Quote Originally Posted by Voltyblast View Post
That's a major reason why most players won't bother with the game to begin with: why bother with the expansion, if you need to play the entirety of the previous game JUST to unlock it? Other games don't do it, even SWTOR which is story driven. I do like campaigns and story modes in mmorpg, but not when they lock gameplay stuff. Keep the story, don't remove it, because I do like having an objective even if I don't care about it, but don't lock everything behind it: you won't incite new players to join if this is how things go.
And that's why I'm concerned about the potion, because we're only one expansion in and they're already going for a story skip potion: that's not a good sign, but it shows that there are people who want to play, but are discouraged by the story lock. That's what I mean by making the story optional: don't remove it, make it important, but don't lock content or basic things behind it and you'll get people who want to play. I don't think this is hard stuff to do, but considering they want to do a potion instead, it proves one of two things: 1) They're lazy 2)They want to take profit from it.
I think having the idea what I mentioned before with how NPCs would act differently depending if you've done the story or not would be a great idea. This will allow full access to areas and classes/jobs and other features that would normally be locked behind the MSQs.

I feel like I'm understanding what you mean now compared to before and I'm sorry if I came/come across harsh or stubborn I just get passionate about games I really enjoy (like most people).