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

[YukikoKurosawa]

How much research are people supposed to do before buying a game? Are they supposed to read reviews? Watch gameplay trailers? Listen to randos on youtube tell them its the best game ever made?

Is this a serious question?

[Amenara]

Is this a serious question?

No it wasn't. The point I was making in the rest of the post was that everyone researches games differently and depending on what you do you may not have any idea just how gated the game is behind the MSQ.

[YukikoKurosawa]

No it wasn't. The point I was making in the rest of the post was that everyone researches games differently and depending on what you do you may not have any idea just how gated the game is behind the MSQ.

If you did even a semblance of research into this game, and especially if you are familiar with final fantasy as a franchise, you would know this is a story-heavy game from the get go. The real problem is people who hop on bandwagons and just want to play whatever is currently popular rather than finding the right game for them. Because that's why we have so many people coming in and getting filtered by the story. This game has been trending since last year and it's brought with it a wave of FOTM types who just want to be where they percieve everyone else to be. These are not the type of people to have patience for a story game in general. They are oversocialized idiots who just go whereever the wind is blowing.

Researching a game prior to playing it is an alien concept to them. All they think is "Game popular, I play game cuz that's what everyone else is playing!". The opinions of these cretins does not matter and they will not be missed when they are innevitably filtered.

[Amenara]

If you did even a semblance of research into this game, and especially if you are familiar with final fantasy as a franchise, you would know this is a story-heavy game from the get go. The real problem is people who hop on bandwagons and just want to play whatever is currently popular rather than finding the right game for them. Because that's why we have so many people coming in and getting filtered by the story. This game has been trending since last year and it's brought with it a wave of FOTM types who just want to be where they percieve everyone else to be. These are not the type of people to have patience for a story game in general. They are oversocialized idiots who just go whereever the wind is blowing.

Researching a game prior to playing it is an alien concept to them. All they think is "Game popular, I play game cuz that's what everyone else is playing!". The opinions of these cretins does not matter and they will not be missed when they are innevitably filtered.

That's a pretty toxic mentality to have towards new players. I agree about people joining the FOTM train and we should be taking advantage of that by trying to hook new players into the game with better gameplay, a better way of telling the story and not forcing people into hundreds of hours of story just to play the entire game. The 1-50 experience in this game right now is abysmal and SE isn't fixing the problems with it. They are trying to make an MMO that is single player friendly without making the gameplay at the beginning more fun. It is even worse when a vocal portion of the community talks about how great HW is and how much better all the jobs are in HW, but new players have to push through 2 button gameplay for 20+ levels with rotations only getting marginally better through level 50. They have to push through a bloated MSQ in ARR to even unlock HW while seeing their jobs level going up and all the skills that are locked behind being in HW. Potentially they will out level HW and get no new skills for the 50-60 experience while still doing ARR content.

We should want to reduce gating behind the MSQ so more people can do more things and we should want to reduce the bloat in the MSQ to a minimum.

[YukikoKurosawa]

That's a pretty toxic mentality to have towards new players. I agree about people joining the FOTM train and we should be taking advantage of that by trying to hook new players into the game with better gameplay, a better way of telling the story and not forcing people into hundreds of hours of story just to play the entire game. The 1-50 experience in this game right now is abysmal and SE isn't fixing the problems with it. They are trying to make an MMO that is single player friendly without making the gameplay at the beginning more fun. It is even worse when a vocal portion of the community talks about how great HW is and how much better all the jobs are in HW, but new players have to push through 2 button gameplay for 20+ levels with rotations only getting marginally better through level 50. They have to push through a bloated MSQ in ARR to even unlock HW while seeing their jobs level going up and all the skills that are locked behind being in HW. Potentially they will out level HW and get no new skills for the 50-60 experience while still doing ARR content.

We should want to reduce gating behind the MSQ so more people can do more things and we should want to reduce the bloat in the MSQ to a minimum.

Not every game is for everyone.

[Amenara]

Not every game is for everyone.

I agree, but we should be trying to make the game better so we have more people that do want to stick around and try out the rest of the story, to keep playing, and to add to the community.

[MiaShino]

Researching a game prior to playing it is an alien concept to them. All they think is "Game popular, I play game cuz that's what everyone else is playing!". The opinions of these cretins does not matter and they will not be missed when they are innevitably filtered.

Pfffff the memes givith once again! The heck am I even reading? Filtered out..

"FFXIV is all about playing it your way."

"No no not that way foul cretin!"

Perhaps they simply wish to play something that everyone has told them is good? Yeah I am done.

Many apologies OP if you are still perusing this thread. Grab many snacks for the blood sugar and power through until you can play the class you wish. Give Heavensward a chance it was actually pretty darn engaging or play through in the later times with New Game+ as others have suggested. Perhaps use this thread as takeaway about what occurs when you criticize FF14 story.

[Skivvy]

If you did even a semblance of research into this game, and especially if you are familiar with final fantasy as a franchise, you would know this is a story-heavy game from the get go. The real problem is people who hop on bandwagons and just want to play whatever is currently popular rather than finding the right game for them. Because that's why we have so many people coming in and getting filtered by the story. This game has been trending since last year and it's brought with it a wave of FOTM types who just want to be where they percieve everyone else to be. These are not the type of people to have patience for a story game in general. They are oversocialized idiots who just go whereever the wind is blowing.

Researching a game prior to playing it is an alien concept to them. All they think is "Game popular, I play game cuz that's what everyone else is playing!". The opinions of these cretins does not matter and they will not be missed when they are innevitably filtered.

Big yikes. Super glad you're one of the ones that stuck around. :X

[Rilifane]

If you did even a semblance of research into this game, and especially if you are familiar with final fantasy as a franchise, you would know this is a story-heavy game from the get go. The real problem is people who hop on bandwagons and just want to play whatever is currently popular rather than finding the right game for them. Because that's why we have so many people coming in and getting filtered by the story. This game has been trending since last year and it's brought with it a wave of FOTM types who just want to be where they percieve everyone else to be. These are not the type of people to have patience for a story game in general. They are oversocialized idiots who just go whereever the wind is blowing.

Researching a game prior to playing it is an alien concept to them. All they think is "Game popular, I play game cuz that's what everyone else is playing!". The opinions of these cretins does not matter and they will not be missed when they are innevitably filtered.

So everyone that is drawn to FFXIV for other reasons than story or doesn't conduct a thorough research before is a cretin and idiot?
It amazes me how toxic people are towards others that dare to play a game for different reasons than them.

People give MMOs a go because a friend plays and recommends it all the time.
People enjoy starting a game blind all the time.
People enjoy different aspects of a game all the time.

But according to you none of them have a place here.
I know this will sound really, really crazy but... it's okay to not like the story. It's okay to not play FFXIV for the story. It's even okay to be annoyed by absolutely everything being gated behind MSQ. Someone saying "btw FFXIV is story-focused" doesn't mean you instantly have the right idea about just how much is locked behind MSQ and that it dictates your entire leveling process and takes hundreds of hours to complete, especially as a new player that doesn't play efficiently and gets lost easily.
I did enjoy the story for the most part enough to not be annoyed and it also helped that I've started in ARR and thus always did it in more bite-sized steps compared to starting with EW and getting hundreds of hours dumped on me at once.
But if I were to start now, I'm not sure I'd stick around. Not because the story is bad or because I'm an "oversocialized idiot with no patience" but because not having a choice in how I level and knowing I'm locked out of a lot of things for a few hundred hours would eventually drive me off. We're not in ARR anymore where MSQ lock is much shorter. We're in EW and the low level experience isn't terrible. I've replayed the story more than once on alts and I can see why many new players either drop FFXIV completely or take very long breaks because they just can't deal with it all at once.

Your friends do have the ability to play with you at any level and level alternative jobs. Friends being at the "end game" is not the same as wow. Since we have the duty roulette, you would be going back through older content anyway, especially when the relic grind comes out, and you are rewarded for helping new players if your friends are not willing to play with you because of an arbitrary gap in progress you might need to get better friends. It seems they are more concerned with their progress than your well being.

I would add though that having the option for a sandbox experience in this game when creating a character would also be a good idea for those who do not like the story and would just like to level, craft, socialise etc.

Some people might not want to be the WoL some might just want to be an adventurer.

They can join you for roulettes and the occasional MSQ dungeon but let's be honest: the vast majority of leveling is done alone because it's mostly talking to NPCs, watching cut scenes, having the occasional overworld mobs and solo duties. Sure, you can level an alt class and dungeon spam with them but that means pushing back MSQ even further and eventually stopping because you can't do any higher level dungeons.
The leveling process is very much a solo experience, as was intended by SE.
You can do bits and pieces with friends but it's not much. The friends hang out in different content for the most part. That's just the reality of MSQ-locking content.

I would love to have a "regular adventurer" route as an option though. I love this idea and it would go well with the overall theme of the game.
I don't want to be the WoL, the chosen one the whole universe looks up to and the solution to every problem. I'd be quite content with being just another adventurer.

[YukikoKurosawa]

So everyone that is drawn to FFXIV for other reasons than story or doesn't conduct a thorough research before is a cretin and idiot?
It amazes me how toxic people are towards others that dare to play a game for different reasons than them.

No, I mean people who don't do any research on a game before they play it and just assume it'll be like other games they've played should not be surprised when it turns out it is not what they want. You have agency, as a consumer, to do a basic level of research into a product you're spending your money on before buying it. Almost anyone could tell you this is a story-focused game and if that is a deal breaker, than you shouldn't play it. My point was there has been a recent surge of FOTM players who just go whereever the percieve the majority of other consumers are going and don't consider if a game is for them or not, and they have been filtered en masse by this game's heavy focus on story. But it's not like they would've stayed either way as these are the same type of people to immediately drop a game once other people/their favorite streamers move to the next FOTM. Hence why their opinions don't matter, they're like a locust swarm for games, not long term players.

But yeah, don't just buy a game you did no research on then complain when you find out it's not for you.