For stormblood do you want the gated conten path of hw, or the free roam path of arr?

[HyoMinPark]

That aside, the "gates" I did not like on Heavensward were the one where you need to participate to a Duty, because I was like enjoying the MSQ and Side Quests, then boom "You can't go further until you complete X Duty".... and so great, it's not server peak time and i'm stuck watching the Duty queue timer without any possibility to progress further meanwhile.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your post, but that was still the case in ARR. You couldn't complete the level 15 quest "It's Probably Pirates", and progress any further in the MSQ until you entered and completed Sastasha via the Duty Finder. So, I don't really see how that's any different from the duty gates in Heavensward.

[bswpayton]

Correct me if I am wrong, but...
.

I just really hate how my topic got on hw instead of the actual question that I asked, we dont know what is in storm blood we dono how the devs could be more open with how you get around the zones. I simply asked do people prefer how gated hw is over how its not in arr, I wasnt tryin to have a drawn out conversation on why hw is gated the way that it is. It was a simple do you want to have to unlock fly currents to travel in the zones are do you just wana be able to walk anywhere you please regardless of what point you are in the story.

And I also wasn't refering to the optional dungeons of the 100 quest in between arr and hw because thats kinda its own thing. I mention four dungeons being vale and the others, and I mention how dusk vigil the first dungeon is gated for no reason. Hw is set up already it is what it is, I was simply wondering if people wanted more gated content like hw in the next expansion are a little bit more freedom, not whether hw should be gated or not.

[Chocolys]

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your post, but that was still the case in ARR. You couldn't complete the level 15 quest "It's Probably Pirates", and progress any further in the MSQ until you entered and completed Sastasha via the Duty Finder. So, I don't really see how that's any different from the duty gates in Heavensward.

I was editing my post while you were replying, what I added was:

Of course that's new, it was same on ARR, but at least every ARR region were totally opened once you unlocked airship city travel so you could explore around, and there was lot of new stuff to do between all the classes and side quests.

[HyoMinPark]

snip

Your thread probably evolved into the comparisons between ARR and HW because you mentioned which do people prefer, and most people didn't really see huge differences between the two aside from the glaringly obvious ones (accessing Ishgard, the 3.0 jobs, flying, etc.). You also mentioned gated content, and others responded with the reasons why that content was gated in the first place. Doesn't answer your original question, no, but they were still addressing your opening post.

With regards the the areas, myself and others explained that some had to be gated for story and lore purposes. Because, again, Final Fantasy is a story-driven franchise, and FFXIV is no different with regards to that. The 2.0 areas were not originally gated because that wouldn't make sense for the 1.0 Legacy players, and they're the reason 2.0 even exists. And 2.0 still had it's own miniature gates: the pre-level 10 where you cannot join other guilds, pre-level 15 where you are confined (unless you walk a particularly dangerous journey) to your starting city-state, and the MSQ "Sylph-management" so you can start unlocking jobs.

And I know that you were originally talking about the pre-50 optional dungeons in ARR. But you also mentioned wanting to gear your jobs that were already level 60 despite NOT being finished with the 3.0 story, and it is worth noting that, even if you have 3 level 50 jobs before you finish the original 2.0 story, you still cannot access the content needed to gear them in ARR. Something that was copied over into HW, and something that with likely be copied over into SB. Because that is not the way this game was designed. It was designed with the idea that the player is leveling up their main job WITH the story, not AHEAD of it.

[Nestama]

It's kinda sad that cities in expansions will never, ever be a place for seasonal/special events. Ishgard is never going to be colourful, nor a place to go to for event quests.

[MistakeNot]

There is lots of gating in both HW and ARR - and not only gating by MSQ.

Not only are some of the HW zones completely blocked off for no good reason. (No, general Ishgardian distrust of you is not a good reason - these are zones outside Ishgard's control. Places like Dravanian Hinterlands or Churning Mists are not exactly secret locations either.)

Far more annoying than the gating by MSQ is the gating of many quests by other quests - even when there is no obvious story-related reason for them to be gated.
Some of the MSQ-gating makes little sense either. Take for example the Postmoogle quests: Is there any real reason to have them gated behind the quest "The Ultimate Weapon"?

Some gating makes sense - when a quest refers to events in a previous quest, or when you need special permission or information before you can enter an area, but in my opinion there is far, far too much of it in this game - and much of it completely unnecessary.

[Squigley]

Story and lore, the devs put so much effort into those. Have to commend them for that.

HOWEVER, having said that... First building a story & lore and then designing game mechanics around those is in my opinion the wrong way of doing things. Fun gameplay should always come first and the story should be built around it. That's why I think lore is the weakest and worst excuse for setting arbitrary barriers and limitations for the player, taking away some of the fun in the game. Level-gating areas or dungeons is perfectly fine in my opinion. I'd be fine with some trial kind of tests too to enter harder dungeons "Prove you're mighty enough for this task!"

But gating almost everything behind one tedious quest chain which makes you complete the content exactly the way and in the order the devs intended "because story"... It just smells like bad game design to me even if the story is good. In tabletop role-playing games that's called railroading and is seen as a very bad thing. I enjoyed 1-50 very much. 50-60 was a chore and I did not like it at all. I think I might have enjoyed the story at least somewhat if I had had the same amount of freedom I had in the ARR areas and story. The HW story became the antagonist in the game for me, I couldn't care less about the story characters or what happened to them. I don't think that's what the devs intended to happen.

Now where did I put that Nomex suit of mine...

[Roth_Trailfinder]

People point out that gaining access to Azys Lla is something of a big deal to the MSQ. Well, it was not the Allagans, but getting past the Dragons to go to Churning Mist was equally big a deal - you, the WoL and party, are the first that are neither dragon nor moogle to set foot there in a very long time. The MSQ did not make as big a deal of it, but lore-wise, it was as big a deal.

The only gates in HW I disagree with are the gates between Forelands and Hinterlands, and between Coerthas Western Highlands and the Sea of Clouds. The former, I think you should be able to walk through (all the way to Idyllshire, though you should not find much of anything there as yet). The latter, I think you should be able to walk through, but unless you can fly, the only things to do are turn around or teleport.

Otherwise, all the gates make sense given the story.

[LineageRazor]

As do others in this thread, I question whether ARR qualifies as ungated. The vast majority of instanced content (trials, raids, dungeons) in ARR are locked behind Main Scenario. While you're free to roam the zones, there's not much to actually DO in those zones since there is so little overworld content in this game.

That said, I do agree that moving AWAY from MSQ gated content would be a wise move on SE's part. The longer MSQ gets with each expansion, the more daunting it becomes for new players if most of the things they'd like to do are gated behind it. MSQ should be something players can do at their leisure, while simultaneously enjoying other aspects of the game, not something they feel obligated to bull through because until they do they're essentially playing a one-player MMO.

The extreme gating in Heavensward was a step in the wrong direction, in my opinion. The movement should be toward LESS gates, not more. There should be actual endgame options that do NOT depend on MSQ, or at least, not on much MSQ. There needs to be plenty of activities for players to participate in that they can do at all stages of their MSQ progress.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

The extreme gating in Heavensward was a step in the wrong direction, in my opinion. The movement should be toward LESS gates, not more. There should be actual endgame options that do NOT depend on MSQ, or at least, not on much MSQ. There needs to be plenty of activities for players to participate in that they can do at all stages of their MSQ progress.

This game is too heavily story-based for them to stop gating behind MSQ. Personally, I do not expect them to stop this "extreme gating" at least until 6.0, unless they make the fight against Garlemald take more than one expansion (which would push it out further).

Granted, we are only on the first expansion and wondering about the second. However, they have yet to attempt an expansion that has a story not connected to the existing MSQ. Until they do so, we will have expansions locked behind previous expansion completion.

As far as "end game activities not locked behind MSQ" .. max level activities are not necessarily end game activities. End game activities are, by definition, activities done at or after the end of the game. Its not an activity done during the middle! Its rather silly to request end-game activities not gated behind (nearly) completing the game, at least as much as is possible at the time ...

But other activities not locked behind (much) MSQ content? They are providing most of those via the Gold Saucer. Chocobo Racing? Lord of Verminion? Triple Triad? Most of the GS activities have been abandoned by players as being stupid and/or pointless, but they are still there. So too is PVP, though I'm not sure how much level plays a part in that as I don't partake.

Don't get me wrong though. I agree, eventually they are going to have to produce expansions that are not gated behind already-existing MSQ. I just do not expect them to do so until after the Garlemald situation is wrapped up, which means AFTER 5.0 ... so 6.0 at the earliest.