Skipping MSQ

[Belhi]

Probably the millions and millions of dollars the game brings in from sales and subs. This is the game credited with saving SE as a company after all, saving it way before it had a cash shop as well.

Subs are generally a static source of income. If you want new features or more resources spent on the game or overhauls like the EU servers or the server upgrades we are getting their expense needs to be justified to the investors. The Cash shop allows that. If we want more from SE, they will need more revenue to justify it. After all its not like not upgrading the servers or hiring new staff would negatively effect profits that much. All that Sub money you mention is already been taken into account. Unless FF14 sees a massive growth in subs it's unlikely you would see substantially more money being reinvested into the game otherwise.

No, the terrible idea is introducing tangible progress in exchange for money.

Treating 'A realm reborn/Heavensward/Stormblood' as a trilogy and letting weird people start with the 3rd one if for some reason they want to isn't something I particularly want, but considering the push for it (oh please won't someone think of the newbies!) it's by far the better option.

As for why anyone would play it, I've argued for a 'new game+' option before. I'd actually quite like to go back through the story on my character, if I'd started with 4.0 and never done it before it'd be great doing it the first time and getting xp for a 2nd or 3rd class at the same time.

E: In fact, typing this out has made me come around to the idea a bit more, new guy hears about FFXIV from his friends, dives straight into the latest expansion with them, and then can unlock 2.0 and 3.0 from the Wandering Minstrel and play them to level alt classes. New guy is happy, the old MSQ stuff is still useful, cash shop is kept in check, everyone's happy?

Still... this idea is dead in the water anyway. Topic basically opens up with "this shouldn't be in the cash shop" and the first reply is "but then how would SE make money from it?"

The problem with a new game+ system they already said is due to how the Quest system is structured. Even things like Airships wouldn't be accessable till you re-unlocked them. You would loose all your progress. That is a system issue and unless they overhaul that system it is likely problematic to do.

As for why they wouldn't offer this for free, it's simple. It's to limit access for RMT and botters to later points in the game.

I would also ask, how does someone else skipping that game experience negatively impact you? Did you find playing that content a bad thing? I can find the only real issue is their potential performance endgame and that can be mitigated with Tutorial systems. Otherwise there isn't much logic to your argument.

Its like you go out for dinner with people and someone arrives after the main course and before dessert and you insist that they cant have any of the dessert unless they eat the main course too because everyone else had to. How is that you loosing out? Was eating the main course that unpleasant? Isn't it there loss for missing most of the meal?

[Spy]

stuff

Or you could compare it to climbing a mountain. On the one hand, you have the climbers that put in all the effort, blood sweat, tears and time to reach the top...and then you have others who found an elevator and were just taken to the top. Wouldn't that make your own efforts feel diminished and worthless?

[SenorPatty]

Or you could compare it to climbing a mountain. On the one hand, you have the climbers that put in all the effort, blood sweat, tears and time to reach the top...and then you have others who found an elevator and were just taken to the top. Wouldn't that make your own efforts feel diminished and worthless?

Depends. Am I sweating blood, sweat and tears for my own satisfaction or am I seeking validation from others?

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Or you could compare it to climbing a mountain. On the one hand, you have the climbers that put in all the effort, blood sweat, tears and time to reach the top...and then you have others who found an elevator and were just taken to the top. Wouldn't that make your own efforts feel diminished and worthless?

Nope. Because I don't base the value of my accomplishments on others. It's like my current goal of eventually reaching a good enough percentile I'm happy with on FFlogs. It won't bother me in the slightest that The Creator will inevitably become a complete pushover because I'll have reached my personally goal. Regardless, it's a false equivalent. Climbing a mountain requires both effort and skill. Completing the MSQ may be a time investment, but there is no skill nor does it teach you anything. You do it because you enjoy the story or leveling that way. A skip option is for people who don't find enjoyment in that particular aspect. MMOs cater to broad varieties of people after all. Some only care for gameplay, and that's okay.

[Belhi]

Or you could compare it to climbing a mountain. On the one hand, you have the climbers that put in all the effort, blood sweat, tears and time to reach the top...and then you have others who found an elevator and were just taken to the top. Wouldn't that make your own efforts feel diminished and worthless?

Strickly speaking this isn't entirely correct cause the Jump Potions wouldn't take them all the way to 'the top'. It would be more like them using the elevator to catch up with people already walking up the mountain so they can walk the final stretch to the top together.

[mandodo69]

Skipping story in an mmorpg......is this really how lazy the average mmo player is? What a shame. I thought the story was fantastic. I would not skip it for the world.

[Voltyblast]

Skipping story in an mmorpg......is this really how lazy the average mmo player is? What a shame. I thought the story was fantastic. I would not skip it for the world.

Depends: I like stories in mmorpgs and normal rpgs, just not this one and I played plentiful of RPGs to give my opinion about it. However other players don't like stories in their games and want to play the game: there's no right or wrong here and I occasionally play games for the gameplay too for that matter. Heck I love the story in Dynasty Warriors and the legend of the three kingdoms but I can assure you that my main focus is the gameplay. Still, the game does have a story behind it for those who want.

And please, don't use the "This is a FF game" excuse because it's both old and not viable, or else 1.0 could've sustained itself with its story and never had to shutdown. Suffice to say, it did shutdown.

PS: just my take on this but if we have to make a good comparison with other story heavey mmorpgs, just look at SWTOR and how much better it is in almost every aspect (character choices that changes certain parts of the story, character development, better voice acting, possible romance etc). It's a crappy f2p but it surpasses FFXIV in every aspect when it comes to story, and mostly because it's much better presented and told (and written: dem olde english dialogues in ffxiv are needlessly cheesy and quirky. Feels like a silly theathrical play).
And it also doesn't punish you for skipping the main story (it only warns you for spoilers). Just my two cents.

[LineageRazor]

Why would any company seeking profit do this? The potions are obviously the better option in SE's eyes as it is additional cash on top of the people already having to pay for the game + expansions. No company is going to make this choice over the alternative they have already put in motion. Regardless of people's opinion on the matter SE is not going to choose to give away free what they've already decided they will charge for.

These potions are only going to positively effect their bottom line no matter how much pissing and moaning goes on here at the forums.

The bottom line is about more than just cash grabs. SE is in this for long-term profits, and for that they know that they need customer loyalty. You can bet that any item they put into the cash shop, INCLUDING skip potions, SE will carefully weigh just how much they can afford to annoy their playerbase. Ideally, sure, they'd love to nickel and dime us at every turn like a freemium game, but they know very well that such behavior would turn players away in droves, resulting in long-term profits that are MUCH lower than they would be if they kept that impulse at bay. As such, they're careful about what they put into the cash shop.

That said, I would be not be surprised to see skip potions available for free (at least, the first; additional skip potions to level other jobs might incur a charge), as a way to attract players to the game who might otherwise be turned off by the long main scenario grind to catch up to Stormblood. While SE has promised that some Stormblood content will be accessible without being caught up on the main scenario, you can bet that anything endgame will require it. For players who want to join FFXIV to participate in difficult endgame content but aren't interested in the story of the game, it could be just what the doctor ordered.

My biggest fear is that players who WANT to experience the story will feel pressured by other players to skip ahead. "What, you're level twelve? What are you bothering with all that crap for? Just skip, the story sucks anyway. Endgame is where the real fun is!" Only to discover once they get there that Endgame wasn't the paradise they'd been told. With no endgame, and no story, all that's left is grinding tomestones for gear in dungeons where the player has no idea why they're even in the dungeon. It's hard to imagine a player sticking around long under those conditions.

I hope that the potion comes with a pretty explicit warning that by using it, the player will be permanently lose the ability to read the whole story from the beginning, so no player is caught by surprise.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

My biggest fear is that players who WANT to experience the story will feel pressured by other players to skip ahead. "What, you're level twelve? What are you bothering with all that crap for? Just skip, the story sucks anyway. Endgame is where the real fun is!" Only to discover once they get there that Endgame wasn't the paradise they'd been told. With no endgame, and no story, all that's left is grinding tomestones for gear in dungeons where the player has no idea why they're even in the dungeon. It's hard to imagine a player sticking around long under those conditions.

I think being able to take your Squadron into dungeons will help alleviate this issue. Hopefully, they make it so you can acquire them earlier and essentially turn them into trust NPCs from FFXI, if older content does become an issue for people leveling the long way. Personally, I don't think it'll be too much of an impact, especially if they do not provide a free skip potion with the expansion itself. Even if they do, I suspect plenty of people will either save it for their secondary job or go back through the story on a separate character they can take their time with.

[Canadane]

Wonder if it's going to be kosher to kick well performing players from parties if I learn they use a jump pot.
I don't even want to play with people who skip cutscenes the first time.