New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Wynn_Storm]

The amount of ridiculous excuses defending the MSQ is just absurd.

This game is not new player friendly in the slightest when it comes to actually jumping into new content.

The barrier is only going to get bigger and bigger as time goes on.

And i know a lot of people use the stupid "Its about the journey, not the destination" line. Its not that way for everyone, and its an mmorpg. The game can't survive with just veteran players, the goal is to bring in new players as well. And on paper the MSQ/beginner experience is terrible.

Hundreds of hours of fetch quest, go talk to this person, go kill this, etc.. Content gated because of MSQ progression, expansions gated because of MSQ.

I know people are going to disagree, but that's because they are just jaded and they think because they had to do it, others have to do it as well.

[Reap00]

The amount of ridiculous excuses defending the MSQ is just absurd.

This game is not new player friendly in the slightest when it comes to actually jumping into new content.

The barrier is only going to get bigger and bigger as time goes on.

And i know a lot of people use the stupid "Its about the journey, not the destination" line. Its not that way for everyone, and its an mmorpg. The game can't survive with just veteran players, the goal is to bring in new players as well. And on paper the MSQ/beginner experience is terrible.

Hundreds of hours of fetch quest, go talk to this person, go kill this, etc.. Content gated because of MSQ progression, expansions gated because of MSQ.

I know people are going to disagree, but that's because they are just jaded and they think because they had to do it, others have to do it as well.

You post is completely invalidated by the fact that the player base continues to increase. There are periods where it drops off a bit to content lull but overall the player base is growing. If you don't like story don't play a final fantasy game. Many mmos cater to exactly what you want.

[Wynn_Storm]

You post is completely invalidated by the fact that the player base continues to increase. There are periods where it drops off a bit to content lull but overall the player base is growing. If you don't like story don't play a final fantasy game. Many mmos cater to exactly what you want.

My post is not invalidated. You do realize one of the big reasons why the game has grown a lot recently is because the game was given out to a lot of people for free via twitch prime. But i wonder how many of those people actually stick around. I wouldn't say that many. None of my friends that joined via the free twitch prime stuck around. Its a slogfest whether you agree or not. Using the "if you don't like the story" excuse is so overused.

I guess its impossible to fathom that people play just for the gameplay and don't care at all for the story. There are plenty of people like that, that play this game.

[Reap00]

My post is not invalidated. You do realize one of the big reasons why the game has grown a lot recently is because the game was given out to a lot of people for free via twitch prime. But i wonder how many of those people actually stick around. I wouldn't say that many. None of my friends that joined via the free twitch prime stuck around. Its a slogfest whether you agree or not. Using the "if you don't like the story" excuse is so overused.

I guess its impossible to fathom that people play just for the gameplay and don't care at all for the story. There are plenty of people like that, that play this game.

You obviously did not read what I posted. The player population of the game has been rising since launch. There are short periods where it drops off during content lulls but it continually grows.

[Paladinleeds]

My post is not invalidated. You do realize one of the big reasons why the game has grown a lot recently is because the game was given out to a lot of people for free via twitch prime. But i wonder how many of those people actually stick around. I wouldn't say that many. None of my friends that joined via the free twitch prime stuck around. Its a slogfest whether you agree or not. Using the "if you don't like the story" excuse is so overused.

I guess its impossible to fathom that people play just for the gameplay and don't care at all for the story. There are plenty of people like that, that play this game.

As I stated in my previous post, disjoint the duties from the story, and you lose me (some of the stories can't really be condensed into sidequests unfortunately due to how they are). That was one of my reasons for leaving WoW. The deep connection to stories for each duty is what keeps me hooked to FFXIV, and has me taking part in the social experiences, the grinding for gear, the optional extreme primals, etc. And while WoW does have story, the way duties were unlocked, it felt to me like "Well, why do I have this? What's the reason for it?" - with FFXIV, I feel like every primal, every dungeons, every raid, etc, has a purpose behind it. And that's something that if they disjointed the duties from the story completely, would be a real sore point for me and would seriously hamper my enjoyment. Yes, it's only a few hours every 3 months or so, but it builds the foundations for everything else for me.

Now, that's not to say improvements to the story can't be made, of course they can. Plenty filler they could cut out. BUT, the story behind each duty is a major driving factor and removing it would be a serious knock to me. At that point, why not just play WoW?

[LyraKuroneko]

The amount of ridiculous excuses defending the MSQ is just absurd.

This game is not new player friendly in the slightest when it comes to actually jumping into new content.

The barrier is only going to get bigger and bigger as time goes on.

And i know a lot of people use the stupid "Its about the journey, not the destination" line. Its not that way for everyone, and its an mmorpg. The game can't survive with just veteran players, the goal is to bring in new players as well. And on paper the MSQ/beginner experience is terrible.

Hundreds of hours of fetch quest, go talk to this person, go kill this, etc.. Content gated because of MSQ progression, expansions gated because of MSQ.

I know people are going to disagree, but that's because they are just jaded and they think because they had to do it, others have to do it as well.

I'll answer with this :

150H HOW ? With 100h afk ?

try Mapple story 1

If you don't like quests

[uvuvwevwevweonyetenyevweugwemu]

The amount of ridiculous excuses defending the MSQ is just absurd.

This game is not new player friendly in the slightest when it comes to actually jumping into new content.

The barrier is only going to get bigger and bigger as time goes on.

And i know a lot of people use the stupid "Its about the journey, not the destination" line. Its not that way for everyone, and its an mmorpg. The game can't survive with just veteran players, the goal is to bring in new players as well. And on paper the MSQ/beginner experience is terrible.

Hundreds of hours of fetch quest, go talk to this person, go kill this, etc.. Content gated because of MSQ progression, expansions gated because of MSQ.

I know people are going to disagree, but that's because they are just jaded and they think because they had to do it, others have to do it as well.

All I hear from that is "waawaa I can't finish muh pretty endgame stuff in a week because these stupid long quests won't let my friends catch up". You're missing the entire point of MMOs and they DO provide you with jump potions if that's all you want to do. Pay the price or pay the price.

The game DID survive with veteran players, this is a known fact. What -you- and anti-quest folks seems don't get absurdly, is quests literally the heart and core those players stick to create. Yes, even the boring chores that actually forces you to know the region and the npcs. Without it there wouldn't be many player contents to even justify 2.0. That's what MMO is. Not the contents devs rolled every 4 months. You might as well wait for the Final Final expansion if you're only expecting dev content. Why pay $60 to get told "Go watch youtube" ?

[MistakeNot]

This game is not new player friendly in the slightest when it comes to actually jumping into new content.

Of course it isn't. You are not supposed to just jump into the new content. Most of it wouldn't make any sense without playing through the earlier parts of the game anyway.
Luckily there is no need whatsoever to just jump into the newest content.

Playing the game is fun. That some people want to skip most of it, just to get to the newest parts as quick as possible - that is just plain weird.

[SturmChurro]

So if the quests are optional and don't unlock the dungeons (if this isn't what the OP etc are advocating for feel free to correct me), then I feel like "Why am I here?" - I had this problem with WoW. I would unlock a new dungeon... ok, so why am I here? Certain trials and dungeons however absolutely are mandatory to the main scenario such as:

Tsukuyomi: She is a major plot point through the Stormblood MSQ. Making her optional would stop the flow of the duty IMO, you need all the build up for that duty to make sense, else it's just another "Ok, so why am I fighting her?"

The thing is, the story giving definition to each dungeon, trial, and raid (sloppy writing aside, looking at you Omega... but even then, I still enjoyed the duties and felt they had a reason to exist even if they did feel a bit shoehorned in), is exactly why I love this game. Even though I do the grind, I still feel like I've got a reason for every duty I enter. It doesn't just feel like "oh, another dungeon". So yeah, for me, it's the depth I feel gets added from having a story behind each duty.

No, I would rather have a happy medium with and improved, streamlined new player experience. NOT a complete skip - so that new players can actually go back, and do the story, that gets so over hyped here (I have played through it, read, and never skipped any cutscenes except for in a duty). Having the starting experience restructured, and a new, informative, tutorial for players.

New game+ is a bandaid NOT a fix, as someone else stated:

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.

The amount of ridiculous excuses defending the MSQ is just absurd.

This game is not new player friendly in the slightest when it comes to actually jumping into new content.

The barrier is only going to get bigger and bigger as time goes on.

This is the entire point I have been trying to make, a couple more expansions down the line, and people think this is sustainable, because it's a "story game". Give me a break. Skip potions are a lazy, and even greedy, way out for that matter.