Main Scenario Restriction Bloodstorm - Very Very Bad idea.

[Talraen]

If FF14 was a story-centered game, shouldn't most players stop after finishing the current story and then come again for the next patch for about 2 days? Item level grind is not needed for story in any way. Soooo, if the absolute main point is the story, shouldn't there be a much bigger player loss every 1-2 weeks after every patch?
There seems to be enough enjoyment even when there are 3+ more months without any new story to stay in this game.
How is it possible for the story to be the main point of FF14, when the story isn't the specific thing which actually make people sub longer than 1-2 days per patch?

The average player doesn't finish all story content within 1-2 days of the patch. And even if you did, you're going to need to gear up to be able to even qualify for the content of the next patch if you do. And that's just MSQ stuff like Xelphatol - if you actually want to do all the available story, you need to finish Alex standard, not to mention the beast tribe quests which take a month at minimum.

I don't actually think most people play for story, but you absolutely can spend a lot of time doing peripheral stuff if all you care about is the story, because you need to in order to keep up. If 80% of your play time is to ensure that you can spend that other 20% on story, you're playing for story. Which should not be, as you put it, "too hard to grasp."

[Neophyte]

The average player doesn't finish all story content within 1-2 days of the patch. And even if you did, you're going to need to gear up to be able to even qualify for the content of the next patch if you do. And that's just MSQ stuff like Xelphatol - if you actually want to do all the available story, you need to finish Alex standard, not to mention the beast tribe quests which take a month at minimum.

I don't actually think most people play for story, but you absolutely can spend a lot of time doing peripheral stuff if all you care about is the story, because you need to in order to keep up. If 80% of your play time is to ensure that you can spend that other 20% on story, you're playing for story. Which should not be, as you put it, "too hard to grasp."

That's a total overestimation of the time (which is pretty funny, since other people coming from your side totally underestimate the time for doing the actual MSQ: Reynard thought it can be around 40h... I'm still laughing).
For once, if you only care for story, you don't have to gear more than one character. The other thing is, e.g. for the story of this patch ilvl 210(!!!) was enough, 220 and 230 if you want to also do the raid and new trial. We are not talking about ex dungeons and savage. You can become ilvl230 within a few days, since that's the lvl of the uncapped tomes now, also PotD, also crafted gear, etc.
There is a point in that beast tribe quests though, because that's the only story which is time-gated. But that's the only thing left. Everything else needs way less than 1 month, if you play average 1-2h a day.

A player only caring for story needs to gear up a few days (heck, make it 2 weeks if you want), can do the MSQ story while doing that, do the "high" ilvl ones and unsub again.
5 times lvl 60 roulette and ex roulette and you're most likely 230, if started with 210 in 3.4 (which is the cap of more than one patch before this). That's a fact.
A player only caring for story but thinking that it's a good idea to do the gearing process for the next patch waaaaaaay before the actual next patch hits (where the effort/time commitment is reduced to 10%) is kinda not smart. That's also a fact.

Also you can just ask nicely in PF, since there are no ilvl requirements with a full group and carrying someone through Sophia HM for bonus or even Alexander9-12 for story reasons is something I would do. I'm a bonus whore.

5 times lvl 60 roulette and 5 times ex roulette is 80% of your playtime? As I said, with only such kind of players the game would be already dead.

[Talraen]

That's a total overestimation of the time (which is pretty funny, since other people coming from your side totally underestimate the time for doing the actual MSQ: Reynard thought it can be around 40h... I'm still laughing).
For once, if you only care for story, you don't have to gear more than one character. The other thing is, e.g. for the story of this patch ilvl 210(!!!) was enough, 220 and 230 if you want to also do the raid and new trial. We are not talking about ex dungeons and savage. You can become ilvl230 within a few days, since that's the lvl of the uncapped tomes now, also PotD, also crafted gear, etc.
There is a point in that beast tribe quests though, because that's the only story which is time-gated. But that's the only thing left.

A player only caring for story needs to gear up a few days (heck, make it 2 weeks if you want), can do the MSQ story while doing that, do the "high" ilvl ones and unsub again. 5 times lvl 60 roulette and ex roulette and you're most likely 230, if started with 210 in 3.4 (which is the cap of more than one patch before this). That's a fact. A player only caring for story but thinking that it's a good idea to do the gearing process for the next patch waaaaaaay before the actual next patch hits (where the effort/time commitment is reduced to 10%), ist stupid. That's also a fact.

5 times lvl 60 roulette and 5 times ex roulette is 80% of your playtime? As I said, with only such kind of players the game would be already dead.

I don't think you understand the mindset of people who play for story. It's not about doing everything as quickly and efficiently as possible. There's no rush to complete the content, because the content is the point, not a prerequisite for the rest of the game. And you're ignoring content that takes a long time by its gated nature, like the beast tribe quests I mentioned earlier, or squadrons. Or leveling other classes (for their stories).

[Neophyte]

I don't think you understand the mindset of people who play for story. It's not about doing everything as quickly and efficiently as possible.
There's no rush to complete the content, because the content is the point, not a prerequisite for the rest of the game. And you're ignoring content that takes a long time by its gated nature, like the beast tribe quests I mentioned earlier, or squadrons. Or leveling other classes (for their stories).

I was talking about the minimum a player only caring for story has to do to be able to actually enjoy the story. I'm not talking about specific player-related preferences, like how much time they want to let pass between 2 main scenario quests.

The claim was: FF is a story driven game, the story is the main focus. My claim therefore is: There should be a big crowd of people who actually only want to do the story and reduce the rest as much as possible, which is actually a thing SE caters to (able to catch up to required ilvl for MSQ within 2 weeks max). Where is this crowd?

As I said, beast tribes are a thing... squadrons, well you only need 1 month to get to the last "story" mission. And really if you want to count Squadrons to FF14 "story" then we might have to talk about the quality of FF14 "story", because that's sure not a flagship in that regards.

[Welsper59]

I was talking about the minimum a player only caring for story has to do to be able to actually enjoy the story. I'm not talking about specific player-related preferences, like how much time they want to let pass between 2 main scenario quests.

The claim was: FF is a story driven game, the story is the main focus. My claim therefore is: There should be a big crowd of people who actually only want to do the story and reduce the rest as much as possible, which is actually a thing SE caters to (able to catch up to required ilvl for MSQ within 2 weeks max). Where is this crowd?

As I said, beast tribes are a thing... squadrons, well you only need 1 month to get to the last "story" mission. And really if you want to count Squadrons to FF14 "story" then we might have to talk about the quality of FF14 "story", because that's sure not a flagship in that regards.

You do realize that it doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing, right? Like, they can still make aspects of the game be story focused without removing the grind. That's the beauty of creativity. You don't have to say that everything needs to be only one way. If they want FFXIV to be story driven for access (which it is), then that's that. Think about all the dungeons or areas you can only unlock through MSQ, your job abilities, job access, etc. That's quite a significant amount of content and functionality that is locked behind story, even if you may not spend long doing it.

[Talraen]

I was talking about the minimum a player only caring for story has to do to be able to actually enjoy the story. I'm not talking about specific player-related preferences, like how much time they want to let pass between 2 main scenario quests.

The claim was: FF is a story driven game, the story is the main focus. My claim therefore is: There should be a big crowd of people who actually only want to do the story and reduce the rest as much as possible, which is actually a thing SE caters to (able to catch up to required ilvl for MSQ within 2 weeks max). Where is this crowd?

Again, I think you're applying a mindset that doesn't apply to many story-driven gamers. Who says if you care about story you want to "reduce the rest" of the game? It's about the journey, not the destination.

[AlexionSkylark]

The average player doesn't finish all story content within 1-2 days of the patch.

I take around 1 to 2 weeks to finish all the story content within a patch (MSQ, the Mhach Storyline and/or Alexander, plus the small stories about the new dungeons, depening on the patch)