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

[Merryl]

You're right in a way. The expansion should be better explained so new people don't think its a separate game.
There are plenty of things you can skip to get you to level 50.
Leveling your chocobo -skippable
Beast tribes- skippable
Relic weapon- definitely skippable

However the completionists will be having a really huge stress problem right about now.

Focus on one thing and you'll be bored with the rest of us in the tower grinds soon enough

Oh I should add... If you are DPs class get a healer or tank buddy asap.

Come June.. The que times that you think are bad now? Are going to become even worse...its inevidable with the majority wanting to try out machinist.

[Callinon]

This is all fine. But none of you seem to want to increase or entice new players. Can you possibly imagine within the CURRENT SYSTEM a new player doing the story mode and gearing up to continue through the 2.??. Again using the comment about gearing from Crystal tower in its current form is ludicrous for new players post 3.0.

Anything up to the end of Main scenario should probably be fine. I am seeing this as a weak expansion with level 50+ only content. So with no new pre50 content you would need to do MS for dungeon entrance, to get to 50. Also with new jobs they should be filled with people leveling jobs they never got around to and the new ones.

I am not sure why people at least vocal on these boards would want systems that would turn off new players. This should make the Relic players that think it should go on forever happy. This is inline with a model that 11 used to never entice new players to the game. It is not CoP questionable, but it might be pretty close. Unless ishgard is just a City/zone and the rest of the quests and content is available.

This was kinda my point.

People are also forgetting that there's a gear grind necessary to progress with the main story.

Keeper of the Lake and Chrysalis require what item level? Ok... and the quests award what gear? Hmm...

Also gearing through the CT raids post 3.0 is absurd for the simple fact that nobody will be doing them. You think the queue time for Labyrinth of the Ancients is bad NOW? Hoo boy. Check it out on July 1st and see what you think. At least the dungeons have a shot at being included in some kind of "Level 50 Roulette" or something to help new players out. The CT raids? Forget it.

There's going to need to be some serious overhauling to gear progression in a post 3.0 world to help speed new players through the 2.x storyline.

As for the relic? Doesn't matter. If someone wants to go back and build one for completion's sake, I'm sure that option will be open to them. But it isn't super important that it be made simple to do since it's unnecessary for post 3.0 progression.

[TheExeter]

Just my thoughts as a former hardcore player and now being more casual in my gaming life just from LIFE occurring in general.

As as hardcore player I would spend hours upon hours completing relics and whatever item I wanted in FFXI. I felt a great sense of accomplishment doing things solo and duo and very low man with a core group of good players in FFXI.

As a casual player I enjoy FFXIV all of the content is easily accessible in my honest opinion. I work a 40 hour a week job Monday through Friday and usually have stuff to do with my wife and kids on the weekend and I still had ample time to play and obtain gear from CT/Coil/Extreme Modes and do my daily roulette. *I stopped playing right before the newest Coil update and just recently came back*

I absolutely agree with the fact that you should beat the story mode to progress further into the game. What is the point in playing a game if you aren't going to well... "Play the game." I know this is a foreign concept to some of you maybe its just my age and that I grew up on games where I could not whine to a forum moderator that something was wrong. I think the absence of all the companies listening to what every little kid cried about made me a better player in general. If I want something and I can't do it.... I just get better til I can do it. I want nothing handed to me. Anything worth having isn't gonna be handed to you for free. This applies in games as well as in life, I mean no offense to anyone and I know everyone has different life issues but you cannot really expect a multi million dollar business to work around your college or work schedule its naive and incredibly rude to the entire player base that puts in the time to EARN their rewards.

[Merryl]

Those level requirements only pertain to the hardmode dungeons and world of darkness.

I'm not sure how those gear sets will be incorporated. That's a ways off.. Since you will be starting over at level 1 again for any new class.
If you're skipping the new classes then yes you will most likely need ilvl 90 or better for the added dungeons.
New classes mean new gear sets just for those classes.
And don't forget..unlocking the level cap might mean you'll have to cap out before wearing your high level gear again. They really didn't specify the details on that.

[Nutz]

I'm not sure what people are upset about or surprised about. So far main story progress has been more or less required. They put primals and eventually dungeons in it to make sure people completed it (since your roulettes are no longer accessible at that point). Most pre-50 dungeons unlock based on the story as well as a few other features (retainers, GC entrance/ mounts, inn use, CT, Coil, etc.). Reorganizing all of that such that new players can skip the story (which provides a lot of exp anyway) seems ridiculous, not to mention that fact that the story is important and pretty interesting.

It seems like they're setting up Heavensward to be more of a continuation of the current story anyway, so skipping it would be akin to starting a book in the middle. I'm not sure why anyone would even want that to be an option.

[Felis]

snip

Somehow people forget that crafted gears exist and that the current ilevel 90+ crafted gears would be cheaper in 3.0 because it will be easier to craft 3 star recipes thanks to new levels for crafters. Easier to craft -> more crafters will craft it -> more competition on the market board -> undercutting start

Also it should be no problem to put gear as reward into some lv50 story quests. I think there are still enough lv 50 story quests with only gil as reward, where SE can put in gear rewards with 3.0

[Satia]

If you are not going to play the story then why are you playing? This is not the game for you if that is the case.

[kyuven]

Somehow people forget that crafted gears exist and that the current ilevel 90+ crafted gears would be cheaper in 3.0 because it will be easier to craft 3 star recipes thanks to new levels for crafters. Easier to craft -> more crafters will craft it -> more competition on the market board -> undercutting start

Also it should be no problem to put gear as reward into some lv50 story quests. I think there are still enough lv 50 story quests with only gil as reward, where SE can put in gear rewards with 3.0

the difficulty TO craft may change, but the materials aren't going to get any more common than they are.

[Jinko]

It makes sense from a JRPG stand point but less so from an MMO concept.

I really doubt it makes a great deal of difference, as long as they don't lock out the new classes from new players I see no reason to be concerned, that being said I can see why a new player may feel left out in partaking in the new content due to a lot of gated content.

[hobostew]

I wonder if the problem is that people are failing to understand that MMOs have a pretty significant turnover rate. You need a constant stream of new players to offset the loss of those that leave. In an ideal situation you want the number of new players to be greater than those that leave but at the minimum it has to be 1:1 or you start to see a dip in subscriber numbers.

As an existing player it makes sense that the story continue but if I came in as a new player and someone told me I had to play through all of the old stuff that no one is doing before I can start the current stuff I'm going to be less inclined to even try the game out. I don't think most people would like to be stuck perpetually playing catch up which is what is bound to happen to newer players as the number of expansions increases.