Possible level/story jumps....really?

[Voltyblast]

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.

Final fantasy games are story driven, yes, but this is an MMORPG: it's not the same thing. MMORPGs are based around gameplay (or else 1.0 wouldn't be shut down to begin with), however not only this game forces you to follow a story that you may or may not like it, but also needlessly locks content for the sake of the "lore". The bible this is not: they can change whatever they want, if they wanted, to make it flexible for everyone. "This is a Final Fantasy" game is a bad excuse nowadays: I've played RPGs where story and gameplay were perfectly balanced. And again, this is an MMORPG: gameplay is above everything else. Yes, even story, and I'm pretty sure this is why 2.0 was a success. It wasn't broken at least...

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.

I agree that the potion is bad but, excuse me for my ignorance, why would "skipping the story" hurt the game? They'd still play for the gameplay. Infact there are people who only play for the gameplay and probably never cared for the story whatsoever (hello!). Maybe you mean it would hurt the game's STORY...ehm how? If by chance they made story optional, you'd still be able to follow it like you do now, but those who don't follow the story now won't follow the story anyway: the situation won't change really much. Infact making optional would actually allow players to follow the story by their own means and pace. I can only see win-win here honestly: people who want story get their story, people who want gameplay get their gameplay, and it's not even that hard: just don't make the story lock content and you're done, allow everything to be unlocked with a simple quest or level.
Although I have a feeling that the reason why it might hurt, it's because the actual people who follow the story would be much less than you think....I'm only speculating here though.

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..

Uh oh, someone missed a very important statement of that: that's is entirely speculation from me. You know, I might be totally, utterly, incredibly and undeniably wrong, but it IS a concern however because, while in WoW the "lazy button" makes somewhat sense - that game has 6 expansions - this game has just 1 expansion. Unless they're so greedy that they want dem money, this is really a bad idea and it seems we agree on that (hey it's something!). But the thing is, "Why such an idea so soon?" hence I gave my ideas: either the game's story locks people to the point of unsubscribing, or maybe the numbers aren't growing enough and so they want to be more open. I dunno, as I said I'm speculating, it's almost like I said an undeniable truth and...oh right, this is the internet: MY BAD!