Main Scenario Restriction Bloodstorm - Very Very Bad idea.

[TarynH]

Though I do acknowledge that having to parade through the whole story might be a bit much for new players who just want to fast-track to end game.

What... fun. Can see the involved discussions now.

Random Shouter: Woot! We just beat ______! First time!
MSQ Skipper: Why is that so special?
Random Shouter: Dude, do you even story?
MSQ Skipper: Nah, I skipped it. Was too much of a drag.
Random Shouter: >.>
MSQ Skipper: But seriously, why'd you kill him?

[Ksenia]

MSQ lock on Ala Mhigo would be in the level 30 range, so they don't need to go and flip Forgotten springs content that hinges on it being a refugee camp.

I remember them saying you wouldn't need HW to get whatever 4.0 revolved around. The trouble I see is, will it red lock to level 60 or will the new zone be 50 to 70?

[Belhi]

What... fun. Can see the involved discussions now.

Random Shouter: Woot! We just beat ______! First time!
MSQ Skipper: Why is that so special?
Random Shouter: Dude, do you even story?
MSQ Skipper: Nah, I skipped it. Was too much of a drag.
Random Shouter: >.>
MSQ Skipper: But seriously, why'd you kill him?

This already exists. One of the tanks in my FC's static has no interest in the story and has pretty much skipped every cutscene the game has (Dirty cutscene skipper!). He doesn't even know what Aether is and I don't think he can name all the Scions. I would say to any other MSQ skipper the same thing I say to him. Make a new character and do the story. If you try and explain they usually lose interest once the explanation takes more than 2 sentences anyway. He's a good tank though.

Generally though, people who aren't interested in the story aren't going to pay attention anyway and will skip through most of the story stuff. For those people fast tracking the story has very little impact and all it does is save them furiously clicking through text and hitting esc whenever a cutscene comes up.

MSQ lock on Ala Mhigo would be in the level 30 range, so they don't need to go and flip Forgotten springs content that hinges on it being a refugee camp.

I remember them saying you wouldn't need HW to get whatever 4.0 revolved around. The trouble I see is, will it red lock to level 60 or will the new zone be 50 to 70?

The new content is almost certainly going to be 60+. Assuming you don't need to buy HW your still going to have to get lvl'ed to the point to do it. I seriously doubt they are going to create sufficient content for a player to get to 60 in the new zones since all that would be wasted on people who have already levelled.

[NefarioCall]

I think the best approach here is for the Main Story to only lock out content by progression for what is necessary to the Main Story. The rest, like exporing most of the areas, and the majority of dungeons, or PotD whatever should be tied only to get there when you're at that level.

[Felis]

You need a lv 60 job for 4.0
Fastest way to get lv 60 is story quests

[MomomiMomi]

I like it the way it is, but I think new jobs should be available from the beginning somehow. That might help new players that want to experience some of the new content.

This. This is the biggest complaint I see about the gating on HW: the jobs. They want to play the new jobs, but they have to level another job they don't want to and play through the story as that job just to get to the job they do want to be playing.

I like that the area/story is gated behind completion of everything prior to it. But they really should make the new jobs available outside of those areas, without completion.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Very Very Very bad idea let players skip stuff or give them level 60 by the face. Games starts form the beggining, not from the end. Sorry but the XXIth century "gamer" mentality of "please give me all here and now without time and effort" is the worst thing hapenning in the videogame world. So, I won't support such thing. Games start form the beggining.

It's not just a time and effort issue. Some people are simply not interested in the story. I have plenty of friends who love FFXIV yet couldn't give less of a damn over cutscenes. They skip everything. When an expansion comes out, the hype is around the new jobs, new areas and atmosphere of thousands of players. When Legion launched, no one stepping in for the first time wanted to go back and do hundreds of quests for old content. I, myself, have no interest in pre-Legion WoW at the moment. If they didn't offer a means of skipping ahead, I wouldn't even consider playing it. That has nothing to do with effort. I am more than happy to dedicate hours upon hours on new content-- perhaps visiting what I missed out on at a later date. But I want that option. Heavensward may not be nearly as obnoxious with pointless fetch quests, however it will still deter people who don't want to spend weeks pushing through all of A Realm Reborn only to find out they have another 60+ quests gating them.

For those worrying about Duty Finder. People who are genuinely interested in the game will inevitably learn content of their own volition. Those who don't care will never bother no matter what obstacles you put in their way. They'll also be the first to quit, especially once people start kicking them from parties.

All this does is make me believe a jump potion is all but guaranteed.

[Terribad]

I thought he wasn't doing that this time?

"B-b-but you won't know what's going on!" People that smash through the story quest still don't know what's going on. This is an MMO, not a single player RPG. I've yet to play a MMO with a story as good as a single player RPG. People just want to grind out the levels and do raids with their friends, socialize, craft, etc. Forcing MSQ is such a bad idea and basically means your story is terrible.

[Genaxx]

Jump potions confirmed.

[TarynH]

I remember them saying you wouldn't need HW to get whatever 4.0 revolved around. The trouble I see is, will it red lock to level 60 or will the new zone be 50 to 70?

If HW zones are any indication, the new zones will be lv60-70 monsters. There's really no point to going there, other than getting the new jobs, for anyone lower than lv60. That being said, Ishgard was a "Keep Out!" type of situation, where the reasons were predominately made clear through the MSQ. We don't know if Stormblood will be like that at all. So nobody really knows if one can walk in there and get their new jobs or not.

However, what the OP wants has little to do with job unlocking, and more to do with skipping ALL content and moving on to end-game raids/dungeons. They are saying their "friends/fans" are wanting to skip the entirety of the MSQ, have content unlocked that is gated behind MSQ, and share in their fun of doing end-game content.