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

[IkaraGreydancer]

Oh look the typical "this game just isn't for you" responses. Guess I can scratch that off my bingo card.



I concur. The MSQ scenes are starting to show their age and they're aging like a fine milk. I still remember that one scene at the end of a specific expansion between NPC 1 and NPC 2 not having seen each other in a long time and that absolutely stunning emote exchange.

Also how can you rag on those responses? It seems to be the truth. Also cutscenes have been better than ever in xiv so that a VERY odd take

[Vahlnir]

You could do what I did when i first played through ARR. (that was before they shortened it)
watch youtube summaries of the story. or just buy a skip. but everything after arr is pretty good, i see no reason to complain..

I'd normally suggest playing the game, but I don't fault anyone who wants the Cliffnotes version of ARR or simply wants to skip it completely. It's a bit of a drag compared to what comes after.

[Skivvy]

Also how can you rag on those responses? It seems to be the truth. Also cutscenes have been better than ever in xiv so that a VERY odd take

You truly think "if you don't like the MSQ, this game isn't for you?" is a valid reply?

Using myself as an example, I don't like XIV's story, but I've been around since ARR launch and beyond. I've also spent faaaar too much money on this game, which I think SE probably appreciates, but with that advice, I should have packed up 10 years ago and spent my money elsewhere.

MMOs have a lot of features, all designed to lure in different kinds of players. The MSQ is only a portion of what makes up this game. Now, for some people, hating the MSQ may be enough to make them go to another game, but for others, it's just a negative mark on a game they otherwise enjoy. It's going to vary by person as we all have different interests and expectations for a game. But to tell someone this game isn't for them solely because they dislike the story? That's just dumb.

[IkaraGreydancer]

You truly think "if you don't like the MSQ, this game isn't for you?" is a valid reply?

Using myself as an example, I don't like XIV's story, but I've been around since ARR launch and beyond. I've also spent faaaar too much money on this game, which I think SE probably appreciates, but with that advice, I should have packed up 10 years ago and spent my money elsewhere.

MMOs have a lot of features, all designed to lure in different kinds of players. The MSQ is only a portion of what makes up this game. Now, for some people, hating the MSQ may be enough to make them go to another game, but for others, it's just a negative mark on a game they otherwise enjoy. It's going to vary by person as we all have different interests and expectations for a game. But to tell someone this game isn't for them solely because they dislike the story? That's just dumb.

No I think if story based mmos aren't his thing this isn't the game for him. If he finds it so bad skip cutscenes or buy a skip. There already are solutions to his problem. If those aren't enough ther mmos are out there. Call it dumb if you'd like. I don't need you to agree. After all it's opinions at the end of the day.

[Mirhd]

You truly think "if you don't like the MSQ, this game isn't for you?" is a valid reply?

It is a valid reply, and it applies to every hobby in life. Don't enjoy something for one reason or another? Stop doing it, otherwise you're just wasting your time and making yourself frustrated for no reason. What isn't valid is expecting the foundations of something to change because you don't like it. We aren't talking QoL or class changes, etc, we're talking "tear out the skeleton of the game and put something else in." That is absurdly arrogant and delusional, and it always baffles me that people think this is a reasonable approach for the devs to take.

I used to bounce back and forth between WoW and FFXIV (Wow since 2004, FFXIV since HW) before I acknowledged during BFA (well before the crap show hit), after years of decisions I didn't agree with, "ok, this just isn't for me anymore" and left. Never looked back, and the newest expansion doesn't interest me in the least. It's ok to stop doing something if you no longer derive entertainment from it. Sunk cost fallacy can take a hike.

You hate the story (questionable since it's the focus, but fair enough) yet still find things you enjoy about it, and that outweighs what you don't like enough for you to continue playing. Genuinely, good for you. You're a minority, though, and no, the forums are not the bulk of the player population and are a poor indicator of anything; the bulk never visit forums (as with any game or other hobby). If this were not the case, the devs would focus less on story and more on other things... and they don't, yet continue to gain and maintain a stable sub base, which is telling enough.

Funny thing is... the devs acknowledge there are some people that don't care about what they care about, so gave people an option to skip the story on the online store. "But people shouldn't have to pay to skip!", you might say. Hard disagree. Again, the story (whether one likes it or not) is the foundation everything else is built on. They never wanted story skip to be a thing and encouraged people to play normally, so outside of that, if you want to skip, better pay up. Seems reasonable to me. I've also seen on these forums (and elsewhere) that many newer players regretted buying a story skip because they had no idea what was going on and as a result had no investment in anything. They realised exactly what they were missing upon doing New Game +, and wished they had simply played through normally the first go, rather than souring their original experience due to a missed placed desire to get to "the real game" (lol?), or what have you.

One final thing... If one is rushing to "the real game" (again... what. the entire story is "the real game") so one can play with ones' friends... I have to ask : why aren't ones' friends playing with them? Make an alt, go through the story with your newbie friend(s), and relive your first time through the game by proxy. I did that with my sister, and it was great. Her genuine excitement made me excited, and her various "Oh damn" moments, etc, were hilarious. If a supposed "friend" isn't willing to do the same, well... that's a poor friend, imo.

[Novae]

The MSQ gestapo is on the place I see.
Let's be honest here, the MSQ has really great moments yes, but it also has very boring and just bad written ones. It can be a gate for some people, and it is for all the players who couldn't make it to the end.
So yes, OP has a point. A point that forced, in the past SE to revamp ARR.
Why jumping on him like this then?

[Tychonius]

The new player experience in this game is made genuinely worse by the fact that you have to go through this bizarre hazing ritual of reenacting nine years of live service with all the waits between expansions through the story missions before you're allowed to actually play the game in its present state. Let's say you're getting into FF14 in 2022 and you're looking through the class list going "Huh, Sage looks cool!", but then it turns out you're actually several months of playing regularly away from being able to even touch the class. It's not a satisfying experience to basically be forced to play the game as it was years ago for hundreds of hours to be able to access things that may have been a selling point for you in the here and now.

If someone has played for years and has enjoyed the story at the pace at which it was being told I understand why they are fond of it. But why does a newer player need to be locked out of all expansion content until they have caught up on all of it? The newer player doesn't get several years to finish those missions at their leisure with long periods of time in between for exploring other aspects of the game. If they want to catch up they just have to sit down and power through them. It turns the story into an obnoxious gatekeeper stopping you from rolling the classes you find interesting, getting into difficult dungeons, joining high level activities or even just taking your time with the low level stuff if you don't want to be endlessly delayed instead of it being a fun aspect of the game you play when you feel like doing story missions.

It is a valid reply, and it applies to every hobby in life. Don't enjoy something for one reason or another? Stop doing it, otherwise you're just wasting your time and making yourself frustrated for no reason. What isn't valid is expecting the foundations of something to change because you don't like it. We aren't talking QoL or class changes, etc, we're talking "tear out the skeleton of the game and put something else in." That is absurdly arrogant and delusional, and it always baffles me that people think this is a reasonable approach for the devs to take.

Telling people to leave the game if they think the main quest shouldn't insist on itself so hard is absolutely not valid. It's completely hypocritical and here is why:

You're not jumping on the devs for putting PvP arenas or raids in the game. You're not complaining that there are levels and gear and materia harvesting and an auction house and a retainer system and player housing and costuming.

There are tens of thousands of work hours being poured into creating parts of the game that have nothing to do with the story. That exist entirely to appeal to people who enjoy other aspects of the MMORPG genre.

Why is it that a player should be considered wrong for wanting to enjoy those parts of the game freely, but the devs are somehow not wrong for creating those parts of the game with the clear intent that someone would enjoy them?

[Mirhd]

The MSQ gestapo is on the place I see.

Good grief, do you think before you type? It certainly doesn't seem like it. Gestapo? really? People talk about "shutting down criticism" (not even close to what's happening here, by the way), then the same people come out with this.

Snip

I already acknowledged other parts of the game. Really, you didn't read what I typed at all, did you? I certainly doesn't seem like it.

[Broken_Wind]

I really do hope that the people here that are passionately defending the design are trolls. I suspect more are then people think, but some of course aren't

I see both sides of the argument really

I do think that FFXIV's decision, while certainly was an "I quit" moment for people, has been overall extremely beneficial to the game. I think shorter leveling times and lack of world building are the biggest cause of how 99% of mmorpgs have sharp population drop offs within months of releasing the game. Rift is the poster child for this. Everyone loved it at launch, 1mn sold. people loved the class system. The events were fun. But there was no hook to that game world and you were max level in 2 weeks. 3 months later the game was down to 1/3 of its initial population and it never recovered

I also think the 'slog' of ARR is greatly exaggerated now. There are a few stinker quests for sure, and the story doesnt always flow well. But its also where they start to really grow in their storytelling. From 2.3 on is pretty good.

The big issue, IMO of course, is that you go this whole time with no new skills, even when soloing. Later expansions get around this, but really the HW skills should not be locked behind class quests.

I do think that part of the reason for duty support is so they can remove the prior MSQ requirements. That way people dont have to worry about nobody queueing for stuff. Starting a new story arc gives them a good chance to do this.

[Jybril]

"Hello i'm new! I can't be bothered with actually questing or enjoying my time doing the 'On Content' quests, that when relevant was drip fed content to the masses. But I don't like this. So i'm gonna say how bad it is because I wasn't here for the content"

This about sum up what I just read?

You guys can't stop jumping people for one second can you?
A new player no less. Jesus Christ.