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

[Raist]

Not sure how people are using "this is a Final Fantasy game!!!" as an excuse. Sure, it's an FF title, but it's an MMO. Having played FFXI I wouldn't have expected them to suddenly change their tune on content gating with XIV.


Final Fantasticks XI, all content was separate.

Did not have to do base city missions to access Zilart content.
Did not have to do Zilart to access Promethia content.
Did not have to do Promethia to get to Whitegate and start the Aht Urghan arc.
...and so on until the end of time.

Since they've already created and ran a successful MMO with almost no heavily gated content, and since 99% of other MMOs also separate their lengthy "story" quest lines or, indeed, make them completely optional, I don't see why any new player wouldn't assume the same of FFXIV.

I've completed all the MSQs and I always made sure to be caught up so this issue has never really affected me but it's hard not to see the flaw in this design. I would be very hesitant to recommend XIV to someone brand new at this point in the games life unless they were looking for a traditional console style RPG game without the Massively Multiplayer Online bit because, frankly, that's basically what XIV is until the story is done.

You actually had to be rank 6 in your starter nation to start RotZ--as in Shadow Lord fight (remember how that tied into DRK's back story? Oh wait...you had to complete most of WotG to fully appreciate it's back story...).

XI's content releases were not "seperate"--parrallel past certain points in the main story maybe, but not seperate. All the other content you mentioned was also gated as well. Most everything in XI was gated behind something---any combination of 1 or more things would deny you access: reputation, nation rank, level, job, imperial standing, allied standing, mission/quest track, time of day (real life or in-game), season (real life or in-game), weather, moon phase... May be more. Those are just things off the top of my head.

Gating is far more common than I think some if you may realize. At least they were up front with Heavensward. Not like there wasn't any disclosure/disclaimer out there telling people they needed to progress to a certain point in the main story for access.

[Jahaudant]

You actually had to be rank 6 in your starter nation to start RotZ--as in Shadow Lord fight (remember that laied the foundation fir DRk?). XI's content releases were not "seperate"--parrallel past certain points ofin the main story maybe, but not seperate. All the other content you mentioned was also gated as well. Most everything in XI was gated behind something---any combination of 1 or more things would deny you access: reputation, nation rank, level, job, imperial standing, allied standing, mission/quest track, time of day (real life or in-game), season (real life or in-game), weather, moon phase... May be more. Those are just things off the top of my head.

Gating is far more common than I think some if you may realize. At least they were up front with Heavenward.

Lightly gated. A new player coming in to XI for the Aht Urgan release wouldn't be so heavily walled off. Yes, there was the Rank 6 requirement for Zilart. A very light gate in comparison to what we see in XIV which will presumably only continue to get heavier and heavier as they pile on more MSQs.

There is no requirement to fully complete the previous expansions main quest line in order to start the current expansions content and your examples of gating are frankly ridiculous. Level requirements are bread and butter for MMOs, nobody comes in to that type of game expecting to do end game raids or, in fact, anything before reaching the adequate level. It's a core concept and part of the genre. Be serious. Reputation was never a requirement to access important content in either XI or XIV. Time of day, season, weather, moon phase, currency? Not sure if you are kidding. This isn't gating.

[Raist]

Lightly gated. A new player coming in to XI for the Aht Urgan release wouldn't be so heavily walled off. Yes, there was the Rank 6 requirement for Zilart. A very light gate in comparison to what we see in XIV which will presumably only continue to get heavier and heavier as they pile on more MSQs.

There is no requirement to fully complete the previous expansions main quest line in order to start the current expansions content and your examples of gating are frankly ridiculous. Level requirements are bread and butter for MMOs, nobody comes in to that type of game expecting to do end game raids or, in fact, anything before reaching the adequate level. It's a core concept and part of the genre. Be serious. Reputation was never a requirement to access important content in either XI or XIV. Time of day, season, weather, moon phase, currency? Not sure if you are kidding. This isn't gating.

Do you not realize that Shadow Lord fight was at the endgame point of the original XI, right? Level 55+ party, have high fame and rank in your starter nation...etc., etc.... So by extension getting to 2.55 in XIV would also be "light gating" as you put it. If it was acceptable for you in XI, than why is it not so for XIV? Getting through to 2.x's endgame now is far less taxing than it was at the comparable stage of XI (remember, it was released in Japan long before it came to the states--Zilart was released after vanilla XI had been out for a while as well).

To get to TAU---you had to have access to a Tenshodo quest in Jeuno, which meant you had to either have fame or acquire an invite. You didn't just install the game and go right into TAU and unlock it's jobs. There were things that you had to wait for particular conditions to progress--like weather and moon phase. Ever unlock SMN? How about Moongate access? THere were other quests that required you to wait for things like an NPC that only spawned under the moonlit lake and such. And I don't think I mentions currencies perhaps you are confusing imperial/allied standing--that was ranking, not money). But there were some things that were locked behind it I guess--hourglass, Khazaam (or was that airship in general, forget) if you didn't quest it and such, so that could be applied too now that you mention it.

So no.. my examples are not ridiculous. Your FAME actually DID wall you off from access quests you needed to progress. Your rank DID wall you off from progressing content. Many may not have realized it because they built them up gradually just playing the game and doing quests/mission---but the requirements WERE there, and forums often had people complaining because they couldn't access a quest, and often times it was because they dind't have fame/rank required to do them.

The point I was trying to make that seemed to have missed you is that content is most always gated by some mechanic--it is nothing new and should be expected.

[Wournsfeik_Untawhasyn]

...Lightly gated... starting ToAU

Were... were you a new player when ToAU was shiny, new, and relevant? Because I don't think you really understand what stood between a new player and Treasures of Aht Urghan. Maybe the mechanical requirements don't look so bad, but the effective requirements on the other hand.

You either had a friend carry your ass into ToAU or you had to go to Valkurm, get to 16 (hope you picked the right job!), get your subjob items before you can even unlock your subjob (and back in the day, good luck getting the Buburimu ones without a team dedicating themselves to it), go to Jeuno (the marketboard will need a sizable donation for those Prism Powders and Silent Oils), get the rep or spend more money on the marketboard (where did your level 16 ass get all this gil from anyway? Suspicious.), board a ship in Mhaura, which if you miss it you're waiting for 30 minutes for it to come back. Then waiting 15 minutes for it to make it into White Gate. All this to be able to stare at the pretty scenery, because if you're not level 30 you can't even start the new Job Quests.

So I guess you get to go back to Valkurm now and hope some folks are looking to make a levelling party. Because you've got a long way to go before you can even think of touching ToAU content.

Because now you've got to get to 18. Which if someone sees you at 18 without a subjob equipped you're now at a coin flip's chance at best of actually being invited to party. Go do your subjob quest.
Now level that subjob. Because if you don't now and people catch you with a gimped subjob you are not getting a party invite (unless you're playing WHM, then they're desperate enough to let it slide)
Now that you've hit 19-20ish time to go to Qufim for about 6-7 levels until all of a sudden your prospects of getting a party dry up since nobody does Delkfutt's Tower parties at this point in the game. They want you to go to Yuhtunga Jungle.
How do you get to Yuhtunga Jungle, you ask? That's right, you need the Kazham Airship pass... what was the requirement for that again?

Oh right... 3 beastmen area chest keys. Which I recall are non-tradeable and unique. So you're going to need to go farm those up. Do you have a thief levelled by chance? Do you know one?
No? And you thought FFXIV's MSQ was tedious.

Seems like the gates are starting to pile up here.

So now you go level for 3 levels in Yuhtunga before finally being able to go do Expert Job quests (yay!)

Hopefully by the time you get to level 30 to touch on the new job quests you don't come to regret you're not actually 60 because everything is tuned in that expansion starting from there (Merits were introduced at this point so they could focus on content tuned to level-75), and then when you do finally get to the point where you're high enough level to actually put a dent in the content it's no longer the relevant content. So good luck finding 5 other people on your server willing to help you out. And unlike FFXIV, XI gave 0 incentive for an older player to help you. There was no relic to send them back, there was no first timer rewards, there was nothing. So you had to convince them that you were worth their time.

Mind you, I accomplished this. Plenty of people wanted me around during that time. But if you're complaining about the MSQ gating in XIV? You probably wouldn't have.

[Rustyhagun]

You actually had to be rank 6 in your starter nation to start RotZ--as in Shadow Lord fight (remember how that tied into DRK's back story? Oh wait...you had to complete most of WotG to fully appreciate it's back story...).

XI's content releases were not "separate"--parallel past certain points in the main story maybe, but not separate. All the other content you mentioned was also gated as well. Most everything in XI was gated behind something---any combination of 1 or more things would deny you access: reputation, nation rank, level, job, imperial standing, allied standing, mission/quest track, time of day (real life or in-game), season (real life or in-game), weather, moon phase... May be more. Those are just things off the top of my head.

Gating is far more common than I think some if you may realize. At least they were up front with Heavensward. Not like there wasn't any disclosure/disclaimer out there telling people they needed to progress to a certain point in the main story for access.

This.... people complaining or whining must be little children or something, as they are not making sense.

FFXI - had Fame points for each nation that you couldn't even see but every quest you did went towards it. To unlock ninja you had to have a certain fame combination between nations.. and you had to have had a certain part of the expansion completed to access Norg to unlock Ninja and Samurai ( which also had other pee-requsets to unlock).

This isn't WoW or any half arsed game company. This is Square-Enix... the grandaddy of all RPG/game studio. They are known for delivering top notch story telling, visuals, music and art.
Everyone complaining about gated content, grow up, as its not going to change, the story is very important for this game and having new jobs unlock, as a new player, would makes little too no sense... where would dark knight and the 2 Jobs skill missions be, if SE just allowed access from the log in screen?....

Are you going to do them all in Uldah,, Limsa and Gridania...?? Does that even make any sense, or have any logic to it.....?

This is not some 2nd or 3rd rate company putting out some bubble gum MMOrpg for the year, "before we go free-to play".(Square Enix does not do free to play with major triple AAA titles (expressing those A's).

You all should have be with us(Final Fantasy fans from the start). Instead of all this childish whining that I'm hearing.... all of you that had no love for this game, complaining and saying this game sucked.. Now its coool and awesome.... and you want to join in.

Well guess what? You have to play from the start and enjoy the ride and the story, lore behind the world. Just think of FF14 as one big single play RPG and there just happens to be others sharing the same world as you. There is no skipping or never will be any skipping of the main arc as it will not make sense to new people. And all we would get are these new people asking stupid questions on the forums.


....* sheeesh*