Forcing us to the entire story quest to unlock the new classes is just bad business

[Asierid]

I told them I spent 20+ HOURS doing the MSQ just to get into the new expansion and get the jobs. They rolled their eyes and will not purchase this expansion on principal.

How dare I play a story driven MMO that takes time and commitment. I demand instant access and brown toast. Not that burnt crap either.

[Raist]

This is not WoW.

This is not SWTOR.

This is not LoL.

This is not any other franchise you want to compare it to.

It is a Final Fantasy intellectual property....and with that comes a deeply entrenched story requirement. Always has. And yes... that is binding this game to a tradition. A tradition that has sustained something like two dozen games over nearly a quarter of a century. That is what is expected of those more familiar with the franchise.

If the style of this game is not for you, than it may be better if you move on....but if you've paid for the content you should at least give it a try first. We have seen reports of people getting into Heavensward in a week's time (in some case less). You might be surprised at just how easy it is to progress through this particular game in it's current state...trust me, it was much MUCH worse in previous IP's in the franchise. Heck... it was worse in the 2.x ARR chapters. I got 1 million exp today---just from running my daily roulettes. I dinged 57, advanced story to my next dungeon, ran that dungeon... and am already halfway through my ~3 million TNL to ding 58. And it's only just now hitting 9pm. Ate some dinner, watched my show, gonna log back in to do some more missions and such--I might even ding 58 tonight, who knows.

Progression is NOT that hard with the adjustments they made to accommodate that initial run through.

[Catwho]

It's possible to burn all the content from 2.0-2.55 in one weekend if you have someone to queue with you as a tank or healer (or if they themselves are a tank or healer.) If your friends are truly joining to play this game, you can take the time out to help them churn through 1-50 then churn through 2.55 without missing a bit in HW once you yourself finish the 3.0 content.

The new jobs start at 30, and at level 30 are completely identical to white mage, paladin, and a generic DPS class. They're easy to pick up for someone who leveled any of the jobs to 50 and has that kind of experience under their belts, but would be rough for someone who didn't get anything but lancer to 30, for example.

They locked Ishgard for lore reasons, and they locked the new jobs for balance reasons. 3.0 is a delicious chocolate cake dessert, but you don't get dessert until you've finished all your vegetables.

[Vicus]

How do you know you're going to like the new class? You might end up disliking it just as much as the one you're currently playing. It's foolish to bank on the fact that you're going to love a particular class simply based on how it looks or sounds. I normally main the Archer-type class in MMOS; I tried Lancer here and ended up falling in love with it.

Play the game for the game as a whole, not because you think you MIGHT love this future thing that you haven't even tried.

I never said I was going to love the class, I said I wanted to try it. I don't know if I will love it till I am allowed to give it a shot. I do know that I don't like my current 50 but forcing me to play it to unlock a class I might actually like..seems like a sure way to make me lose motivation (I wont but others would).

[LastCookie]

I'm impressed how many people actually didn't know before hand... they almost spammed us with warning about needing to complete the main scenario.
For this same reason, I returned to the game 1 month before the expansion!

[Vicus]

How dare I play a story driven MMO that takes time and commitment. I demand instant access and brown toast. Not that burnt crap either.

Grow up. No one is saying don't enjoy the story line. Im just saying you release three new classes but you force people to get to the endgame before being allowed to try them? I know a few people that just love this game because of the housing and crafting and have spent their 15 dollars a month since it launched, but with the new expansion came out they cant go play in it (flying mounts for gathering and such) because they have to do the full story quest. Nice reward for someone who been here from the start.

[Shamirah]

I don't know why people are defending this system to be honest. It changes nothing for you as you've already done the MSQ, it changes nothing for the people that actually want to do the story as they'll still be able to do it if they want to. It makes anything better for all the people that just want to get to Ishgard and all the content it has, including new jobs.

I just don't get why people would vote against something that has no downsides, only upsides.

I just don't get it.

[TinyMonster]

I get the frustration but like others have stated it's very easy to level up just need to suck it up and do it.. Seriously it has been stated a lot of times that the content will be gated.

[Vicus]

I have been playing MMO's since ultima online, top end game blah blah....the start of my post had nothing to do with the game being hard or I can't get thru progression or that I didnt have time to play. My point is that its a stupid business model that is costing the company money and players for NO REAL VALUE. What do they get out of it? Nothing. Its not like its preventing a ton of noobs from coming in and ruining the game. Its not flooding the game with new characters that is going to drastically change how the endgame/story is. Those three classes are just different ..and new...so allowing people to play them WHILE they do the story doesnt take away from the game in anyway. But forcing someone to play a class they arent interested in just to unlock a new class they are interested in is BAD BUSINESS. THIS IS FINAL FANTASY BUT THIS IS A MMO so comparing it to the other 12+ console ports is pointless. Compare it to FFXI sure, but besides story the console have nothing in common. This game allows players to play together so trying to recruit a friend to play and telling them they can't try any of the new classes because they have to play a different class first...isn't a great opening selling point. Games not hard, its actually one of easiest MMO's on the market in terms of gameplay because the GCD literally forces you to play a specific way and doesn't allow you setup multiple styles of play (see the secret world). At the endgame everyone uses the same rotations/macros. Gating an entire expansion is just not smart...and if they gate every expansion from this point on...you are going to see the playerbase drop drastically instead of growing. If you really love the STORY driven game, then you would realize that making better business decision benefits NEW AND OLD players.

This is not WoW.

This is not SWTOR.

This is not LoL.

This is not any other franchise you want to compare it to.

It is a Final Fantasy intellectual property....and with that comes a deeply entrenched story requirement. Always has. And yes... that is binding this game to a tradition. A tradition that has sustained something like two dozen games over nearly a quarter of a century. That is what is expected of those more familiar with the franchise.

If the style of this game is not for you, than it may be better if you move on....but if you've paid for the content you should at least give it a try first. We have seen reports of people getting into Heavensward in a week's time (in some case less). You might be surprised at just how easy it is to progress through this particular game in it's current state...trust me, it was much MUCH worse in previous IP's in the franchise. Heck... it was worse in the 2.x ARR chapters. I got 1 million exp today---just from running my daily roulettes. I dinged 57, advanced story to my next dungeon, ran that dungeon... and am already halfway through my ~3 million TNL to ding 58. And it's only just now hitting 9pm. Ate some dinner, watched my show, gonna log back in to do some more missions and such--I might even ding 58 tonight, who knows.

Progression is NOT that hard with the adjustments they made to accommodate that initial run through.

[polyphonica]

I just don't get why people would vote against something that has no downsides, only upsides.

As I said in the other thread, I do think it's important the people have completed the required level 50 dungeons and trials before being allowed to complete the level 51+ dungeons and trials, because there's a progressive learning curve. Boss mechanics in the new content fully-expect that you've already learned from those experiences and can handle that level of difficulty and beyond. Otherwise, it will negatively impact the experience for everyone in the new dungeons and trials.

Whether the quests themselves could be summarized and require less running around so that the process goes faster isn't as big of a deal. And even they let people into Ishgard itself isn't that big of a deal to me, but you shouldn't be able to go from Praetorium, level up to 57 through whatever other means, and then be like "I think I'm going to fight the level 57 primal now", because your lack of experience with the previous trials/content will frustrate everyone.