We should get exp boost in the game.

[SamRF]

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I get what you're saying and it sounds like good arguments and maybe you're right. I'm not entirely convinced that the whole game's mentality would change like that if it's an option that is off on default. You give the example of WoW, but that's just how WoW is and always has been, that's what their community is like and from my experience the WoW ingame story isn't as engaging as FFXIV's, the fact that you're just a random hero and pawn of the the important characters being a big factor probably. So it makes more sense to skip all that basically, however that's not how I played WoW, I actually halted my leveling just so I could still experience story from certain areas better, but I realize I'm probably in the minority for doing that. I'm not convinced the player mindset in FFXIV would change as much as is speculated cause this story focused mindset seems prevalent for FF community in general.

You know if you think about it, there may be other ways to battle this path of least resistance appeal problem. Instead of having the instance unlocking as a toggle, they could implement a system in which you'd have to farm from some kind of tokens by grinding dungeons or do other combat content, so you'd have to put effort before being allowed to skip MSQ. And to unlock content you'd have to then go to a specific person with the tokens you've earnt, who will then unlock X content for you. Make the grinding for tokens take longer than rushing and skipping trough MSQ manually perhaps.

[Melichoir]

I get what you're saying and it sounds like good arguments and maybe you're right. I'm not entirely convinced that the whole game's mentality would change like that if it's an option that is off on default. You give the example of WoW, but that's just how WoW is and always has been, that's what their community is like and from my experience the WoW ingame story isn't as engaging as FFXIV's, the fact that you're just a random hero and pawn of the the important characters being a big factor probably. So it makes more sense to skip all that basically, however that's not how I played WoW, I actually halted my leveling just so I could still experience story from certain areas better, but I realize I'm probably in the minority for doing that. I'm not convinced the player mindset in FFXIV would change as much as is speculated cause this story focused mindset seems prevalent for FF community in general.

You know if you think about it, there may be other ways to battle this path of least resistance appeal problem. Instead of having the instance unlocking as a toggle, they could implement a system in which you'd have to farm from some kind of tokens by grinding dungeons or do other combat content, so you'd have to put effort before being allowed to skip MSQ. And to unlock content you'd have to then go to a specific person with the tokens you've earnt, who will then unlock X content for you. Make the grinding for tokens take longer than rushing and skipping trough MSQ manually perhaps.

I dont think the mentality would switch over night. Itd probbaly take an xpac for it to swap, but it would be inevitable and once it happens, theres no going back. I just cant see it not happening if that model gets placed. I think a lot of players default to the path of least resistance. I think that it actually got worse in WoW when you no longer had to go to dungeons and the like, but just had to get to a certain level and then queue from the cities.

As for tokens, I dunno. That could work. Maybe Mini Jump potions or something. Youd have to play through MSQ up to maybe, I dunno, MSQ lvl 30 quest or something. Then you can get a chapter select function, where you can skip the next chapter of MSQ, get access to the dungeons but youll still be at lvl 30. And lets say theres only so many times you can do this in a period of time. Lets say you can skip 1 chapter every 2 days or something. So you cant just skip the MSQ entirely, and youre forced into doing something in the mean time to get experience and levels (Fate grinding, hunts, logs, etc). If you get to the next chapter and youre of level, then you can resume MSQ there. If you skip MSQ though, you lose that experience from the quests. You can replay it with the NG+ later if you want, but you forfeit the experience, gil, and items in doing so. It's a bit punishing in one light, but youre goal is "get to end game" it wont be that big a set back.

There are ways they could potentially make it work, but the goal I think to off set the 'WoW effect' would be incentivize MSQ as the best path forward, and give options for people who simply dont care for it.