Making the case for a new starting point in 7.0

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

I quite literally stated earlier that their arcs had ended and that their continued presence serves no further purpose. They have finished growing and are now stagnant. Please reread the above posts. You cannot expect people to sit through a story in which the characters cease developing in the way that the Scions have currently. Either something exciting happens with them, or it's time for new cast members. In any case only time will tell what buildup we will see in the coming patches, anything is possible these days.

---

Keyword I made "Shb Arcs" Their Shadowbringer's arcs, not their entire character arcs. They still served a purpose within Endwalker, and some still even had notable developments in the story; aka Urianger and the Lopporits/Moenbryda's parents, way to go to just outright ignore that whole emotional moment. But for most of us whom have followed this story and the characters we appreciate and love just being able to continue to interact with them (we'll most of us, clearly you stopped caring) while still keeping them relevant. Anyway Im done arguing with this. Go ahead and ignore yet again everything I say here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

Keyword I made "Shb Arcs" Their Shadowbringer's arcs, not their entire character arcs. They still served a purpose within Endwalker, and some still even had notable developments in the story; aka Urianger and the Lopporits/Moenbryda's parents, way to go to just outright ignore that whole emotional moment. But for most of us whom have followed this story and the characters we appreciate and love just being able to continue to interact with them (we'll most of us, clearly you stopped caring) while still keeping them relevant. Anyway Im done arguing with this. Go ahead and ignore yet again everything I say here.

---

I do not consider anything to do with the whole Moenbryda backstory meaningful. The guy was bullied as a kid and had a friend step in. I'm not interested in exploring that any further, not when you have characters like Estinien who knew more brutal suffering in their upbringing. The Loporrits were comic relief/fan service characters that would have been executed perfectly had they not overstayed their welcome and cannibalized any additional MSQ focus on Zodiark on the actual moon.

The only thing left to do with these characters is seemingly to continue the trend of "slice of life" fanfiction writing as if this were a Persona game set in Sharlayan. I struggle to believe that they will somehow find a way to make Thancred interesting in patch 6.1, and eagerly await the release of FFXVI so I can invest my time in a more grounded story while the FFXIV writers recalibrate and figure out where they want to go from here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aveyond-dreams

The guy was bullied as a kid and had a friend step in. I'm not interested in exploring that any further, not when you have characters like Estinien who knew more brutal suffering in their upbringing.

---

So suffering has to be a game of one-upmanship? Estinien's suffering may have been more outwardly noticeable but being bullied and excluded because you're smart or bookish damages someone in just as meaningful but not obvious ways. Urianger showed an incredible vulnerability that we haven't seen from him before. It showed just how important having someone like Moenbryda in his life to "get" him and accept him was and how much he was suffering quietly having lost her.

The story is content. Your problem is you see it as an obstacle to the "real" content when it is the real content.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tsumdere

I am not sure what the correct path to take is, but eventually they will have to make an alternate starting point. It is unfeasible now to expect new players to want to wade through 300+ hours of story to get to endgame.

---

What endgame?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JudgeRAW

Although I know one of the main attractions for Final Fantasy XIV is its story I think we all have to come to the realization that many, many players just are not interested in the story and want to enjoy the game all the same. Many players have friends they'd like to recommend the game to but can't because of the hundreds of hours of content new players would have to get through in order to join them in current content. I think with 7.0 (really 6.x) being the start of a new story in game it might be time to allow players to start there. How to do this?

Well there are a number of solutions. One would be to introduce a new experience for new players in order to introduce them to the mechanics of the game while quickly leveling them to the current level cap. Take something like Palace of the Dead where you have a leveling system separate from the main games and you can level from 1 to 60 in about an hour. While I don't think it needs to be quite that quick it could be something like 10-20 hours, which is much more of a reasonable ask than 100s. THis could even be a more condensed way to get players caught up with the world of FFXIV, though they wouldn't need to do that. During this 10-20 hour new player experience you'd get introduced to basic mechanics of the game, a dungeon or two and a trial before being put into the main game.

An alternative idea (though less interesting IMO) would be to give 1 free story skip and job skip to all new subscribers (not Free Trial players.)

So what do you think?

---

You can already buy a story and job leveling potion on the mogstation. I do not see them offering one for free when the devs focus so heavily on story for the players.

Don't see the point.


Basically just a free story-skip/level skip for new player.



I don't recommend new players to skip everything up to 7.0, because unlike other MMOs where leveling and story is just a chore to reach the colorful end-game contents, FF14's journey is a colorful content itself, and end-game will likely be very barebone when 7.0 launches until patches come.



New Game+ doesn't offer the same feeling of growth for players to feel more attached with their characters via story elements and strength with new skills added during their level-up journey and more window time to get used with their growth (running dungeons on-level with shiny new skills...). Which I considered very bad for a game where journey matters like FF14. Certainly, there are players can just level-skip/story-skip but still find the game enjoyable, but at the same time, there will be players who fail to have themselves attached to the game due to not experiencing the intended growth.



So I don't see having a new starting point does anything good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Momo_Kozuki

Don't see the point.


Basically just a free story-skip/level skip for new player.



I don't recommend new players to skip everything up to 7.0, because unlike other MMOs where leveling and story is just a chore to reach the colorful end-game contents, FF14's journey is a colorful content itself, and end-game will likely be very barebone when 7.0 launches until patches come.



New Game+ doesn't offer the same feeling of growth for players to feel more attached with their characters via story elements and strength with new skills added during their level-up journey and more window time to get used with their growth (running dungeons on-level with shiny new skills...). Which I considered very bad for a game where journey matters like FF14. Certainly, there are players can just level-skip/story-skip but still find the game enjoyable, but at the same time, there will be players who fail to have themselves attached to the game due to not experiencing the intended growth.



So I don't see having a new starting point does anything good.

---

My thought exactly. I think the majority of players I found had a good time going over the story, slowly learning their class and unlocking side content within that expansion's context. I think an easy fix for having engaging new players to play with their friends more when they want to take breaks from the msq is to introduce some amount of group content early in ARR like an exploratory zone or rogue-like dungeon (which I hope the Criterion dungeons would be accessible to ARR players) that correlates to current end-game in a way. It'll be tricky but I think that would be a good general direction to have going forwards. Granted not all new content should be like this but basically have some stuff updated for players still in the early expansions to play with current players would be enough.

The 800~ MSQs you need to do to get to the end without a skip is excessive.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

So suffering has to be a game of one-upmanship? Estinien's suffering may have been more outwardly noticeable but being bullied and excluded because you're smart or bookish damages someone in just as meaningful but not obvious ways. Urianger showed an incredible vulnerability that we haven't seen from him before. It showed just how important having someone like Moenbryda in his life to "get" him and accept him was and how much he was suffering quietly having lost her.

---

Uh, yeah it kind of has to be. I didn't come here because some elf was bullied as a kid and his girlfriend had to step in, I came here because there was a war against the Empire and a war going on against Dragons that had visually impactful and impressive scenes as we entered Ishgard proper and as we dealt with the victims of the Empire's brutality. The revenge driven soldier was a lot more interesting to have on-screen than some dude who was bullied.

It doesn't help that plot thread was tied in with the second half of Labyrinthos which nearly everyone agrees was poorly paced and a headache to go through. That sure was some payoff. In any case at least his arc is over for the time being, though this again leaves him in a position where its difficult to go anywhere interesting from here. Maybe they should give him a new girlfriend or something. Or make him eat a hamburger. Failing that I welcome a total revamp of the cast and the removal of the Scions in favor of party members with more varied personalities and backstories that are suitable for whatever setting we go to moving forward. They have served their purpose.

We do not need to go the WoW route of having the same cast of characters for nearly 20 years. The writing will only continue to suffer for it. It's ok for people to leave the plot if they aren't contributing anything meaningful or of entertainment value. This keeps things fresh and can appeal to more people besides the twitter RP crowd who are probably the only ones capable of tolerating the same characters for so long regardless of what little they actually do.