Option to unlock content without mandatory MSQ

[Munin]

personally i wish there was some way to simply unlock features without being plot-quest linked. i skip all the story entirely anyway. just intersted in grouping up and doing mechanics/char building with friends. once i've done it once, no interest in doing it again, and the real reason i dont bother with alts at all (to FFs credit they arent needed though since one char can be all jobs, which i like). would rather not slog through hundreds of senseless quests ill ignore anyway just to group with friends that have been around longer and are months of grinding ahead of me to team up with (with the amount of time i have free to do stuff nowadays, yes it could take me that long).

[van_arn]

All of the sidquest stuff should be unlockable with a single button, but the MSQ is the MSQ for a variety of reasons.

That's not to say the MSQ is way too long, though. It needs to be heavily edited, and portions skip-able, so a new player can catch up to the "current season" quickly.

No, a jump potion isn't a suitable replacement for proper, professional editing.

[linay]

Just read a recent Reddit thread on Reddit.com/r/MMORPG that is somewhat relevant to this thread, and saw a comment that imo offers a very interesting perspective.

Comment from u/Hikari_Netto https://www.reddit.com/r/MMORPG/comm...m_medium=web2x :



The whole Reddit thread in general is a pretty interesting read to get perspective from MMORPG fans (it definitely isn't the first one regarding newcomer FFXIV experience).

Btw this is not meant as criticism against the pro mandatory MSQ, cause you will find in that thread many to be in favor of MSQ like most here. Just some interesting points and insights.

I think it depends on the person. I started playing in January of 2017 and thoroughly enjoyed playing through the entire MSQ up to that point. In fact, it's worse now for me that I have to stop and wait a few more more months to continue the MSQ. The warning about patch 5.2 MSQ being "long" means nothing for me as I feel it's over way too soon.

[Arillyn]

I haven't read all of this thread, so forgive me if this has been stated already.
I don't think SE will do this beyond the story skips they sell.

1) they make money on those story skips for people who don't want to do the story because if you do the story, SE is getting your sub money and

2) SE thinks the story is pretty important to the game or they wouldn't delay the raids and savage after an expansion drops so people can have time to enjoy the story and not feel rushed to skip everything to jump into the raids.

[Derio]

Just buy a jump potion.

But dont be one of those people who complains that the game doesnt have enough content after you do so.

[Centershock]

How about if they made going through the MSQ account-wide? Meaning that you only had to do the MSQ once on your account and if you have alts, you didn't need to do them on said alts again?

It would completely invalidate the sale of MSQ jump potions but...

[Arillyn]

How about if they made going through the MSQ account-wide? Meaning that you only had to do the MSQ once on your account and if you have alts, you didn't need to do them on said alts again?

It would completely invalidate the sale of MSQ jump potions but...

SE is a business though and a business isn't looking to cut their profits.

[Bright-Flower]

How about if they made going through the MSQ account-wide? Meaning that you only had to do the MSQ once on your account and if you have alts, you didn't need to do them on said alts again?

It would completely invalidate the sale of MSQ jump potions but...

Not likely to happen. FFXIV does very little that's account wide aside from some rewards like the falcon mount, veteran rewards etc. Even most mog station purposes go to a single character.

It really feels like they thought 'oh well you can do everything with one character in this game so nobody's going to need alts' and never put thought into it after that.

[SamRF]

How about if they made going through the MSQ account-wide? Meaning that you only had to do the MSQ once on your account and if you have alts, you didn't need to do them on said alts again?

It would completely invalidate the sale of MSQ jump potions but...

SE is a business though and a business isn't looking to cut their profits.

It's not that simple though. They could perhaps make more profit (long term) by adding an option to make MSQ account wide.

It would lead to better replayability --> (significantly?) more people making alts --> more gametime --> more player satisfaction --> more chance players stay subscribed --> more standard subscription instead of entry subscription (bc multiple chars) --> more profit?

Hard to know but I think they would be better off if they offered an option to make MSQ account-wide.

[Iscah]

It really feels like they thought 'oh well you can do everything with one character in this game so nobody's going to need alts' and never put thought into it after that.

More like "nobody's going to need alts so we don't need to consider any mechanisms for linking multiple characters on an account".

Apparently account-wide mounts and things can only be implemented on a limited basis, so who knows what they were envisaging versus what they've ended up doing. Maybe they programmed it with a finite but seemingly generous number of slots, and now they're realising they're stuck long term and have to use them sparingly in case they run out.

Still, it seems like there are other ways they could get around it. Send purchases to all current characters without the true account-wide tracking that would send it to new alts, or at least give a discount if you purchase for multiple characters in one transaction.