Please Allow 50's to Enter Ishgard w/o having completed MSQ

[Catwho]

Ishgardians give nothing about the WoL title. It is more "I'm the defender of the Steps of Faith which is how I get in!"
The only way to impress an Ishgardian is a fight against dragons. The bigger, the better.

Ding ding ding we have a winner!

[Alberel]

Ishgardians give nothing about the WoL title. It is more "I'm the defender of the Steps of Faith which is how I get in!"
The only way to impress an Ishgardian is a fight against dragons. The bigger, the better.

This. The only reason Ishgard even considers letting us through the gates is because we quite literally saved their city from destruction. If Vishap had accomplished his objective at the Steps of Faith the city would have been defenceless against Nidhogg's incoming invasion. We saved them and they recognise that they owe us a debt. It has nothing to do with our reputation in Eorzea or any of our prior deeds that did not directly benefit Ishgard.

As for the story being MMO friendly: you're welcome to personally hold that belief but I think the story works fantastically as a tool to lead players through the content and gradually unlock all the features as you go. I still haven't seen a single new player actually complaining about the MSQ requirement. Everyone complaining about it seems to be a vet player who simply doesn't want to do the MSQ for whatever reason. It's a petty argument stemming from sheer laziness because they don't want to spend a few hours finishing the story. The whole "it's not new-player friendly" argument is just a cover for their personal motivation.

[Shiro-Koizumi]

You know the Shia lebouf motivational video would fit perfectly for this entire thread.

[Mugiawara]

ITT: Farmville problems in FF.

[Tsuga]

Ishgardians give nothing about the WoL title. It is more "I'm the defender of the Steps of Faith which is how I get in!"
The only way to impress an Ishgardian is a fight against dragons. The bigger, the better.

Also that we have made allies in Aymeric and Haurchefant through our efforts and through diplomacy that benefited both the Eorzean Alliance and the Holy See. A lot lead up to gaining the Holy See's trust, and I doubt we even have that, truly.

That context is completely lost if Ishgard is opened without completion of the story. This isn't 1.0-2.0, where a major event changes the world for everyone. Progress is dictated by the context of the story - hence why things like primals and several dungeons are gated behind it.

- Again this is all without considering the significant amount of balancing that likely went into the 3.0 content. It's high level content, and in order to achieve that the content should be gated for people who have not acquired the skills to participate in that content.

[Gilraen]

Commenting on the actual topic, I don't think anyone can claim to be as 'veteran' as some coming from 1.0. I, as one such person, don't see a single problem with having to complete A Realm Reborn in order to unlock Heavensward. I played through all of 1.0's storyline, enough to know that much of 2.0 up until the Garleans is just 1.0 in fresh, new clothes. And yet I didn't complain one bit about it because they are very nice new clothes. The quests, while stereotypical MMO fare, were all refreshing given that each one had a story to it, even the side quests. This is why we play Final Fantasy games, by the way. If I wanted a bland quest engine I'd have played a western MMO.

Yes, I played all of 2.0 even though I played all of 1.0. And I'd do it again, too (which I did, repeatedly, in the Betas). And I'd expect anyone coming after to do the same. Mind, they aren't getting the same slog I and everyone else had because Square isn't as sadistic as people make them out to be. I'm fine with this, too. But the last thing we need is people stumbling through Ishgard without knowing even the first thing as to what to do or why they should do it.

[AnaviAnael]

snip

You do realize you're asking for the MSQ to be rewritten to cater to a minority crowd? You really want a separate story scenario for people who choose not to play combat classes? You do realize the devs will need to redirect resources for this.

Onto the argument at hand. When I mentioned "we" gain access to Ishgard via our connections, you commented that no, it's not "we" it's "me." The singular WoL gains access to Ishgard, be it you, me, or anyone else in this topic. While yes, it is only a singular person who enters in OUR individual story, there is also a bit of suspension of disbelief for the sake of gameplay. Suspension of disbelief allows us to look over there being 100 other "warriors of light" in Isghard despite our individual story saying there's only one (us). Suspension of disbelief does not, however, allow us to reason that Ishgard is going to allow every talented person into the city simply because they're desperate. They are notorious for not allowing people into the city and proud to a fault. It wasn't until Aymeric that any real progression was made to accepting foreigners into the city. Even now, it's limited.

[Felis]

Also you're suggesting equal progression for DoH/DoL, a concept that was thrown out the window for 2.0, and that Yoshida has explained was eliminated because it took way too much time to consider alternate routes for these classes to take, and ultimately served such a small segment of the player base that it was a waste of time and resources. This was explicitly stated pre 2.0 launch. Crafting-specific players are an extremely niche group that IS catered to in this game, but the devs are not interested in modeling the game around them.

And this

Everyone who want to read the explanation to this (from october 2011):
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...l=1#post439683

We could make three parallel scenarios that could not all be observed with one character. Considering this, a ton of development resources would be spent and the scenario itself would not progress very far.

Personally, I do not want to create this type of scenario and I don’t think any of you are looking for a FINAL FANTASY with a non-immersive scenario. This relates to what I was talking about in the recent Producer Letter LIVE when I said "If you want to follow the main storyline, you'll need to level up a battle class after 2.0."

For a dynamic storyline menacing battles are necessary. With this said, I’d like you progress through the storyline as an adventurer playing the role of a battle class.

[Tsuga]

I played through all of 1.0's storyline, enough to know that much of 2.0 up until the Garleans is just 1.0 in fresh, new clothes.

Ehh, I wouldn't go that far.. maybe the Ifrit segment, joining a Grand Company and your reintroduction to Minfilia (which was actually an awesome moment for 1.0 players!) were pretty close, but the rest is different enough (maybe I'm misremembering?), especially the segments in the individual nations. This is not taking into consideration the meteor plot, which was completely different.

Not to discount your larger point.

And this

Oh, awesome, thanks!

[Kerwin]

Sometimes the most simplistic pictures says the most. Well played.