New Jobs Gated Behind Completion of 2.0 Story?

[Rumpelstiltzkin]

This is a big deal? I've been playing for 3 months now and have managed to complete the entire main scenario questline, have gotten to i100, and gotten my weapon to i100. I usually work 5 days of the week from 8-3:30, and have managed to do this... It was a bit of hard work, but it definitely wasn't that big of a deal. Don't be lazy and expect to faceroll through all the content in 1 week. This is an MMORPG, it's a long term game, not a single-player RPG.

It has nothing to do with being lazy for many of us. I have several jobs at 50, I could complete the story very fast, but I don't want to. I want to experience the story on a job I think is fun and I am not enjoying any of the current jobs. Preferably while gaining experience on the job I am doing it on. I am happy the new jobs start at 30 though because leveling this game outside of leveling with the storyline is amongst the worst leveling experiences I've ever had in an MMORPG. Doubly so for 5-30 ish.

I am not even someone who minds gated content, but gating jobs behind the main storyline is just a poor way of doing it with no good reason for it. I will say exactly what you did, this is an MMORPG, don't expect lore to be a good reason for anything like this considering there are so many workarounds as well as the fact that every other adventurer will be running around in every part of the world as the new jobs.

[Gralna]

I am happy the new jobs start at 30 though because leveling this game outside of leveling with the storyline is amongst the worst leveling experiences I've ever had in an MMORPG. Doubly so for 5-30 ish.

Guessing then that you've never played EQ, AC, DAoC, FFXI, or even worse, any of the many Korean MMO's that require pure grinding to get anything accomplished.

The first few MMO's I listed all required you to lvl up primarly through just sitting at a camp of mobs, and killing them as they respawned, you'd be lucky to get 10% of the xp you needed to lvl up from doing all the quests at your level available to you. They also took a LONG time to lvl up, with most people taking 8-12 months to reach max lvl for the first time.

Edit: Lvling in this game is so trivial it's hardly worth mentioning it as an accomplishment.

[Rumpelstiltzkin]

Guessing then that you've never played EQ, AC, DAoC, FFXI, or even worse, any of the many Korean MMO's that require pure grinding to get anything accomplished.

The first few MMO's I listed all required you to lvl up primarly through just sitting at a camp of mobs, and killing them as they respawned, you'd be lucky to get 10% of the xp you needed to lvl up from doing all the quests at your level available to you. They also took a LONG time to lvl up, with most people taking 8-12 months to reach max lvl for the first time.

Edit: Lvling in this game is so trivial it's hardly worth mentioning it as an accomplishment.

I played both EQ and FFXI and I stand by my point, the leveling experience in this game outside of the first run when you can do it via storyline is so bad it hurts my head even thinking about it, even compared to those games. That has nothing to do with it being an accomplishment or not to get to max in XIV. I never said getting a job to max level in this game was an accomplishment because it isn't. The biggest difference is, in those games it was made to be an accomplishment and it also required the journey to actually have meaning and be a part of the experience.

[silentwindfr]

I am not even someone who minds gated content, but gating jobs behind the main storyline is just a poor way of doing it with no good reason for it. I will say exactly what you did, this is an MMORPG, don't expect lore to be a good reason for anything like this considering there are so many workarounds as well as the fact that every other adventurer will be running around in every part of the world as the new jobs.

it's a reason itself, because this jobs are into a city we can't reach until we complete the story explaining of why we can enter this city. is not gated poorly, its link to the lore, the jobs we will get acces are directly link to ishgarde.... ignoring this and giving this jobs to anyone that haven't the right to step into ishgarde is bad in too many way.

[Kallera]

it's a reason itself, because this jobs are into a city we can't reach until we complete the story explaining of why we can enter this city. is not gated poorly, its link to the lore, the jobs we will get acces are directly link to ishgarde.... ignoring this and giving this jobs to anyone that haven't the right to step into ishgarde is bad in too many way.

I'm just hoping this isn't like the classes/jobs issue where these jobs have a marked stat increase and mandatory utility over the other jobs.

[Edellis]

I'm just hoping this isn't like the classes/jobs issue where these jobs have a marked stat increase and mandatory utility over the other jobs.

I seem to recall the devs saying the HW content would have skills and abilities nearly mandatory for completing new content. But they don't need new jobs for that, it can easily be crammed into the remaining 10 levels and inbetween job quests.

[LineageRazor]

it's a reason itself, because this jobs are into a city we can't reach until we complete the story explaining of why we can enter this city. is not gated poorly, its link to the lore, the jobs we will get acces are directly link to ishgarde.... ignoring this and giving this jobs to anyone that haven't the right to step into ishgarde is bad in too many way.

The thing is, the new jobs are in the city of Ishgard because the devs decided to PUT them in Ishgard. They didn't have to. They CHOSE to. They could have put Astrologean in the Observatorium, Machinist in Mor Dhona or Limsa, and Dark Knight pretty much anywhere. They could even have put them in one of the other new areas, assuming that those new areas can be accessed without passing through Ishgard.

The devs had every opportunity to make the jobs accessible; they didn't have to be gated behind the entire 2.x storyline and 90+ ilvls worth of gear, but for some reason the devs decided that was a good idea.

I argue that this was NOT a good decision to make. If you want to sell more copies of the expansion, you need to include stuff that both new and current players want to have. Right now, the expansion isn't offering much to new players, and in particular alternate jobs are one of the biggest possible selling points for new players. Less incentive for new players to buy the expansion means less sales. Less sales means reduced revenue. Reduced revenue means we current players get less love since there's less money to spend improving the game for us. Everyone suffers from the decision.

It is certainly possible to use lore to defend the gating of the new jobs - but the devs WRITE the lore, and they could have written it in such a way that the jobs could have been accessible. But they didn't. I'd like to know why.

[KarstenS]

I argue that this was NOT a good decision to make.

Actually we do only know, they decided to do it this way. We do not know, what is their reason to do it this way. So before we can say, which arguments are better, we need to know their arguments. Actually we don't.

[Bluevann]

...

If you want to not care about the game and the direction it has taken with the first expansion (which, for an MMO fan, should always be a big deal. It is to me.), that's your decision. No reason to be so nasty to people who do.

The thing is, the new jobs are in the city of Ishgard because the devs decided to PUT them in Ishgard. They didn't have to. They CHOSE to. They could have put Astrologean in the Observatorium, Machinist in Mor Dhona or Limsa, and Dark Knight pretty much anywhere. They could even have put them in one of the other new areas, assuming that those new areas can be accessed without passing through Ishgard.

The devs had every opportunity to make the jobs accessible; they didn't have to be gated behind the entire 2.x storyline and 90+ ilvls worth of gear, but for some reason the devs decided that was a good idea.

Thank you. I have been intending to point this out all night last night, but couldn't because I had reached my posts-per-day limit (seriously SE, why is this still a thing? I'm using a lv50 account on these boards..). To say "it makes sense because Ishgard is locked" is a dead point, because the NPCs, de facto, did not HAVE to be in Ishgard, just as Dragoon was not in there.

It's not too hard to put an NPC out of the gate and say something applicable at any point of the story regardless of the PC's MSQ progress, such as:

"The current situation with the Horde is calling for drastic measures, such as recruiting despicable sellswords and adventurers such as yourself. I do not expect the devotion of an Ishgardian soldier from you, but perhaps you could still prove yourself useful. Take this sword, hone your skill, and return to me for when you'll be ready to do our bidding."

Now that's not hard, is it? Yet the developers decided not to, and after 50 pages we still haven't been told why.

[Aeyis]

Now that's not hard, is it? Yet the developers decided not to, and after 50 pages we still haven't been told why.

Why does it matter so much? Some people would question everything about a game's design, it seems.