As a new player that really likes this game ...

[Snow_Princess]

The story IS the primary content. The stuff gated by the story is just additional content.

Lol... how many think this? Ok i am going to respect your opinion, but at the same time I expect you respect mine.

crafting and gathering IS THE PRIMARY CONTENT! the other stuff is just additional content. If the story was really intended to be the main content, it should been a 1000 times better. In either event, it shouldn't be gating content. SE did not even do it in FFXI for crying out loud ( least not to this degree, I explained the parallel thing)

OP sure seems to dislike the game an awful lot for supposedly really liking the game.

Either way, I suppose it comes down to this. Do you want easily accessible raiding with not very demanding gameplay and don't really care much about the story? Play WoW.

Do you want an interesting story and demanding gameplay, but can live with the fact that the raiding is locked behind the story? Play FFXIV.

The raiding is not demanding here... it is just memorizing scripted events.