I tried but its not the game for me

[Snorky]

Change the game play of MSQ will destroy the magic this MMORPG holds and the community. WoW is that way if you want the gameplay----} Honestly why would they change the main attraction? Does that make any sense? If you want to skip it you can but you are the one losing many enjoyable moments in the game. Instead of trying to change this game into WoW it's not WoW

[TeraRamis]

Change the game play of MSQ will destroy the magic this MMORPG holds and the community. WoW is that way if you want the gameplay----} Honestly why would they change the main attraction? Does that make any sense? If you want to skip it you can but you are the one losing many enjoyable moments in the game. Instead of trying to change this game into WoW it's not WoW

I don't know that... it is the attraction. A lot of people I talk to seem very disinterested in the story. Not saying they're the majority; not saying this is proof of anything. But, as far as I'm concerned, I'm playing for the glam, the housing, the saucer, and the RP. The story is waaaaaaaaaaay out in left field. Because, as I have said elsewhere, my character is not the WoL. I may "pretend" to be that goody-goody during cutscenes, but that's not who she is, and not who I imagine her aspiring to be.

[Snorky]

I don't know that... it is the attraction. A lot of people I talk to seem very disinterested in the story. Not saying they're the majority; not saying this is proof of anything. But, as far as I'm concerned, I'm playing for the glam, the housing, the saucer, and the RP. The story is waaaaaaaaaaay out in left field. Because, as I have said elsewhere, my character is not the WoL. I may "pretend" to be that goody-goody during cutscenes, but that's not who she is, and not who I imagine her aspiring to be.

That's perfectly fine if you are a heavy RP person. The original post is about someone who doesn't like the story at all. So if they are not into RP or the story they just want the end game. The whole game is tied to the story though. How you look at it is subjective and same for the person who doesn't want the story. I believe the way the game is played is how the developers and writers intended for people to experience it. We as players or even as readers of the story don't get to change their intentions. They gave a option to level skip and as I expressed I feel people who do this are missing the enjoyable parts of this game. How you look at the story and act it out is your thing. How it's played is how they intended it. They have given options as a courtesy they didn't have to do that. I like being a goody goody as you put it (like it's something to be scorned really?!) If your thing is to play a bad girl good on you mine is not.

[Jojoya]

Change the game play of MSQ will destroy the magic this MMORPG holds and the community. WoW is that way if you want the gameplay----} Honestly why would they change the main attraction? Does that make any sense? If you want to skip it you can but you are the one losing many enjoyable moments in the game. Instead of trying to change this game into WoW it's not WoW

So we try to find a compromise. There's nothing says that we need to turn this game into WoW (which SE thankfully will not do) but it doesn't mean there can't be a way to allow players with no interest in the story to get access to the content they want to do with friends.

Proposal: in addition to the Main Scenario mode, a "Drifter" mode (or whatever term) is set up. When the player first speaks to Miounne, Mimodi or Baderon to register with the Adventurer's Guild, they're given a choice between the two.

Those who choose Main Scenario mode experience the game as it currently is. It is a choice of no return, once picked you must stick with it.

Those who choose Drifter mode are excluded from any content related to the MSQ (the Crystal Tower raids being an exception). They're free to level through any of the other side content (and there's plenty of it). The player would get a quest at level 20 to choose their Grand Company since that's required for PvP. Unlock quests for side content would appear at the appropriate level even if completion of part of the MSQ is normally required first (such as the ARR beast tribe quests requiring completion of level 41 MSQ or doing normal trials in MSQ before you can unlock EX trials).

Duty Finder works mostly as normal, displaying any duties that have been unlocked. Any duty related to MSQ will not have been unlocked so won't appear. Available Roulettes would be affected depending on whether the roulette would normally match the player to a MSQ duty (so Normal Raid, Frontline, etc would be available while Leveling, MSQ and Trial would be locked just as they are locked if on a very low level job).


If the player later changes their mind and wants to do the Main Scenario, they can return to Miounne, Mimodi or Baderon to start it. Once again, it is a choice of no return. Players won't be able to switch between Drifter and Main Scenario modes at will. Doing so would also reset their Grand Company choice (though they would be able to pick it again once they reach the appropriate part of the MSQ and resume at their old rank).

This gives players who are only interested in doing end game content with friends the chance to do so without disrupting the journey for those interested in experiencing the story. They lose access to some content that's primarily used in the MSQ for leveling but still have access to the majority. It gives them the ability to change their minds and start the story later.

[Kes13a]

This gives players who are only interested in doing end game content with friends the chance to do so without disrupting the journey for those interested in experiencing the story. They lose access to some content that's primarily used in the MSQ for leveling but still have access to the majority. It gives them the ability to change their minds and start the story later.

So.. basically, you want to complicate things for new players who havent got a clue if they want story or not I would imagine 90% of the time, before they even experience the game to make things better for the % of people who dislike story in an mmo designed with a story.

in all fairness, I think that "compromise" would take up a developments team worth of expansion. since the MSQ is interwoven through much of the leveling process, I think they would end up almost having to disassemble the game and put it back together to do this.

[Snorky]

@jojoya I was going to quote your post but it was too long and my phone wasn't cooperating. This is my response to your suggestion.

Here's a suggestion instead of redesigning a game that has been out for a good while to make it into something it's not maybe you could start your own game company and design it the way you want it. It comes down to this if you are unhappy find something else that makes you happy there are plenty of other games. Sorry if that is too blunt for you but I see this as someone trying to change this game into something it's not. Why? As someone else said it would complicate things and also it would destroy the community. Because you would be dividing it into different parts which is not the way to build a community. Kinda like wow did with the big gear divide where do you think the term filthy casuals started yes in wow and elitist also a WoW term. I played wow during beta and for years after I quit playing around 10 years ago the community was so divided and toxic because the devs made it that way by catering to one group of players who thought they knew better. While it's nice to ask for things changing the core of the game because a few don't care for it is not a road to go down.

[TaleraRistain]

Those who choose Drifter mode are excluded from any content related to the MSQ (the Crystal Tower raids being an exception). They're free to level through any of the other side content (and there's plenty of it). The player would get a quest at level 20 to choose their Grand Company since that's required for PvP. Unlock quests for side content would appear at the appropriate level even if completion of part of the MSQ is normally required first (such as the ARR beast tribe quests requiring completion of level 41 MSQ or doing normal trials in MSQ before you can unlock EX trials).

Duty Finder works mostly as normal, displaying any duties that have been unlocked. Any duty related to MSQ will not have been unlocked so won't appear. Available Roulettes would be affected depending on whether the roulette would normally match the player to a MSQ duty (so Normal Raid, Frontline, etc would be available while Leveling, MSQ and Trial would be locked just as they are locked if on a very low level job).

So they would never get any duty ever? You don't get things like the optional end of expansion content from just levels. You get it from MSQ completion. You'd be removing the trigger entirely.

Also, that's taking people out of queues for content which will hurt the ability to keep those instances populated for new players.

This gives players who are only interested in doing end game content with friends the chance to do so without disrupting the journey for those interested in experiencing the story. They lose access to some content that's primarily used in the MSQ for leveling but still have access to the majority. It gives them the ability to change their minds and start the story later.

How long do you think it will take these endgame-focused people to complain about the lack of content and whine about the developer time "wasted" on the story? We see this now even with the story required. It would just get worse if people could skip it entirely.

A better idea is for people to recognize that XIV Is not like other MMOs and either decide they appreciate those differences and continue playing or find something more suited to what they are looking for, like others who play XIV have done with other MMOs. It's a very accessible game and it does try to have something for everyone, but it also established very early on that the story it told was a lot more important than what you find in other MMOs. And changing that makes it not XIV anymore. They provided the option, for a price, to skip the story entirely. They don't offer that for free for a reason.