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.

[dangadget]

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.

Counterpoint.
Being invested in the story is the only reason the endgame holds any interest for me whatsoever.
I could care less about the Ruby Weapon gear, but I'm very interested in whatever connection Shadowhunter has to it.
Likewise, I don't care about the Edengrace gear in and of itself, but I'm very interested in the continuing story of Rynne and now Gaia.
It works both ways

[Skivvy]

Counterpoint.
Being invested in the story is the only reason the endgame holds any interest for me whatsoever.
I could care less about the Ruby Weapon gear, but I'm very interested in whatever connection Shadowhunter has to it.
Likewise, I don't care about the Edengrace gear in and of itself, but I'm very interested in the continuing story of Rynne and now Gaia.
It works both ways

I'm sorry, but the amount of time spent in dungeons/raids/trials from the MSQ in order to continue your story is only the tiniest fraction of the overall hours you spend running around with the hundreds of various quests (far too many of these being awful fetch quests to boot).

[SannaR]

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.

Only up to the person if they didn't want to do the hardest content. The XI playerbase wouldn't even take a smn who didn't have Alexander back before the PD nerf to events and that's before gear was even thought of. Depending on the job you came as to any event you better look like you were working on getting BiS or were known to have skills or you were seen by most on the server as gimping any group you joined or at least come as a whm. Oh and you better know the current meta or you were again left behind.

Also that's just gear if we go to travel most of the best ways to get around the world requires you to have done a lot if not most of the various storylines. One even makes you have to go through one of the citystates storylines just so you can get a key item that allows you not need two other people to open a door.

[Skivvy]

Only up to the person if they didn't want to do the hardest content. The XI playerbase wouldn't even take a smn who didn't have Alexander back before the PD nerf to events and that's before gear was even thought of. Depending on the job you came as to any event you better look like you were working on getting BiS or were known to have skills or you were seen by most on the server as gimping any group you joined or at least come as a whm. Oh and you better know the current meta or you were again left behind.

Also that's just gear if we go to travel most of the best ways to get around the world requires you to have done a lot if not most of the various storylines. One even makes you have to go through one of the citystates storylines just so you can get a key item that allows you not need two other people to open a door.

But again, the path in which you experienced the game was your own choice.

XI didn't force you to get BIS items. Some groups may have required that, but it was nowhere near a requirement to play the game and do well at your jobs. No different than how certain XIV PF/Static groups require extremely high gear for their groups. It's nowhere near a requirement set by SE, but if you want to play with that group, you'll do what needs to be done.

Options are a fantastic thing to have in an MMO. I don't think anyone here is saying to remove the story, simply make some of it optional.

[SannaR]

But again, the path in which you experienced the game was your own choice.

XI didn't force you to get BIS items. Some groups may have required that, but it was nowhere near a requirement to play the game and do well at your jobs. No different than how certain XIV PF/Static groups require extremely high gear for their groups. It's nowhere near a requirement set by SE, but if you want to play with that group, you'll do what needs to be done.

Options are a fantastic thing to have in an MMO. I don't think anyone here is saying to remove the story, simply make some of it optional.

Does SE make you do all that in XI? No but this thread is about making something optional so you can get to end game things. Then the whole XI doesn't lock you out of it's end game when it actually does as you have to advance whatever story or stories you need to advance until you're able to go and do which ever end game event you want to do. You want to do any end game event in a Seekers zone? You're going to have to go and do that storyline. unless they lately took off all the unlocks as I quit soon after it was being put into maintenance mode. Again if you want to actually get anywhere in XI without it taking a long time you'll have to go do various stories so that you can unlock all of the short cuts. Also you're not going to convince me that the majority of the player base didn't laugh at you if you didn't own a Byakko's Hidate for the longest time for certain jobs.