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

[Aramina]

But what I keep repeating is that Im not asking to take away the gate of dungeons, or primals, or raids I 100 percent support this in the game. I simply would just like to travel anywhere that is in the game without it being gated. Im not asking to go do an extreme primal , just because Im already level 60 , because I haven't even fought said extreme primal in the game.

It's been explained many times. You can't go to those areas because you (meaning your character Nic Pay) does not know those places exist, or if you do, the denizens of that place do not like you until the story reveals them/has some cause for the citizenry to accept you.

edit: To start back at the beginning. Asking if I want things to be open in Stormblood compared to Heavensward is the same as asking "do I want the game to be less-story focused (either things not tying into the story or it not mattering if it is or not)?" and the answer is, and will remain, no.

[Nestama]

I have a level 60 monk and am only on the level 54 story in HW. No job quests have been gated for me by the MSQ. Most of the people are on your case cause we started when the game was released, and it wasn't as easy then as it is now, so we can't relate to how you say ARR was not gated. But this isn't WOW, it's Final Fantasy, and as everyone who knows FF since the 80's, it is a story focused game and is never going to change no matter how many people want it to.

Um... the first Final Fantasy isn't story very focused. You had a goal, sure, but the story kinda took a back seat.
FFXI was also pretty story heavy, but it still didn't gate players out of the starter expansion zones. You needed to progress through the story to enter the harder/end-game areas, but that was just about it. Why can't FFXIV do what FFXI did in that regard?

[HyoMinPark]

I forgot to touch on this point in my previous wall-of-text. I will try not to do another wall-o-text post, but I did want to say this:


People are talking about the "excessive gating" present in this game, but I have never encountered any sort of gate that I considered "excessive." I acknowledge that "excessive" here is obviously subjective, but I'm curious as to what people consider "excessive." The only thing I can think of (and that's just based on the amount of complaints I see) is the fact that DRK, MCH, and AST are all locked behind 1. purchasing Heavensward, and 2. Trekking through 2.x to get into Ishgard and start 3.0's story.

One poster said that the lore isn't an independent entity, and they are correct; it's not. It was created by those that developed this game. Countless hours spent creating backstories and histories...I really do think that's something that should be respected; that isn't easily done, and it takes an astounding amount of work to make everything flow and make sense. And even with all the work put into it, yes, plot holes still exist, because nothing is perfect, but still. It's truly amazing, the lore in the game, and I think that demands some semblance of respect. And if content-gating comes with the lore, then that should be respected as well. The gates make sense because they go with the story behind this game. It's not like they're arbitrary. At least, I don't find them arbitrary. But again, this is all subjective and based on people's opinions.

Gonna stop now before I make another wall post. orz

Um... the first Final Fantasy isn't story very focused. You had a goal, sure, but the story kinda took a back seat.
FFXI was also pretty story heavy, but it still didn't gate players out of the starter expansion zones. You needed to progress through the story to enter the harder/end-game areas, but that was just about it. Why can't FFXIV do what FFXI did in that regard?

I played FFXI only for a couple of hours, so bear with me here. I don't know much about it, but...

With regards to "starter expansion zones," we've already established that ARR is pretty-much free roam, even from the get-go. Albeit, you have to walk everywhere before level 15, but it's still doable, even if dangerous (walking from Gridania all the way to Mor Dhona as a level 1 archer is very exciting though!). I'd say that, for FFXIV, ARR is considered the "starting expansion" or "base game" here, with HW being the "expansion of the base game." In HW, certain areas are gated, requiring you to progress through the story to access them (Hinterlands, Azys Lla, Idyllshire), so how is that different from what you said FFXI did? If you still had to progress through the story to reach the harder/endgame areas in FFXI, how is that different that what you do in HW? Granted, the Churning Mists probably aren't considered endgame, per say, but I'd say they're up there with the "higher level areas."

Not trying to argue, just wanting to see why you consider FFXI different in this sense. :3

[bswpayton]

It's been explained many times. You can't go to those areas because you (meaning your character Nic Pay) does not know those places exist, or if you do, the denizens of that place do not like you until the story reveals them/has some cause for the citizenry to accept you.

And thats fine and this is why I asked can we see less of this , in the next expansion the only good legit reason I have gotten is rmt for gating. Which I almost can get behind that, but se needs to do a better job with dealing with that anyway so its no reason to gate everything just because of that. But my whole thread was do you like arr exploration better than you like bring on the gates hw questing chain not the story itself.

It wasnt about lore or reasoning or anything both are already in the game. What isnt in the game is stormblood and if the players get up in arms that you can just walk anywhere you want in these zones then I honestly wouldnt no what to say because its really not that big of a deal. Because like Ive mention nothing goes in order directly because its an mmo so why create some illusion of this by gating the zones with the msq.

People have mention that players have been complaining a while about how gated things are so maybe the devs will take note and not do it as bad in the next expansion. Especially the jobs I hope they dont gate those for new players , cant tell you how many people have complained that drk and astro are gated.

[Aramina]

I editted my post to reflect my opinion on things going forward. I will amend that comment here and say though if the story is done in such a way that it makes sense that it is just one blob of place that you can know every inch of from the get go then I am ok with that... my problem is if the story doesn't exist or doesn't matter.

[FoxyAreku]

Uh?

Content was gated in ARR as well. I don't see the difference.

[Squigley]

I acknowledge that "excessive" here is obviously subjective, but I'm curious as to what people consider "excessive."

HW stepped into my annoyance zone when the game told me the exact order and way to proceed through the expansion leveling/story content. I admit I probably wouldn't be pissed off at all if ARR would have been the same way. I had some freedom in ARR, HW took that away and I got triggered. That probably doesn't qualify as excessive but it made this player very unhappy. I almost stopped playing because of that but my nice guildies kept me going.

[bswpayton]

Uh?

Content was gated in ARR as well. I don't see the difference.

referring to zones not actual content once you hit 15 you can go pretty much anywhere you want in arr

[Nestama]

snip

My argument in using FFXI is that the only zones that were ever gated are those that require story progression and in most cases, were candidates for end-game zones. Things like Sky and Sea required you to do the story and I am perfectly fine with that. Outside of that, though, you can still go to Whitegate, Adoulin, the Past and Norg at any time (the main requirement usually being a quest unrelated to the story) and explore most of their zones. This meant you were free to unlock the new Jobs as they came out, without needing to be level 50 first (you did need to be level 30+ on your current Job, though).

[Amirya]

You do realize that this is a linear novel type game, not a "choose your own adventure" book?

If you want that, I highly recommend the Sims. I love the series.

(Also, why would you even play if you don't like msq endings?? That made my head hurt, because... I just can't.)