We should get exp boost in the game.

[LaylaTsarra]

They make money with level boosts. Wish you luck on getting free ones. If you have a problem with story buy a story skip and level the character normally. Leveling in this game is pretty fast. They just spent a lot of time trimming the ARR story so doubt they'll turn around and just let people skip it.

[Alestorm]

I have no issues getting all my classes leveled. Only thing that has slowed it down is my work schedule.

[Darkpaw]

So hunting log, roulettes, hunts, level sync’d sidequests, road to 70 buff (in certain circumstances) deep dungeons, fates, armory bonus, heat of battles, small exp on food, level skips, story skips, are all not enough?

We need more? This game isn’t WoW, or bdo or eq1 or 2, it is it’s own distinct mmo. Which in the tradition of a final fantasy game is story focused. Seriously end game is really overrated. A decent size of the community, either completes raid or whatever content catches their fancy and then.. poof gone to other games til next patch.

Let alone the idea of “lets take one of the most casually friendly mmos (which this game has gotten a lot of flak for) and make it even more casual friendly.. no thanks i dont want to read those posts..

[Enla]

They make money with level boosts. Wish you luck on getting free ones. If you have a problem with story buy a story skip and level the character normally. Leveling in this game is pretty fast. They just spent a lot of time trimming the ARR story so doubt they'll turn around and just let people skip it.

This. They give out free fantasia on occasion but that's a different kettle of fish for a number of reasons. First, fantasia is relatively cheap compared to everything else they happen to sell. Second, due to limitations with in game character customization after you've already finalized your character more people are likely to buy fantasia to 'fix' mistakes. Third, a good chunk of people will fantasia multiple times over the course of their in game life, making the free gift of one hardly a loss to SE's bottom line. If anything in the third case it can be seen as incentive to subtly nudge players to buying more down the road once they've tried it for free.

On the other hand with level and story boosts there really is very little recurring value there to exploited. Once you've skipped a class that's it. You are literally barred from reusing the skip items if you accidentally repurchase them at a later date, making them a one time only thing unless you buy the skips for each 'part' in succession (50->60->70). Something that wouldn't make much sense unless you're doing it for each expansion for classes you particularly dislike. Yet very few people I know actually bother with that whole fuss, let alone buying multiple skips for multiple classes. They're there to exploit one thing and one thing only. Your impatience. Which, given how the team talks about the Mogstation seems to be going pretty well. Why would SE EVER give that up? Particularly when we also have learned that the Mogstation sales are one of the only direct revenue sources that's actually put back into the game to fund developed, as opposed to being dished out to fund projects around SE at large?

The only thing I can see occurring down the road is /maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe/ a class/story skip potion being bundled with either 6.0 or 7.0. But definitely not both at the same time and even the one is highly unlikely when getting to cap is a fairly simple process in the first place. Until the cons outweigh the pros to keeping the skip potions as monetary investments alone, there's no way they're going to give them up for free. And even then I can probably only see them offering /maybe/ a level/story skip to the end of ARR since that can now be done relatively quickly.

[Enkidoh]

So hunting log, roulettes, hunts, level sync’d sidequests, road to 70 buff (in certain circumstances) deep dungeons, fates, armory bonus, heat of battles, small exp on food, level skips, story skips, are all not enough?

We need more? This game isn’t WoW, or bdo or eq1 or 2, it is it’s own distinct mmo. Which in the tradition of a final fantasy game is story focused. Seriously end game is really overrated. A decent size of the community, either completes raid or whatever content catches their fancy and then.. poof gone to other games til next patch.

Let alone the idea of “lets take one of the most casually friendly mmos (which this game has gotten a lot of flak for) and make it even more casual friendly.. no thanks i dont want to read those posts..

Then there is also rested EXP bonus from spending time in sanctuaries, EXP boosting consumable items for doing GC squadron missions, and certain EXP boosting gear (Brand New Ring, Aetheryte Ring, Ala Mhigan Earrings, Aetheryte Earring). But you are completely right, there is plenty of ways to boost the EXP you gain in the game, to say nothing of the main scenario basically throwing EXP at you to the point you can easily outlevel beyond the level range of the story quest you're on. I can understand new players are eager to rush ahead to the end simply to catch up to where the 'cool kids' are, but they fail to realize that what is important in this game is not just the destination, but the journey to get there.

There is plenty of ways to accelerate levelling in this game, I don't think we really need anything more honestly as it would invalidate the whole point of even having levels and EXP in the first place.

[PyurBlue]

There is no good reason to skip the story. There is very little point in rushing to the endgame - not much to do there, and you will have missed 95% of the game.
Also, why worry about "catching up"? All the content is new to new players. Lots of things to do along the way.

For those who don't care about the story, I would say there are plenty of other games better suited to them.

There are plenty of reasons to rush to endgame. It's where the classes finally feel good to play, and everyone at end game is more or less doing the same content which is great for cooperative play. I remember my new player experience in FF14. It wasn't the high point of the game. Classes remain simple for too long and some of the content is trivial to the point where it's kind of boring.

FF14's story (well besides ARR) is interesting, but making it mandatory creates a situation where some will be pressured to skip it. At least now there is no more skipping it for good as you can go back to it later with New Game+. I think it's a much better way to implement the story. Players have more options on how to approach the game and if they choose to go through the story, they'll probably be more interested in what it offers. Not everyone has to play a game the same way.

[Curisu]

Yea, let's just skip everything and reach the endcontent without any effort.
You want to get the latest BiS gear too, so you don't have to grind it by yourself?

Please don't compare games where you have to play many characters at once, to FFxiv where everything is done on one.
Also, in FFxiv the content doesn't get old, you can enter every old raid and dungeon and find people for it, even groups to do old savage raids exist.
And the ultimates, the really hard endcontent is only doable when synced down.

In my eyes the leveling process is still to fast and I would love to have "new" classes starting at 1 instead of 50/60

[Gemina]

The game already has so many exp boosters, that I find it next to impossible to gain levels without something in effect that's helping. The options to skip are also there if a new sub is willing to put forward some extra dough.

This is also going to sound like a broken record, but this game isn't WoW. It's not FFXI, EQII, or any other mmo out there. It would be wise for your friend to be made aware that even after catching up, there is no avoiding progression being gated by the story. We all go through it. If your friend wants to get through the levels even faster recommend to him/her to play a tank or healer to speed up queues. If you already have either of these roles yourself, then you can greatly help by joining your friend in the queues. Even if you go as DPS, it still helps a lot.

In short, old content is still fresh content to a new subscriber. Let them proceed and enjoy the game at their own pace. The road to endgame is only a problem because we make it so. If your friend just wants to skip everything so they can join you in mindlessly grinding tomes and tokens until the next patch, then this game might not be for them.

[Morningstar1337]

In my eyes the leveling process is still to fast and I would love to have "new" classes starting at 1 instead of 50/60

I'm kinda the opposite, I think the pace alright (granted that's because I usually just do dailies on alts instead of powerleveling) and Think its alright that jobs start later than usual (though i'm gonna miss the Job quests for future jobs as it seems like they are gonna transition to role quest)

[SamRF]

I do agree that mandatory MSQ will be a big barrier for many people who aren't interested in story. I suggested an option to unlock everything without quest requirement a while back:

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...-mandatory-MSQ

Would it be feasible to add an option to unlock instances without making it mandatory to do MSQ?

Most MMOs don't have such a (long) main mandatory questline to unlock content and allow players to journey through the game however they like. People who don't care much for story will have a terrible time in FFXIV.

People who still want to unlock stuff through MSQ can continue to do so and unlock content that way. People who don't care for the MSQ can unlock the instances with this option and decide to perhaps do the MSQ another time.

I'm pretty sure this option would open up the game to (quite a lot) of new players who are for example only interested in combat/crafting/instances/raids/art and don't want to experience forced visual novel.

I would personally never use this option because I greatly enjoy the MSQ but I think this game is missing out on a lot of new players because of the MSQ barrier. Even with an MSQ skip they have to go through lots of quests (towards and at endgame) before unlocking content/instances and have to do so again with each patch.

Why would you be for or against this option? What needs to be taken into consideration?

However I sort of get the argument that SE doesn't want people to skip trough the story because a huge amount of time will be bypassed, time for which you pay with subscription, which is why jump boosts are as expensive as they are I guess.

Still don't agree with it and believe the game would attract much more players having it optional. New players will always be able to go trough the story at later time so it will take them a loong time before they run out of things to do anyway, plenty of potential subscription months and a more satisfied player.