why i quit before reaching endgame (feedback from a new player)

[Physic]

OK, let's talk about XI. I'll fetch my rose-tinted glasses.

They did, and they didn't force story in XI. It depends how you want to look at it.

XI made a point to make each expansion separate from any other expansion. So you didn't have to complete one story to go into the next. In that regard, XI's story wasn't "forced."

However, that being said, XI did force story completion. The main story had to be completed past the Shadowlord to open up Dynamis. The rest of the city stories were extra. Zilart had to be completed nearly to the end to open up Sky, its endgame content. CoP had to be completed to open up Limbus and Sea. Not to mention a certain part of it had to be completed to open up Dreamworld Dynamis. ToAU needed enough completion to reach Nyzul, more completion to do Salvage, and full completion (plus Assault rank) for Einherjar. WotG needed some slight progression to reach WoE, but had very little endgame content aside from that; making the story trivial for that expansion. Abyssea and the other 3 add-ons were all story driven, and somewhat forced progression. SoA had completion checkpoints to access Delve and Skirmish, but I feel they stopped caring about the story in this expansion. Rhapsodies even needs completion to a certain point to open up content.

XIV went a different path and made an overall connected story arc. Thus "forcing" the main story to be completed.

XI's case was actually a failure on many levels, imo. The main story probably should have been forced more, and had more incentive to help others do it. XI is extremely hard to get back into, and especially hard to get back into and finish up any story you missed.

XIV actually has incentives, and reasons to do story. So the people that actually enjoy that thing, have some help along the way. They've also done a lot to make the story, for the most part, soloable in many regards. Which is another area where it succeeds.

Regardless, forced or unforced, it doesn't negate that the story played a significant role in FFXI overall.

See... I'd disagree here. There really isn't that much to do after finishing the story, and I personally don't understand everyone's rush to skip the story or ignore it. It's a large part of the game. Eureka was probably the biggest grind (time sink) they have added to endgame in XIV, and I have a love/hate relationship with it. The rest of the content, however, is repeated raids/dungeons ad nauseam to get loots, which end up completely useless after a short time. Especially useless when the next expansion rolls out. Not to mention the only reason the gear exists, is to help you meet ilvl requirements for... more story, or... more raid.

the only reason its any harder to do do ffxi stories, is because they are not completely solo.

also, if you are going to have locks, i think ffxi way was better, because it would have a better balance of story and leveling. Part of the problem with ffxiv, is you can only abandon the story for very small parts before being locked from relevant content. Ffxi also seperated different types of main story. this way it was more adpatable to player goals, and how the player played.

there was a national mission line, a zilart mission line, promathia line, etc

its also a lot less discreet parts, and built in to each story is some portions that are adventure/battle related. (not 1-2 minute fights between 15 minutes of teleport npc tag))


Now, they could do something similar for ffxiv, but that would be much larger endeavor. They could seperate out the tutorial/city/grand company stuff, move some parts to sidequests, and add a start point at each expansion. They could also make bigger chunks of dungeons unlock at once, so players dont have do it every couple levels.


but thats a lot more expensive production wise than just giving each account a way to unlock story content, then set new game plus to chapter one, which are already built.


the goal is not to make ffxiv not have any story, the goal is to make playing the game more natural, and adapt to different player types.