TheLazyPeon "gives FFXIV another try"

[ForteNightshade]

I'll never understand people who level boost and skip basically the whole game, just to see the "current" content. Seems like somebody wanting to get into Game of Thrones, and only watching the last season. I can almost forgive it in TheLazyPeon's case, due to the absolutely insane amount of MMORPGs this dude has played. This is not a genre known for its award-winning narratives. I'm also guessing he had people telling him to level-boost and skip to endgame, saying "ARR bad, do not touch" much like they tried to do to Asmongold.

That said, he knows what Final Fantasy is. I don't think it would have taken much research or asking around, to find out "Oh, the story is actually very important in this game, maybe I should pay attention to it." Oh well. The past is past. Glad to see he's more invested and having a better experience this time around.

That is a poor analogy because you can only watch Game of Thrones. There isn't any engagement beyond watching the action displayed. Video games are a unique medium where you directly interact with them through gameplay. For many gamers, they simply aren't interested in story. Before you dismiss that by claiming FFXIV is story centric and you need to go through the MSQ to properly enjoy it. You don't. If your only interest are the raids, then going through the story won't necessarily improve your experience. In fact, it may worsen it. Sure, you'll get people like Quinn who make fools out of themselves. However, that wasn't due to him boosting but rather because he didn't bother to actually learn how to play his job. Meanwhile, you have streamers like Mizzteq, Xeno or Momo who play exceptionally well, especially the latter two, yet couldn't even tell you the names of the Scions.

[TaleraRistain]

Everything is foreshadowing future events and knowledge, so it is all important to the plot in the grand scheme of things.

Exactly. There are people who would have stuck a certain event involving Alisaie into "sidequest" territory in the past, and now we find out how absolutely crucial to the plot it's become.

To be fair, there's a lot of padding in the expansions as well, even in our beloved Shadowbringers (eg. trolley/golem subplot in Amh Araeng).

How is that padding? It directly relates to how you get to an MSQ dungeon.

[ReynTime]

I usually like his content, but his 180 on XIV makes me go :/
It's ok to change your mind, but he talks as if he's not only trying it out more properly this time only because he noticed other big streamers raking viewership like this. I'm usually in a "who cares" attitude when it comes to streamers and content creators liking or not liking XIV, but something about this rubs me dishonest.

[Goji1639]

Entertainers are also opportunists; who would've guessed.

FFXIV went from being a heavily ignored entity for streamers to being a hot commodity over a very short period of time. He's an MMORPG streamer; he'd be stupid to not try to capitalize on this while it's a thing.

The FFXIV community needs to stop trying to gatekeep and just welcome all of this exposure; it's been great for the game.

[ElciaDeiLinus]

If you're going to level boost and story skip the game, even though everyone is telling you that's a bad idea and it won't be fun- and you do it and enjoy the game, all power to you.

But if you skip, and then hate the game- then clearly skipping didn't make the game better for you. That's the part that seems to always get glossed over when people talk about skips. If you're going to play your way because that's the way you enjoy the game, and part of that is skipping most of the game, and you then enjoy it... well, you were right, you played how you enjoy it, and you enjoyed it.

But if you insist you'll only enjoy a game if you skip to the end, and then you don't enjoy it- well clearly you were wrong, and when you get called out for being wrong I really don't think you have a leg to stand on.

It's the same as skipping to the final chapter of a book then saying you think the entire book sucked- anyone would call you out for that sort of thing.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

It's the same as skipping to the final chapter of a book then saying you think the entire book sucked- anyone would call you out for that sort of thing.

But is not the same.
The author of the game doesn't recomend you to skip those parts right? They don't sell you "lecture boosters".


He did nothing wrong. Only gave his impression of his experience which is allowed by the developers and publishers. And he was punished for that by the nice community: the same that defended the dirty predatory monetization of the cash shop in the first place with features locked behind paywalls and well: boosters and skips.

[Vinupra-Rosa]

He did nothing wrong.

He did. He (Lazypeon) complained about the story / levelling experience even though he skipped it. Quin69 is on another league, since not only did he trash on the game after skipping AND boosting, he also boasted that he can 'totally rock the game' (paraphrased) if he tried.

If you boost, you're skipping the levelling process, so you veto any right to complain about the levelling process outside of maybe 'it didn't hook me, so i boosted'. If you skip, you veto any right to complain about the story. You do either, and you veto any right to critique the difficulty curve of the game. You likewise don't have much of a platform to stand on when complaining about the gameplay.

Doesn't matter if you have prior MMO experience. I've had friends coming from WoW who skipped and boosted and they were absolutely lost and overwhelmed and overall just had a really bad time even on HW content. Not a good 'first experience' at all, and at that point there are two broad ways you can handle yourself.

The first way you can handle the situation post boost/skip is to be responsible and study/practice/acclimate yourself. Get past that 'shock' and try to understand the systems. There are people who do this, and they're perfectly okay. See: Lynx Kameli. He doesn't care for the story, so he boosted and skipped, but he evidently put in the effort to learn the game because now he's doing ultimates.

The other option is to... not try to get better, and either saddle their parties with badly underperforming players, or just quit outright. THESE people are the ones who are a 'problem', and when people complain about 'skippers' they usually refer to this group. What makes it worse is that this group of people often miss the point and then blame the game and, when they get pushback, attack people. TheLazyPeon and Quin69 are shining examples of this group.

Quin69 especially was basically the image of the stereotyped 'skipper' -- didn't know their job, messed up every single mechanic, blamed their party for their failures, and then later on trashed the game on social media while bragging that they're 'totally a god player'

And of course they complained/clowned on about aspects of the game they totally vetoed all rights to complain on, like gameplay, story, and the like.

While there are people who get riled up over the smallest criticisms of XIV, the issue generally (and especially in the case with Quin) is when people make dishonest arguments. People don't have issues with Asmon's complaints, for example, since they make sense and are honest.

[Jojoya]

People don't have issues with Asmon's complaints, for example, since they make sense and are honest.

They don't have issues with his complaints because he's giving the game an honest try. He's not skipping stuff. He's reading dialog, watching cutscenes and playing through the content.

The others didn't. They skipped most of the game and then called it trash because they had already made up their minds (or because they felt that's what their viewers wanted to hear). They had no intention of giving it an honest try.

[The_Schwartz]

I am pretty new and it took three attempts to catch my interest in FF14. As I prefer gameplay & sandbox style of games over theme park meta's. I will play devil's advocate, FF14 has to many useless quest where you run to a location just to teleport to another. It is a good way to deflate currency but my lord is it boring. I believe what got me finally hooked with FF14 is the community. Currently, that is the biggest plus to this game for me.

[Rosa_Frandlia]

I usually like his content, but his 180 on XIV makes me go :/
It's ok to change your mind, but he talks as if he's not only trying it out more properly this time only because he noticed other big streamers raking viewership like this. I'm usually in a "who cares" attitude when it comes to streamers and content creators liking or not liking XIV, but something about this rubs me dishonest.

One one of the things his 180 could also be his job. He said FFXIV's animation graphics weren't flashy while playing SCH, now that he's a BLM his animations are definitely more flashy. That change on view totally makes sense if you have other player effects turned off.