Can we start getting serious about having ARR restructured?

[MistakeNot]

Finally: What renders it pointless, exactly? What about the MSQ becomes irrelevant to *you* if Johnny Raider who you probably don't even interact with, opts to spam FATEs or dungeons to 80 anyway? You do know there exist people who just put a movie in their other monitor and skip all the MSQ text and cutscenes *right now*, right? And they've existed since ARR's inception.

Those people exist. The game should not pander to them, or be changed to suit them better. That kind of people is not who I would want to attract to FFXIV though. As long as they are a small minority they are not much of a problem, but too many of them and things will start to change to accomodate them, and that would be a bad thing.
People who don't care about the story are perfectly welcome to play some other game that suits them better.

[Verlyn]

Those people exist. The game should not pander to them, or be changed to suit them better. That kind of people is not who I would want to attract to FFXIV though. As long as they are a small minority they are not much of a problem, but too many of them and things will start to change to accomodate them, and that would be a bad thing.
People who don't care about the story are perfectly welcome to play some other game that suits them better.

Too late for that noise. Yoshi-P not only released skip potions, he also acknowledged he wants to go back to ARR and rebuild the MSQ for pacing. If only a small minority of players wanted something done to alleviate the pressure of the MSQ, this topic wouldn't keep coming up and Yoshida wouldn't have acknowledged it in any way.

If a compromise where literally everyone-- including you-- can have what they want is not palatable for you, I don't know what to tell you.

[Jeeves72]

I just want it to be more fun to follow the story...and right now the only major problem with it is that parts of ARR drag on too much, particularly the 100 quests leading up to heavensward. Like you said, there are already skip potions for those who truly don't care about the story, and there's cutscene replays and NG+ for those who may change their mind later. I think your idea is a bit roundabout and doesn't add a whole lot when compared to the options that already exist.

I think there's plenty of people who don't care how long it takes to catch up to current content as long as they're having fun getting there. MMOs are really all about the journey after all -- there is no destination, to be honest. Even endgame is just part of the journey to what's next.

I do think there's something to be lost by making the story more optional than it already is, but it's not easily quantified.

[Sekundess]

New player here, currently I've arrived to shadowbringers content and I'm doing the MSQ. All I can say is that being forced to follow the story only to unlock new dungeons or classes (AST and MCH) was the worst experience that I had as a player. It's not that I don't like the story of this game, but I don't care for that at all, I just want to play this game with my friends at my own pace, and I wanted to be free to skip contents or maps if I want to, yet I'm still playing because of the friendships that I've made, not because the story of the game, even if it's a Final Fantasy, it doesn't mean that you have to make the story of the game a chore, it should be optional, as many MMO's do.

[kidalutz]

New player here, currently I've arrived to shadowbringers content and I'm doing the MSQ. All I can say is that being forced to follow the story only to unlock new dungeons or classes (AST and MCH) was the worst experience that I had as a player. It's not that I don't like the story of this game, but I don't care for that at all, I just want to play this game with my friends at my own pace, and I wanted to be free to skip contents or maps if I want to, yet I'm still playing because of the friendships that I've made, not because the story of the game, even if it's a Final Fantasy, it doesn't mean that you have to make the story of the game a chore, it should be optional, as many MMO's do.

No offense but dude if you're not doing any of the story then you're missing half the game that is the entire point of it being a Final Fantasy title thats why it's not optional.

[HumanNinjaToo]

As I'm sure we all know, A Realm Reborn is by far the biggest road block for new players, and it's essentially the only reason we cannot recommend the game without throwing in a hefty caveat re: how much of a slog ARR is. There's also the problem of players being overleveled by the time they hit Heavensward.

I don't think it would be too big of an undertaking for the developer to pare down the number of quests (imagine an ARR postgame consisting of, say, 20 quests), and possibly even turning a few of the dungeons currently required for story progression into optional dungeons. They could smooth things over with altered dialogue in order to shuffle around some story events if need be.

While they're at it, they could standardize the outdated AoE/mechanics markers in older content to be more consistent with what players will see in the rest of the game.

I would gladly have paid $10 to skip all the 2.x stuff and just add the dungeons/trials to my DF. I was excited about getting to HW content and I'm so numb of MSQ I'm not even reading text or watching cutscenes anymore... Thank the lord I've only got 6 MSQ to go before I unlock HW!

EDIT: My reasoning for wanting to skip 2.x, BTW, is just my personal opinion of this particular story arc being so long and drawn out. It could easily be condensed, lore wise, and be done and over with relatively quickly. Most of theses damn quests are going from A to B for 3 or 4 dialogue bubbles, so the bog is all the pointless travelling around Eorzea. It comes across as a bunch of filler quests.

[HumanNinjaToo]

No offense but dude if you're not doing any of the story then you're missing half the game that is the entire point of it being a Final Fantasy title thats why it's not optional.

This may be your reason for playing FF games. Not necessarily why everyone else plays them. I think you're doing a disservice to the franchise if you're saying that the entire point to FF is story.

[Sekundess]

No offense but dude if you're not doing any of the story then you're missing half the game that is the entire point of it being a Final Fantasy title thats why it's not optional.

True, it's a Final Fantasy game, but it's still an MMO, not a single player one. You can't force a player to play 300+hr of main story, it should always be a player choice, I like the story or I want to know what happens? I'll play it, I'm not interested at all and I want to rush content? I should have the opportunity if I want to, in the end. It's like travelling by car or by plane, let everyone feel free to enjoy the game how they want to enjoy it, it's the essence of an MMO.

[gnatters]

I don't expect any past content to be changed. The team just doesn't ever seem to be interested in it. I'd be surprised if this possibility is ever even addressed again. It's a shame, of course. It would be really rad to see ARR get a good rework and maybe even bits of HW reworked to incorporate certain gameplay elements (such as introducing Roleplaying Quests earlier than the content between SB and ShB), but I wouldn't expect it.

[Jeeves72]

Well well well....per the live letter, it sounds like they're actually getting around to doing it, and they're trying to get it done by 5.3. Cheers all around, now let's hope it's a substantial change.