Idea: A Raid that streches beyond expansions

I have an interesting idea for a raid structure, meant to run paraellel with the 24-man raids and the 8 man gauntlets, but arguably different as well.

The idea is an ongoing raid, a series of dungeons (either 4 or 8-man groups) that persists and progresses by the expansion with it being expanded and eventually finished over the course of 3-4 expansions, with a metaplot tying the dungeons together (maybe something to do with the 1st-3rd Umbral eras or the 6th?)

The concept is simple, a side-quest that isn't contained in a single content cycle and a raid that cannot be "finished" in the same expansion, a way to tie together the expansions beyond the MSQ, and also an alternative for Raiders to get their the max ilevel gear (be it horizontal or vertical).

What are your thoughts? Woudl this idea work or would it be impractical to implement?

So you mean similar to CT, except instead of spanning across one expansion it goes over several? I have a few reasons as to why I'm against this:

1) Many players leave over the years, meaning they'll never get to see the end of the raid if they leave after 2-3 expansions.
2) The ending would have to be monumentally mind blowing. No one wants to invest several years of time only to get a disappointing ending.
3) Going off FFXIV's track record, stories with multiple parts tend to drag on, leaving up with very little plot progression in each part. Take a look at Alexander Gordias, it was a huge disappointment and not much happened due to the nature of it being a 3 part raid.
4) If someone didn't like the story they can't just "wait it out" for the next part, it may even lead them to unsubscribe.

I'd rather see them invest those resources into current raids, expand the amount of bosses and story content. We don't need more raids, we need bigger and better raids.

I kind of like the idea, I can def see us going back to crystal tower some time in the future and doing more stuff there. More raids with higher level bosses or whatever. I'm not entirely thrilled about the idea of every expansion having a cookie cutter 8 man raid , 24 man raid, and ex roullette.

I would much rather have actual raids. Meaning the removal of the raid timer and 10-15 bosses per raid like world of warcraft's raids other then the primal battles we have now. I do like the idea though.

One question:

What happens when SE decides not to make another expansion and make a brand new MMO (because of technology or financial reasons)? What if the story proposed is not even close to finished and SE has to wrap it up within the next patch release?

I don't see any solution to this that will end well for the story and make the audience or the writers happy.

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Originally Posted by Anova

One question:

What happens when SE decides not to make another expansion and make a brand new MMO (because of technology or financial reasons)? What if the story proposed is not even close to finished and SE has to wrap it up within the next patch release?

I don't see any solution to this that will end well for the story and make the audience or the writers happy.

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have there been any example of this happening though, XI is still going strong apparently.

That said I assume that the devs (or at least the lore team) would discuss this with the business side of things and prepare an ending to this in advance in case this happens

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Originally Posted by Morningstar1337

That said I assume that the devs (or at least the lore team) would discuss this with the business side of things and prepare an ending to this in advance in case this happens

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you'll never get an accurate answer and they can always change their minds.

side storylines should end with each expansion. even the main one should end soon so a new one can be started. i hope 4.x is the last one with Garleans/Ascians.