Can we not shame people who don't like the MSQ?

[Lauront]

What sounds stupid to me is you're desperate if you are comparing a single player game and books to an MMO.

I recommend you take your own advice, put on your big boy pants and tab out at this point, because your argument is more or less dead in the water. It being an MMO makes no difference to whether "high" metacritic scores mean people have to like its story - in fact it pushes in the opposite direction. Weird argument. A thousand or so people on metacritic like it. A big so what as to whether I do or not.

[xenahawk]

Well i have no clue exactly how the mentor system works personslly but what i find odd is noone wears a nametag saying if they like or dont like so sounds like there had to be somesort of conversing going on and if so are you saying that someone who likes the story cant say anything? You might not like the reasoning but with how much of a big part the story is especially in this game its not really unreasonable to suggest there might be another game out there that they might like better especially if said sprout or just a random player seems genuinely unhappy with how the game works.

[MidnightEquinox]

Another day, another thread completely devoid of context, demonizing an arbitrary group of people while claiming the moral high ground. Classic.

I have no idea how this user hasn't been banned yet for spam starting controversial threads...

[Azuri]

Because all you care about is the most recent content and only consider that worth playing. If the only content you WANT to engage in in FFXIV is the end you're going to have a sparse experience and a hell of a runup.

I recently (within the past year) introduced someone to the game, walked beside them and quested the MSQ WITH them as much as I could while also keeping them outfitted in relevant gear and talking them through MSQ parts they found too boring to engage in with summaries while also running daily roulettes and random DFs with them to keep their progression quick. Yes it took nearly a month for them to get to "endgame" and be able to run roulettes for tomes and the raids for other items.. but it was far from a "hey play this... lemme know when you get to what I like to do" experience. We also sidetracked sometimes with fishing, or deep dungeons, or mount/minion farming.

Many people in that thread you referenced are wondering why you'd invite someone to play something and NOT play the game with them when you were able to.

Story is alright. The first time you go through it. After initial experience I personally derive no joy from any story. The issue is compounded in XIV due to SE presenting story pretty much exclusively through a series of cutscenes linked by fetch quests with little to no gameplay value.

I also consider any story-focused media a very solitary experience. I wouldn't want to be distracted by someone when I'm immersed in a book or a film. And the same goes for stories in games. I don't see how I could play through XIV's story with a friend. Standing next to them in an empty open world just twiddling my thumbs while they read their cutscene? And then running to the next sparkly spot to do it again? For literal hours?

Sitting in a discord call together and occasionally going "mhm" and "oh yeah, that was cool" really isn't a social experience me or my friends are looking for in an MMO.

[EgilTheStressedMage]

You must be really stressed to conjure up a complete hallucinatory strawman like that!

I can't believe calling the story boring (which I have never even done; I'm just defending people who think the story is boring!) is the same as saying that people who enjoy the story are less than insect feces!

Wasn’t talking about you specifically. But thanks for taking it personally anyway.

[Krotoan]

Story is alright. The first time you go through it. After initial experience I personally derive no joy from any story. The issue is compounded in XIV due to SE presenting story pretty much exclusively through a series of cutscenes linked by fetch quests with little to no gameplay value.

You have your preference, and others have theirs. For some it's a hindrance and something to get through. Considering you "derive no joy" can you accept that others might greatly enjoy the story and derive joy from experiencing it vicariously with someone else?

I also consider any story-focused media a very solitary experience. I wouldn't want to be distracted by someone when I'm immersed in a book or a film. And the same goes for stories in games. I don't see how I could play through XIV's story with a friend. Standing next to them in an empty open world just twiddling my thumbs while they read their cutscene? And then running to the next sparkly spot to do it again? For literal hours?

Then your friendships are different than mine and possibly from a lot of others. Not to say they're WORSE, just different. It's like watching a movie with a friend VS watching it by yourself. Sure there are some periods where the party had to split for solo-only instances and there was a bit of ferrying around, but it was better for having experienced it together, not as you seem to characterize it sitting outside a building while someone else finishes their business. Honestly the most recent run through I was helping with I advised them to skip most of the post 50 till 3.0 patch content cause it WAS fluff and as I said I gave them a summary while we teleported back and forth or traveled.

Sitting in a discord call together and occasionally going "mhm" and "oh yeah, that was cool" really isn't a social experience me or my friends are looking for in an MMO.

Because silence while playing the game has never been how I engage it, this was not my experience with any of my online friendships in FFXIV, established through the game or introduced. Sure I had to be quiet when certain very intense moments were happening, but next to all the rest of it was like hanging out in the same room chatting about all kinds of things and playing with silly emotes or pointing out interesting things they'd never seen, which kinda cornily made me appreciate some of the old areas all over again. The whole point being if that's the experience you're going to have because that's how you engage the old content and that's NOT what you want, then suffering through it all really isn't worth the meager endgame that FFXIV presents. All of the current progression stuff is at worst an hour to an hour and a half of stuff to do daily unless you want to throw yourself against bleeding edge savage stuff. Most of the other content available is either not gated or quickly accessed once the jobs start to get their identities.



The problem is that people take "maybe this isn't the game for you" as "go away heretic!" instead of the honest "well that's what a LOT of this game is about so you probably aren't going to enjoy most of it" it is.

YES some people take it wayyyyy too far. Granted and accepted. Some people are crazy weird zealots. But that's not unique to this game. Been that way since you had people getting into fights over Nintendo VS Sega, PC Vs Console and whatever other tribal BS people attached themselves to instead of growing a personality.

But not everyone who says the game might not be for you is gatekeeping, most of them are just stating facts.

[Ama_Luna]

Oh yea another mentor bad, they stole my lunch money and beat me up and called me names, these "mentors" threads. We should witch hunt everyone who thinks mentors is anything but literally the source of evil because they have a symbol by their name. Do y'all ever get tired of this or is this some sort of kink for y'all?

Fact of the matter is mentors tend to be rude. NOT ALL OF THEM OBVIOUSLY. But most in my and other's experience. If a person is rude to mentors just because they wear a crown, that is wrong. I am nice to everyone. If they are abusive, they get reported. Simple as that.


Oh and to add to the topic of this thread, yeah, I've never seen a fanbase like this. In other MMOs you can speak your mind. Here? Not a good idea. I've never seen such cult-like behavior by a FEW of the fans. While others are not cult like, but cannot handle criticism at all. I mean proper criticism. Not rudeness. This fanbase makes me uncomfortable overall. If someone finds the story boring that's fine. Neither side should be rude to each other. But that is never how it works. Ever.

[Azuri]

snip

Others can enjoy the story however much they like. I don't doubt that there are some who just keep on replaying MSQ again and again and do nothing else (albeit I will insist that they are nowhere near the majority of playerbase). I'm not asking for the story to be removed. But I do think the game could benefit from making it less of a hindrance for those who simply don't care. And no, pretty much everything is hard gated by the story.

As for "maybe this game isn't for you" crowd, I simply disagree with the premise. There is plenty to do besides the story. I don't come back most evenings to re-run the story again. Yes, there are plenty of those who sub for a month do all the story and leave to play other things. But there are also plenty of players who keep on playing regularly for a long period of time and still have plenty to do. And it isn't the story that drives most of those regulars.

[Mordrick]

Some of you really need to learn the definition of troll!

I think you're doing an excellent job putting the definition into action.

[Padudu]

I wish I was hot like betty boop.. though if my head was that big there'd be a problem.

Rage comics was where the face was from. But "U mad" has been a thing since online interactions were a thing.. less meme'ably for quite a time before that.

My point overall being that there's very little interaction for utilities sake here and a lot more metagaming a community happening.

at least you'd have pretty eyelashes!

but serious note aside, plenty of threads are like that and we don't have a problem with them at all. How much productive or quality discussions can you have with a "Show off your race!" thread or the "Today in Duty Finder.." threads? Heck we got a marriage thread where people essentially either just want glam or virtual eyecandy/friends attached to them. There's a (rightfully so btw) complaint thread about Viera and Hrothgar where people just legit.. complain. These aren't productive threads in the slightest, but we like them nonetheless.

Yeah the OP posts hot takes a bit frequently, but these aren't meaningless. They obviously time and time again provoke some sort of discussion, even if it's a little more lighthearted. It's not trolling really, it's just provocative and not your cup of tea when it comes to threads.