The story is great, but it blatantly gets in the way of the rest of the game

[Darthgummibear]

I'll say the same thing I say every time this topic comes up. The story is the driving force behind virtually every aspect of the game. If you aren't happy with the story you are probably in the wrong place.

If you are dead-set on bypassing the story there's always the skips on the store.

[Minarisweet]

There's so much ingenuine advice here

[Vahlnir]

I'll say the same thing I say every time this topic comes up. The story is the driving force behind virtually every aspect of the game. If you aren't happy with the story you are probably in the wrong place.

If you are dead-set on bypassing the story there's always the skips on the store.

I mean, I don't always play for the story, but I keep myself caught up on it anyway. There are periods where it just sort of...stagnates.

[DPZ2]

I would add one item to Illmaeran's list:

4. Buy a story skip for the ARR expansion, as it's fairly inexpensive compared to a job skip. It'll take you immediately from 2.0 to the start of 3.0.

What it also does is eliminate the story leading into 7 of the more iconic dungeon and raid instances from ARR, including the final raid that leads directly into the storyline for Heavensward. And the necessity to do the entire Crystal Tower raid set.

[DezereDawn]

I think this is a valid enough complaint, though i have no idea how they'd fix it without completely restructuring the game around it

definitely do think pacing suffers when going through these things as non-current content imo, and it gets worse when you factor in xp boosts from being on a preferred server

even if you got a higher level it doesn't matter anyways because job quests will take place in the next expac's zones and is inaccessible until you finish doing all of the extra quests for post patches


Edit: reading through other responses has my scratching my head, it's like a load of people ignored the "I'm enjoying the story" part to then dunk on the opinion with a dismissive "if you don't like the story don't play a story mmo" response

not a great way to respond to criticism guys.

[Jennah]

The raids and dungeons and stuff are great, but they get in the way of the story.

[Illmaeran]

Edit: reading through other responses has my scratching my head, it's like a load of people ignored the "I'm enjoying the story" part to then dunk on the opinion with a dismissive "if you don't like the story don't play a story mmo" response.

It's one thing to enjoy the content of the story and another to dislike the way the story's presented deeply enough to no longer enjoy the game.

Having the story presented in quests and cutscenes ties it to processes that the OP is finding unenjoyable; namely the massive number of quests needed to complete in order to make further content available. Having capital cities and access to Poetics gear locked behind MSQ progress was incredibly frustrating for me when I started replaying the game. Imagine starting Heavensward at two levels higher than that expansion's max level (62) and not being able to get lvl 60 Poetics gear because you couldn't get to Rhalgr's Reach, or being level 89 when just starting the final zone of 5.0 Shadowbringers and not having access to the full array of vendors in Eulmore. It's a similar situation; I love the game and story, but being held back due to prior design decisions can be extremely frustrating.

Not everything is for everyone. I enjoy cola drinks, but given the choice of having Coke or Pepsi, I'll choose Coke every time. In fact, I'll choose a different drink if Pepsi's the only cola option. I'm very happy that so many people are trying XIV after all these years; however, it's an old game with a lot of content designed with a story-first philosophy that's different from most MMOs. That's not going to be to everyone's taste and there's nothing wrong with that. Life's too short to spend time on something that's intended to be fun doing, even though doing it isn't fun enough to warrant the doing of it. If I were in the OP's shoes, I'd probably be having the same experience; this is a hell of a lot of game to get through to reach current content and play with friends.

Around Christmas 2018 I picked up WoW again to give BfA a try before Classic launched. Having not played since the initial Cata release, I had 7 years of content to get through. Going through all of that was a huge slog that was just barely enjoyable enough to keep me playing, but not fun enough that I wanted to keep playing it after catching up on what I missed. If I'd had friends waiting for me at endgame I'd probably have put it away out of frustration at how long it was taking and how much stuff was locked behind that massive wall of content.

Such is the risk and cost of starting a 10-year old MMO from scratch.

[Lecru]

I think this is a valid enough complaint, though i have no idea how they'd fix it without completely restructuring the game around it

definitely do think pacing suffers when going through these things as non-current content imo, and it gets worse when you factor in xp boosts from being on a preferred server

even if you got a higher level it doesn't matter anyways because job quests will take place in the next expac's zones and is inaccessible until you finish doing all of the extra quests for post patches


Edit: reading through other responses has my scratching my head, it's like a load of people ignored the "I'm enjoying the story" part to then dunk on the opinion with a dismissive "if you don't like the story don't play a story mmo" response

not a great way to respond to criticism guys.

Hey. You know how you fix it? Hit the ESC button and click through. It's really that simple. ENjoy.

[DezereDawn]

Hey. You know how you fix it? Hit the ESC button and click through. It's really that simple. ENjoy.

i'd recommend you maybe take a mild criticism of a large game that isn't perfect a little less personally, this garbage attitude you're presenting is a great way to drive off new players. might wanna drop it <3

[Lecru]

It's one thing to enjoy the content of the story and another to dislike the way the story's presented deeply enough to no longer enjoy the game.

Frankly idc what the OP isn't enjoying. It's been 10 years. There is a massive amount of content to get through and that's GOOD for a paying customer. The last thing you want is nothing to do when playing. Then he'd complain there was nothing to the story. As stated before. He's a new player coming in to a 10 year old game that's going strong and trying to rush to his friends instead of enjoying the ride. Don't like it? He can smash ESC through damn near everything. But this content, as seen even in this patch, drip feeds to us regularly to keep the story going and pushing forward. We saw it at the end of EW, ShB, Sb, HW. You really want to get through a year of content and then be stagnant? No. You don't. The fact there are that many quests proved how much effort was going into creating the world and the stories we have now.