Main Scenario Restriction Bloodstorm - Very Very Bad idea.

[Daemius]

you should go through story!

people have all this time before xpac to go through story!

This is not a single player FF game. Some. People. Do. Not. Play. For. The. Story.

MMOs bring all types of players, not just fans of the franchise. To have a healthy MMO you have to cater somewhat to people outside the FF fandom.

[Celef]

This is not a single player FF game. Some. People. Do. Not. Play. For. The. Story.

MMOs bring all types of players, not just fans of the franchise. To have a healthy MMO you have to cater somewhat to people outside the FF fandom.

I get that but why come on a game with such a long story knowing you'll have to go through it if, by essence, you don't play for the story ? It's like going on a PvP where you have to be ganked during 60 lvl to access high lvl content game and say you don't like PvP ^^"
Plus, you can skip all the cutscenes, even the 30min long if you really don't want to waste your time watching them ^^"

[Blood-Aki]

This is not a single player FF game. Some. People. Do. Not. Play. For. The. Story.

Then these people are on the wrong game, it's like saying you go to the swimming pool, and just sit there next to the water, Sure you can do that, and it's not all that odd, but people are going to wonder why you came there to begin with if you did not come to do what was intended. Oddly enough these are also the same type of people who cry that they can't skip all the MSQ and get straight to end game. and then quit because it's "to much work"

There is a reason this is classified as a "Role playing game"

[Voltyblast]

Then these people are on the wrong game, it's like saying you go to the swimming pool, and just sit there next to the water, Sure you can do that, and it's not all that odd, but people are going to wonder why you came there to begin with if you did not come to do what was intended. Oddly enough these are also the same type of people who cry that they can't skip all the MSQ and get straight to end game. and then quit because it's "to much work"

There is a reason this is classified as a "Role playing game"

Making niche games nowadays doesn't make you tons of money anymore. Just see at Wildstar and its attempt to gather the "hardcore raiders" back. Was a big success wasn't it?

Regardless, if people go to the "swimming pool" and "sit there next to the water", it's none of your concern: they paid to sit in that swimming pool and that's how they want to spend their money, and all they (the company who knows the pool) only care about their money.

It's the same here, however the difference is that before swimming you have to do some mandatory training, have a swimming license, sign some papers, read a book about diving and THEN you can finally dive in.
Suffice to say if I had to do all that stuff just to go to a swimming pool I would go to the beach...but then they (the company) will lose money, and that's bad no matter what angle you see it because it will make the price of tickets raise, they'll no longer offer free stuff at the bar and you'll eventually have to pay for your own swimsuits!

What I'm trying to say is, the more they gate the new players, the more it'll cost on US the current players to keep the game running by making more free stuff locked behind a paywall. Not even WoW does this...

Also...

There is a reason this is classified as a "Massive Multiplayer Online Role playing game"

Corrected that for you, mostly because the driving force of an MMORPG isn't story alone. I mean as someone said to me regarding why 1.0 failed:

- cumbersome UI
- need an PC over average to run it
- no endgame (after reaching lv 50 you started the next class to have something to do)
- Leves (8 every 36 hours) and Behest (evey 30 minutes) the only way to level up
- Only a handfull MSQ quests (every 3-5 levels only 1 quest) and no sidequests
- worse market (a room full with retainers and no search system, good luck to find what you want)

In other words, story alone didn't make 1.0 worth its price tag because the gameplay was trash beyond belief, or else the game wouldn't shut down.
Story is important yes, but alone it won't make the game go further. And 1.0 is a good reminder of that no matter how good, how famous and how story driven your franchise is, a crappy game with good story remains a crappy game.
And even then most people I knew told me that it sucked too, but I can't tell.

[Blood-Aki]

Making niche games nowadays doesn't make you tons of money anymore. Just see at Wildstar and its attempt to gather the "hardcore raiders" back. Was a big success wasn't it?

Regardless, if people go to the "swimming pool" and "sit there next to the water", it's not your concern: they paid to sit in that swimming pool and all they (the company who knows the pool) only care about their money. How they spend it is none of your concern.

Yea, much like how you can buy a huge dinner, and let it sit there and do nothing but talk, in the end you more or less wasted your money instead of staying at home. as with an RPG you treat it as a social media instead of using actual social medias. No one said you can't do that, but you aren't using it as intended.

Corrected that for you, mostly because the driving force of an MMORPG isn't story alone. I mean as someone said to me regarding why 1.0 failed:

IF you are going to "correct" it then you even did that wrong, it's a "Massive Multiplayer online ROLE PLAYING GAME, Hence MMORPG" it's still a role playing game, you just play with OTHERS, does not change it's meaning. You don't find many people on fighting games only going on to talk, and never actually fighting. maybe very rare cases, since we have this issue. and 1.0 failed because it was plain and simple a bad game, to many flaws and not enough actual fun. not to mention it was PC only with way to high req needed where you needed a REALLY good pc just to be able to handle it. Cutting off most players.

In other words, story alone didn't make 1.0 worth its price tag because the gameplay was trash beyond belief, or else the game wouldn't shut down.
Story is important yes, but alone it won't make the game go further and 1.0 was a good lesson to remember.

It's called a balance, it wouldn't work without a story either, Like if you just made a character, and there was no CSs, and it just said "here, make a character and go do whatever, no need to talk to anyone" it needs BOTH, as any ROLE PLAYING game does.

Every game has some kind of story to it. regardless of how minor because creators like to give reasons behind there creations.

[Voltyblast]

Snip

1) Irrelevant: all the companies want is our money and they couldn't care less how we "waste" the huge dinner for. I play the game for the gameplay and I don't care about the story: it's how -I- want to spend my gaming time on.
Is it not intended? Why should you care? Or for that matter why should THEY care? The companies literally couldn't give two effs about it: all they want is to find ways for us to spend money and I'm paying them for the service.
Infact it's why skins, costumes and all that stuff is famous in F2P: it sells, it's a nice cosmetic thing that takes the attention, and it's not overly cheap. Guess what's FFXIV is doing right now? Yup, exactly!

2) Not sure what I wrote back, but so what? Other "Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game" don't get you stuck on a story. Even Single Player Role Playing Game allow you a much more array of freedom, and they are focused on story for the most part: I'm currently playing Legend of Heroes and the amount of things you can do with your free time is immense, and it's also rewarding (literally speaking).
Heck Skyrim is story driven too but did you really even bother to follow it? And that's a "Role Playing Game" too, mind you. A western one yes, but still one regardless

2.5) And that's still makes my point: 1.0 was a terrible mmorpg by gameplay AND technical standards, making it "unplayable" even if it had a heavy focus on story, just like FFXIV do. 2.0 fixed the gameplay and it instantly became a hit. As i said, my point pretty much stands: gameplay is mandatory to make a GAME - yes even a role playing GAME - playable to begin with. A story does nothing else but add flavour to the gameplay.

3) I don't know, almost any mmorpg I know does it fine without a story, and some of those who do have a story still don't lock you from an entire expansion. The Role Playing part still exists: you still play the ROLE of an avatar and your ROLE as X is to explore the world and talk to other ROLEPLAYERS and play the game together. As I said earlier, the story is just added flavour to the game: it's there to make the experience enjoyable, not a chore.

So no, there's no balance because you're forced to complete the STORY which locks the GAMEPLAY behind it.
Meanwhile another game with heavy story on it (SWTOR) just suggests you to complete the STORY but doesn't lock the GAMEPLAY behind it.

But don't take me for a hater of stories: I love RPGs of all kind (FF a bit less, especially after 12 and 13) and a MMORPG with a campaign is fun to do and it's one of the main things I absolutely adored of Legion, while I simply could not bear to follow this one at all.
Regardless, Legion gave me full freedom of what I wanted to do without locking everything (And I can't even call World Quests a real lock, since that you pretty much unlock it by levelling) and I could follow the stories and the class campaign in any order I wanted. I just had to choose.

Something that this game sorely lacks: choices. And darn it, now I have imagines of myself playing the role of the villain...why can't we play them

[Reynhart]

Making niche games nowadays doesn't make you tons of money anymore. Just see at Wildstar and its attempt to gather the "hardcore raiders" back. Was a big success wasn't it?

So now a story driven game is a "niche game" ? I didn't know some people were stuck in 1983.

What I'm trying to say is, the more they gate the new players, the more it'll cost on US the current players to keep the game running by making more free stuff locked behind a paywall.

The more they gate new players, the more reward they'll design to encourage us going back to those old content. Too...bad...

[Voltyblast]

So now a story driven game is a "niche game" ? I didn't know some people were stuck in 1983.
The more they gate new players, the more reward they'll design to encourage us going back to those old content. Too...bad...

Because if you want a story driven game there is something called Visual Novel. Zero gameplay, only story: no more no less. An RPG is still a game, where you play, and videogames have a priority on making the game "playable" first.
So yes, if a game is based solely on telling a story (visual novels, walking simulators, and stuff like that) I can call them niche because they don't cater to most players. Heck most of people I used to play with don't really care of stories in OTHER games too (fps, adventure, etc).

And what reward?I ask because there's really no reward that I know of (unless you mean cutscenes?).
In addition, new players will focus on NEW content, not OLD content. It's ok to keep old content somewhat "playable", but there will be a point where even the new ones will get tired. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one here.

[Nayout]

Because if you want a story driven game there is something called Visual Novel.

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
And if you want a MMORPG story drive that you play Guild Wars 2 or Wow

[Voltyblast]

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
And if you want a MMORPG story drive that you play Guild Wars 2 or Wow

SWTOR: it does story telling much better than ffxiv does, your character isn't a silent meatbag, your actions have a (small) impact in the story and none of the expansions (as far as I know) is locked behind the main story, HOWEVER it will recommend you to complete it because of spoilers. Much better than completely lock it (But yes it's a crappy f2p: I can't even recommend it to anyone "sigh")

And yes, even GW2 does story telling better in some regards: it lets you choose your path for one thing and your character has a voice: it gives them personality - a bland one, but it's better than none. On top of that some of the world can permanently change depending on the story (Lion's arc: I still remember it got me by surprise when I got back after my yearly pause), which is something that really makes old player feel valued ("I remember Lion's Arc before: it was amazing").

WoW is the weakest in terms of story telling but 1) It has over 20 years of lore 2) It has more (and better) voice acting 3) there are far more cutscenes (in CG) than FFXIV does. However the lack of story department makes it a more approachable game and that can be either a bad or a good thing, depending on your taste.

That's my two cents however so feel free to disagree: I'm just concerned for the new players. I already am skipping most of the story anyway.