We should get exp boost in the game.

[Dfess]

Yeah... This idea "Other MMOs are just about an empty grind to max level, so FFXIV should do the same" is backwards. If FFXIV wasn't a Final Fantasy game with its trademark rich narrative, characters, emphasis on story, myself and plenty of others wouldn't have gotten sucked in. If people want that kind of hollow experience, the other 90% of the market is there all doing the same thing. Go play those other games if you see story progression as an obstacle rather than a selling point. This game isn't for you.

Story progression is an obstacle even in story driven games.

[Theodric]

Story progression is an obstacle even in story driven games.

Only to those who aren't the target audience when it comes to RPG's. There's plenty of games out there where you can jump right into the action with little or no focus on story. FFXIV isn't one of those games, nor does it need to be changed in order to become one.

[Dfess]

Only to those who aren't the target audience when it comes to RPG's. There's plenty of games out there where you can jump right into the action with little or no focus on story. FFXIV isn't one of those games, nor does it need to be changed in order to become one.

Why are you so quick to turn away potential new players? When you make an "MMORPG" the target audience is RPG players.

[Theodric]

Why are you so quick to turn away potential new players? When you make an "MMORPG" the target audience is RPG players.

Players who can't handle a focus on storytelling in RPG's are not likely to actually be fans of the genre in the first place. Furthermore, I don't think that appealing to new players should come at the cost of the game's core design and nature. There's plenty of players who are new to the game who have little issue with the focus on storytelling, so it's interesting that such a fact is often ignored in favour of expressing concern for the new players who don't enjoy the story.

[Dfess]

Players who can't handle a focus on storytelling in RPG's are not likely to actually be fans of the genre in the first place. Furthermore, I don't think that appealing to new players should come at the cost of the game's core design and nature. There's plenty of players who are new to the game who have little issue with the focus on storytelling, so it's interesting that such a fact is often ignored in favour of expressing concern for the new players who don't enjoy the story.

So in other words you don't want new players to have an easier time than you did playing the game? If you had to suffer through it then so do they. I got you.

[Theodric]

So in other words you don't want new players to have an easier time than you did playing the game? If you had to suffer through it then so do they. I got you.

I didn't 'suffer' through anything. If I didn't find the game to be enjoyable then I would not have played it for years. Obviously there's some things about FFXIV that should be improved, though I disagree immensely with the idea that the story should be given less focus. It's one of the game's biggest draws. The players who don't care about the story aren't likely to be entertained for very long and would be better off playing something else.

[Enla]

So in other words you don't want new players to have an easier time than you did playing the game? If you had to suffer through it then so do they. I got you.

They already do have an easier time though. It took me two months to get to 50 back in ARR and even longer to finish up to the 2.4 storyline. There were not story skips back then at all, and leveling was an absolute slog in part because of the necessity of the cross class system and how several classes were hamstrung if they didn't have a specific skill from another class unlocked. Swiftcast and Blood for Blood were absolutely essential for healers and DPS respectively and you needed to level THM and LNC to even get them. Or Stoneskin for that matter for healers in general. Couple that with a lack of options when it came to leveling compared to what we have now along with leveling just taking outright longer and it's not hard to say that newbies have things a lot easier now than we did back then.

SE has gone out of it's way to make the new player experience much more palatable and their planned reduction and streamlining of the ARR questline that's coming in 5.3 is another step forwards in that regards. However what you're asking for just is never going to happen.

[Dfess]

They already do have an easier time though. It took me two months to get to 50 back in ARR and even longer to finish up to the 2.4 storyline. There were not story skips back then at all, and leveling was an absolute slog in part because of the necessity of the cross class system and how several classes were hamstrung if they didn't have a specific skill from another class unlocked. Swiftcast and Blood for Blood were absolutely essential for healers and DPS respectively and you needed to level THM and LNC to even get them. Or Stoneskin for that matter for healers in general. Couple that with a lack of options when it came to leveling compared to what we have now along with leveling just taking outright longer and it's not hard to say that newbies have things a lot easier now than we did back then.

SE has gone out of it's way to make the new player experience much more palatable and their planned reduction and streamlining of the ARR questline that's coming in 5.3 is another step forwards in that regards. However what you're asking for just is never going to happen.

Palatable is acceptable to you? I mean in the CCG genre Hearthstone is palatable. But at least the players aren't in denial and know the game isn't new player friendly and it needs to be changed. However the greedy cooperate side says "nah, forget that". FFXIV may not be as bad as hearthstone but it's not far off from turning into the hearthstone of mmorpg's. At least in MTG and Shadowverse you get in game currency plus updates that give you free packs through-out the expansions. Hearthstone be like, "for the release of the expansion here's a quest for 10 packs. pay me for more or spend 40-60 hours grinding to get to a playable state."

[Esmoire]

Why are you so quick to turn away potential new players? When you make an "MMORPG" the target audience is RPG players.

Genre terms in general shouldn't define specification, but help communicate to people to some degree of what to expect. Puzzle games, for example, can be turn-based, grid-based, falling blocks, so much... The genre term is helpful, but it requires the potential player to willingly investigate what a particular title entails. It would be stupid to say all puzzle games have to have falling blocks, or be single player, etc., just because we use language term to help describe it.

You can try to package it in with your loaded, obsolete, shallow idea of MMORPGs. I see it as Final Fantasy games where my party members are controller by others, and rather than just a one-and-done story, it's an ongoing narrative.

[Stepjam]

Why are you so quick to turn away potential new players? When you make an "MMORPG" the target audience is RPG players.

Why does every game have to target everyone? If you don't want story with your MMO, that's 100% ok. But why not just find an MMO more to your tastes than say that a game that doesn't match your tastes is wrong? Sounds like you don't care about story in your games, which is fine, more power to you. But you'd probably be better off just playing story light games than complain about story in story heavy ones.

Edit: Also you talk about how RPG players are often a big target audience of MMOs. And you know what RPGs are commonly known for? Story. So why would RPG fans be upset about a story heavy game?