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

[Luvbunny]

SNIP...

Richard, you don't seem to get it. For players who HATE MSQ, it does not matter, you can argue 3.0 is better (it's more of the same thing, bigger, longer, uncut, etc...) but for those players, being forced to do ANY MSQ to access contents is no bueno. And 3.0 is worse than 2.0, in the original, I can skip ALL MSQ and go around the entire world (except MSQ dungeons, raids, etc...). This means, if you just want to gather and craft, you can do just that, not even touching MSQ one bit. I can take any new players and do sightseeing and get them pretty much every telepoint they need as level 1 character. Not so much in 3.0, you can't explore areas without doing main quest. Gathering on chocobo is a pain in the ass, so you have to do flying, which pretty much means you MUST do MSQ, and do quests.

So if I am bringing new friends who hate MSQ, they are not going to be very happy when they reach 3.0, because it will be more of the same doing things they hate, but now it is being forced to them. You might as well make a thread, OPEN ALL AREAS, GIVE ALL ACCESS, and make ALL MSQ purely optional so everyone can just do dungeons, raid, FATE leveling without dealing with any quests or MSQ. To conclude, THIS IS NOT THAT KIND OF GAME. So if I have a friend who wants purely ACTION multiplayer aspect, ASAP NOW! I would not bring them here. There are other games like this. ESO would be right for them. Destiny is perfect for them. FF14 is not for them, it is STORY driven game, and you have no options of skipping the "single player with online component" aspect of FF14. It is there for training wheels - and every new players have to do it. They also could use the free xp to level 50 with minimum effort, it is for those who love solo play FF lore and story - which is what the FF series is known for.

I cannot bring myself telling someone who hate MSQ type of game to go buy 3.0 because it is better, because it is NOT. These players will have buyer's remorse because the minute they set foot in Ishgard, they have to do MSQ, not optional. The producer already stated for expansion 4 and up, they will consider changing this strict requirement because by then it could be overwhelming, they may make season 1-3 somewhat optional. But for now, we all have to bite the bullet. Think of it this way in a more positive spin, once you are done, you are DONE. SE will set you free to do "grinding as you see fit" and you no longer have to keep redoing MSQ over and over for every class + jobs. Unlike WoW, every new character - going through the same thing again, and again and again - but that is how WoW is designed.