Quote Originally Posted by VirusOnline View Post
Fair.
My statement was much more rhetorical, but ARR as a standalone is imo not exciting.

Imagine playing through ARR there is no HW expansion yet, nothing to look forward to. Killing lalobrea in MSQ is your endgame. It has great moments, but the plot (particularly the rise to conflict and the speed between exciting events) and story writing are lackluster.
ARR is an introduction through and through. Nothing is wrong with that. Introductions and worldbuilding, especially when done in large chapters get quite dry and boring. There's a difference between the worldbuilding of JR Tolkien writing and something like Eragon.
But ff14, esp being an mmo, did a good job of its intro.

ARR is enjoyable when you know it's not the end and you can jump right in HW, this is why I believe HW is so very popular. Once we're past introduction, we can now get some action and action is always exciting.
Having played ARR when it was a standalone (I've been playing since 1.0 and played ARR not only from launch but from the Beta as well), I can honestly say that this actually was never the case with ARR at all, even if your statement was rhetorical (if it really was as dull as it's made out to be, then how did the game break all records and become a certified success when it launched in 2013, even taking into account the albatross around it's neck that was it being a reboot of what was universally regarded as the worst MMO of all time, 1.0?)

ARR had an endgame even at launch, you had the first stage of the relic quest, Allagan tomestones were first introduced (Allagan Tomestones of Philosophy and Mythology), the first raid was available from the start (Binding Coil of Bahamut - the first part of Crystal Tower was also meant to be available from launch but had to be delayed as it wasn't ready in time). There was 'Hard Mode' versions of the first three Primal fights. There were the two elite FATEs (Odin and Behemoth, and trust me, those were deserving of 'end game' titles at launch). There was post storyline dungeons (Amdapor Keep, and another one I can't remember).

There actually was plenty to occupy players who reached the end, and even then, the first main content patch (2.1 A Realm Awoken) arrived about three months later which added a new Primal (or rather, an old one from 1.0, Good King Moggle Mog), EX mode Primals for Garuda, Ifrit and Titan, the aforementioned delayed Crystal Tower raid, and a massively long new main scenario (that was so long players complained about it, and much more). And the next four main content patches only added more and more before HW was launched two years later.

Hardly "just an introduction" with nothing to do.