New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Melichoir]

Is there only one right way to do a given thing? What is wrong with skipping chapters in a book? Why would skipping chapters make the book not worth reading? What do books have to do with an interactive medium like FF14? People have different reasons for playing a game and they're all valid. Unless people skipping the story hurts other players in some way, I don't see why people should care about it.

Because the point of the chapters in a book is that its a series of events and progress. From a purely artistic and creative medium, slow chapters have to exist with high action ones to create a rhythm and flow which ultimately makes the overall quality better. If you're only getting high action all the time, it'll wear down on you. This is basic creativity 101. You find this philosophy in virtually all mediums - food, books, movies, music, cartoons, comics, and yes games. So some chapters are gonna be slower, and yes there is a little filler at times (which can probably be axed). But just skipping ahead in cause "oh this is boring" demonstrates that the consideration isn't the story, but rather just the punchline. Imagine reading Harry potter, but instead of reading the books, you read the first few pages of book 1, and the last few pages of book 7. You skipped everything in between cause 'oh it was boring'. At that point, why did you even read it. You weren't concerned with the journey the character makes, or the world that was crafted. It just gets summarized into a few pages.

Perhaps this is my own personal bugbear and bias, but from my observations, people who skip over all the content cause 'it's so boring' are the same people who weeks later complain about how come there's nothing to do. Game offers you a rich journey, and you pressed fast forward on it and are dissatisfied that there's nothing left.

This is my own rant, but my only gripe with story skip is that it's implemented as a pay for option. Why do you have to pay to get around a less enjoyable portion of the game that you already payed for? It just seems bizarre to me. It may also contribute to bad game design overall. If a developer can just put out mediocre content and then ask for money when people want to avoid that content, is that good? Of course people are free to answer that question themselves, but I'll never pay for any kind of skip despite finding it very handy in a game like FF14.

You're viewing this in the wrong light on three parts:

1) From a purely business standpoint, its in SE's interest for you to play out the MSQ because it means longer sub times, either through time spent or sheer interest. So of course they're not going to just be like "Here, skip all this" without some level of compensation.
2) For game health, you want to discourage newer players from just skipping right to the end. Like it or not, the MSQ still forces players to learn certain aspects of the game. This cuts down more on getting people in higher level content that don't know how to play the game.
3) You literally paid for content and then are saying "I don't want it, allow me to skip it for free." That's not how the game was set up. Name me a single player game that says "If you don't like this, just skip it all together!" that hasn't been mocked for that kind of feature.

If that's the case why ask for any QoL at all? I don't think requesting a way around the story for new players in unreasonable at all. It might help them maintain interest in the game which is ultimately good for everyone playing.

Theres a difference in QoLs. A QoL with streamlining some of the games mechanics is one thing. If you had to jump through 20 menus just to adjust the volume, that could use a QoL change. And not all 'QoL' changes are healthy for a game. Use wow for an example. When they implemented that you could queue for dungeons anywhere, it drastically hurt the world map. People just sat in town at that point waiting for queue times. It made things more convenient, yes, but hurt the game in other ways.

The nuance, I suppose, is maybe trim down some of the MSQ in ARR in 2.1-2.55. As I said, there is some filler, and some of that can be abbreviated a little. But I think just skipping the MSQ all together for free for new players ends up hurting the game by hurting retention. If you cant get people interested in FFXIV with ARR, then they're a lot less likely to stick around long term as is. The story becomes secondary to game play that already isn't really unique. And when you don't have to work for anything, don't have to invest, you don't care if you give it up.

[PyurBlue]

Because the point of the chapters in a book is that its a series of events and progress. From a purely artistic and creative medium, slow chapters have to exist with high action ones to create a rhythm and flow which ultimately makes the overall quality better. If you're only getting high action all the time, it'll wear down on you. This is basic creativity 101.

You aren't wrong, but this is all kind of tangential. Flow by itself doesn't make the story good, and FF14 being a game needs to also engage the player with gameplay. The player might even choose to ignore the story completely for the sake of gameplay. You could also argue on top of that, as an MMO, FF14 also should try accommodate social interactions, especially with friends.

The MSQ as a long and tedious requirement interferes with gameplay and social interactions when friends are playing entirely different parts of the game. It's perfectly OK to value the latter two things over the story and since the MSQ is essentially a single player game, there isn't really an issue with players skipping it.

Playing through the MSQ is not a better way to play, that's the point that I'm making. I'm very interested in story driven games myself, but I gave up on FF14 around the time I began the Titan arc of the MSQ. This didn't cost me anything, and luckily I saw that the game had potential outside of the story which kept me playing.

You find this philosophy in virtually all mediums - food, books, movies, music, cartoons, comics, and yes games. So some chapters are gonna be slower, and yes there is a little filler at times (which can probably be axed). But just skipping ahead in cause "oh this is boring" demonstrates that the consideration isn't the story, but rather just the punchline. Imagine reading Harry potter, but instead of reading the books, you read the first few pages of book 1, and the last few pages of book 7. You skipped everything in between cause 'oh it was boring'. At that point, why did you even read it. You weren't concerned with the journey the character makes, or the world that was crafted. It just gets summarized into a few pages.

At the point, the why would be up to the reader. They might have found it enjoyable despite skipping most of it. Maybe the story was too long and convoluted, and skipping didn't really constituent missing anything (I'm not specifically talking about Harry Potter, but just in general). Maybe they just didn't like the story overall, but found some specific bits interesting. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.

Perhaps this is my own personal bugbear and bias, but from my observations, people who skip over all the content cause 'it's so boring' are the same people who weeks later complain about how come there's nothing to do. Game offers you a rich journey, and you pressed fast forward on it and are dissatisfied that there's nothing left.

I only have my own perspective on this. The story died for me around Titan, and the only thing that kept me playing was that eventually I would be able to level up and do interesting things with my friends who had already advanced through most of the game. Still it was a slog and I would often find myself taking breaks from the game, sometimes for months. It was only when I reached the endgame that I became a regular player. I think I might differ from some portion of the player base in that I like to play for fun, and not to chase rewards or progression, but for whatever the reason skipping the 'boring' part of the game only got me to play it more.

Thinking about it, that the MSQ was more of a roadblock than anything else probably made the story even less interesting. If I was able to skip it and play later I might have been more willing to be immersed. I wouldn't have had to weigh listening to cut scenes against joining my friends and enjoying the content.

1) From a purely business standpoint, its in SE's interest for you to play out the MSQ because it means longer sub times, either through time spent or sheer interest. So of course they're not going to just be like "Here, skip all this" without some level of compensation.

Kind of related to why I play above, but leveling through the MSQ is the only time ever that I have unsubbed from the game. Being at endgame just gives you more to do, and being current lets you set your pace without the fear of falling behind everyone else.

2) For game health, you want to discourage newer players from just skipping right to the end. Like it or not, the MSQ still forces players to learn certain aspects of the game. This cuts down more on getting people in higher level content that don't know how to play the game.

My learning was definitely hampered from being unsubbed and coming back to play for only a little bit at a time. It really wasn't until PoTD was added and I was able to level to 60 within that I became really interested in sticking with the game. As a mentor I've heard similar feedback from novices. Low level can just be dull and it's overly simplistic for many. An MMO also doesn't really have an end. As long as there is something to do, you can play indefinitely.

Obviously people shouldn't jump into content if they have no idea how to play, but if SE were to overhaul the MSQ to make it less of a requirement, they could also add a more advanced tutorial for players that get into the game at a high level. The role of guilds in the game is something that I'd like to see overhauled even without MSQ changes. They don't really teach you anything. I think the class guilds should serve as places where players can go to practice playing their classes. If they were changed in this way, skip players could also be directed to the guilds to gain competency without slogging through the MSQ. Guilds that felt like guilds rather than job quest dispensers would also go a long way to building up immersion in my book too.

3) You literally paid for content and then are saying "I don't want it, allow me to skip it for free." That's not how the game was set up. Name me a single player game that says "If you don't like this, just skip it all together!" that hasn't been mocked for that kind of feature.

That's the whole idea of the sandbox game. It's not just a single game that exists to provide exactly that, it's an entire genre.

FF14 is a package. To say that you pay for content to skip is inaccurate. You pay what SE asks to be allowed to play, but then you also have to put up with portions of the game that you don't find interesting and didn't really motivate you to pay for the game. With multiplayer features, I can see a compromise with forcing participation because it keeps the game alive. The MSQ is a solo affair though. It doesn't contribute to game health if many players don't like it.

Theres a difference in QoLs. A QoL with streamlining some of the games mechanics is one thing. If you had to jump through 20 menus just to adjust the volume, that could use a QoL change. And not all 'QoL' changes are healthy for a game. Use wow for an example. When they implemented that you could queue for dungeons anywhere, it drastically hurt the world map. People just sat in town at that point waiting for queue times. It made things more convenient, yes, but hurt the game in other ways.

I agree that QoL can go too far and end up hurting the game. The MSQ slog isn't exactly an uncommon complaint though, so I don't think it can be brushed aside as being made out to be worse than it is. Not everyone hates it, but a lot of people do. I think addressing the issue should be at least a medium level priority. Maybe the answer isn't to skip the MSQ completely, but tying everything to it and making it increasingly long isn't benefiting everyone.

The nuance, I suppose, is maybe trim down some of the MSQ in ARR in 2.1-2.55. As I said, there is some filler, and some of that can be abbreviated a little. But I think just skipping the MSQ all together for free for new players ends up hurting the game by hurting retention. If you cant get people interested in FFXIV with ARR, then they're a lot less likely to stick around long term as is. The story becomes secondary to game play that already isn't really unique. And when you don't have to work for anything, don't have to invest, you don't care if you give it up.

There is going to be a lot of variation between players on what makes the game worth playing or not. I think AAR is a hindrance more often than not. Most of the comments that I hear from new players progressing through the first portion of the story are negative, though it could just be that they are a vocal minority. The biggest problem is that the game was designed with a focus on the MSQ and that untangling content from the story will take some work, but I wouldn't consider it impossible for a second.