Do not take this the wrong way, however: What work?
Simply put, the jobs are level 30 each. Thus, the requirement to unlocking them, likewise, should be a level 30 of Any job. The only "Work" people should be required to do in order to get access to the jobs is buying the expansion, clearing any pre-leveling required (Like we did for our base jobs), and completing a quest. At that point, it should be unlocked to them.
The things that should be locked behind MSQ:
- Story.
- MAYBE special areas, but not an entire expansion. Even FFXI knew this - you could get access to special high-level areas, but you were never gated from the other zones. Quite the contrary, many a time the game introduced areas specifically for lower-levels.
- Quests, due to level (I.E. DRK being a level 30 quest is accessible, but you can'd to the first quest in the zone because it's level 50 - out of your range)
By doing things this way, SE only succeeds in dividing the playerbase, and making people play the game on jobs they're not truly interested in. I genuinly hope there aren't people who have cancelled their preorder until such a time that they will actually be able to -play- the content they're paying for, because that means we're losing sales for it.
Baiting with a level 30 job just seems cruel in its own way.
You know what, I respect you. You kinda feel both ends of the sword with your post and I like it a lot in that regard. You're right - cities are very much so "Full" right now... for classes. But these are jobs we're talking about, and there's a whole world out there that coudl be filled with the new jobs.
Warrior: Costa Del Sol [East Side]
Paladin: Ul'dah
White Mage: South Shroud [South]
Scholar: Limsa
Black Mage: Ul'dah/Eastern Thanalan
Summoner: Gridania
Bard: South Shroud [North]
Monk: Ul'dah I think? I dunno. Chakra.
Ninja: Easter La Noscea [West Side]
Dragoon: Coerthas
Unused:
Central Shroud, East Shroud, North Shroud, Western Thanalan, Central Thanalan, Southern Thanalan, Northern Thanalan, Middle La Noscea, Lower La Noscea, Western La Noscea, Upper La Noscea, Outer La Noscea
The world's very much so got a ton of space available, as you can see. There's 3-4 zones open per region, and when it comes to jobs, most jobs aren't in major cities. There's plenty of ways to tackle that, but I will admit - adding it to the new zones will be interesting and fun, and allows for more freedome in the characters.
As for "Making Sense", I'll tackle that with the next guy:
You say "Lose its consistency", I say "Constantly evolving world"... Both are their own respective avenues, and both have pro's / cons to them. As we're seeing with this topic. I won't deny that you're right - having a straight story path is nice. I enjoyed the story myself, but my issue comes in the form of if I ever choose to make an alt, I'd have to go through it all AGAIN (And btw, I've already done it once for one of my alts... it's a mindnumbing process and so boring at that point.)
Plenty of things to do for a leveling player who is new to the game, going from 50-> Heavensward? The only thing the players will have to do is the MSQ. They might opt to stop and do all the level 50 dungouns, but I don't see why they would do that. Most players will be persuing what they want, and neither you nor I can speak for them in what they want.
It's mentionned frequently that the cities will seek adventurerS to help - So why can't a level 30 adventurer be of any help? Let's face it - this could easily be a sidequest. A "Temporary Access to Ishgard" permit of sorts. A pass to allow you in pre-heavensward... or perhaps even a quest to smuggle yourself in. Only being given clean access to Heavensward once it was "Earned." There are ways to write it while maintaining the integrity of the story.
Or perhaps... The trainers can send an NPC out to the world, seeking able-bodied (level 30) adventurers... And when you speak to them, they warp you to the NPC in Ishgard for your training, then send you back out. They're training you. Making you indebted to them. It could even be a cool flag in the story.
The simple fact of the matter is, this gating is rather foolish because it only negatively affects new players. New players are the life's blood of FFXIV. Trust me, there's plenty of thigns I dislike that a new player would h ate me for saying I dislike - and that's the way it works. But trying to say "Good riddance" to new players is just being stubborn.
Honestly, If they had made the classes level 50 to start, I'd be more receptive to the idea of them being locked in heavensward. But for some reason, SE makes you hit level 50, complete MSQ, only to take 20 steps backwards in levels to unlock the new jobs... Doesn't that seem a bit silly? The jobs are clearly designed with some degree of fostering some better low-level environments and getting us veteran/all 50's to go back to them. So why not help those who also want to play them sooner by getting them hooked/interested sooner?