My problem with leveling up in FFXIV.

[OhnoozeMyToes]

I really think a lot of people are missing what I'm saying. I was not saying FFXIV has too much reading and traveling. I was just asking if anyone else feels like they spend most their time reading and traveling and not interacting with what little time they may have. I understand lore and reading text and story is part of an RPG. I'm not new to this as I have played a ton of MMOs and single player RPGs. Again the point was when I don't have a lot of time and I have been working all day I want game time that I'm more involved in. It's not a dig at the game, it's more about my situation really. I will admit that ffxiv has more reading than I think it needs but it's no deal breaker.

[Nora_of_Mira]

I really think a lot of people are missing what I'm saying. I was not saying FFXIV has too much reading and traveling. I was just asking if anyone else feels like they spend most their time reading and traveling and not interacting with what little time they may have. I understand lore and reading text and story is part of an RPG. I'm not new to this as I have played a ton of MMOs and single player RPGs. Again the point was when I don't have a lot of time and I have been working all day I want game time that I'm more involved in. It's not a dig at the game, it's more about my situation really. I will admit that ffxiv has more reading than I think it needs but it's no deal breaker.

I think convincing those in this thread is a lost cause at this point, but your point was at least received by some that understand. I work a typical 9-5 with a lengthy drive home, so I can relate. What I had to do in this situation was decide what I was going to dedicate the time to before even logging on. So like, "today im only doing story/ or leveling/ or alt job stuff". Disclaimer: that was only me during the ARR > HW > SB > ShB progression time.

The way i handle my time is very different now that I'm participating in endgame and have time to basically do anything I want. I think to enjoy the most out of the story is to set aside 2-3 hours minimum to just focus on questing, reading, running around, etc. Chunks of story time like that seemed work best for me. Then the next chunk of time I maybe spent running dungeons for levels or whatever.

[linay]

I was not saying FFXIV has too much reading and traveling. I was just asking if anyone else feels like they spend most their time reading and traveling and not interacting with what little time they may have.

when I don't have a lot of time and I have been working all day I want game time that I'm more involved in.

That's essentially saying the same thing. You have time you've allocated to play FFXIV, and you think the amount of reading and traveling there is to do is not giving you room to do things you'd rather be doing.

There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't take that view as I think reading and traveling is part of engaging with the content and thus being involved in it (at least for the first playthrough).

Again, you're in control of how you spend your time, but the game is what it is.

[Makeda]

I really think a lot of people are missing what I'm saying. I was not saying FFXIV has too much reading and traveling. I was just asking if anyone else feels like they spend most their time reading and traveling and not interacting with what little time they may have. I understand lore and reading text and story is part of an RPG. I'm not new to this as I have played a ton of MMOs and single player RPGs. Again the point was when I don't have a lot of time and I have been working all day I want game time that I'm more involved in. It's not a dig at the game, it's more about my situation really. I will admit that ffxiv has more reading than I think it needs but it's no deal breaker.

FFXIV straddles an odd point between single-player RPG, super casual-MMO, and extreme-hardcore-MMO.

Until Stormblood it hadn't quite found the right balance for all of that. It got good with Heavensward, but not perfectly so.

The 2.0 stuff is rough. It was passable in 2013 as a good MMO, but it wasn't the top MMO back then for good reason. It was just, good enough to be saved from destruction.

In the 2.0 content (level 1-50) you will see some odd pacing, a lack of purpose for many sidequests (this was actually patched in later as leveling was originally requiring too many side quests), and a whole lot of pointless going-here-and-there... A lot of things have tedious levels of grind to them, masked as MSQ quests. Such as all of the quests with the 'company of heroes' to unlock a primal fight. They didn't quite have an ideal grasp of pacing and they were more focused on making sure the game could regain, if not the love, at least the acceptance of Final Fantasy hardcore fandom.

With the expansions they realized they had a viable game, and they started getting bigger budgets to make things better done.

But the game does keep a LOT of elements that are more typical of a solo-RPG, all the intense focus on the main quest. Something even Elder Scrolls Online doesn't do (and that game is from a company even more known for RPGs, but they subcontracted the MMO and maybe that's what sets it apart).

At times and up to a certain point in progress this is a super casual MMO. Basically 'win' is force-fed to you until the day you queue up for max-level extreme primal and savage raiding.

And then you find this to be arguably one of the most hardcore MMOs on the market (from what I have been told, Guild Wars 2 raiding has the same issue only more extreme) - raiding here is absurdly elitist, petty, hostile, meter-tracking, and hardcore... I see things like adverts for raids calling themselves 'midcore' because they only raid 8-hours a day / 3-4 days a week... and compared to some, they're correct...

(midcore is a term I have only seen here, and basically in games like WoW the same community would be called 'hardcore').

You're in the lull... and sadly this thread has let you see the game does have it's share of elitist jerks. And unlike in WoW where that term is an internal lovingly noted joke for a set of friendly folks, here it is actually a description for one of the sub-communities.

BUT, they're not the majority here...

I suggest stepping back from your thread and the argument you've landed in, because that's not typical of what you'll usually see here. And even once you hit the 'extreme' and 'savage' level of things, friendly casual folks exist - but they are not as easy to find here as in WoW...

(in the pre-raid community WoW is toxic, while WoW raiders are extremely nice and accepting of newbies. The exact opposite is usually true here...)

[Jojoya]

I really think a lot of people are missing what I'm saying. I was not saying FFXIV has too much reading and traveling. I was just asking if anyone else feels like they spend most their time reading and traveling and not interacting with what little time they may have. I understand lore and reading text and story is part of an RPG. I'm not new to this as I have played a ton of MMOs and single player RPGs. Again the point was when I don't have a lot of time and I have been working all day I want game time that I'm more involved in. It's not a dig at the game, it's more about my situation really. I will admit that ffxiv has more reading than I think it needs but it's no deal breaker.

When you're working on the story quests, there's absolutely a lot of time reading (or watching cutscenes) because that's how you learn the story. You're free to skip the reading if you feel it takes too much time and just follow the quest objectives listed in your objective tracker. I know a few players who have done it (though most of them regretted it later when they realized it was a story worth following and they had no clue what had been happening).

Travel time isn't as bad as it seems. It's an important part of the world building and story telling. Things would be boring if everything was happening in the same small location.

It's your situation and what you want to get out of your limited game time that makes some of the posters wonder if this is the right game for you. The MSQ format is what it is, an immersive storytelling experience that isn't likely to appeal to players who want less story and a lot more action. SE is unlikely to change it.

There is plenty of content that is more combat focused that you could be doing, but ultimately it's going to hinder progressing your character if you neglect the MSQ since MSQ blocks access to new locations and new content. The game should feel better once you get caught up to the end of the current MSQ but there's a lot of content you need to get done before you're there - and that's going to mean spending a lot of your time reading and travelling.

Ultimately it's up to you to decide if the game is giving you what you want for your leisure time. MMORPGs can be very difficult to get into when your leisure time for the week is broken up into multiple small blocks of time instead of a few large blocks of time. It's something you need to take into consideration.