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

[Reinha]

You do realize what you're saying here is that part of the joy you get from the main story quest is the exclusion of a large group of players from the content that it gates, correct? I just wanted to make that clear. Because if the quest requirements are removed from, say, being able to fly, or being able to do the dungeons, that's the only thing that changes: the fact that other people are unable to do it and you are. You're literally taking pleasure in their misfortune.

So, okay. There's one answer to how it negatively affects you, I guess: less sadism.

. . . I'm actually not against attunements. I enjoyed The Burning Crusade's gateing system. The difference there is that it gated PvE group content behind PvE group content. To do the thing you wanted to do, you had to do other things you wanted to do. That makes sense. This is gating group content behind solo story content. It's a completely different situation.

It's quite hilarious to see you make making a personal attack at me just because I gave you the answer to your question. Sorry to tell you but everyone won't always agree with you. The ironic part is where you call the other poster on their personal attack, and say it takes away their credibility.

The fact that I like being rewarded for my actions with more than just cosmetic things does not make me a sadist. I have no idea how you got to that conclusion. That's like saying raiders are sadists if they prefer that the BiS gear comes from raids. Or that people who enjoy the aether current system must do so because it makes other people unhappy. Do you not see how ridiculous that sounds? I suppose I've never seen an ad hominem that doesn't sound ridiculous.

I'm happy you mentioned The Burning Crusade. I found a chart in wowwiki (link because image doesn't work):

http://wowwiki.wikia.com/Instance_at...attunement.jpg

According to the chart, those attunements required both group and solo content. To me that sounds a lot like what we have in FFXIV, with the exception that here the solo stuff is also gated behind group content in turn. It's how the game is built from level 1 and up, which makes me believe this game is intended for people who like both kinds of activities. For the intended audience the experience is the same as you had in TBC: to you do the things you want to do, you do other things you want to do.

There's nothing wrong with not liking solo questing obviously, but complaining about it being a requirement in FFXIV is kind of like me choosing to play an MMO that mixes PvP and PvE in it's attunements, and complaining about how I'm "forced" to PvP. Realistically I am not forced to play anything I don't want to play and if I willingly chose to play such a PvP/PvE hybrid for it's other good qualities, I would just grit my teeth and get the PvP over with. That's exactly what I did in Mists of Pandaria with the legendary cape and violet proto-drake mount, because those weren't the first occasions in WoW's history when PvP was required for PvE (or vice versa). Neither is this the first time that questing is required for group content in FFXIV.

If the developers cater to one group of players, they will disappoint another group. That's been my point all along and it's what I tried to illustrate with my example on page 17. Disappointing you target audience would be a very stupid move for a game company and I that's why I doubt they will ever make the story completely optional. It deviates way too much from their original vision.