What other MMO has done this, and why does SE think it's a good idea?

[Snugglebutt]

A lot of things in this game were locked behind story progression, there is nothing wrong with that, I assume you got access to chocobo, airships, pretty much all dungeons and more? Well they also came from story progression so this is how it has always been to some degree. I have no problem with how they are doing it.

[Felis]

I'm talking about the decision of locking Heavensward's content (including access to Ishgard, and likely the jobs that are started there, the surrounding areas... hopefully not Au Ra creation access) behind the huge wall of "MSQ Completion Requirement". Do you think it's a good idea? If so, do you have any other MMO to point at as an example that followed this design and was successful?

I doubt that you have to do the whole ARR story for the jobs.
The Coerthas part in the ARR story begin with level 30 (where you go to find Cid's airship) and the jobs NPC would be outside of Ishgard (no class = no guild in a city). The Astrologian as an example would be at the observatory.
Dark Knight and Marchinist can be in Dragonhead and Whitebrim Front. I can imagine that the jobs are locked behind the Stone Vigil mission. This is the point where the Ishgard people (in the outposts) start to trust us.

I didn't even comment on Ishgard, and I get that grind is normal in an MMO. What isn't normal is the weird forcing of people to level classes outside of the one that they chose to roll as their main. No other MMO does that.

FF XI do this.

[jomoru]

Not sure if its common or not but it is the one thing keeping me from buying the expansion because I have not finished main scenario and I don't know when I will. :P

If you can't finish it in 3 months then you probably shouldn't buy it since you have plenty of content you haven't finished. If its "I hate the story and don't want to play it" maybe this isn't the game for you.

[KaedrianLiang]

The story refines your relationship with Ishgard nobles and high military. If you didn't have that kind of relationship you wouldn't be allowed into ishgard as its common tongue for ishgard npc's with high rank to regard adventurers as unwelcomed. Then you begin doing deeds and the Ishgardians start warming up to you.

What wouldn't make sense is for them to just let you into their sacred and heavily guarded city-state when they go as far as executing nobles on mere suspicion and the word of an inquisitor with no physical or convincing evidence otherwise.

If they already have their hands full fighting traitors within why bring in outsiders that are free to wander with no allegiance?

[Felis]

What wouldn't make sense is for them to just let you into their sacred and heavily guarded city-state when they go as far as executing nobles on mere suspicion and the word of an inquisitor with no physical or convincing evidence otherwise.

Evidence was there, but faked. Like the inquisotor was a faked one.

[Moonleg]

I feel like people are missing an important point here.

Imagine a month into Heavensward an entirely new player joins FFXIV.

He levels and does his main story, and at level 50 he gets to go do the last two dungeons of the main story. Joyous day! Heavensward awaits!

No, wait. First gotta do 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, and then 2.5 before he can set foot in the expansion, probably resulting in being level 51 or 52 (at a guess, none of us know the experience rate yet) and thus completely overleveled for the content once he FINALLY gets to set foot in the expansion. THAT is the problem. The above suggestion of retuning the 40-50 experience was a good one and would cut back on the frustration this will inevitably cause new players.

This isn't about those of us who have played for several months or more already. It's about the NEW players who shouldn't run their heads into a brick wall content-wise while leveling.

[Snugglebutt]

SE has always locked content behind story progression, this is not something new, it is how it has always been. They are just continuing to do what have always done so why would you expect that to change? Most dungeons, raids, methods of transport and game features are locked behind story progression and there is no good reason why this should not be the case for expansion too. The whole argument about new players etc, is no different than new players joining from before the expansion as they too had to unlock content and features through main story just like everyone else before the expansion and after it. They don't get a 'skip everything that came before' choice and I see no reason why they should.

[NinjaTaru72]

So op let me ask you, since you played XI, what about sky and sea? That you conveniently seem to have left out?

You had to progress quite far to get access to these areas lol. And that's just 2 areas you have to work to unlock. There's also the Riviera places, and a few others, that you have to progress in story to be able to go to. So even in ffxi it wasn't entirely different. Also, what the hell are you doing in this game if it's not playing the MS? It's not hard. It's not time consuming.(even for me who does that much Time I've finished it)

[Eye_Gore]

I'm way behind in story mode, just got caught up doing other things in the game. I'm not worried about it, had alot to do. Though there are tons of games that if you don't do story mode alot of things are locked out until you do, doesn't seem that uncommon.

[Tiggy]

I like how you point out rise of the zilart which technically did require you to do the previous story. So you asked what mmo has done this then provided the answer yourself.