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

[RichardButte]

I rather get rid of those who not really interested in playing Final Fantasy game - and help others who want to play the game so they don't get the server error message. Probably make a better gameplay when you get to play with someone who truly can enjoy the game as intended by the creator instead a bunch of crybabies, "are we there yet? are we there yet? my god, 50 more main quests to go through?? seriously???!!! - rage quit cancel account, see you again!!

I was actually going to defend you until I saw this...

No, dude, just...no.

The attitude of "UR NOT HARDCOAR ENUF!!!111!" is a cancerous wart on the butt of gaming (MMO or otherwise) and has no place in modern MMOs.

Wildstar adopted this mentality, and just look at how well they're doing now.

And once again, what are you even defending? The idea that people should have to endure mashing the ESC key for 10 straight hours before they get to try out the content they paid for? What a snobby, crappy thing to wish upon people.

Me? I don't care how people want to play FFXIV, because it's not my place to tell them, and their money benefits SE for future development all the same and I appreciate it for that alone.

Really, man, get rid of that attitude. There has been an overwhelming number of people posting in this thread about how they've been unable to play with friends because their friends didn't have a high enough boredom threshold to make it through all of the 50 MSQ and join them in HW. This is something SE NEEDS to address.

This is money SE could be making that they aren't, and for what? To "preserve the integrity of ESC key mashing through 10 hours of boring-as-crap filler with 30 minutes of story hidden somewhere within"?

There are better ways to do this, mainly through abridging the MSQ leading into HW. And when they do that: everyone wins. Players win because they get to play with their friends, SE wins because they make more money.

Really, no one in their right might could take issue with that...

[Luvbunny]

The attitude of "UR NOT HARDCOAR ENUF!!!111!" is a cancerous wart on the butt of gaming (MMO or otherwise) and has no place in modern MMOs.

OK what you fail to understand is, I will be more than happy to skip all those CS and MSQ when you already have one main character - I have 3, the amount of repeat I have to do is a big turn off, I could not agree more. To do FF14 2.0-2.55 three times is actually not that bad compared to what's coming in 3.0. The original is short, a few clicks, teleport, maybe a few duty finder, done. This new one.... my god, it is beyond horrendous. Basically everything you hate about MSQ magnified three times longer and more tedious...

But if we get rid of all those "tedious" quests, then there is not much of the game itself. It's true for 2.55 and as well as 3.0, so many fetch quests... Which is ok if you are taking it slow and mixing it up with a few levequest, crafting, gathering, duty roulette, guildhest and maybe a few main mission a day. But trying to ram all those MSQ in a short amount of time, yeah, might as well quit. There are plenty of threads already complaining about the way 3.0 quests and fetch hide and seek. I would guess your friend will join this chorus the minute they realize they have to do the same boring fetch quest, again, but across a huge areas (back and forth) with no flying ability given to them ASAP.

This is why I don't understand the big deal, if they shorten all 2.55 editions, a lot of players will complaint that they are being cheated on and given a sub par content. I do agree that the best solution would be taking a good chunk of fluffs and put them as side quests, trimming the fat but still keep the content intact (good for leveling your alt classes).

Again, they should have let everyone who owns the expansion pack to access Ishgard with only finishing 2.0 MSQ, and let these new players or returnee try the three new jobs ASAP - but gate the rest of the expansion until they finish the 2.55 MSQ. This will appease them, while they try new jobs and doing MSQ a bit here and there, at the same time, it gives them something to look forward to. The way it is now, you are stuck, neither side win, and a lot of pissed of players.

[ZenesisX]

All of the fetch quest need to be optional especially those that do not move the story forward in any meaningful way. Collecting tea leaves will not help save the world. Nor will meeting a npc in person just to have them say "must needs" in a sentence then be told to go back to another npc so that they can somehow say it too. Square Enix "must needs" figure this out so that new players aren't pushed away by lousy trivial work.