Option to unlock content without mandatory MSQ

[Skivvy]

I'm totally with you OP. Also, fair warning, the playerbase rarely responds well to this topic. XIV is the only MMO I've played where it forces you to do a full completion of the story. Even XI didn't go this route (SE's other MMO, for you folks who may be unfamiliar).

Sure, FF as a whole may be known for long stories, but this is also an MMO where it draws in all sorts of people - not just FF fans. I've never completed any other FF title myself, only ever played XI and dabbled in 1.0. I'm glad the story exists for those who enjoy it, but I absolutely think it was a poor decision to force people to complete it just to unlock new content.

And to the argument of "If you don't like the story, this isn't the game for you" - what on earth do you people do once you finish the few hours of story content each patch? For a new player, sure, there is a ton of MSQ to complete (whether or not you want to), but for the large amount of people who are already caught-up, we'd all be stuck twiddling our thumbs if we were only here for the story. Stop hanging onto "THE STORY" as the only reason to play this game.

Did you have to do any of the expansions to do most of what XI allowed you to do? No, but if you want to upgrade like any of the JSE you had to go and do at least CoP. Heck you want to do anything in Rhapsody it makes you go through all the other story lines. Even the three mini dlc make you have to have access to certain zones that you can only access if you've gotten to certain points in those expansions. So while XI doesn't do as much gating that XIV does you can't tell me it doesn't or at least didn't do any form of gating specially if you want some bis parts for certain sets.

Going for BIS was totally up to the person to decide though. If that reward was important enough to them, they would clear the content. The difference here is that SE gave players a choice. They didn't force you to complete 100% of the previous stories just to work on what you actually wanted.