New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Reap00]

Blah blah blah. Your arguments are baseless. I am going to go play the game I love. I am going to read everything. I am going to watch EVERY SINGLE CUTSCENE. I am going rub sacred oils all over my body while I do it. Deal with it.

[MarniDawg]

It should just be included in your stormblood purchase.

So basically what I said earlier, salt over things not being free. I understand now. *thumbsup* carry on

[Wynn_Storm]

Blah blah blah. Your arguments are baseless. I am going to go play the game I love. I am going to read everything. I am going to watch EVERY SINGLE CUTSCENE. I am going rub sacred oils all over my body while I do it. Deal with it.

Lol what a cop out.

You act as if we don't love the game as well, i wouldn't be playing if i didn't.

But yeah go ahead and watch every cutscene. You are sure showing me.

So basically what I said earlier, salt over things not being free. I understand now. *thumbsup* carry on

Lol your argument is so full of it. You just can't fathom the idea of good practices to bring in new players.

But *shrug* okay, you keep being ignorant. I'm not going to waste my time.

[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.

[MarniDawg]

Lol your argument is so full of it. You just can't fathom the idea of good practices to bring in new players.

But *shrug* okay, you keep being ignorant. I'm not going to waste my time.

ok I'll bite. Other than giving out free story skips, what good practices would you suggest that they have already stated that they would work on fixing?

[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.

[Paladinleeds]

Lol your argument is so full of it. You just can't fathom the idea of good practices to bring in new players.

But *shrug* okay, you keep being ignorant. I'm not going to waste my time.

While I can definitely agree to chucking in a Stormblood story skip as part of the expansion as a good business practice (perhaps with pointers to Palace of the Dead and Heaven on High and stuff for levelling, since I'm almost certain the ARR/HW story skips include POTD), I just think that Square Enix won't do it, as it won't seemingly help their numbers. Therein lies my main issue. It just doesn't look financially viable to Square Enix, and apparently the only reason we got them in the first place is because the Chinese version had them. The NA/EU/JP versions AFAIK weren't supposed to even get them. As a result, Square Enix don't want to give one away for free. It sucks, but it is what it is I guess. The reason I can agree to this, is because it preserves the story for those interested in it (such as myself), while also allowing newbies who don't care much for the story to also get stuck in, as well as those who want to get to endgame and look at the story later thanks to NG+. I don't know any other solutions that could make a variety of different parties happy

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.

Now you see, I can agree with a more streamlined experience, so long as there's still the meaning behind each duty. Perhaps trimming the fat on some of the quests (e.g. the 2.1-2.55 shenanigans), for a more streamlined experience, but one that doesn't detract from the story (such as why we're going into each duty). That is a happy medium I can accept.

[Pywalli]

You act as if we don't love the game as well, i wouldn't be playing if i didn't.

If you like the game why you want to skip most of the game ?

[SturmChurro]

If you like the game why you want to skip most of the game ?

WE. LIKE. THE. GAMEPLAY. THE MMO ELEMENTS.

You literally have to hammer it into someones skull. Christ. Pages upon pages, upon pages, upon pages.