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

[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.