Naoki Yoshida's Comment in Regard to Jump Potions/Boost Potions

[Nestama]

I think silver chocobo feathers were mentioned in the statement and I'm 99% certain that silver chocobo feathers can be exchanged for Ironworks gear at the Calamity Salvager or nearby NPC.

Ah, okay. So at the very least, i120 gear (is it one feather per gear, or more?). Fair enough

[aesteval]

It doesn't, but its crappy that one person got to pay for it, and another that didn't have money gets screwed to have to slog through the unfixed problems with the MSQ while other dude burns ahead. Honestly, I think they should hand one of these out for free to new players if they are going to do this. (at least for the msq) Not a fan of the whole idea, but, if they are going to do it, id rather they took this route.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were certain editions of the game that come with the potions "packed in." Ie: collector's edition or ARR + HW + SB package for entirely new players. (Of course that depends on when the potions are released, with SB or after the fact.) I personally don't see why they wouldn't provide a boost package as a part of the main purchase price in such a case, but I'm sure SE is more than capable of surprising me in a disappointing way...

[Imoen]

And yet both partys are paying for the games sub, so I fail to see how one person doesn't have money.

What? So your argument is, that both can afford to get the potion because they have just bought the game and set up subscriptions? That's a bit presumptuous don't you think?

[Espritduo]

I don't see why they couldn't just make a few tweaks to existing systems to address the primary reason Yoshi-P stated they're adding Jump Potions - "to help new players play with their friends."

1. Add an "Up-sync" option to the game that allows any players below the level/ilevel of a piece of content to automatically be synced up to the minimum level needed to do the content when in a party. This option would also ignore whether the player has actually unlocked the content at all, provided the leader of the party is at level and has unlocked it. This alone should alleviate the problem with new players wanting to immediately play content with their friends within minutes of starting the game.

2. Increase the exp. gained from the MSQ even further to the point that doing the MSQ quests and only the MSQ quests would give sufficient exp to stay at the required level for each questline. Also, allow players to automatically teleport to the next MSQ quest marker if they choose, at least for pre-50 quests. As a player who has leveled four separate characters through the MSQ, I can tell you the two most annoying things were constantly having to stop and do other things besides MSQ quests to stay at level, and constant running around the same area over and over for the quest markers.

The problem I have and have always had with such "skipping" mechanics as Jump Potions is that it is disrespectful to the game, its creators, and its community. The creators put a great amount of time, energy and love into creating all this content. The players put a great amount of time, energy and love into playing it and enjoying it. To make something like a Jump Potion is to basically say you no longer care about the content you worked so hard to bring to us, and just want new players to pretend it doesn't exist. The content is still there and should still be enjoyed by new players. Just because it is years old doesn't make it any less enjoyable in and of itself. By adding the Jump Potion you pressure new players into thinking they need it, into thinking that the only enjoyable part of the game is the current point, into thinking if they aren't at endgame, everything they're experiencing is wasted time.

I agree that as time goes on the older portions of the game need to be more and more condensed for newer players. The fact is, though, even ten years down the road if you do nothing but MSQ quests you will still be able to get to the current point in a few days or at most a few weeks. Especially if you are allowed to port straight to each quest marker and keep going without stopping to level. In the meantime, Up-syncing will keep you happy and playing content with your friends like you wanted.

I consider keeping up with an MMO like keeping up with a shonen anime. I got into One Piece like, ten years after it came out. I was caught up to the current episodes (like, 500 episodes at the time) in a few weeks of binging. Yoshi-P himself made the comparison to anime and said people would just skip the first seasons to watch the current. I don't agree. You sit down and you watch the old episodes, perhaps watching the new ones while you catch up if you can't wait. I remember watching episodes 200-ish of One Piece while I was catching up with the first episodes myself. You CAN have your cake and eat it too in this situation, there is no reason to skip it altogether.

Even offering such a thing as a Jump Potion is wrong, I believe. It's like telling your older son to eat his dinner (which may be delicious itself) before he eats his dessert, then telling the younger one he can skip his dinner and just eat dessert if he likes. Yes, you're giving him the "choice" of eating dinner if he wants...but how many children will do that, even if the dinner is very good? Some will, most won't. And the ones that skip it will be the poorer for it, even if they may not realize it until much later.

I don't know, that's my thoughts on it. The potion is going to happen, and FFXIV won't be destroyed because of it. I doubt I will even notice anything at all. I just think Yoshi-P is not treating new players, or the rich and full game he created and wants them to play, with the proper respect.

[aesteval]

Ah, okay. So at the very least, i120 gear (is it one feather per gear, or more?). Fair enough

Went and checked. It's the 120 gear, looks like weapons, body, and legs only. Weapons 5 feathers each, body and legs are sold as sets for 5 feathers per set.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

I honestly don't get why people throw this Pay to win phrase around when it really isn't. Its a skip to let people skip to current content that we had 3 years to do and not burn themselves out. They won't have better gear than you, they won't have more gil than you they are going to be a fresh 60 like we were at the start of the expansion. As already mentioned P2W is for buying stronger gear or even breaking limits (Say no caps on tomes) but as it is now, I think those who throw it around are just trying to scare people.

As someone else pointed out as an example, if two people buy the game on the same day, and one buys the jump and the other does not .. then the person that bought it has already won all the content that the person that did not has to play through.

How is that NOT Pay To win? The person that bought it gets the stronger gear, higher levels, etc. that the other person does not.

You and I are not relevant to this example. But, lets compare that person to you.

They are spending RL money on a game for an in-game power increase. You did not. Does it really matter if that power increase did not quite bring them to your level?

Nope, because THEY ARE STILL PAYING.

[Nyghtmarerobu]

What? So your argument is, that both can afford to get the potion because they have just bought the game and set up subscriptions? That's a bit presumptuous don't you think?

It might be, but you still have to pay 15 dollars a month, so I fail to see why you wouldn't be able to come up with the money for a potion, maybe not at the start, but within at least a months time, giving you the chance to decide wether you will want to use it or not..

The way things are now, using these potions will be near mandatory for any new player wanting to enter the game.

I agree with this comment, but wether SE charges for the potion or not doesn't really matter to me. Granted, its an easy fix to just let people jump right into the new stuff with a free potion, and theres a very good chance that it will be included in stormblood if this is passed as a thing to be buyable in the NA/JP/EU markets..

[Nyghtmarerobu]

How is that NOT Pay To win? The person that bought it gets the stronger gear, higher levels, etc. that the other person does not.

They get a very basic set of gear to help them progress through the new content. i120 gear is NOT i270 gear. There is a very vast gap in quality of equipment there, and you can only get i270 gear at the current gear cap, which they still have to actually play through heavensward to even get too. And like I said, its only to speed up the process to get to the end. They are only making it to the end faster than ther person not buying a potion, and in the end, they are both going to the same place, so why does it matter who gets there first?

If 1 person speed levels from 1-60 in 2 days, and 1 person levels from 1-60 in 2 months, they both end up at the same place, so why does it matter who got there first. person 1 may have bought a jump potion to skip from 1-50, but again, thats all they are getting. They aren't winning anything except for a race, that doesn't even matter...

[Roth_Trailfinder]

What kind of math is that based on? >_>

If you play an hour a day and do your leveling roulette every day as DPS, you look at around 10-20 minutes of queue, 20 minutes of dungeon and 20 minutes of free time. At such a rate, MSQ WILL take months, because the 2.1-2.55 slog ALONE is roughly 10 hours of play time, IF you skip everything.

I'd also personally not want to push my friends into content they don't want to do just for my sake, because if they're only coming for my sake, I'm better off hanging out with them in some other game and do something we BOTH enjoy and all have a better time >_>

If you play one hour a day, are you not wasting time doing the leveling roulette, when the MSQ is better exp?

Horrible example man, horrible example. You don't need to do any DR's (queue for dungeons, yes - DR's, no) unless a quest specifically directs you to do so. And if you are truly their friend, you'll happily run as a tank, dramatically shortening their queue time to almost nothing. That brings you to .. 35-38 minutes of MSQ time, or less than a week for the 2.1-2.55 run based on your own 10 hour skipping everything estimate.

It don't take months unless the person wants it to, through getting side tracked or by not being active within the game.

[Nestama]

As someone else pointed out as an example, if two people buy the game on the same day, and one buys the jump and the other does not .. then the person that bought it has already won all the content that the person that did not has to play through.

Because when you compare it to other MMO's that actually let you buy raiding gear and such, it's just hard to see it as P2W. Boosting to 50 still gives you the option to go through the MSQ (Legacy style), while skipping the MSQ just plops you at HW's door step (you won't have dungeon map achievements, assumingly. You would also still need to do Coil, EX Primals and Crystal Tower).