of 90, and then complete pretty much all the story content from nearly two years' worth of updates. THAT is what is going to scare off new players thinking of joining the game - and we need those new players. Older players leave the game constantly for one reason or another. If we don't get fresh blood, SE gets less and less income from the game. Loss of income means we wind up with reduced quality in upkeep of the game. I don't want that; no one should want that.

Therefore, expansions should be tailored to offer juicy tidbits for new players to gnaw on even while they progress through the older content, as well as new content for the folks who've been around a while. Right now, I ain't seein' much juice for anyone who hasn't played the game from release.

Because FFXI is a paragon for new player experience.

Heck, even getting to 30 the first time for a player was a massive chore.

Then getting to rank 5, arguably harder the getting leveled.

Then getting to Norg and doing the ninja quest... or fighting the nm for the job unlock quest.

It wasn't just getting to level 30 and magically the problems were over.

Don't let people think that. It is very unfair.

If this is the rule 3 expansions from now there may be a problem.

Forcing someone to complete the base game before expanded content isn't exactly a new concept... Perhaps you'd like to refer to the definition of expansion.