Can't Access 3.0 until you complete 2.0-2.55

[Brill_]

How will new players clear the group content in the 2.x main story line? Once 3.0 drops, no one will be queuing for that stuff.

[Reynhart]

How will new players clear the group content in the 2.x main story line? Once 3.0 drops, no one will be queuing for that stuff.

People still XP at lower levels (No, not everyone has everything at lvl50), and Duty Roulette is here precisely to ensure that enough people queue for every content.

It's like saying "Once 2.3 dropped, no one was queing for 2.0 content"

[CYoung187]

How will new players clear the group content in the 2.x main story line? Once 3.0 drops, no one will be queuing for that stuff.

People have been saying this for every patch and not once has it been true. SE finds ways to get people into old content.

[KayoZ]

I dont mind it but I dont think its a good idea either. Face it, the story in this game is stretched waaaay too thin. Itd probably be decent, in a typical JRPG storyline kind of way, if we could get through it with few distractions or delays. But stretching out your typical JRPG story through 3-5 days (in hours) of side quests, and waiting for DF queues to pop isnt fun and only gets worse as the level cap rises.

IIRC, this is similar to what LotRO did with their story, which didnt go over too well, and they allowed you to skip to the next chapter if you needed to. Just unlock dungeons when youre at proper level and let players choose how they want to do it. Honestly I cant imagine why anyone would care or make it their business what someone else chooses to do with their own experiences in the game.

"What!?!!? You dont know what happened before Ishgard?!? GTFO you infidel srub! Come play with me when you rescue Frixio from Toto-rak!" ... really?

[Belhi]

I think SE is more concerned that if people skip the earlier story the latter story won't make much sense because details and context won't be there.

If it can be skipped a lot of people will skip it and from past experience will then complain that the story later on is poor cause it doesn't make much sense. Accommodating those who chose to skip would require a lot of time doing introductions and explanations of things already dealt with in the MS. For example, if Midgarsormr is to play and important role, they would have to find some way to explain its significance to the skippers.

It isn't an easy balance. Players of MMOs will often pass by half the game's experiences in the rush to 'endgame'. The problem with this is it gives a bad and false impression of the true nature of the game.

I don't think its an easy balance. SE has made its call, it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

[Magis]

People can use FFXI as a example but that is a different game and each of its expansion storyline were separate stories except for 1 expansion if I remember right.

They might just do what FFXI was. First one had that requirement, ones after do not.

I think it's just so the player knows the base game and back story. FFXI's vanilla story while simple, did put in background information behind the three nations and laid the ground work with introducing characters like Zeid, Aldo, and Lion who come back later on. If SE didn't do that with Heavensward, you'd be asking who the hell is Cid when technically you never met him yet.

[Shneibel]

well, time to carry the newb & say : thank for the bonus, I guess ?

[Eye_Gore]

I got caught up doing other things in game and neglected the story mode after you hit 50. Now I'm doing it to "catch up", I just made it to the start of the 2.4 content. I remember a thread a while back someone complaining about the teleport feature, let me tell you if that didn't exist I would still be back in 2.2 or 2.1.While the story itself is interesting, the go here go there, pick this up pick that up, part of it is a killer. I know it is suppose to be done along the way, if you started when the game was released. New players who have to go through that is mind numbing a little. Had to sell the materia you get just to cover teleport fees.

I saw in another thread about this topic some said you could catch up in a few hours from 2.1 on, yeah right, even if you skip all the cut scenes and just clicked through all dialog there is no way you could get through it in a few hours. Of course then you would have no idea what is going on. One good thing doing the new trials and such are a breeze to go through, matter of minutes and they're over.

[Reynhart]

I saw in another thread about this topic some said you could catch up in a few hours from 2.1 on, yeah right, even if you skip all the cut scenes and just clicked through all dialog there is no way you could get through it in a few hours.

A few hours is a bit optimistic.
But 3 months between 2.55 and Heavensward is more than enough

[Alberel]

A new player will be starting at level 1. They will do the 2.0 story to level to 50, at which point they will only have to do the 2.1-2.5 story to unlock 3.0 (and those parts of the story do not take long at all).

Going forward a new player starting in 4.0 will do the 3.0 story to level to 60, exactly as we are about to.

The story is only really gating things if a player is lazy and doesn't use the story to level. If you just follow the story you will unlock everything as you would reach the right level to do it anyway. What point is there to having 3.0 be accessible without completing the 2.x story when the only people that won't have completed it will be sub-50 and unable to do anything in the 3.0 areas anyway?