Option to unlock content without mandatory MSQ

[sauc]

Of course there is because how the game is played affects how the story would be experienced. If they make the story optional for people who don't like story, it's only fair that they make dungeons optional for people who don't like dungeons.

The next thing you know, you have a dungeon that doesn't have a story of why you're there or you have a story that doesn't go to any dungeon/raid.

Yep I agree with you, if you don't like dungeons you shouldn't have to either. And I'm thinking that's one of the reasons they created trusts too, so they feel more like your usual msq instanced events than a dungeon.

Dungeons don't have to be tied to the msq either that's just something square ended up doing. I can go into blackrock depths despite never having done searing gorge or burning steppes, but if I do want to know why I'm in there,I can go find out.

[linay]

Yep I agree with you, if you don't like dungeons you shouldn't have to either. And I'm thinking that's one of the reasons they created trusts too, so they feel more like your usual msq instanced events than a dungeon.

Dungeons don't have to be tied to the msq either that's just something square ended up doing. I can go into blackrock depths despite never having done searing gorge or burning steppes, but if I do want to know why I'm in there,I can go find out.

And that messes with the story. You want to do roulette, but you just reached a level that could get you a dungeon that you haven't done the story for (if there is one), there goes that roulette if you want to experience the story going into that dungeon.

And no, I don't think that dungeon should be optional. There are plenty of single player activities in this game.

[sauc]

And that messes with the story. You want to do roulette, but you just reached a level that could get you a dungeon that you haven't done the story for (if there is one), there goes that roulette if you want to experience the story going into that dungeon.

And no, I don't think that dungeon should be optional. There are plenty of single player activities in this game.

You're saying there's a large amount of people out there who would have their gaming experience ruined to the point of quitting over the fact that their dungeon,which they can still manually queue for, wasn't COMPLETELY chronological? If it's truly gamebreaking that much they can just leave. The thing even explains to you what the roulette does and shows you everything that's unlocked. What is someone doing rouletting in the first place anyway if they are all about the msq. This whole situation seems like some extreme cherry picked outlier.

It's only going to get worse as time goes on by the way, 6 years from now no amount of arr trimming will make up for having to go through 6 expansions before reaching endgame, it's not something they can keep ignoring.

Other games solve that problem by reducing the exp required to level or giving you a higher level character or whatever, but that's not helpful here since all it does is make you outlevel the msq that you have to do anyway.That's what road to 60 did for me when I started. Is the plan to just keep trimming and trimming and trimming until the story is a just a former shell of itself?

[Makeda]

Are you kidding me? This is a troll bait?

If we were over in WoW, Black Desert Online, or Neverwinter sure... it would not be troll bait...

But this is a Final Fantasy game.

It is akin to asking if we can go to a movie and just see the end credit on repeat...

If you want a game where there's nothing to do until you "finish" the game... this is not the game for you.

[Skivvy]

And I've still yet to actually get a response from either of you about why you continue to play, when the main appeal of the game (to many, especially with the games design featuring this, mind!) is the story.

You never asked me why I still play (not a mindreader here, gotta help me out). But as it seems you're curious, I've always liked collecting mounts/minions/glamours, etc. BSing with friends or just hanging out was fun, although most have quit now. I still keep up with the beast tribes (this ties more into the mount/glam/minion collection), and I tend to really like the 24-man raids. I love me some fantasias, and running around as a cute Lala. A while back I also took to leveling all of my jobs & classes to 80, almost done now. I'm sure there is more, but that should be enough for this conversation.

However the "stupid mindset" you state is rather odd, if not laughable at best. What do you personally expect from a Final Fantasy game, exactly. If not its main selling point?

My experience with Square Enix games is pretty much XI (their only other successful MMO*), and XIV.

I started playing XI back in the day after a coworker invited me to play with them. I thought the game was amazing. I loved exploring the world, met some really fun people, Dymamis was my jam, got up to drunk shenanigans in Sky, learned how to solo NMs with my Corsair, worked on collecting gear - pretty much your typical run of the mill for MMO* activities. The story never factored into it for me at all. Keep in mind that XI does in fact have an enormous MSQ story to be had for those who want it, quite befitting for an SE title. It's just wasn't my thing at the time. The great thing is that I could simply do the quests I needed to unlock whatever specific content / items I was aiming for, and could ignore the rest until I was needing it (if ever).

Just to note, *MMO is the vital keyword up above and to this conversation. This is not one of their single-player games where linear progression is to be expected. As this is an MMO, it shouldn't try to shoehorn players to follow a rigid path. Some guidance never hurts, but as it is now, if you want to do current endgame, you are required to complete 100% of the old MSQ - and that's just crazy. And a huge turn off for many. There is probably a good reason why Yoshi and crew are working on revamping the old story content. If it was perfectly fine as is, why would they bother fixing 6 year old content?

So yeah, MMOs - they attract people with all sorts of interests. I think I'm pretty decent proof that you can thoroughly enjoy one of SE's MMOs without giving two shakes about the story.

I strongly feel that telling people to find another game simply because they aren't interested in the story is a very bad way to go about things.

[linay]

You're saying there's a large amount of people out there who would have their gaming experience ruined to the point of quitting over the fact that their dungeon,which they can still manually queue for, wasn't COMPLETELY chronological? If it's truly gamebreaking that much they can just leave. The thing even explains to you what the roulette does and shows you everything that's unlocked. What is someone doing rouletting in the first place anyway if they are all about the msq. This whole situation seems like some extreme cherry picked outlier.

Roulette is one main way of gearing and leveling in this game. It shows how this change would affect people who do care about story. Just leave after you've entered a dungeon is not a solution.

It's only going to get worse as time goes on by the way, 6 years from now no amount of arr trimming will make up for having to go through 6 expansions before reaching endgame, it's not something they can keep ignoring.

Other games solve that problem by reducing the exp required to level or giving you a higher level character or whatever, but that's not helpful here since all it does is make you outlevel the msq that you have to do anyway.That's what road to 60 did for me when I started. Is the plan to just keep trimming and trimming and trimming until the story is a just a former shell of itself?

I don't see a problem. You do the story once per character or buy a jump potion.

[Halivel]

Newgame+ does indeed kind of make this possible for them. However, buying story + level skip is kind of a dedication and costs quite a lot of money (too much if you ask me). It also seems kind of awkward to play through the MSQ of latest expansion without having experienced former story. The story of previous content will also get spoiled (same when you unlock the instances without MSQ I guess, but likely to lesser extend).

Is it expensive? Well, yes. But it's probably less expensive than the time you would actually spend doing it all, so here is the price if you want to do things fast. Do your choice.

Also, even if MSQ was optional, people still would spoil it to themselves once they go into high end content. Eden alone is deeply connected with both Shadowbringers and Stormblood. It's connected even to A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, as the 50% of main cast there is same, and battles are in deep referencing to what we do in the past. What's next then? Optional high-end content storyline, too? Designing battles in a way so they won't spoil anything? Because making MSQ optional will affect team's freedom in what they can do with side content, either high-end or not. Are we still in FF14 even at all at that point? Or is it another game with same title, torn in order to "please more people", even though it successfully pleased more and more people with every new expansion the way it was originally designed?

And all of this for the sake of people that care only about multiplayer and nothing else? Maybe said people, if it disturbs them that much, should go and play games that are suitable for them instead of coming here and trying to throw its core away, to only cry "you broke the game, SE!" later, because that's what would actually happen?

It's one thing to ask for adding more clothes, character creation options and fixing jobs. Coming here and saying "you know what, can we, just, eh, change the way game supposed to work?" is completely another. There are plenty of games that are already designed the way you want them to be. No need to make FF14 the copy of them.

[sauc]

Roulette is one main way of gearing and leveling in this game. It shows how this change would affect people who do care about story. Just leave after you've entered a dungeon is not a solution.

I don't see a problem. You do the story once per character or buy a jump potion.

Well, they are already trimming it so you may not see a problem, but square clearly does, and eventually they will have to do it again

[linay]

Well, they are already trimming it so you may not see a problem, but square clearly does, and eventually they will have to do it again

Trimming is not necessarily making MSQ optional to unlock content. It's shortening what is in the MSQ, which I support.

At least, that's from what I can gather. We'll find out more details when they're ready to tell us.

[scerviche]

I'm only playing this game because of the story. Hell i think this game would be better if it was just single player rather then a WoW clone mmo. But its still fun.