Possible level/story jumps....really?

[Kosmos992k]

The linear storyline is, unfortunately, not a great model for a MMO.

No, that's not true at all. The point of an MMO is for people to play together. The point of a story is to experience it individually. MMOS contain content for solo play as well as multi-player. Having the majority of the story as solo content and having specific events in the story as multi-player is a perfectly viable way to add a linear story to an MMORPG. It sounds to me like you may favor a more open world sand box style of game which is, IMHO, essentially incompatible with telling a decent story because the player 'makes' their own...::rolls eyes::

Unfortunately, this is why (I think) they're wanting to implement this potion thing: a lot of potential subscribers will avoid the game due to how boring and long the story is (for them: I know some people like it) and simply quit the game and go play something else. The same happened with my sister who, as soon as I heard about this, I went to tell her the news and she literally said the "eff word" to the game and didn't even bother to play again. And she actually followed it, but just found it overly boring.

And? Seriously, if they are not interested in the story, then why play this game instead of some other MMORPG that caters to people who don't care about story. FF games are always story driven, to expect otherwise is to expect FF to be something it's not.

But yes a lot of people, as soon as I tell them about how the expansion is locked, they simply laugh and say "forget it", but let's face it: FFXIV needs subscribers, needs more players and being niche doesn't give you enough (one of the reasons why Wildstar failed and why the 1.0 archaic system was botched), and this is why there's a lot of controversy right now: fans want the story to be kept, while non-fans simply want it to be optional so that them and their friends can play together without being bothered.

Implementing story skipping and level boosting potions is pay to win, in a story driven RPG, which this is. Implementing such things cheapens the existing content and those who played and enjoyed it, it also creates a divide in the player population between those playing the game and enjoying the world and those treating it as a glorified multiplayer arcade fighter. It's a terrible idea, and will hurt the game. Long term subscribers who enjoy the story and lore will be gradually driven out by the lazy player crowd who don't give a shit about story.

But what's worse is, considering they're planning this potion already, I have a feeling that this means that subs are either not growing, or going down...but I'm only speculating so don't take me seriously.

That's a lot of unsubstantiated speculation. Regardless of the growth or otherwise of player numbers, a more interesting statistic might be the length of subscription vs intent to stay subscribed. Implementing a big fat lazy button that eviscerates the content of the game will hurt that number, and those long term subs are the bread and butter of this game since they are the ones who stay subbed between patches.