Quality of Life Improvements and MSQ Gating for New Players

[Vstarstruck]

What NPCs are you thinking of, exactly? Anything sold by the gear vendors can be purchased on the marketboard that you can access right from the start of the game. Some of it can be HQ and quite cheap because the MSQ inevitably throws more gear at you than you actually need, especially early in the expansions if the player has Ironworks/Shire gear and the MSQ-reward gear is not an upgrade, so everyone just takes it and tries to sell it.

If you are a crafter focus, the gating is hell. You leaves are locked behind unlocking them, needing to advance your crafting is gated unless you do the MSQ. I know someone who stopped playing a character (they really wanted to craft on one character while doing battle content on the other) and the way this game is set up makes that impossible to do. You really shouldn't be gating so much by MSQ. What you are liking, running around and talking to npcs feels tedious and meaningless to many, it also discourages making alts. discouraging making alts is a problem because yet again, this game as severe problems with having enough inventory space for career crafters.

The problem with "maybe this is not the game for some people" is that there was not this severe level of gating in ARR. you could run to mor dhona on your level 50 crafter and get your master books. Can't do that anymore (as in for 60 and 70) because it is locked behind the current expansions main hub.

Appealing to different types of play is never a bad thing, each expansion should not be blocking each other in one single chain, and will only grow more as a problem as future expansions open up.

Can anyone who is defending MSQ to not be changed answer me these few questions?

1. If i buy a MSQ skip potion only without buying a job skip potion how does the character level up ? Does this make it almost compulsory to buy both potions (MSQ + Job Potions) together? (for new characters)

2. When trying to get a friend to play the game who is interested in raiding , how do i justify the price he/she has to pay (complete edition + msq skip + job potion) just to get to the content that my friend enjoys?

3. It's an apparent problem (even if not a big one) that MSQ gating is discouraging new players from FFXIV due to the time investment / money investment(skip potions) . This would mean less new blood in ffxiv and also in the long run may cause playerbase to decline and leading to what might be the end of the game that we love. Why are you people (MSQ Gate Defenders) so against trimming the story or allowing easier access for new players to get into the game?

your reason 3 will only increase as a problem with every new expansion they release.

For 1 you just spam palace of the dead, no big deal

TBH if I could only buy one, the potion I be buying is skip potion because the MSQ series at level 50 is pure hell. I rather spam palace of the dead to gain levels, then to spam MSQs to get past the area gating.