A thought on solving the content gating issue. Long read, pls bare with me.

[AskaRay]

I have no doubt that for future expansions something like this will be implemented.
But for the first expansion? No...

[Teslo]

I have no doubt that for future expansions something like this will be implemented.
But for the first expansion? No...

They had a more concurrent storylines system in place in FFXI. The first expansion could only be played after completing the initial questline, and every expansion after that just added more content. Granted, FFXI did not have vertical progression, so the concurrent expansion model worked well for it. It would be harder to do that in a game that uses the vertical progression model. I suspect "New" content in a new expansion will always be gated behind completion of the content that came before, if not simply because coherent storyline. And I'm okay with that, and would be as a new player.

[Whiteroom]

They had a more concurrent storylines system in place in FFXI. The first expansion could only be played after completing the initial questline, and every expansion after that just added more content. Granted, FFXI did not have vertical progression, so the concurrent expansion model worked well for it. It would be harder to do that in a game that uses the vertical progression model. I suspect "New" content in a new expansion will always be gated behind completion of the content that came before, if not simply because coherent storyline. And I'm okay with that, and would be as a new player.

They have stated that as future expacs come out, they will be streamlining the story a lot, simply because as you get to later expansions, the catch up time gets longer and longer. They feel that the current set up is more than acceptable, and I agree fully.

[Atrayl]

lol except you aren't taking into account that it does hurt. It takes resources and time to adjust or cut out the story in a story based game, or any game for that matter. These are resources that could be spent anywhere else in the game. Maybe one less dungeon, maybe less new gear sets, maybe something else. Also, as stated before, final fantasy is a story bases series, this is not a hard concept. They are not selling you a story-less game, if you bought it for that, you did in fact buy the wrong product.

They are telling a story, and they have made it obvious that they want it to be heard. This is what they are selling. They aren't trying to sell the game to every gamer in the world if it means cutting out the core of what they want the game to be. Cutting out the the core of your products, just so you can sell to a few more people is how you end up with a cheap, crap product.

If it would take a lot of work to remove the MSQ requirements from dungeons and raids, then the game was designed horribly. Most likely it's a single flag or perhaps even a flag on each individual dungeon to determine whether or not you can enter. It would be trivial to remove. Certainly nowhere near an entire dungeon's worth of design time, especially considering a dungeon takes art, sound, level design, and writing resources whereas this fix only takes programming resources.

[Atrayl]

even if they have the resources to "fix" it, it still poisons the duty finder with people who have no idea what they are doing after being handed a level 50 for free. It would hurt a lot of people more than the ones hurt by being gated.

No one said anything about being "handed a level 50 for free." I have no idea where you got this idea from.

[lordoftheapes79]

Not necessarily. There are many factors. But in relating it to ffxi you have to talk about how you unlocked classes beyond the starter classes. The long and often expensive quest chains. I don\\'t think the game would be hindered as a whole if Ala migo for instance became a new starting area, they could even allow you to start as a thief out there and work in a few low level areas to level that or other new classes. Possibly use it as a way to expand PvP. But I don\\'t think this should be done with every expansion either. Variation here breeds quality.

[odie]

No one said anything about being "handed a level 50 for free." I have no idea where you got this idea from.

my thought about this was... Let people start in ilvl90

you have to be 50 to wear i90

[Atrayl]

It does hurt.. Like Yoshi-P stated, the 3.0 is like watching a tv series that continues is season right off when the last finished therefore it will hurt the story and it's not like they haven't told us that it will be gated, they told us MONTHS in advance. Also my Boyfriend is a new player and loves the fact that its gated behind story since it is a FINAL FANTASY game!

You do realize that it's already possible to start watching a TV series in the third season, right? And that nothing bad happens when someone does this?

Say I go and start watching Game of Thrones from the latest season, skipping all of the previous ones. How does me doing that, in my living room, presumably tens of thousands of miles away from you and your TV, affect your enjoyment of the same season of television?

It doesn't. It affects me and me alone. I'll have no idea what's happening in the story, but maybe I'm okay with that, because I'm only watching because I'm interested in the CGI or costume design.

[TessaJalloh]

the new classes are useless if you don't first level the old classes to get your cross class abilities. stop whining and get to work.

[Atrayl]

you have to be 50 to wear i90

But he wasn't saying to remove the leveling process entirely. No one I've seen is advocating being able to start a new character at level 50.