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

[Luvbunny]

I do understand, I have a friend who cannot give a crap about story or quest, all she does is crafting and gathering, end of story. Her simple solution is to have her son does all the battle related and finish MSQ to level 60 so she can go back to craft and gathering. It helps that it is summer And another friend who press skip CS, he only likes raid and dungeons. None of these players care one bit about the MSQ, they don't give a rat ass, but they bite the bullet and get it done, it is "activity something to do" and you only do it once. They enjoy those "cinematic grand scale battle" cutscene, but other than that, all the inane quests are nothing but "free xp" that helps them get to level 60 much faster.

[Luvbunny]

In what way are you seriously not saying "If you don't like it, quit"?

If you don't like it, you can just bite the bullet and finish the MSQ, or yes, you can stop playing because you deem it is not worth your time and effort. I can't make you like it 2.1-2.55, and you sure as hell will probably not going to like 3.0 either since it is more of the same and the worst offender in gating content. At least 2.0 does not lock areas, I can get my friends all the teleport stone to the entire 2.0 areas and leave them level gathering and crafting to 50 with ease (you only have to get to level 10 to unlock Armory). No so much here in 3.0..... Everything is all about MSQ.

So I might as well give free advice to those type of players, save your money, and just move on. Since 3.0 is not magically solve the "gating everything behind MSQ" - and this thread is basically asking, can you change the entire FF14 game NOW and make everything optional and give me access to ALL areas when I level up. This is something they will not do, at least not now. And let's not forget those players who actually like the game as it is, which is probably a good 90% of them. Otherwise we will see 500 threads of "SKIP MSQ please, turn this into SANDBOX game".

[ThanMazus]

If you don't like it.. you can stop playing

Cool, I'm glad we dragged that out across like 5 posts trying to make this look nicer than it actually is.

[Luvbunny]

Cool, I'm glad we dragged that out across like 5 posts trying to make this look nicer than it actually is.

LMAO, but you do have two options It's not like you are forced to quit. Sadly you don't have options to NOT do the dungeons if you want "free endgame gears" not from crafting. So I guess soon we will have to deal with 500 more threads of "SE can you give me options of NOT doing any Dungeons at all so I can get my free gears and not having to play with other people - because I ONLY WANT TO DO QUESTS to level up and still get my access to gears and NOT DO DUNGEONS please!!"

I mean let's face it, if SE let you skip MSQ, I am sure there are groups of players who also rather do MSQ and NOT having to be forced to do dungeons to advance anywhere in the game. So let's make that optional as well. Basically open everything, ignore everything about the game play and content, and let us just do what we want ASAP right now. This is a definition of sandbox game, which this game is clearly NOT a sandbox game.

[Jayjohn]

We're all perfectly aware of this, yes, which is why making the story optional shouldn't be a big deal because you are still amply rewarded for going through it.

But it should be up to the player to choose what they want to do in the game, be it sidequests, leves, fates or just grinding dungeons with friends.



And we're talking about removing that as well: If a person dings level 58, the level 58 dungeons become available in their DF.

And no, it's not going to break the game if they do this.

You want to make the MSQ optional, hence it becomes a sidequest. At which point your other ways to level efficiently is through leves, fates, or grinding dungoens which by the way most of the community in this game find quite boring. You do know that those MSQ's also hand hold you through every single mechanic and system in this game which is literally a giant tutorial to 50.

[ThanMazus]

LMAO, but you do have two options It's not like you are forced to quit. Sadly you don't have options to NOT do the dungeons if you want "free endgame gears" not from crafting. So I guess soon we will have to deal with 500 more threads of "SE can you give me options of NOT doing any Dungeons at all so I can get my free gears and not having to play with other people - because I ONLY WANT TO DO QUESTS to level up and still get my access to gears and NOT DO DUNGEONS please!!"

You have options - bite the bullet and read the forums, or don't!

[RichardButte]

I do understand, I have a friend who cannot give a crap about story or quest, all she does is crafting and gathering, end of story. Her simple solution is to have her son does all the battle related and finish MSQ to level 60 so she can go back to craft and gathering. It helps that it is summer And another friend who press skip CS, he only likes raid and dungeons. None of these players care one bit about the MSQ, they don't give a rat ass, but they bite the bullet and get it done, it is "activity something to do" and you only do it once. They enjoy those "cinematic grand scale battle" cutscene, but other than that, all the inane quests are nothing but "free xp" that helps them get to level 60 much faster.

And you STILL haven't answered the question: WHY should the story be mandatory, especially when it's apparently so boring that people need to force their kids to do it for them?

Thus far, you're still just beating the drum of "CAUSE THAT'S THE WAY IT'S ALWAYS BEEN!!!" which is no reason to continue doing anything.

Read what I said earlier about people who are only causally interested in FFXIV. You're saying it's better to deliberately turn away the extra revenue these people would generate because...why, exactly?

Tradition? Sadism? Why would letting these people get to play the endgame by leveling how they want to level be the goddamn crime you make it out to be?

You want to make the MSQ optional, hence it becomes a sidequest. At which point your other ways to level efficiently is through leves, fates, or grinding dungoens which by the way most of the community in this game find quite boring. You do know that those MSQ's also hand hold you through every single mechanic and system in this game which is literally a giant tutorial to 50.

And giant tutorials are the bane of people who can figure out how to do things on their own. People who need the help can play through the "tutorial". People who don't can skip it.

Can ANYONE give a real reason as to why the MSQ shouldn't be optional? "BECAUSE ITZ GOOD XP!!!!" is not a reason, nor is calling it a tutorial.

MMOs that are more complicated to play than FFXIV have somehow managed to make the story optional and yet still have a thriving endgame...

[Luvbunny]

Why would letting these people get to play the endgame by leveling how they want to level be the goddamn crime you make it out to be?

Because by your logic, this means making the entire gameplay and content of this game is OPTIONAL. That I, as new players, can just ignore everything and do what I want. I can just unlock craft and gatherer at level 1, and go to 60 without doing any dungeons or msq, or any quests. Everything is open immediately, you get access to any areas, nothing is locked, I can go to endgame areas at level 1 if anyone would escort me.

Do you realize what this means? As gillsellers, they can take their level 1 character, spam those annoying crap anywhere, get access anywhere and jack up Market Board price, monopolize all materials availability and amass army of bots to produce materia factory. I am glad everything is gated. It is annoying yes to some people, but it is very much needed. The small percentage of players who quit because of this is so pitiful, they could not care less. Otherwise the accounting department would storm the office and demands changes because subscriptions drop to only 10% players left, 90% of the players quit because they have to do MSQ.

I know it sounds harsh to simply say "If you don't like it, just quit" but why waste time playing a game which has gameplay you absolutely hate? Are you the one who is being sadistic by forcing your friend to go through this? Why not just set them free to play other games that are more to their liking and play style. Let's not be a selfish egotistical and demand this game must turn into Sandbox game because I want all player to have 100% access to everything the minute they play it, since there are many other players who like the game as it is now and demand no changes to be made.

[ThanMazus]

unlock craft and gatherer at level 1, and go to 60 without doing any dungeons or msq, or any quests. Everything is open immediately, you get access to any areas, nothing is locked, I can go to endgame areas at level 1 if anyone would escort me.
...
As gillsellers, they can take their level 1 character, spam those annoying crap anywhere, get access anywhere and jack up Market Board price, monopolize all materials availability and amass army of bots to produce materia factory.
...
I know it sounds harsh to simply say "If you don't like it, just quit" but why waste time playing a game which has gameplay you absolutely hate?

THE HORROR. How would you live in such a world where people could gather or craft starting at level 1? How could you survive in a land where someone made it all the way to 60 without questing? Actually, this is actually doable via fate/leve grinding so...?

Also this second part already happens too so...???

Further editing - You do realize it's possible to like the gameplay but not the gating, right?

[RichardButte]

Do you realize what this means? As gillsellers, they can take their level 1 character, spam those annoying crap anywhere, get access anywhere and jack up Market Board price, monopolize all materials availability and amass army of bots to produce materia factory.

NO, they wouldn't. You'd still need to hit 50 in order to access level 50+ areas.

Contrary to what you seem to think, making the story optional doesn't mean there can't be an Elezen standing at the gate to Ishgard who says, "Oh, I'm sorry, I can't let you in yet!"

They've level-gated content in pretty much EVERY themepark MMO to date without needing to make the story mandatory.

And saying this is to circumvent RMT is a piss-poor excuse when RMT runs goddamn rampant through this game anyway.