A little scared of the future

[van_arn]

The only boring part of the MSQ is the part between ARR and HW.

I'm mulling over this sentence, and the further I get I'm more and more impressed with just how wrong it is.

I remember entire chapters of bad anime filler episodes, like helping the turtles do whatever, a cheesy billion-part fisherman chain, the gobbie cheese nonsense leading up to Titan, the abysmal post-arr content, Tsukiyomi stomping on things just to make sure we know she's a villain, Lyse's truly exceptional uselessness, Ascians plotting for... whatever villains plot for, talking to one npc right next to another NPC, teleporting across the world to talk to an npc only to teleport across the world again to talk to another NPC, very dull "find the pixel" telescope quests, find the <number of> sparkles in the <designated area>, minion assets used to make a budget version of the Triad, "walk 200 meters and kill 3 beetles" quests, and -- lest we forget -- PLEASE RETURN TO THE WAKING SANDS.

The kicker? Every single new player gets to experience ALL of this HUNDREDS of times over before they get into any content that requires two brain cells to rub together.

MSQ is a garbage requirement for new players. Half as long would still be too long.

Oh, let's not forget you're the chosen hero because you picked a crystal up off of the ground. Don't litter, kids!

[ko_]

I'm mulling over this sentence, and the further I get I'm more and more impressed with just how wrong it is.

I remember entire chapters of bad anime filler episodes, like helping the turtles do whatever, a cheesy billion-part fisherman chain, the gobbie cheese nonsense leading up to Titan, the abysmal post-arr content, Tsukiyomi stomping on things just to make sure we know she's a villain, Lyse's truly exceptional uselessness, Ascians plotting for... whatever villains plot for, talking to one npc right next to another NPC, teleporting across the world to talk to an npc only to teleport across the world again to talk to another NPC, very dull "find the pixel" telescope quests, find the <number of> sparkles in the <designated area>, minion assets used to make a budget version of the Triad, "walk 200 meters and kill 3 beetles" quests, and -- lest we forget -- PLEASE RETURN TO THE WAKING SANDS.

The kicker? Every single new player gets to experience ALL of this HUNDREDS of times over before they get into any content that requires two brain cells to rub together.

MSQ is a garbage requirement for new players. Half as long would still be too long.

Oh, let's not forget you're the chosen hero because you picked a crystal up off of the ground. Don't litter, kids!

That's all up to the player tho if it's good or not. I just think it's all anime since it is. I only liked the later SB plots to be honest. On the whole wol thing... to be fair, there's not alot of ways to explain why you're choosen and why all the other players aren't. So I'm not gonna give them flake on that part.

[ko_]

If theres not a decent way to catch up in item level you end up with a mass exodus and no new players.

I'mma be real mean here.. but there's a point. You wanna know how you catch up? Just play the game. Easy.Stupid.simple. SE doesn't need to hold back everyone else's progression just cause bob, tim, and lazy ass sara can't be assed to do a few dungeons a day to keep themselves up to date. Why should I have to deal with baby ass dungeons cause they can't play. If people leave, let them. How about SE treat the people actually PLAYING the game with respect.

[van_arn]

That's all up to the player tho if it's good or not. I just think it's all anime since it is. I only liked the later SB plots to be honest. On the whole wol thing... to be fair, there's not alot of ways to explain why you're choosen and why all the other players aren't. So I'm not gonna give them flake on that part.

I don't disagree, but the people that absolutely hate questing can't just jump in and find something worth playing in a reasonable amount of time. Those hundreds (emphasis, hundreds) of fedex quests are required, or you pay to skip some of them and then you "only" have a couple hundred left.

Literally this night I had a sprout log in all excited they cleared Praetorium last night thinking they can now unlock Machinist, and I had to give them the whole "Oh sweet summer child" speech about 2.x. I don't even remember how many times I've had to give this speech now.

[ko_]

I don't disagree, but the people that absolutely hate questing can't just jump in and play. Those hundreds (emphasis, hundreds) of fedex quests are required, or you pay to skip some of them and then you "only" have a couple hundred.

Literally this night I had a sprout log in all excited they cleared Praetorium last night thinking they can now unlock Machinist, and I had to give them the whole "Oh sweet summer child" speech about post-2.0.

lol. poor thing. His world must have been crushed. Did you atleast give them an icecream cone?

[Ilan]

Problem is you make it sound like it happens often which it doesn't though. If it happens a lot then that means the majority of people have subpar skills then the problem is you. Majority always rule after all. Knowing SE they will cater to the majority as there is more profit in that. They are a business not your friend.

Also, you have the right to say someone is wasting your time but they also have that right no? It goes both ways. What point am I trying to make? Well gotta take the good with the bad if you play an MMO with random strangers. Pretty sure every game has this problem and there is no real solution no matter how much you complain.

It happens almost every day in DF that you discover healers who just heal, tanks who can't hold hate because they don't really bother to try and ofc the typical dps players who don't use a single AOE during the whole dungeon and yes if you know what classes can do you see if they don't use their skills properly.

I don't expect that people in DF are playing perfect. But i expect them to use their toolkits properly, which includes tanks who use their CD's and hold hate, healers who not just use a heal every few seconds and dps who use their freaking aoes and know the BASICS of their rotations. But yeah you are right, i'm the problem when i basically carry the other dps on my back because i'm not refusing to use my full toolkit.

Sometimes i really have to ask myself why the hell people try to justify that players show 0 respect torwards their party members, because thats what it is if you let others if you refuse to play with your full toolkit.

[ShinShimon]

I don't disagree, but the people that absolutely hate questing

...are playing the wrong game. The story is the main selling point of FFXIV over its competitors. They could trim some of the more pointless ARR and 2.X quests, but if you cut out the actual story, this is just a prettier version of WoW.

[Ilan]

...are playing the wrong game. The story is the main selling point of FFXIV over its competitors. They could trim some of the more pointless ARR and 2.X quests, but if you cut out the actual story, this is just a prettier version of WoW.

No you are not playing the wrong game if you don't like the story. The taste of people are different, i for my part dislike the story here and i still play the game like so many other players do too. If i want to enjoy a good story i'll pick other games.

[Penthea]

No you are not playing the wrong game if you don't like the story. The taste of people are different, i for my part dislike the story here and i still play the game like so many other players do too. If i want to enjoy a good story i'll pick other games.

I'm fine with people disliking the story. If they decide to not read anything, just click through it all mindlessly and that is how they like it, then great.

What I'm not fine with is when people constantly complain about encountering any storytelling. I have met a few like this and it gets so tiresome to explain over and over that storytelling is central to the game and they can't escape it. The jump potion only lets you skip up to lvl 60 msq. All the msq beyond that and any side-quests have to be worked through. Even gathering and crafting quests have story. Literally every snippet of content has story. If the mere act of encountering story is so offensive to someone then they should play something else.

[van_arn]

I'm fine with people disliking the story. If they decide to not read anything, just click through it all mindlessly and that is how they like it, then great.

What I'm not fine with is when people constantly complain about encountering any storytelling. I have met a few like this and it gets so tiresome to explain over and over that storytelling is central to the game and they can't escape it. The jump potion only lets you skip up to lvl 60 msq. All the msq beyond that and any side-quests have to be worked through. Even gathering and crafting quests have story. Literally every snippet of content has story. If the mere act of encountering story is so offensive to someone then they should play something else.

It's more that it's fine to have a storyline, but the minute-to-minute gameplay of teleporting to talk to someone who tells you to talk to someone to teleport to someone hundreds of times over to talk to someone is tiresome. It's not an uncommon sprout complaint, nor is it an uncommon reason for a sprout to quit after 2.0, 3.0, or 4.0 because each expansion takes so much out of them even if they enjoy the story itself. Heck, I've had so many sprouts excited to kill Shinryu only to sink into the morass of leveling everything to 60 even if they hate the leveling rather than suffer through 4.1-4.4 so they can see some really cool stuff.

As far as it "not being the game for them" that motion is rejected. Sorry, not going to give Square a pass to be lazy with their onboarding experience when hundreds of quests are involved. Even if they were amazing quests that had great minute-to-minute gameplay (they plainly aren't), hundreds of prerequisite quests are too much to expect of new players that want to play something that isn't overnerfed with their friends. And that means content past 4.0.

...are playing the wrong game. The story is the main selling point of FFXIV over its competitors. They could trim some of the more pointless ARR and 2.X quests, but if you cut out the actual story, this is just a prettier version of WoW.

I don't disagree with this at all. But there are huge sections of the story that can have a hatchet taken to them without ultimately losing anything.

For example, you don't need to know the entire story of 1.0 to enjoy A Realm Reborn. The trailer tells you what you need to know. Someone who played 1.0 has additional context, but there's absolutely no reason why a new player needs to know everything that happened in 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 to enjoy 4.0. In fact, a lot of people really enjoy looking back and seeing what 1.0 was like even though they never played it-- they are just mercifully spared the torture of actually playing it.

Seriously, the whole leadup to Titan could just be skipped. You'd lose some context, but the important part is dude tells you about Titan and then you fight Titan. Titan is the cool part, not fedexing gobbie cheese. Nor does fedexing gobbie cheese make a new player "appreciate" Titan more; they simply resent the fedexing.
Post-ARR content is commonly cited in stuff that can be skipped, but whole chains of fedexing teleports throughout the MSQ could just be deleted without losing the essentials that a player needs to know.