New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[gumas]

sadly this game was made with "storyline" as the primary mindset when it created. aside from skip potion and newgame+ later in shadowbringer, there is nothing much you can do.

this game maybe mmorpg, but personally i say this game is more like the usual singleplayer story driven final fantasy game but with online support.

[Mirassou]

sadly this game was made with "storyline" as the primary mindset when it created. aside from skip potion and newgame+ later in shadowbringer, there is nothing much you can do.

this game maybe mmorpg, but personally i say this game is more like the usual singleplayer story driven final fantasy game but with online support.

Singleplayer? You have to run a boatload of multi-player dungeons in this game to progress the storyline, and these will usually be done with other random players. So whatever else it may be, I would not characterize FFXIV as a single-player game.

(I love the entire story so far, btw)

[JohnSpawnVFX]

Pretty sure they've already hinted in an onterview that NG+ is going to just be "pick a solo instance from a list to replay it", not redo all quests from the beginning. It would make sense: no one's starting over just for the dialog and fetch quests, and they'd have to take lvl sync off from those solo instances anyway, so might as well make special queuable solo instances where you have your current level and gear.

Not sure why people are betting so much on it when we barely know anything about it.

[Clicked]

Not sure what the issue is. If you are interested in story, play the story. There’s no reason to rush to 70. The content is not going to disappear any time soon (although I wonder about Eureka).

If you are not, there’s a story skip. Yes, it costs money, but you are bypassing much of the progression system the game has.

OP’s friend wants to skip to max level but still experience story? What’s the rush? OP can level sync and play with their friend.

[Clicked]

That said, I think much of the MSQ quests do not provide exp. Maybe giving exp rewards can make players not feel like they’re “behind” by doing story.

[SturmChurro]

*Buys a story-based online game*

*Feels like the early game experience needs to be abridged and cut short, so that they can play at the cutting edge without learning shit*

Am I missing something here, or am I just stupid? I thought the whole point of a game was to....well, play it?

I don't know why people keep parroting this tired argument. I asked several pages back:

Simple question for all the supposed 'story fanatics' how many hours do you have in the game, total (character OR across accounts)? How much of that time was spent doing the MAIN story (NOT side content), and how much was spent doing the mmo side of content, NOT (again) main story, i.e. dungeons, raids, trials, collecting (mount, minion, glamour), gearing, leveling (w/o sitting through the story), hunts, dailies (reputation), PvP, PoTD, HoH, Gold Saucer, housing, crafting, social (free company), grand company, FATEs, BLU ?

You do realize there are MANY people who skip everything in the story, and only do it as a means to the end. They still play the game they just don't play the game the way you think they should play the game.

[Reinha]

Skip potions already exist and they cost money because it deters new players from throwing away all the content that has accumulated over the years. The devs probably don't want players to run out of things to do, to not be able to enjoy the newest story or to miss out on the free Fantasia and then complain on the forums. Encouraging a friend to rush to endgame instead of utilizing level sync to play together is a disservice to them, and the cost of the story skip is there to indicate that it's a bad idea in case the new player lacks foresight.

no one's starting over just for the dialog and fetch quests

Yeah, some people do that. I leveled an alt just to redo the DRK quests and want to see the Haurchefant story again. I'm considering redoing the whole story with NG+ as a Hrothgar if I use a Fantasia and only getting solo duties would be incredibly disappointing.

[SerLuke]

Man I wonder if that FF7 remake will let you just skip all the story and go fight Emerald and Ruby Weapon

[AnimaAnimus]

Singleplayer? You have to run a boatload of multi-player dungeons in this game to progress the storyline, and these will usually be done with other random players. So whatever else it may be, I would not characterize FFXIV as a single-player game.

(I love the entire story so far, btw)

To be fair its more like a coop than a single player or an mmo. You don't need to talk to anyone, you do play with others in a dungeon or primal but you really don't need to treat them any different than an npc. There is no emphasis on community or need to make friends. An mmo used to be about community, but those days are gone.

When it comes to the expansion problems, I agree, its way to much for new players to get caught up. I really wish instead of one incredibly long narrative, that every expac was its own thing. It would also keep the story from getting stale, which it has. Ascians and Garlemald have been the main antagonist in one way or another since original launch in 2010 and its gotten b-o-r-i-n-g. I really don't even care about them, haven't since end of ARR. I just want them to go away so we can move on to better, or at least different, stories and antagonists.

Imma say it, even though the mere mention of this game gets major flamage on these forums. This is one area I think XI shined in. You could access the entire world, unlock every job and complete every story at your own pace and in your own order, if you even wanted to at all. It made it a lot easier for people to get in and play with their friends, outside the leveling process woes. Here its, buy game and sludge through 3 expansions as fast as you can just so you can do even basic things with your friends. They really didn't think this through.

[Shougun]

Man I wonder if that FF7 remake will let you just skip all the story and go fight Emerald and Ruby Weapon

Expansions for an mmorpg should been seen (a bit) like a continuing series, imo - at least after so many additions, like a witcher 1, 2, 3. Each connected. Skipping inside a game itself I think is unnecessary but I think the argument gains strength across games especially the longer gaps. Some people don't care for witcher 1 but love 3. Or like Harry Potter / lord of the rings / star wars movies, you get extra value out of seeing them in order but you could enter the series out of order then realize you love it and go back and fix it. I've known a few people who went into both series out of order because lack of interest until friends enjoyed the ride on newer ones with them. For Witcher, for example, I recommend 3 over and out of order of 1/2 if I know they have a lower tolerance for older systems/graphics and then if they love 3 encourage playing 1 and 2 for the world value.

The fans of the lore / ff experience are already satiated with the current pipeline but those prospective other people looking in at the new content, at "witcher 3" are potentially not looking at or interested in "witcher 1" (yet at least).

I dont think chopping the game up into a billion disjointed pieces is wise, or skipping in random locations with no cohesion, but I do think there is a lack of considering other types of interests and people if we waive off the value of skipping things too much. I think making a streamlined introduction of some sort, as an option, has a lot of potential value. Skip potion sort of (poorly imo) covers that but lacks cohesion (could be fixed up) and is also a hard sell to make to a new person who is like "have to play witcher 1 or you won't let me try 3? Or I have to pay nearly an extra expansion on top of all the stuff I already have to buy (~$20+ potion)? Ok no thanks, bye".