Final Fantasy XIV Cataclysm

[Bright-Flower]

I don't think it would work. Unlike WoW, FFXIV has a singular linear main story. That requires those old areas to be there.

While they could, theoretically, update the old maps to allow flying, they aren't going to mess with their linear story by throwing another cataclysm at the ARR zones and replacing them the same way Cataclysm did to WoW. WoW's story isn't nearly so rigidly structured so they could more easily do it than FFXIV could.

[linay]

WoW's story isn't nearly so rigidly structured so they could more easily do it than FFXIV could.

WoW's story structure has nothing to do with it. Blizzard and the vast majority of the player base it seems just don't care that the player character moves from Cataclysm-era storylines where the NPCs talk about the effect of the war in Northrend to BC-era storyline or WotLK-era storyline then back to Cataclysm.

The story still has a "linear" timeline, it's the quest that breaks that timeline with the options you can do. That's why I don't want the MSQ in FFXIV to be optional even as an option. It can make people start not to care when they decide to break the story in favor of questing/game play reasons. (And it may already happen in FFXIV, but that's no reason to have more of it.)

[Iscah]

(And it may already happen in FFXIV, but that's no reason to have more of it.)

They're very good about keeping continuity straight, actually. It's why they avoid bringing optional storylines back into the MSQ, or have variable dialogue to smooth things out when they occasionally do.

[linay]

They're very good about keeping continuity straight, actually. It's why they avoid bringing optional storylines back into the MSQ, or have variable dialogue to smooth things out when they occasionally do.

Indeed, but the less opportunity to break the continuity, the better.

[Iscah]

Indeed, but the less opportunity to break the continuity, the better.

Oh, definitely it's better to keep things as straight and consistent as they can.