Why do I have to complete *all* vanilla story quests to get to HW content?

[Talligan]

Just a reminder, I'm OP. I've played many MMO's (FFXI included) and none of them require you to finish all story quests to get at the new stuff. Imagine having to finish base-game FFXI to get to Rise of the Zilart and Dragoon etc...
I understand people talking about 'how are you going to know about XYZ happening in Ishgard etc... and that's fair, but its minimal work for a writer to edit it to make it more new-user friendly and to not require huge amounts of play experience. Every game series does it, Dragon Age I doesn't require DA:O or DA2, FFXI: CoP didn't require RoZ, WoW Legion doesn't require you to go through every single expansion to get to the game, it dumps you in the action and assumes you'll catch up to the story on your own. It would be forgivable if the story were amazing and gripping but ... :s

It's just poor game design.

[Niqote]

...

To keep it on topic, perhaps only list MMOs and if you have to do the Vanilla story for access to the FIRST expansion.
Because I am sure I saw a quote that said the second expansion will not require you to do HW content to access it.

[Vidu]

Just a reminder, I'm OP. I've played many MMO's (FFXI included) and none of them require you to finish all story quests to get at the new stuff.


It's just poor game design.

Nope, still not getting it. Why didnt you start complaning that you've play through all the story up to 50? I consider most of the 2.xx actually better than the ARR-story - granted, there are fillers, but you get those everywhere.
I'm actually glad that the devs are basically saying "Hey, we've got this story here, that we would like to tell!"

And you STILL didnt answered my questition: Why is this such a big deal for you? What do you wanna do in this game? Just grind two dungeons and thats it? Why is it poor game design when the devs be like "yeah, we actually want people to see the content we put so much effort and thought into!" Are you going to complain about every new story-patch-content aswell?

[AngeloFlick]

Just a reminder, I'm OP. I've played many MMO's (FFXI included) and none of them require you to finish all story quests to get at the new stuff. Imagine having to finish base-game FFXI to get to Rise of the Zilart and Dragoon etc...
I understand people talking about 'how are you going to know about XYZ happening in Ishgard etc... and that's fair, but its minimal work for a writer to edit it to make it more new-user friendly and to not require huge amounts of play experience. Every game series does it, Dragon Age I doesn't require DA:O or DA2, FFXI: CoP didn't require RoZ, WoW Legion doesn't require you to go through every single expansion to get to the game, it dumps you in the action and assumes you'll catch up to the story on your own. It would be forgivable if the story were amazing and gripping but ... :s

It's just poor game design.

Gonna paste in my post from the other thread, because this is my biggest pet peeve about the current MMO player base, everyone wants all the games to be alike. If I wanted a game that played like that I would be playing.... WoW. Or any of the dozens of other MMOs that aren't story driven.

How about this novel concept-
FFXIV does not and should not cater to the entire MMO market because no other game does what FFXIV does. People who want to experience a story driven Final Fantasy game in a MMO setting with other players are the target audience. Not WoW players killing time before the next expansion. I've been playing MMOs since 2001 and burned out on EQ, EQ2, Guildwars, WoW and etc 5 years ago. If FFXIV was like all the others I wouldn't be playing it, or WoW (or any other of the dozens of shitty WoW clones) or any other MMO. I'd be off playing single player or co-op games with my spouse.

If someone doesn't like FFXIV because of the MSQ requirements that's not a slur on them or on the game. It just means this isn't the MMO for them and that's ok. Different games for different people. But don't come in here and demand that this game change one of the core mechanics that makes it unique just because it's outside your comfort zone.

[MaikoRaines]

If someone doesn't like FFXIV because of the MSQ requirements that's not a slur on them or on the game. It just means this isn't the MMO for them and that's ok. Different games for different people. But don't come in here and demand that this game change one of the core mechanics that makes it unique just because it's outside your comfort zone.

The whole idea of the model of XIV is because of the storyline. It's supposed to branch to one another.

Objective C can be achieved by doing MSQ A and Sidequest B - It's in the adventure. I've done skip to the end MMOs and while they are good, they take away from the lore of Eorzea. If all you're doing is end game content and that's your focus then this isn't your MMO. That's all there is to it. Sorry that we all can't see eye to eye. For MSQ requirements I wouldn't change a thing.

[Crysten]

Just a reminder, I'm OP. I've played many MMO's (FFXI included) and none of them require you to finish all story quests to get at the new stuff. Imagine having to finish base-game FFXI to get to Rise of the Zilart and Dragoon etc...
I understand people talking about 'how are you going to know about XYZ happening in Ishgard etc... and that's fair, but its minimal work for a writer to edit it to make it more new-user friendly and to not require huge amounts of play experience. Every game series does it, Dragon Age I doesn't require DA:O or DA2, FFXI: CoP didn't require RoZ, WoW Legion doesn't require you to go through every single expansion to get to the game, it dumps you in the action and assumes you'll catch up to the story on your own. It would be forgivable if the story were amazing and gripping but ... :s

It's just poor game design.

Beating one part of the game to get to another part of the game is called progression, not bad game design.

Don't pretend that FFXI didn't have story gated content. Dynamis and RotZ were gated behind Rank 5 missions. Sky was gated behind RotZ missions. Sea was gated behind CoP missions. Hell, you had to beat the bosses in Visions of Abyssea to get to Scars content and so on.

While I agree that content such as jobs should be accessible from the start, gating the rest of the content off isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering the game is actively encouraging you to do content such as Coil, additional primals, dungeons and other level 50 content before you even get to Ishgard.

Why people are so upset on doing content the game has to offer is beyond me. Endgame is shit - there's no reason to rush to get there.