Why punish players who just want to play DoL DoH?

[Arkenne]

So you play FFXIV as some sort of farmville, huh? Thats a rather interseting way to play.
Well, if its of any help, most of the MSQ is very mild combat wise.

Most (if not all) the HM duns are nothing but optional and many are waaaaay easy.
Levi HM, for example, is just a cradle, really. And the hardest of them all: Steps of Faith. Got nerfed to the ground.

The story is pretty interesting and intriguing, you shouldnt miss on it, really. But its up to each of us what to do.

[Kikosho]

Ehcatl Sealants. <drops mic>

Which could be purchased from the Market Board.

[NovaLevossida]

Here's a short essay on the validity of the playstyle and desire to be included in MMOs from 2001:

http://laurenandlloyd.com/lloyd-stuf...to-bake-bread/

It's a good read, and, sadly, still relevant since something like FFXIV's expansion being what it is for people who only want to craft.

[Felis]

Which could be purchased from the Market Board.

The same with the coming new mats gathered in the 3.0 zones.

[DarkStar]

Everyone here has already noted that this game isn't targeted towards people who want to exclusively do only non-combat stuff, so I'm not gonna touch on that. Instead, I'll share a funny idea I had for if the game did enable people to Craft/Gather their way through the MSQ: rather than fighting Gaius in a Victor-Take-All battle between him and his Ultima Weapon versus you and seven total strangers (or any combination of total strangers and friends), you battle him in a three-stage COOKING COMPETITION!

The first stage is him with his lieutenants, then the second phase has Ultima Weapon join in, using the powers of its captured Primals to vastly speed up the cooking for the other side, then you'd use the Blessing of Light to strip the Primals and make the competiton more even, and then it all ends with Ultima Weapon unlocking its full power and using lasers and magitek bits and stuff to replace the defeated chefs.

Then Lahabrea comes in, makes a short speech, and gets smacked in the face with your Aether-infused skillet.

[Cakekizy]

They uhm tried to make it possible to complete the story as a DoL/DoH in FFXIV 1.0. It was an unmitigated disaster. Having learned that lesson in 1.0, when they got to ARR they made the game like every other MMO ever made where story is completed by fighting as a combat class and crafting/gathering are side jobs.

I wasn't here then, what happened?

[Goodberry]

Though I am primarily an adventurer, I agree completely with the OP. Sadly, my more than fifteen years experience with MMO games says that devs will never listen, and "fellow" players will never understand.

[Duuude007]

Which could be purchased from the Market Board.

you could experience all this game had to offer for DoH/DoL

You cannot experience what the game has to offer in relation to earning Ehcatl rep up to and including Oaknots, without at least one lvl 50 battlecraft class.

But seriously, nice try.

[Apricoth]

There is one game that I thought pulled off allowing players to be strictly crafters and that was Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. They had three spheres - Adventuring, Crafting and Diplomacy. There was harvesting but if I recall correctly, harvesting was done easiest when you Adventured. Crafters could go with a group of Adventures and carve up leather as well. VSoH had the best idea ever on that front. Even the quests supplied you with the mats to do Work Orders and the grind was real. If the crafters wanted those rare drops in a dungeon, they had to be protected by Adventurers within those dungeons. To me, it was truly ingenious. Diplomacy - great idea as well and it actually had a purpose and a function. I wish FFXIV had those ideas implemented. It would add a different type of depth to the game. Be that as it may, the way FFXIV is will not allow something like that to come about right now. Perhaps in the future? Who knows.

As a side note, VSoH failed because of mismanagement on the part of the creator/leader and lack of funds. A whole slew of problems that killed the game - it was nothing do with the spheres. =P

[Zumi]

If you are a crafter you can easily craft 100+ gear. The main game is adventuring and crafting is a side activity.