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

[Pikachu_Pizza]

Leveling my first character and dreading the level 50 grind. I'm currently level 49 and after lots of stuff involving primals, weapons, and the garlean empire I am now presented with a quest to make a stew. "The Ladle in the darkness".

Anyone claiming that the main story quest is a great story is clearly forgetting the garbage filler quests.

[Tuathaa]

Leveling my first character and dreading the level 50 grind. I'm currently level 49 and after lots of stuff involving primals, weapons, and the garlean empire I am now presented with a quest to make a stew. "The Ladle in the darkness".

Anyone claiming that the main story quest is a great story is clearly forgetting the garbage filler quests.

Not all but the vast majority that are against the idea have been playing for quite awhile and did the msq as it was released and actually enjoyed the filler quests because it was current at the time and it kept them busy. The only reason the filler quests were put in there in the first place was to keep max level characters busy.

[Madjames]

It needs to be optional. The story would stay for those that want it.

[Veji]

No matter how many threads are made on this, i think the vocal majority still like the fact that new players will need to complete the ARR story, including myself. So, i disagree.

[Madjames]

No matter how many threads are made on this, i think the vocal majority still like the fact that new players will need to complete the ARR story, including myself. So, i disagree.

But you do not know what the majority is. Only a small fraction of players even use this Forum to begin with. Around 40-50 members in my LS/FC (Yes, I asked around 40-5o players before I had to go of to work) agree that this is an archaic gaming flaw and not good to new players. Some have not even bothed to post and have since quit due to this system. Others simply have hesitated to buy HW and have not resubbed at all out of principal because SE locked a whole expansion out to players even if they are level 50 and already paid for it. Saying that you are in the majority on this is not true in my opinion but then, we will never know the real numbers.

Other friends in this situation have instead to called SE directly, voiced their concerns, and told them that until this is changed they will refuse to play. They are counted in this vocal situation and I recommend people on this forum to actually go out and call SE instead of making posts about it here.

Call them directly, urge others to call, even players in game who also agree that this situation is bad. Urge EVERYONE you can to call se and make a point to hear us. You do that as well as hit SE in the wallet and this will get changed. Even if your friends, family, whatever will NOT play at all, have them also call SE and tell them exactly WHY they will not sub, buy the game, or play. Let SE know that they are losing potential long term customers and as well losing subs because of this issue and bad game design.

[KisaiTenshi]

No matter how many threads are made on this, i think the vocal majority still like the fact that new players will need to complete the ARR story, including myself. So, i disagree.

40-50 people clicked like... out of 4 million subs. Yeah... That's an absolute tiny minority, and the "like" flag on the forums only serves to make the thread have a little crown on it and red instead of yellow. eg, it grabs attention just a little bit more.

Anyway I'd suggest people who want to add to this conversation, to quit bumping THIS thread, as we reached rock bottom pages ago.

[Chasely]

I agree a lot of the needless filler should be dropped from ARR's story. The entire thing should be streamlined. The 1005 EXP bonus pre-50 also only affects players who already have a higher level job. that should be amended to maybe 50% for the first job, cut out the filler and let players enjoy the well-written parts.

[Enkidoh]

Leveling my first character and dreading the level 50 grind. I'm currently level 49 and after lots of stuff involving primals, weapons, and the garlean empire I am now presented with a quest to make a stew. "The Ladle in the darkness".

Anyone claiming that the main story quest is a great story is clearly forgetting the garbage filler quests.

Believe it or not, if you actually took the time to read what is being said in these quests, you actually might understand why you're being asked to do these seemingly trivial tasks - for instance, that quest you mentioned it was stated the Immortal Flames troops were mostly raw recruits who were green and undisciplined, and given that victory (read: survival) in the upcoming operation was considered not very high, morale amongst the troops had plummeted, with many actually contemplating deserting their units. Because of this, Raubahn personally asks you, the one the Garleans call the 'eikon slayer', the

one who had just slain Gaius's most trusted lieutenant

to help rebuild morale amongst the troops. And what better way then to evoke this trope?

And as I've mentioned in other threads on the subject in the past, these seemingly trivial 'filler' quests actually serve to help the player out ultimately in the story

after the player is framed for Nanamo's assassination, because they've spent pretty much the entire story before then willingly taking the time to assist the less fortunate with their minor problems, it's therefore inconceivable that they would dare do something as horrific as assassinate Ul'dah's ruler! Accordingly Teledji's conspiracy is clearly shown for the sham it is and the 'small folk' continue to pledge their support for the Warrior of Light, no matter what the Monetarists and the Crystal Braves may say.

But I'm on my soapbox again...

[nuyu11]

Some players may have forgotten that this is Final Fantasy game. Story driven game, you have an option to skip, just press escape button. Some MMO junkies only care about the gear progression, I've saw lots of players keep rushing on everything then after all done they have nothing to do, quit this game and blame SE for lack of content, yet they're the one who ignore it at first place.

Story is Final Fantasy core content, and this is not WoW replacement.

[Temjiu]

Just about every MMO that has added levels/new areas/new story has streamlined the leveling process. WoW has done it at least a dozen times. This is not something new, or unheard of, or a bad thing. this is a good thing. They key is to keep the essential plot elements (some of which are really good), and get ride of extraneous fluff.

80% of the quests post 50 were extraneous fluff. Honestly, I didn't have as much of an issue with the 1-50 process as i did the HUGE amount of material you are forced to engorge once you hit 50. And the worst part of it is that ALL of the new content is gated behind it. all the new classes (which start at lvl 30), are only accessible in a lvl 50 zone. the zones themselves you can't even get in until you finish the story. not a huge deal if the story wasn't so bleeding long. I started playing last year, and literally stopped doing the story quests because they were so boring and uninvolved. when i got back on the expansion, and realized i was going to have to mug through days of content POST 50 Just to see any of the expansion material...i almost started looking for a refund.

Three things would really assist here:

1) eliminating excess "go here, go there" quests. there's plenty of them that have NOTHING to do with the plot progression. drop em. buff exp rewards from the remaining story quests to compensate.
2) allow access to new areas if players can survive. Anyone with a 50 should be able to check out the new areas, drool over the new town, etc. ALSO: on the same vein, new classe should be accessible for ANY players that have at least a lvl 30 class of anything. put the initial quests in a different zone, thats fine. heck, even leave them in the new areas...most people will accept having to have a lvl 50 to unlock the new jobs.
3) allow options to skip the group content post 50 - pre HW. the amount of group content you need to drone through once you hit 50 to finish the story borders on the absurd. allow players the option to "view the cutscenes" and bypass the group content. it's not critical to the game...some of it is even distracting from the story IMO. and even if it's easy to get groups for it now, it won't be that way long. everyone is struggling through the story right now....once the bulk of the players are 60, new players will have to wait forever for old story content to be available.