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

[Bourne_Endeavor]

To take your "Why would someone want to pay $70"... why do I have to pay money for an expansion only to be forced to do 100 meaningless, boring, repetitive quests just to unlock Heavensward and play with my friends and FC members?

I was interested in doing 1-50 and all the MSQs for it and in the end I enjoyed it enough to see me through to 50. Then I discovered that there is 100 more quests to do which give hardly any XP just to unlock Heavensward. I just cannot bring myself to do it. If the quests were intertesting and the voiceover in this game was half decent (or if there really was any) I could probably do it but I found myself getting so annoyed with this that I decided to unsub for now and come back when Stormblood hits.

Honestly, I suggest either picking a day to grind them all in one go-- skipping whenever bored-- or take it slowly. Only 2.1 to 2.3 are particularly egregious for how meaningless they feel. 2.4 has plenty more voice acting and better ties into the story. For whatever it's worth, Heavensward's pacing and VAs are leaps and bounds ahead of ARR. Frustrating as the MSQ can get, I do recommend slogging through those dull quests just to hit Heavenward. Even if you have mixed feelings towards ARR, Heavenward steps it up.

[ADVSS]

I just feel like the level locking is a pretty bad idea, but theyll probably do it in SB and then later decide oh hey fates probably should give more exp, or "oh right we forgot to add experience in the level 60 dungeons, here you go." maybe tge side quests are necessary, for free gear, but the level locking tradition makes the game story really sloggy. especially when you have to grind 10 dungeons to continue story, which equates to "probably tomorrow" but you know, i guess thats too much to ask...

[Lexia]

Hey if they want spend $20 for ARR/HW and then another $40 for SB and then another $40(think read it not going to be cheap) for a jump potion. Then I guess they have that option but I think lot of those people will end up here.

4. "This game is boring! there's nothing to do!" [the rest quit here]

[Bourne_Endeavor]

So yet again, the better solution would have been to put effort until uncoupling the MSQ from all the game features so that players can complete it at their own pace.Without the required MSQ, having to level 1-60 to access Stormblood would be pretty standard. I can't really imagine many people complaining about it.

In theory, yes. Actually execution is scarily that simple. They have said time and again unshackling quests isn't feasible with their current system. You then have to consider how it would impact the story itself. From 2.4 onward, significant plot details occur. None of this accounts for the oft complained about fetch quests in 2.0 itself. Attempting to Frankenstein everything back together likely means we'll lose new content. Maybe they'll address this at a later time, but I do not want anything cut from Stormblood or pushed back several patches just so they can fix something I'll never even seen. Look at how well people reacted to 3.1. At best, I see any adjustments to the MSQ being a slow process they do behind the scenes when other work is finished and they don't have any need of those developers elsewhere.

And how is that different than right now, or the past (nearly) two years?

Or maybe 2.0 was too long to finish to get to endgame, so they should've just scrapped the entire game and simply release a raiding MMO that involves no leveling up or effort at all. And nobody will play it.

The older a game, the greater this issue becomes. Two full expansions is a massive ask on entirely new players to complete, especially if they are not particularly interested in the story and just want to play with friends. Eventually, they will move on to a newer game that doesn't have these issues.

That's a Strawman and you know it. Most people will grudgingly accept one level grind, but FFXIV is asking for two once Stormblood launches. If their only motivation is friends, gameplay or whatever, you're essentially asking they slog through something they ultimately find boring because... you think the story's good. Great. I do too, and happily have gone through it normally twice. Alas, it won't appeal to everyone. Forcing them to progress through it only serves to drive away players. MMOs are meant to cater to all sorts of people. Some value story above all; others raids or crafting. Who cares if they want to spend an additional $50 to skip two expansions? If they find fun jumping ahead and getting to play with friends in Stormblood, then more power to them. It doesn't diminish my enjoyment of the story.

[Naunet]

Two full expansions is a massive ask on entirely new players to complete

It wouldn't be a massive ask if we didn't have to go through the whole MSQ. A base game + one expansion's worth of levels is nothing.

You may not think it's worth the effort, but I do. And once they start selling jump potions, they will have zero motivation to put even a little bit of effort into fixing things.

[Elim]

I know three people who'd be interested in jump potions. Two of them tried the game but they couldn't force themselves to slog through the pre-HW stories -- the third heard about the slog and didn't bother trying. They're all mostly interested in playing endgame with my guild, so the story stuff is not too exciting for them in the first place.

[Fizzlebang]

It wouldn't be a massive ask if we didn't have to go through the whole MSQ. A base game + one expansion's worth of levels is nothing.

You may not think it's worth the effort, but I do. And once they start selling jump potions, they will have zero motivation to put even a little bit of effort into fixing things.

Except they have said several times that with the current system implementation they wouldn't be able to unshackle the MSQ requirements, Lost track of how many times this has been said...

[Alerion]

No matter what, I think it's worth noting that at some point a boost of some kind will happen for new players. As the years roll on and expansions continue to drop, a point will come where they will have to either package a boost with the expansion or sell it.

I think the conversation shouldn't focus on if we're okay with it as a concept but rather what restrictions we find acceptable. One per expansion? One per year? Unlimited? I think that's the real debate.

[Lemuria]

With potions like this, what exactly is the point in having dungeons from 1-50 (and after Stormblood, 1-60)? You're basically able to skip the entire story, unlock every dungeon automatically without ever needing to set foot in them and progress to endgame all with a few swigs!

I see this basically killing off current content so that people are only grinding the same two dungeons forever (yes, two... you know what I'm talking about). Anyone even trying to level the old fashioned way won't have a chance, which basically forces everyone to buy the potions or spend eternity queuing for tanks and healers which will never arrive. This, in my opinion, is a huge oversight which needs addressing before these potions hit the store.

[Theodric]

Yep. At least when people are new to the game everything is new and exciting the first time that they tackle that. If they're only interested in the fabled 'end game' they are literally going to be throwing themselves at a very tiny portion of what the game has to offer over and over again. There won't be much variety involved if they're only interested in doing that - and they'll likely get bored with such short attention spans/a lack of investment in the game as a whole. So they'll likely take a break or quit altogether...or they'll just push for more 'new content' but the developers, understandably, won't be able to keep up with the demand.