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

[YukikoKurosawa]

There are some people that avoid trailers and stuff to avoid spoilers in movies and video games. So some people do not do this for that reason.

You just completley misinterpreted what I meant. You should do research on a game to understand what kind of game it is prior to playing it (like you would not play Life is Strange if you don't like interactive movies and wanted a First Person Shooter). What kind of genre it is, what is the game about? Anyone doing research into FFXIV would know it's a story-focused game and would treat it as such. The problem with people like the afformentioend is they do no research because they just hop on bandwagons and just assume they will like X game because it's currently popular and trending as this game is right now, and are then in for a rude awakening when they discover it's not.

Also, if they don't care about the story, why the hell would they care about spoilers? Looking into a game to know if it's for you or not has absolutely nothing to do with spoiling the story for said game and I have no idea how you came to that conclusion.

This is another problem as to why player retention goes down after a month or two of the expansion launch.

Endgame focus is a cancer that needs to stop.

[IdowhatIwant]

You just completley misinterpreted what I meant. You should do research on a game to understand what kind of game it is prior to playing it (like you would not play Life is Strange if you don't like interactive movies and wanted a First Person Shooter). What kind of genre it is, what is the game about? Anyone doing research into FFXIV would know it's a story-focused game and would treat it as such. The problem with people like the afformentioend is they do no research because they just hop on bandwagons and just assume they will like X game because it's currently popular and trending as this game is right now, and are then in for a rude awakening when they discover it's not.

Also, if they don't care about the story, why the hell would they care about spoilers? Looking into a game to know if it's for you or not has absolutely nothing to do with spoiling the story for said game and I have no idea how you came to that conclusion.

No I know exactly what you meant, and it is really just a petty excuse to say don't change the story or don't allow players to not do the story. Which is something that has 0 effect on your experience with the game currently. The genre of this game, is an MMORPG it it wouldn't hurt it to treat itself that way sometimes. Sure FF games are known for there stories but when you look at FFXI, it treated itself as an MMORPG while maintaining a rich story that was not forced. Once Again, the suggestions I have made do not prevent people from doing the story, and does not force players to play any certain way, it just opens options to new players which in no means is a bad thing. It is no different than supporting the trust system being added to all previous expansions as that allows new players to play the game as a solo experience and does not detriment other players experience. When games give players more options and more choices they become more appealing to a broader audience.

Also don't try to say the story teaches players how to play, even Yoshi P said it doesn't in the last live letter. Learning how to play is a decision one has to make.

Endgame focus is a cancer that needs to stop.

Everything after the MSQ is end game, so maybe they should just stop releasing patches, get rid of housing, get rid of glamour, roll credits, and put a sign up saying "the end see you again in two years".