New Jobs Gated Behind Completion of 2.0 Story?

[LineageRazor]

This is correct, but for the wrong agenda. NEW players. Who have a rite of passage to access exclusive content. Gating is a very important function to keep population spread out and healthy.

An expansion which heavily gates ALL of its content, fails to bring in new players (or turns away the ones who purchased it by accident), and is therefore poorly implemented. I never argued that there should not be gated content. I am arguing that some of the content - particularly, the flashy, attractive bits that would appeal to people who know little or nothing about the game - needs to be left ungated, or minimally gated.

Do things in such a way that new players are benefited at the expense of established players: Established players complain

Do things in such a way that established players are benefited at the expense of new players: Established players complain

Really guys?

This might be because... the set of established players is composed of different people? And different people don't always have the same opinions? This is really surprising to you?

[Duuude007]

An expansion which heavily gates ALL of its content, fails to bring in new players (or turns away the ones who purchased it by accident), and is therefore poorly implemented.

I am quite confident that "ALL" is largely inaccurate.

Yes, jobs are found in Ishgard.
Yes, main scenario is found in ishgard.

Is the Au Ra race locked behind Ishgard?
Is Coerthas western Highlands locked behind Ishgard?
Is Dravania locked behind Ishgard?
Are FC/personal airships locked behind Ishgard?
Is The Sea of Clouds locked behind Ishgard?
Is The Churning Mists locked behind Ishgard?
Is Alexander locked behind Ishgard?

Just because the majority of they have shared with us is presently perceived as "gated" is a far cry from presuming that everything is.

[LineageRazor]

I am quite confident that "ALL" is largely inaccurate.

Yes, jobs are found in Ishgard.
Yes, main scenario is found in ishgard.

Is the Au Ra race locked behind Ishgard?
Is Coerthas western Highlands locked behind Ishgard?
Is Dravania locked behind Ishgard?
Are FC/personal airships locked behind Ishgard?
Is The Sea of Clouds locked behind Ishgard?
Is The Churning Mists locked behind Ishgard?
Is Alexander locked behind Ishgard?

Just because the majority of they have shared with us is presently perceived as "gated" is a far cry from presuming that everything is.

While it is true that it may be jumping to conclusions to assume that all of these are gated as well, it continues to sidestep the major issue here: Enticing new players to purchase the expansion.

Tell a new player, considering buying Final Fantasy XIV for the first time, that with this new expansion, they'll be able to visit Coerthas Western Highlands!!! They will say, "What the hell is a Coerthas?" and put it back on the shelf. If you're LUCKY, they MAY buy the base game, but if they do it has nothing to do with the expansion. The expansion has completely failed to sell itself, and has contributed nothing toward selling the base set. That is not good business.

Of the things you mentioned, Au Ra is the only attractor that might appeal to fresh newbie. They won't be interested in the new zones - of COURSE there will be new zones. It's an expansion! A newbie with a history of playing Final Fantasy games might also be intrigued by the mention of Airships and Alexander, but even that is starting to shrink the net SE should be trying to cast to reel in new players.

An MMO player is primarily interested in questions like, "Who can I be?" and "What can I do?". "Where can I go?" is much lower on the list. What we've seen of the expansion so far has been marketed EXCLUSIVELY to current FFXIV players, and that makes me worry a great deal.

[Duuude007]

What we've seen of the expansion so far has been marketed EXCLUSIVELY to current FFXIV players, and that makes me worry a great deal.

I would be careful with the use of "all" and "exclusive, simply because players can still technically access said content quickly if they burn past content via veteran friends or merccing. But the consequences of this can be steep as well, prioritizing access while sacrificing personal progression and story... To each his own I guess. Seems like a trashing of content, imho, however.

There is no basic content a player cannot get past without being carried... Step 1: Grid to 50 on one class. Step 2: Equip a set with i90 gear average (can be crafted), and with this, any player could be corpse carried through all the content including Steps of Faith... If that is what they wish.

Think of Ishgard as a massive, massive dungeon with the same gear requirements as "Keeper of the Lake". Clear it, and you get access to new features, just like KotL, except much, much larger volume.

As for your other argument, what besides jobs is on your list, as a hypothetical new player, as major selling points, in the average mmo expansion? That couldn't possibly be all for which you buy an expansion.

[Felis]

I am quite confident that "ALL" is largely inaccurate.

Yes, jobs are found in Ishgard.
Yes, main scenario is found in ishgard.

Is the Au Ra race locked behind Ishgard?
Is Coerthas western Highlands locked behind Ishgard?
Is Dravania locked behind Ishgard?
Are FC/personal airships locked behind Ishgard?
Is The Sea of Clouds locked behind Ishgard?
Is The Churning Mists locked behind Ishgard?
Is Alexander locked behind Ishgard?

Just because the majority of they have shared with us is presently perceived as "gated" is a far cry from presuming that everything is.

Lv51-60 zones are locked behind 2.55 storyline

[Duuude007]

Lv51-60 zones are locked behind 2.55 storyline

Okay, would you mind sharing the link where they detail this for the content I listed, please?

Up until this point I had thought they only mentioned Ishgard gating, but if you have other specific details, great. Please share.

[Bluevann]

Up until this point I had thought they only mentioned Ishgard gating, but if you have other specific details, great. Please share.

It is a commonly accepted guess, but just a guess. Basically, since there are no zones that could bring to new areas (or does SE intend to just slice off mountains in Coerthas Central Highlands?) the assumption everyone makes is that once in Ishgard, you will get your flying mount, and with it access the other areas otherwise unreachable. "zoning" probably will not work with flying (unless they plan to patch the sky with those blue trails?), so we're assuming that Heavensturn will be more of one large open world, similar to 1.0, with areas on several levels and accessible through flying.

[Alberel]

It is a commonly accepted guess, but just a guess. Basically, since there are no zones that could bring to new areas (or does SE intend to just slice off mountains in Coerthas Central Highlands?) the assumption everyone makes is that once in Ishgard, you will get your flying mount, and with it access the other areas otherwise unreachable. "zoning" probably will not work with flying (unless they plan to patch the sky with those blue trails?), so we're assuming that Heavensturn will be more of one large open world, similar to 1.0, with areas on several levels and accessible through flying.

This isn't true though. Coerthas Western Highlands is known to be in the expansion and it lies directly behind Snowcloak where there is already a path through the glacier ready to be opened when the expansion launches. Griffen Crossing in Coerthas is also an obvious crossing into one of the expansion regions; the bridge will just be 'fixed' when the expansion launches and suddenly you can cross into the new region.

All discussion from the devs so far has specified Ishgard as being gated behind the 2.55 story completion. I have seen no mention anywhere of the new regions within the expansion being gated as well. In theory the floating continent and other such regions would be story gated simply because you would need to unlock the flying mount from the 3.0 main scenario to get there, but the terrestrial regions should be open to anyone that has the expansion.

With regards to the jobs I'm not sure how I feel about them being in Ishgard (which is what Yoshi has stated so there's no real discussion to be had about if they will be gated now). For most players it will make no difference but for new players it may be a source of frustration.

[LineageRazor]

This isn't true though. Coerthas Western Highlands is known to be in the expansion and it lies directly behind Snowcloak where there is already a path through the glacier ready to be opened when the expansion launches. Griffen Crossing in Coerthas is also an obvious crossing into one of the expansion regions; the bridge will just be 'fixed' when the expansion launches and suddenly you can cross into the new region.

All discussion from the devs so far has specified Ishgard as being gated behind the 2.55 story completion. I have seen no mention anywhere of the new regions within the expansion being gated as well. In theory the floating continent and other such regions would be story gated simply because you would need to unlock the flying mount from the 3.0 main scenario to get there, but the terrestrial regions should be open to anyone that has the expansion.

With regards to the jobs I'm not sure how I feel about them being in Ishgard (which is what Yoshi has stated so there's no real discussion to be had about if they will be gated now). For most players it will make no difference but for new players it may be a source of frustration.

In the case of Coerthas Western Highlands, as you say, the Main Scenario, as well as random NPC banter, takes pains to note Snowcloak is currently impassable. The discovery of Iceheart's tunnels was a significant surprise. Because of this, I think this area will likely also be gated behind storyline, at least up until the point you reach Shiva in the Main Scenario storyline. From that point on, only then does it start to make sense to use Snowcloak's tunnels as a gateway to CWH. They COULD get around this by modifying Main Scenario dialogue, and changing Iceheart's tunnels to be offshoots from the main path through Snowcloak, or something, and thereby making CWH accessable from the get-go. Time will tell!

As for the "no real discussion to be had about if" bit, I'm still hoping that the part about gated jobs will turn out to be Yoshi P saying things that are actually going to be totally not what he said, like the whole housing debacle only with the truth winding up being a GOOD thing (access to jobs without Main Scenario) rather than BAD (housing is NOT going to be less expensive than Free Company housing and will be incredibly limited in availability). Not gonna call Yoshi P a liar, but clearly he doesn't always understand the logistics of the things he promises. The Dev team had to rein him in on his housing promises - maybe the marketing team will point out the impending disaster in locking all the "cool factor" in the expansion behind months of casual play.

[Felis]

This isn't true though. Coerthas Western Highlands is known to be in the expansion and it lies directly behind Snowcloak where there is already a path through the glacier ready to be opened when the expansion launches. Griffen Crossing in Coerthas is also an obvious crossing into one of the expansion regions; the bridge will just be 'fixed' when the expansion launches and suddenly you can cross into the new region.

Yes, Western Highlands is behind Snowcloak, like we can see here:



But no info about Eastern Lowlands (the zone behind Griffen Crossing). It was not part of the 3.0 zones trailer.

All discussion from the devs so far has specified Ishgard as being gated behind the 2.55 story completion. I have seen no mention anywhere of the new regions within the expansion being gated as well. In theory the floating continent and other such regions would be story gated simply because you would need to unlock the flying mount from the 3.0 main scenario to get there, but the terrestrial regions should be open to anyone that has the expansion.

The way to western highlands is already blocked throught the glacier. It is part of the 2.x MSQ and like Ishgard it would't be logically to walk to the other side before finding the tunnels in the MSQ.