The new jobs / Ishgard city access - yes, again.

[Losian]

Can we pretty please just get a dev to tell us what exactly the deal is with this, officially? It's my birthday today, even. Come on. Just give us the bad news in a definitive dev-form post and be done with it.. or, better yet, give us good news! Or good news that you're changing the bad news, because it's a really silly idea.

[Losian]

Also, it just occurred to me..

If Ishgard is gated off from having to finish 2.55 and such.. doesn't that mean the entire expansion is essentially inaccessible until you've done all of it?

Wouldn't it be really nice to make this extremely clear? A returning player who was already 50 and did some of the post 2.0 content is going to be a little surprised when they suddenly have to spend days running all this old content, which fewer and fewer people will be running anyways, so that they can actually play any of the expansion they paid for.. it just doesn't make any sense to gate off so much content, essentially the whole expansion, like that.

[Dante_V]

Also, it just occurred to me..

If Ishgard is gated off from having to finish 2.55 and such.. doesn't that mean the entire expansion is essentially inaccessible until you've done all of it?

Wouldn't it be really nice to make this extremely clear? A returning player who was already 50 and did some of the post 2.0 content is going to be a little surprised when they suddenly have to spend days running all this old content, which fewer and fewer people will be running anyways, so that they can actually play any of the expansion they paid for.. it just doesn't make any sense to gate off so much content, essentially the whole expansion, like that.

It's already been made very clear. You will need to complete the Steps of Faith and finish the 2.55 story line before you are able to access the content in the expansion.

[Losian]

It's already been made very clear. You will need to complete the Steps of Faith and finish the 2.55 story line before you are able to access the content in the expansion.

I don't think it has been made "very clear." Or clear at all. One correction on one interview on one third party site says that, nothing else. The XX and XXI Dev letters state that the new *Main story* requires completion of the previous *main story.* That doesn't mean "you cannot touch any Heavensward content without finishing all of the previous main story." I'm not trying to be rude, but you've added nothing to the discussion here.

[Losian]

And honestly, it is in no way "clear" - there's no dev post on the forums, there's no note on the Heavensward site nor the store pages.. anyone returning to the game would be totally blindsided by this and unaware they have to spend weeks catching up on old content that fewer people will be doing. A new player would be floored to shell out for the game + expansion and find out the new jobs are gated behind tons of content.

So, I disagree strongly. It isn't remotely clear, and they seem to be going out of their way to not make it clear where it's most important - ie store pages so folks can make a decision properly. There is no reason to buy it as a new player except for Au'ra, and that is not apparent. I cannot think of a single game with expansions which has gated ALL content behind some arbitrary original game questline. The main story I totally understand, and I think that's perfectly fine, but preventing access to the city/areas, and the new jobs, based on that is just absurd.

[Gravastar]

I have to agree with Losian here. Locking the new expansion this way effectively prevents the new and returning players from accessing any new content. Yes, of course you can grind your way through the main quest on one of the 'vanilla' jobs... but not everyone has the time to do it. People see cool new jobs, people get the expansion... and then realize it'll be only available to them once they finish a massive chunk of existing content. Why is it necessary to lock all access to Ishgard before one finishes main questline, honestly, evades me.

[Dante_V]

It's been made very clear at Q & A sessions and by the developers on a few occasions. Just because you personally think it's absurd has no relevance on whether or not it actually is. Most of the points you've made in your initial post have been completely countered. If you don't like it that's absolutely fine. No one is forcing you to buy it. I personally prefer it this way but to each their own.

[Dante_V]

I have to agree with Losian here. Locking the new expansion this way effectively prevents the new and returning players from accessing any new content.

I think that is kind of the point behind doing it.

[Dante_V]

I mean lets really analyze this. A new player cannot do anything in regards to "end game content" until they reach the end of the initial story. The entirety of everything at end game is locked behind 50 levels and 40 -60 hours of story content as it sits right now. A new player would have no need or use to access Ishgard. There is literally nothing they can do there at that point.

As far as returning players lets say you dropped off with a full set of darklight after patch 2.2 or whatever. When you get back you still won't be high enough item level to fight anything in the new areas which the level 51 areas seem to be pushing into ilvl 100 territory as a minimum. Even coming back at this point right now you still wouldn't have access to huge amounts of content until completing the story in the patches. No Shiva, Ramuh, Coils, etc

The only real exception I can think of would be the new jobs, which technically start at 30 albeit in an "expansion area'. Could they have moved the jobs out of that area? Absolutely but if they are trying to promote play in those areas what purpose would doing that serve? Also what if these jobs are more complicated than those that preceded them? Would it be wise to drop inexperienced players into that?

I can understand some of the complaints but some are completely without reason (new players can't access areas when there is nothing for them to do in those areas to begin with) and for the life of me I cannot think of a single final fantasy game that lets you jump right from the beginning and unlock advanced jobs or go straight to the end area at your choosing. The basis of this complaint is "why can't we start at the end of the game" it's kind of absurd in it's own right. Just my opinion.

[Velox]

FFXIV is an extremely story-driven game. That's how it was designed. It's 100% intentional.

There are many different MMO designs and because no one design suits everyone's needs, developers just have to pick and choose which one they want to go with (or which ones best fits the theme of the game they are making). Each developer will then market their game accordingly and after that, it's up to the player to decide which MMO best suits their needs. Do you prefer story-driven games? Raid-driven? Sandbox environments? Craft-necessity? Forced grouping? etc.

You don't approach FFXIV like you would a sandbox game (and it would be extremely foolish to do so). You approach it like one would read a book. A book is only a book if read from front cover to back cover. If you want to open the book and start reading at page 257 (raid-driven games), you're not really going to enjoy FFXIV. If you open the book and decide you don't like reading and only want to see the cool pictures (craft-driven games), you're not going to enjoy playing FFXIV. If you'd prefer to not even open the book and instead use it as a coaster for your drink (sandbox games), you're not going to enjoy FFXIV. If you are going to open the book with the intention of starting on Chapter 1, then FFXIV is the game for you.