FF14 players need to draw a line in the sand or watch the RPG get destroyed

[Roda]

It's probably not an issue now, but I think if people keep quiet, there is valid cause for concern that the devs will eventually think the community has changed and simply want to go straight to instanced content and may change the game.

I suppose the point is just to make sure to voice your opinion if you support the current role of story quests in the game any time there is a call to change it.

I mean I've been watching the trend as the genre matured. Going from "you're in this world now, figure your stuff out" to "you are the chosen one, only you alone can defeat the big bad evil guy at max level! (never mind those other 100k people)" to "ok you're x level, just open up your dungeon finder and run what's available to you until you get to y level, then grind the next dungeons to get to the point you think you're done grinding for gear or mounts or whatever"

It went from developers wanting to be the worlds biggest DM for their online roleplaying game, to developers wanting to make a capital G Game (feels more like a very complex board game or card game than it does a collaborative storytelling game).
You know when Miazaki criticised the anime industry for only animating their idea of anime instead of using anime to depict "real" experiences? That's how I feel with MMOs right now.

Can't agree even more, most MMO's have the problem in my eyes being endgame focused so leveling is boring same for stories and countless sidequests that not impact anything or give info about any.

I blame dungeons in general, this whole queuing in generla needs to stop, i look at GW2, sure not much endcontent as well but i can play whenever i want, the world is the adventure, the world is full of people, rarely you see completly empty maps.

I mean i cry always a little that so much work flows in maps for people to only skip them and forget them, in GW2 i keep finding new thigns since it makes you explore, most other MMO's simply have it as grind to level, boring and long.

Everything can tell a good story, not just the mainquest, it just needs to be good implanted, not just some dailys, i simply miss actually the content we goten with like the relic weapons, sending you in older maps, then we goten Eurika which i never entered till today, a content island to grind the same boring Fates over and over, with other relics there is at least variety and traveling partly.

And yes GW2 also has events/fates. but they differ so much in what you can do, not just collect or slay. I point to one of the latest maps, Icebrood Saga, a goddamn metal concert with so many events in it mixed and it is just fun, here or other MMO's? Done one event, you done them all.

Don't get me wrong, i love the story here but the gamepaly i can see why people can complain, most classes are sadly boring under lvl 50 or higher, the levelign down of skills is simply problematic when you suddenly can only spawn one attack. The dungeons and experience needs a heavy rework, i can see how it turns people off, not just shorten the filler quests between ARR and HW.

People like to rag on GW2 but it's honestly doing the MMO feel better than anyone right now. (I just wish Anet can figure out their systems and how to write a compelling story DX)

Maps 3x the size of XIV maps, with more density in detail than ARR maps, more meaningful world interactions, environmental storytelling. Ugh it's just great. *chef's kiss*
Plus i'm in love with the fact that they pretty much did Bozja before XIV and I KNOW it's going to be better of an experience and more in depth than whatever "safe" content xiv's going to churn out

I really REALLY hope that SE would learn to look at GW2's open-world storytelling and just freaking steal every trick they use. 'Cause XIV really feels like I'm being plopped from mob cluster to mob cluster to kill things whose only purpose is to die by my hand instead of a living breathing world that wouldn't look uncanny if no one is engaging with the content. (the steppe shows this real bad in its monster placement. Just clusters of mobs doing NOTHING.)

[Puremallace]

It's probably not an issue now, but I think if people keep quiet, there is valid cause for concern that the devs will eventually think the community has changed and simply want to go straight to instanced content and may change the game.

I suppose the point is just to make sure to voice your opinion if you support the current role of story quests in the game any time there is a call to change it.

I 100% agree that maybe in another 1 or 2 expansions then they will need to make going from 1-100 or whatever easier and getting through probably 600+ story quest easier but FF14 is in its 3rd expansion and people want to gut the fundamental game because they heard the end game is cool now and they are bored in their main game.

It is incredibly selfish to not understand where people are coming from when they defend this game. I can name so much that could improve the game but I refuse to see the RPG gutted from another MMO for convenience sake.

Literally who is suggesting that we get rid of the story? I have not seen a single person mention this and if anyone has I suspect they were rightfully ridiculed. Your weird vendetta against endgame raiders doesn't really work because uh, a lot of us really like this game's story too?

It is out of the community drama started by people who are bored of a particular MMO right now who see FF14 end game might have something to offer but now want to rush to the end to damn with the consequences of people who will play this game after they leave.

There is this perception growing that FF14 are mean and super rude to anyone who suggest any changes at all to the game. It is a silly concept that needs to die now because the community here has been very nice and the forums prove people will complain for changes about everything and do not think this is the most perfect MMO ever created and should never change.

[linayar]

I mean I've been watching the trend as the genre matured. Going from "you're in this world now, figure your stuff out" to "you are the chosen one, only you alone can defeat the big bad evil guy at max level! (never mind those other 100k people)" to "ok you're x level, just open up your dungeon finder and run what's available to you until you get to y level, then grind the next dungeons to get to the point you think you're done grinding for gear or mounts or whatever"

It went from developers wanting to be the worlds biggest DM for their online roleplaying game, to developers wanting to make a capital G Game (feels more like a very complex board game or card game than it does a collaborative storytelling game).
You know when Miazaki criticised the anime industry for only animating their idea of anime instead of using anime to depict "real" experiences? That's how I feel with MMOs right now.

I feel like a collaborative storytelling doesn't work unless the collaboration is mandatory. It's the fact that single player experience is given that we're in this state.

That said, since we are in this state, that doesn't mean story should be ignored either. I'm fine with decoupling story with game play experience (assuming the story is still mandatory) as long as the game doesn't turn around and try to use lore/story reason to try to explain game restriction that acts like the story/lore can't change. That's why I enjoy using TRUST as a first playthrough story experience, and then grouping with other players for the gameplay grind that's separate from the story.

A bad way to do the story-gameplay relationship is WoW where story is optional, but lore is so important that you need to restrict race-class combination. Of course, forgetting that lore can change to remove these restrictions.

I 100% agree that maybe in another 1 or 2 expansions then they will need to make going from 1-100 or whatever easier and getting through probably 600+ story quest easier but FF14 is in its 3rd expansion and people want to gut the fundamental game because they heard the end game is cool now and they are bored in their main game.

It is incredibly selfish to not understand where people are coming from when they defend this game. I can name so much that could improve the game but I refuse to see the RPG gutted from another MMO for convenience sake.

Actually, with New Game+, I feel that they can move the timeline forward and start new players at a later date while still allowing them to go back and experience the "prequel." That would shorten the catch up experience for new players without messing with the story too much.

[PyurBlue]

If anything FF14's story is one of the things that I've always felt is a bit out of place for an RPG. It's totally linear and it doesn't really connect with the multiplayer side of the game. I'd much prefer something open ended where your particular character isn't special by default. Despite that I agree that it's silly to ask for an established part of the game to scrapped, although I don't think the MSQ being required to unlock near everything in the game does any good.

[phantomr23]

Maybe not get rid of the story, but people have asked to make story optional in terms of unlocking instanced content. Some want it like WoW where you just need to reach the appropriate level to be able to queue to a dungeon/raid. It can cause problem, like if you want to have a story to go to a dungeon but gets it in a roulette because you're at the appropriate level for it.

Hm, see I don't necessarily see that as too unreasonable? As somebody who very much adores the story of this game it certainly hurts, but it's not like somebody who wouldn't have paid attention otherwise will suddenly love the story because it's mandatory. If you want to skip the story you will, whether through paid skips or just the good ol' escape key - having an option for those players to get straight to the content they want would never happen but I don't actually think it's a totally ridiculous suggestion.

(It'll never happen because it's antithetical to the game's design - the FFXIV team very clearly considers it a story based MMO with the endgame content as a supplement to that.)

[Roda]

If anything FF14's story is one of the things that I've always felt is a bit out of place for an RPG. It's totally linear and it doesn't really connect with the multiplayer side of the game. I'd much prefer something open ended where your particular character isn't special by default.

Yeah the power creep in the story was what did it for me. In ARR, you pretty much assumed almost every adventurer had the echo and maybe they were contacted by the scions too and we were all equal in doing rad things (asside from YOUR character being best friends with the main characters and all the stuff that came from that). The warriors of light were all the characters at cartenau, and then it was the characters who brought an end to the ubral era (lmao). But now we've traveled to an alternate universe and we're literally God's favorite catgirl who was apparently a VERY IMPORTANT PERSON in a past life... It makes it hard to imagine other players are having their own stories unique to them that are just as fantastical. :T

It's honestly the most depressing trend to see catch on to mmos.

[Puremallace]

If anything FF14's story is one of the things that I've always felt is a bit out of place for an RPG. It's totally linear and it doesn't really connect with the multiplayer side of the game. I'd much prefer something open ended where your particular character isn't special by default. Despite that I agree that it's silly to ask for an established part of the game to scrapped, although I don't think the MSQ being required to unlock near everything in the game does any good.

This is a legit thing. Add more multiplayer references into the RPG part of the game. What a lot of people see happen is developers start to think end game is the only content and gut the leveling experience to only be there as a huge inconvenience making it meaningless.

[Penthea]

Maybe not get rid of the story, but people have asked to make story optional in terms of unlocking instanced content. Some want it like WoW where you just need to reach the appropriate level to be able to queue to a dungeon/raid. It can cause problem, like if you want to have a story to go to a dungeon but gets it in a roulette because you're at the appropriate level for it.

I feel like if you want a game to be like WoW...then play WoW?

Most cutscenes in the game can be skipped and the two dungeons that have unskippable cutscenes have their own roulette specific to them so you can easily entirely avoid repeating them if you want to.

Not saying that this game should not take elements from other games but a lot of people seem to forget or not realise what a Final Fantasy game is. That series is known for being very story driven and this game is no different. The story isn't going anywhere.

If a person hates the story so much that they cannot stand that content is locked behind story dungeons and trials then maybe this game is simply not for them. And I would say the same to anyone who wants WoW to have something like FFXIV's msq. They're different games. Expect different core features.

[thegreatonemal]

It's probably not an issue now, but I think if people keep quiet, there is valid cause for concern that the devs will eventually think the community has changed and simply want to go straight to instanced content and may change the game.

I suppose the point is just to make sure to voice your opinion if you support the current role of story quests in the game any time there is a call to change it.

People have had this sentiment since HW and the devs have never changed so no they aren't gonna assume the overall community has changed and all of a sudden get rid of the story or take away more causal content to make hardcore raiding content.

[Arbaid]

"Endgame" is the bane of MMOs across the piece. But it's an inevitable consequence of progression, when there's no way that progress can ever be lost or eroded. But nowadays, the only concept people have of what an RPG is tinvolves "getting to levelcap" with varying amounts of storyfluff surrounding the route to that anticipated nirvana. RPG no longer means what it used to. "Role" means "Tank, DPS or Healer": your "job" in the game. Story, however well-realised, is done and gone, the first time you do the last climactic cut scene. After that, you're just stirring pixels and goofing around with your pals for the most part.

So that's what people expect to be doing. The "level grind" is just a means to the end of "gearing up for endgame raids", and even if taken at a legible pace, will only occupy a small percentage of the career of a single character, since the story is finite, but the "end game experience" seems to be amenable to infinite repetitiveness. However, adding more numbers and shiny looks is far, far easier and cheaper for development houses to do than create comprehensively varied stories that will keep your paying customer satisfied for as long as the good old endgame hamster wheel seems to be able to for many. That effort would take the budget and resources of a major production studio, or several, of the kind which produce TV programming (but with a slightly different focus at the technical/performance end). And the demographic isn't large/wealthy enough to support that.

So what does it matter if there's a "go straight to the end game. Do not bother with the story. Collect one set of gear." option? So long as the story is there for those who are here for it, and there are enough of them for the producer to justify the expense of producing it to their CFO, the story will remain. So less "line in the sand" and more "cheerlead for the story", no?