A serious discussion about abridging the story quest 1-50 (discouraging new players)

[Atrayl]

I finished the final pre-expansion MSQ Wednesday night before early access. If I didn't make it, I was going to cancel my account and finally get around to playing The Witcher 3 instead.

SE almost lost my subscription, and for what? The only answer at this point is arrogance. The arrogance that your story is amazing and that everyone needs to see it. This can also be seen with the current terribleness of FATE experience rewards. "We can't have people grinding FATEs, they've got to see this story!"

I do not like Final Fantasy. I'm sorry, but I do not. I like MMOs. I do not like Warcraft, Warhammer, or whatever story RIFT had. I do like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and I'm a middle-of-the-road Elder Scrolls fan. I've played all of these games for the game. It's nice when I like the story, but it shouldn't be a requirement.

[KisaiTenshi]

I finished the final pre-expansion MSQ Wednesday night before early access. If I didn't make it, I was going to cancel my account and finally get around to playing The Witcher 3 instead.

SE almost lost my subscription, and for what? The only answer at this point is arrogance. The arrogance that your story is amazing and that everyone needs to see it. This can also be seen with the current terribleness of FATE experience rewards. "We can't have people grinding FATEs, they've got to see this story!"

I do not like Final Fantasy. I'm sorry, but I do not. I like MMOs. I do not like Warcraft, Warhammer, or whatever story RIFT had. I do like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and I'm a middle-of-the-road Elder Scrolls fan. I've played all of these games for the game. It's nice when I like the story, but it shouldn't be a requirement.

You are playing the wrong game then.

Here's a counter argument:
I play games for the story, and hope the gameplay is constructive in achieving that story.

Early CRPG's (Eg Wizardry and Ultima) were super-light on story, but the story was there. This is what Final Fantasy's game mechanics originate from. The Ultima games were extremely open-ended in that you could pretty much forget the story was there, but you can't finish the game without actually hitting all the storyline flags.

The story is a requirement. If you think the story is bad, then you are wasting your time playing this game. The other games you mentioned, Star Wars, LOTR, and TESO have their own storyline requirements as well. But overall, the grungy ugly Western MMO's aren't worth playing for people who like the Asian style MMORPG's.

FFXIV is the only MMORPG that reasonably has elements of everything I like in MMORPG's. The only thing I find it's not great at is it's lack of "open-world"-ness. There has not been a FF game, or any MMORPG really that has been open world enough to enjoy exploring beyond just unlocking the map.

"Minecraft" moved the goal posts on what it means to have an open-ended exploreable world, but THAT game has ZERO story. Algorithm-determined landscapes, no plate-tectonics, no vulcanism, no hydrology, no ancient ruins. Just a random seed determines what the world looks like. I find that concept incredibly boring, but this is what you are asking for when you want a game with no story.

[RichardButte]

You are playing the wrong game then.

Here's a counter argument:
I play games for the story, and hope the gameplay is constructive in achieving that story.

Ultimately, the gameplay still has to carry itself (and it does), but the problem isn't that the story is bad or that we don't like story.

The problem is that most of the level 50 main story quest has no story involved with it and was just filler to keep us busy, and this cumulative filler is literally capable of driving players away from the game.