We Really Need To Talk About The State And Path Of FFXIV

[disturbedcobra]

You feel like msq is what the game is primarily about, and that its important for each player to go through it the same way, i disagree. Msq is a book, or a movie, not a game. A game requires that all players follow similar rules, such that its fair, but a book/movie is different. Some people love the movie part of ffxiv, some dont.

Put yourself in someone elses shoes here. Imagine you don't need/like/care about story. Now imagine someone is making you watch 110 hours of something or fast foward through it for 50 hours in order to access the actual game portion. or you can pay 25 dollars.



If the story was actually integral to how the game is played, and an integrated part of the experience, like a pen and paper rpg, i would agree with you, but its simply not. Its a seperate thing which has no effect on your play if other people do it.

We are playing an MMORPG Like most RPGs, the story implementation is just as big to the game as the gameplay itself. Yes, both experiences are separate but that doesn't make one more important then the other. They are both equally as important for the success of the game as a whole. Plus many great developers put their heart and soul in crafting great plots and characters for us to experience, not to be thrown to the wayside. Kazutoyo Maehiro being the main scenario writer has done an amazing job in crafting various likable characters as well as amazing plot. Then there is the world & lore of the entire game done by Koji Fox. Without all that the game would be rather bland. Think CODIV now that they removed the campaign mode.

[Physic]

We are playing an MMORPG Like most RPGs, the story implementation is just as big to the game as the gameplay itself. Yes, both experiences are separate but that doesn't make one more important then the other. They are both equally as important for the success of the game as a whole. Plus many great developers put their heart and soul in crafting great plots and characters for us to experience, not to be thrown to the wayside. Kazutoyo Maehiro being the main scenario writer has done an amazing job in crafting various likable characters as well as amazing plot. Then there is the world & lore of the entire game done by Koji Fox. Without all that the game would be rather bland. Think CODIV now that they removed the campaign mode.

RPG, to many just means creating a charachter, choosing their path, and taking them through the world. Its not always about watching/listening to a long narrative you dont interact with. No one is saying remove msq, people are saying forcing people to watch/listen to 100s of hours of a story isnt going to work for everyone. Also, world and lore isnt the same as msq.

I honestly think youd get more people paying attention to more of the msq, if they werent doing it just to unlock something else. Its like if you told a kid he had to turn 500 pages of basketball book before he could touch a basketball, do you think every kid is going to read it?

[linay]

people are saying forcing people to watch/listen to 100s of hours of a story isnt going to work for everyone.

In my humble opinion, so be it. There are alternative MMORPGs out there, and they all won't work for everyone either. Everyone can choose what works for them and story quests being central to this one game works for me.

[Physic]

In my humble opinion, so be it. There are alternative MMORPGs out there, and they all won't work for everyone either. Everyone can choose what works for them and story quests being central to this one game works for me.

story locks are a dumb hill to die on. All mmos are in a constant war of attrition, its not a good idea to make the game less and less appealing for new players.


Also When we first started, the game was cap 50, and msq wasnt as big of an impediment/segregation of players. Now, the game will have like 3 times the obstacles/segregation. The idea that the current state is the game as it was always meant to be is false. We are currently in an unintended side effect of years of linear expansions, Where old players and new players are 120+ hours apart based on story. There are less and less players reaching max story, and thus experiencing the content. Something is wrong, do nothing, and the game will suffer for it.

[Kalise]

There are less and less players reaching max story, and thus experiencing the content. Something is wrong, do nothing, and the game will suffer for it.

Since... According to Yoshida, the game's population has been increasing over SB.

I see no shortage of people at max level, doing max level content. Meaning that they must have reached max story.

Yet you claim, less and less players are reaching max story and that the game is suffering because of it?

So, it must be that you have proof of this?

[Physic]

Since... According to Yoshida, the game's population has been increasing over SB.

I see no shortage of people at max level, doing max level content. Meaning that they must have reached max story.

Yet you claim, less and less players are reaching max story and that the game is suffering because of it?

So, it must be that you have proof of this?

Only 2.5% of charachters have reached 4.1 story as of april. Even assuming the average player has 10 charachters, thats still only 25% of the population. and i doubt the average player has 10 charachters.


https://ffxivcensus.com/#top

[Kalise]

Only 2.5% of charachters have reached 4.1 story as of april. Even assuming the average player has 10 charachters, thats still only 25% of the population. and i doubt the average player has 10 charachters.


https://ffxivcensus.com/#top

Do you also have statistics of how many people reached end of story for previous expansions?

Do these statistics include the many thousands of Bot accounts that don't do the story at all? (Further suggested by looking at the class distribution where the base classes far, far outweigh the stand alone jobs in the "All Characters" graph, while the "Active Characters" graph has a much more expected even distribution)

How does those 9,858,714 deleted characters factor into this?

Have you seen the graph for Grand Company inclusion? With the "All Characters" one showing nearly 3/4 of the entire population do not belong to a Grand Company, which means not getting to around level 20 in the MSQ?

You might want to consider the validity of the data you provide if you're using it as "Proof"

[Mirassou]

Only 2.5% of charachters have reached 4.1 story as of april. Even assuming the average player has 10 charachters, thats still only 25% of the population. and i doubt the average player has 10 charachters.


https://ffxivcensus.com/#top

I don't think that proves your point though - as in they are where they are because they don't like/are getting bogged down by the MSQ.

Just relating my personal experience, I recently returned, just finished ARR (oh my gosh, that ending was amazing - yes lots of long cutscenes and they were fantastic!). I was so completely immersed in the story and wanted to know what happens next!

And now I'm almost finished with HW, and I am still so immersed in everything going on. And I still have another expansion to look forward to, before Shadowbringers!

This is definitely a story-centric MMO (imo), and it's really the reason I came back. Plus, the new zones in HW show so much creativity and originality - love them! And it's great to get flying halfway through (or thereabouts) so that you can really really appreciate the improved movement in the zones (after having traversed them on foot for many quests).

I have lots of alts that I created on multiple servers but really don't play. If you look at characters on Lodestone, people save names on multiple servers, all level 1. I believe there are a lot of created characters that aren't consistently played. If these characters are included in that census, then that data is really skewed. (imo)

[linay]

story locks are a dumb hill to die on. All mmos are in a constant war of attrition, its not a good idea to make the game less and less appealing for new players.


Also When we first started, the game was cap 50, and msq wasnt as big of an impediment/segregation of players. Now, the game will have like 3 times the obstacles/segregation. The idea that the current state is the game as it was always meant to be is false. We are currently in an unintended side effect of years of linear expansions, Where old players and new players are 120+ hours apart based on story. There are less and less players reaching max story, and thus experiencing the content. Something is wrong, do nothing, and the game will suffer for it.

When we first started, there was no boost option either, but now there is.

And it's not about having some hill to die on, but about a game feature that I like and, thus, want to keep. Could the MSQ be restructured so the quests are more to the point of the major plot points and can be done faster? Sure, it could, and I'd be OK with that. But making it not MSQ by turning it into optional side quests separated from the major points of the story where the character goes to dungeons/trials/raids is not OK for me.

[Physic]

When we first started, there was no boost option either, but now there is.

And it's not about having some hill to die on, but about a game feature that I like and, thus, want to keep. Could the MSQ be restructured so the quests are more to the point of the major plot points and can be done faster? Sure, it could, and I'd be OK with that. But making it not MSQ by turning it into optional side quests separated from the major points of the story where the character goes to dungeons/trials/raids is not OK for me.

i'm not saying remove story and context from dungeons/raids/alliances.

i'm saying have an option players must seek out, to remove msq lockouts for multi player content. Msq is a poor, non adaptive means of gating players from each other. Especially after like level 30-45 when the mechanics of the game world is basically the same from that point on.



Story wise it doesnt even make sense that everyone be in these dungeons for the same reason, So i dont see how other players motivations/knowledge is worth them quitting the game, so you can play with msq heads, tenacious story skippers, and people who buy potions.

I can see how many more players would opt out of msq if there was an option, but that tells you they really never cared about it. I can see people saying the context is less compelling without context, but we are talking about an option specifically for players repelled by the way that context is delivered.

I'm not going to suggest cutting up msq to make it more streamlined, because that messes it up for those who loved it; of whom there are apparently many.