Quote Originally Posted by Tuska View Post
Imagine playing a mmo and then boiling it down to ONE aspect of it...and the weakest aspect at that, the story, which is a one and done deal. You spend more time doing other things that aren't the story....
I agree with all the things you said except that one line. Because it is a one and done deal doesn't mean it is the weakest aspect...Some people would say that any form of grinding/repeatable content is the weakest aspect of the game. As you mentioned yourself, everybody plays differently, and a lot of players are enjoying the game mostly for its story.
Actually, being an MMO makes it possible for the story to be constantly evolving, which is not something you'd get from a traditional single player JRPG. This is also probably what makes XIV's story so good for many players : being with the same characters and seeing them evolve for many years creates some sort of "attachment". Getting some backstory for our own created character we spent hundreds and hundreds of hours playing as probably adds to that as well.


Anyways, options are always good to have.
I personally am enjoying every tiny little bits of story I can get, but I still think the game should be more 'welcoming' in the way it gates content behind the MSQ, and I'd also say that the story needs to be trimmed down every couple months/years.
I can appreciate having a few hours of story to go through every few months, but when I saw how lengthy 5.4 was...I personally appreciated it a lot, but I also thought about the new players who would have to go through this in a few years, after playing through the first 200h-ish of MSQ and knowing that there are still dozens of hours ahead...that's a massive time investment that a lot of players are not willing to go through.
New players can really easily get tired of the game before even reaching end game. That's what happened/happens with 2.X, and that could also easily happen with 5.X IMO.

I don't know....instead of making the whole story optional, they could just make it easier to go through : trim it down regularly, and maybe add a 'skip quest' option on top of 'skip cutscene'?...You'd still have to go to each quest NPC, but the amount of back and forth you'd have to do would be reduced by a lot if you plan to skip it all anyways, so it would be a lot more bearable for those who want to reach endgame...
MSQ is the best way to reach the level cap in this game anyways. Going through it is just free exp. So, keeping it mandatory and making it easier to go through sounds like a good deal to me.....