Quality of Life Improvements and MSQ Gating for New Players

[Okamimaru]

The MSQ ought to be condensed, especially ARR's MSQ.

Areas/Maps should not be gated behind MSQ and neither should content(eg NPCs/NPC vendors who only unlock after completing some points of MSQ.)

Would this 'break' the story? Perhaps but players entering these areas,unlocking these NPCs,could maybe get a spolier alert warning or something.

Since you're new to final fantasy as a series you might not know that the heart of all final fantasy games revolves around its story.. disregarding the fact that monsters would obliterate lowbies and that certain areas are only available with purchase of expansions... a spolier alert wouldn't help for some things because it would literally break the story to access those areas... like going to ishgard... or churning mists... or anywhere in stormblood (it's occupied territory ).

[TwistedTea]

...the heart of all final fantasy games revolves around its story..

This is all well and good, if FFXIV was a single-player game.However, it is not. It is first and foremost an MMORPG catered towards casuals focusing on a social/community experience. The current MSQ gating is detrimental towards the social aspect and also a matter of accessibility for casuals.

If a lowbie enters an area with high level mobs, that's their problem.In WOW, as a lowbie, I can sneak into high level areas;it's my fault if I get one-shotted by an aggro mob. To me, it makes the world more realistic.

Not having purchased certain expansions and the areas associated with those expansions; in programming that's a 'simple'(although really tedious) problem to solve with a whole bunch of if-else statements etc.

Any player who unlocks content before the story can be 'warned'. Not everyone plays with story as their main priority. It's about giving people options.

[Makeda]

This is all well and good, if FFXIV was a single-player game.However, it is not. It is first and foremost an MMORPG catered towards ... stuff it isn't actually catered towards

No Okamimaru is right. FFXIV is a Final Fantasy game that is also an MMO, not an MMO that just has anime trappings.

Now... I have actually paid to boost 2 characters through MSQ and paid for 2 level 60 boosts.

BUT for alts...
I played up to Stormblood on two other characters, and will soon have done Stormblood on four.

So I think I can speak to BOTH angles on this...

You miss a LOT by skipping all that story. I can just look at what my Ninja here has 'experienced' versus my Mi'Qote tank. If my Ninja was my only character, I would have no clue what kind of game I was in or any of the story or lore or any of the things that make this game worth playing...

This is a game you play so you can have Haurchefant's broken shield hanging in your apartment, and know WHY it is there.

In that giant MMO you play so you can have the latest gear, grind through stuff, and have no clue what the story is. In that giant MMO players gripe about a long grind to unlock four new races, only 2 of which have any story to their grind, and even then only for about the first half of the grind... Because over there lore is secondary... so secondary that it's rumored game design members can add any lore they want without approval of any central lead... and it shows. And there is not core story.

But this is here... where we remember seeing Meffrid go down, and we knew who he was from way back in Quarrymill, and we cried when we found Wilred's body years before. Where we cheered when we liberated Ala Mhigo as much as we did the first time we read of Frodo tossing the ring into the mountain.

This is a story.

With a game bolted onto the side of it.

It just happens to also be a good game.


Your goal when you come here is to experience that story...

If I sold you a copy of Lord of the Rings, and then sold you a bookmark that you could place on the last page to say you were done with it... what was the point of even buying that novel?

Sure... maybe if I asked you to read it four time... you might get that special bookmark... that's what I did for my third and fourth reads of FFXIV... but not the first two times...

And everyone should read this book once. Or what was it all for? Just ask M'naago, that's her line after all.


If you want an MMO for just the raiding and gear grinding... this isn't the MMO for you.

If you want a great story, than then allows you to raid and grind after it... then come here. I'd wager Elder Scrolls is "almost" like this as well (except the great story is in side quests while their MSQ is... not as highly praised...).

But FFXIV...

The whole point of playing this game is the story...

If you just want to see the last page of Lord of the Rings without reading the book... you're missing the point of being here...

Oh... and this was/is my first and only Final Fantasy game. But the story was STILL everything for me. I bought this game knowing that Final Fantasy was about stories - stories I'd missed out on thus far. I should like to think that people who come here value this story for what it offers, not for what other games do.