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

[Aeyis]

Since its heavy storerelated to begin with, I can see it making sense to require having done the previous story. Would have made a lot of sense if other mmos did that more as well, tbh. It can be boring having to do it all several times on an alt tho, I imagine.

[Felis]

Since its heavy storerelated to begin with, I can see it making sense to require having done the previous story. Would have made a lot of sense if other mmos did that more as well, tbh. It can be boring having to do it all several times on an alt tho, I imagine.

FF XIV also isn't heavy Alts focused like the other MMOs. For most players 1 character is enough to level up everything and you have to do the MSQ only once with the character and not for every class/job.

[Ecks007]

I really don't see how completion of the main scenario in 2.55 is a harsh requirement. How is it harsh? To new players... maybe. It's not like it's actually hard to play through the storyline, at least until you reach the additions in made in 2.5. Those were actually challenging for a change, compared to the cakewalk that is everything else before it. Is it time consuming, yeah I guess it's a lot to a new player just coming into the game because now there's a lot more you'd have to do once you hit level 50 than there was when ARR launched.

But is it a lot? Hmm.. I'd say it's a good amount, it would take anywhere from a day to a few days to finish, possibly up to a week or longer if you play very casually.

For everyone who has been playing since day 1 or even within the last 3 months this is not a harsh requirement at all as we'll likely be caught up on the story requirement no later than April 2nd or 3rd at the latest.

Honestly though, it only make sense. The story is the reason we are even going to Ishgard and the new areas, why would you make a new area available to a player with a new storyline when they have absolutely no idea why they are there in the first place. They don't know what events lead up to going to this new place. You shouldn't be allowed to go into the new area without completing the story up to the point where it makes sense that you are going there, given that area had been blocked the entire time before.

OP talks about how FFXI didn't have requirements like that. Let me explain a little something. The game launched in North America with it's first expansion already included and I darn sure didn't get to play any of those new jobs they added right off the bat. Nope. You still had to level up the jobs that the game launched with, level sub-jobs for those jobs (to be effective), and then once you got a job to level 30 you could start the new job quest you wanted to play as. Just getting to this point took anywhere from 6 months to a year to level those first couple of jobs. You could not level quickly like you can in FFXIV, here you can hit level 30 easily in a day, you could technically hit level 50 in a day as well if you went crazy and spent all your time leveling (and people to help you level).

As far as the rank missions go, some of them were very difficult and required you to group up with other good players to successfully complete. Sometimes this was not an easy thing to accomplish. I was fortunate enough that my server had it's own forums and they were well populated by the server population at the time. That made scheduling times for everyone to get together much easier. That's right, you had to schedule this stuff because often times it took preparation. This stuff all took time, and in general the whole system was a lot harsher than what we have in A Realm Reborn. What might have taken a week to accomplish in XI, takes about a day if not a few hours or less to accomplish in FFXIV. The game's do not compare.

Completing the storyline in this game is nothing compared to the difficulty of other older MMORPGs.

[Tempting]

MMOs aside, your telling me ALL cities in ALL games should be accessible from the start. huh?

Nearly every Genre of game that has multiple cities, has some cities that are held behind progression of story.

Also from a LORE standpoint it would just make no sense if you didn't understand why you have access to the city THEN go do main storyline and how you have a huge part of cut-scenes that talk about how and why Ishgard wont give other people access besides Ishgardians.
And if you don't care about LORE, but playing a Final Fantasy game, I am not sure what to say...

[QuinceTaru]

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)

I dont agree with OP, but his point is sky and sea were not needed to unlock the jobs of the expansion like being able to go to ishgard will likely be.

[ServerCollaps]

becoming 50 takes less than one week, maybe 2 if its your first time + completing the story

everyone has still 3+ months time to achieve that, thats rediculous easy and not worth any discussion, lol

[Lyzern]

You know what would happen if FFXIV didn't lock content behind the Main Scenario Questline? The game would be horribly bland and tasteless because there would be no lore, no story, no plots, just your typical MMO where you grind, grind, grind.

FF games always had an amazing story in them, FFXIV's story might not be great, but at least it's there, it's important and has meaning, unlike 99% of the MMOs out there.

So yeah, I think it's a great idea to lock content behind Main Quests. I mean, what sense would it make that you just up and walked into Ishgard without reason?

[Snugglebutt]

I dont agree with OP, but his point is sky and sea were not needed to unlock the jobs of the expansion like being able to go to ishgard will likely be.

The restriction of the jobs in the expansion are not locked away behind the main story per se or having access to the locations in the expansion, they are locked behind the prerequisite of owning the expansion and having a character leveled to 30+, they all start in preexisting cities aka Gridania, Ul'dah and Limsa I think. Access to the locations within the expansion are locked behind the story though just like all dungeons, trials and raids are locked behind quests and most of those are locked behind main story quests...similar also to some nations of Limsa, Ul'dah or Gridania are locked behind main story airship travel quest, chocobo riding and becoming part of a GC and more are also story unlocked.

[Chewy2nd]

It makes sense, Ishgard's story wouldn't make sense if you ignored A Realm Reborn's story.

[QuinceTaru]

The restriction of the jobs in the expansion are not locked away behind the main story per se or having access to the locations in the expansion, they are locked behind the prerequisite of owning the expansion and having a character leveled to 30+, they all start in preexisting cities aka Gridania, Ul'dah and Limsa I think. Access to the locations within the expansion are locked behind the story though just like all dungeons, trials and raids are locked behind quests and most of those are locked behind main story quests...similar also to some nations of Limsa, Ul'dah or Gridania are locked behind main story airship travel quest, chocobo riding and becoming part of a GC and more are also story unlocked.

Do you have a link and/or quote for an interview that they will start in other cities, cause we know that at the very least the machinist guild is in Ishgard. Just wondering for my own curiosity, i enjoy the MSQ