Unlocking Heavensward

[Lexia]

It does wonders for keeping RMT out of HW content so that a plus.

[Youkulm]

I'm sorry but it doesn't take that long to get from ARR to HW if you skip all the cutscenes... and from the sounds of your complaining and lack of care for the story is EXACTLY what you would do anyway. Most of my FC mates who joined the game for HW got through ARR in no time at all. Yes the ones who enjoyed story took a bit longer because they watched and read everything...

I also don't see it as there being no reward, you should gain several levels before reaching HW which is a huge benefit seeing as you can't do the first HW dungeons until you're 51... that grind from 50-51 without story is difficult and tedious. Not to mention to me the story is a huge reward, I love the story.

If you don't like the story or the game why are you playing? The people who care about story will stay even if they have to do the quests... so despite what you say SE will retain countless players.

I have only seen complaining about this issue on the forums. I may only have 60 or so people in my FC but of those who have had to complete the quests to get the HW none of them were so angry that they needed to come to the forums to make another thread about this. The ones who didn't like story complained but they got in done in less than a few days....

Once you get to 50 you have so much to do I would think story is the least of your worries.. you have to unlock all the level 50 dungeons and get cross classes so forth...

[Lexia]

So they dont care about new players either? That sounds like a flawed business model.
I bought this game due to seeing all of the great reviews for heavensward.
I just figured this game would work like every other mmo - when an expac is released you get to do new things right away. but i guess not. Oh well.

And to all of you fanboys defending the fact that heavensward is gated behind 100 filler quests you have to know that it's pretty silly. They could have combined everything into 1 large quest which generally explained everything and took an hour or two. But they didnt.

Guess you have no ideal how SE does stuff then.

[Chasely]

I also don't see it as there being no reward, you should gain several levels before reaching HW

Actually, the quests only give about 20-30k EXP each. Doing all of them, and the dungeons, barely puts a dent in your EXP from 50-51.

[Claymore65]

Actually, the quests only give about 20-30k EXP each. Doing all of them, and the dungeons, barely puts a dent in your EXP from 50-51.

It got me from Level 50-51, but they don't provide a ton of EXP I'll admit. I haven't completed all of it yet though. They might have boosted the total EXP gained at some point though.

I can certainly understand the annoyance of being stuck behind the MSQ, and I can feel the pain with all the fetch quests mixed in there. However, the story for 2.1-2.55 patches is actually pretty great thus far (the Ul'Dah storyline is really interesting and Merlwyb is pretty awesome in it). Just chug on through and you'll be in Heavensward.

[Vidu]

And to all of you fanboys defending the fact that heavensward is gated behind 100 filler quests you have to know that it's pretty silly. They could have combined everything into 1 large quest which generally explained everything and took an hour or two. But they didnt.

Hearing that from someone who hasnt done those quests and probadly hasnt seen some of the important and amazing cutscenes seems more silly to me than us telling you that there is a reason... you wont understand a lot of the HW-story if you havent played the ARR-story. Yes, some quests are filler. But not all of them. Please, dont judge them if you havent seen them. If you dont enjoy playing a story-driven MMO - just quit. I dont know about other MMOs since I've never played one but I've played other FFs (oh yes, call me a fangirl here) and I enjoyed them because of their story. HW is great and better than ARR, yes. And I'm not gonna say "We all suffered so you have to suffer too!" because thats stupid. Maybe it was a stupid decision to let you "suffer" through a great climax but if you dont care for the story at all after all it might not be worth it for you - in that case you're better off with playing something else.
Stop playing something you dont enjoy, simple as that.

Edit: And as I said before: I'm glad they didnt. Someone - a person that I would consider an artist - put effort into writing that story. I feel sympathy for that person and your suggestion makes that effort meaningless, it makes the story meaningless. "Oh yeah, we wanted to tell you something but... its not really important, here have your expert-dungeons, now go and farm!". I dont say you have to like or watch the story but what SE did here is taking a valide stand: The story matters to them and is important to them so they decided to keep it. Thats their right as artists - an artist is pretty much allowed to do anything s/he wants even if the audience doesnt like it (their right). In this case the audience who does like it (or at least doesnt care enough) seems to outweight the people who dont. I got what I wanted from this game: A good story; that was the reason I started playing - maybe thats why I have little understanding for people who just dont seem to care about that at all.

[CyrilLucifer]

I'm honestly not sure why you'd buy an expansion pack just because it's an expansion pack before you even hit 50 and haven't done any level 50 content.

It's not like the game mechanics are magically changing once you have access to 3.0.

[Chasely]

It got me from Level 50-51, but they don't provide a ton of EXP I'll admit. I haven't completed all of it yet though. They might have boosted the total EXP gained at some point though.

That's good to know, thanks! They must have increased EXP from the time I went through.

[Dergensaur]

Wanted to just chip in here, I for one am excited to get to the expansion right away, but that's due to me wanting to main a mechanist, only thing I don't look forward to is having to start from 30 again and leave the expansion to later come back, but eh, whatcha going to do?

I find the game's story pretty gripping at times despite this being the first final fantasy I've ever played, only thing I am sad about is having to wait so long for the job I actually am interested in.

[Niwashi]

yoshida actually mentioned this was a mistake on his part, and said the MSQs won't be required for future expansions. they're jsut not going to fix it for this one, because they prefer moving forward instead of revising old content.

Well, he did mention that future expansions wouldn't require it, but at least in the interview I saw (about which many players said just what you did), there was no suggestion of anything being a mistake here. The patches that were written to be a lead-in to Heavensward are required for Heavensward, naturally enough. They won't be required for the next expansion because they don't relate to the next expansion. Their story is about the current one.

I just figured this game would work like every other mmo - when an expac is released you get to do new things right away. but i guess not. Oh well.

Well, you are doing new stuff. Those quests are one-time only, so if you're not past them yet, they're new.

And to all of you fanboys defending the fact that heavensward is gated behind 100 filler quests you have to know that it's pretty silly.

Except that we're not talking about filler quests. We're discussing the Main Scenario of the game. Sure there might be an occasional quest here and there where the story drags a bit, but overall it's a good story, and more significantly, it's the focal point of the whole game. Throughout FFXIV:ARR, you've seen how nearly every feature is unlocked either directly through the Main Scenario, or at least has a prerequisite that you need to have reached a certain point before you can unlock it. Heavensward is still part of FFXIV, so of course it follows the same pattern. The Main Scenario remains the focal point that determines what else you can unlock, just as it's been all along.

These quests form an essential part of the Heavensward storyline, so if you want Heavensward, they're a part of it. I can't believe the number of threads I've seen complaining about the fact that we were essentially all given the first chapter of Heavensward for free. The fact that you've paid for the remainder of the expansion is no reason to skip over its first chapter, nor to expect that you could.

Wanted to just chip in here, I for one am excited to get to the expansion right away, but that's due to me wanting to main a mechanist, only thing I don't look forward to is having to start from 30 again and leave the expansion to later come back, but eh, whatcha going to do?

I find the game's story pretty gripping at times despite this being the first final fantasy I've ever played, only thing I am sad about is having to wait so long for the job I actually am interested in.

Now, that seems like a more valid complaint. I wish they'd put the unlock quests (and level 30 to 50 quests) for the new jobs in the ARR areas, so that people wanting to do them could unlock and use the new jobs while going through the remainder of the ARR Main Scenario, before getting to Ishgard. It would, from what I understand, require somewhat different job stories, though, to match the location. I suppose that has to do with why they put them in Ishgard instead, and thus locked behind reaching it.