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

[Lustre]

I've had multiple people I know irl quit because they saw a list of all of the quests they had to do to catch up to me, and decided the time investment isnt worth it. Most of them said the story was decent but it didnt grab them enough for it to matter. Despite all the people saying, "huehue this game isnt for you", and "have you ever played a FF game", this IS an mmorpg. I think the "this game isnt for you" comments make sense if, this game just had arr + HW. But now we have the base, and 4 expansions + all patch content, and even then your unlocks would be sparse after finishing msq so youd want to do some side content. It feels unreasonable to ask new players to undertake this to catch up to current content. If it wasnt, all of the people I tried to get into the game wouldve carried on playing. All of them wanted to play/raid with me, and loved playing MMOs.

One quit in ARR patch content, one at the start of HW, and another midway through ARR. My brother however cleared msq and levelled a few job to cap+ went heavy on fishing etc. However he's a lifelong FF fan, so that's the distinction between them. Even then he ended up quitting after EW anyway but thats a different story lol.

I think the best thing they could do for future players is establish a new optional starting point, at 7.0+ or whatever.

[Lustre]

I've had multiple people I know irl quit because they saw a list of all of the quests they had to do to catch up to me, and decided the time investment isnt worth it. Most of them said the story was decent but it didnt grab them enough for it to matter. Despite all the people saying, "huehue this game isnt for you", and "have you ever played a FF game", this IS an mmorpg. I think the "this game isnt for you" comments make sense if, this game just had arr + HW. But now we have the base, and 4 expansions + all patch content, and even then your unlocks would be sparse after finishing msq so youd want to do some side content. It feels unreasonable to ask new players to undertake this to catch up to current content. If it wasnt, all of the people I tried to get into the game wouldve carried on playing. All of them wanted to play/raid with me, and loved playing MMOs.

One quit in ARR patch content, one at the start of HW, and another midway through ARR. My brother however cleared msq and levelled a few job to cap+ went heavy on fishing etc. However he's a lifelong FF fan, so that's the distinction between them. Even then he ended up quitting after EW anyway but thats a different story lol.

I think the best thing they could do for future players is establish a new optional starting point, at 7.0+ or whatever.

And I understand it's a kinda "journey not the destination" game, but it's worth noting that not every player is story centric, esp if they came from another more gameplay centric mmo. One of those friends just wanted to do cool raids and bosses with me. Another wanted to create an fc and do community stuff. Etc

[DPZ2]

I think the best thing they could do for future players is establish a new optional starting point, at 7.0+ or whatever.

They already do this. Today. It's called Tales of Adventure + One Hero's Journey, and costs US$50, unless discounted during a sale.

I don't have an issue with a new optional starting point at 7.0+ for an additional albeit lower-than-current price (say, US$15), without the gil reward. I imagine the complaints from long-time players about new players who don't know how to play rock, paper, scissors on their jobs will still abound.

Next time, tell your friends that ARR patch content can be skipped for US$11 by purchasing Tales of Adventure: A Realm Reborn once they hit level 50.

If your friends dislike story-heavy MMOs, they're not going to appreciate the leveling experience in any case. That's one of the reasons that there are a variety of MMOs, each with some modicum of success. That's why there are First Person Shooters and MOBAs -- different people enjoy doing different types of games.

[StriderShinryu]

If your friends dislike story-heavy MMOs, they're not going to appreciate the leveling experience in any case

I do agree that the last couple of posters sound like they would have been prime candidates for purchasing skips. I won't speak to their long term enjoyment of the game but if their current time enjoyment comes from doing the "end game content with friends" that's the quickest and easiest way to achieve that, and it is provided as an option.

I've been thinking a bit on the quoted point specifically though and I do think it raises a valid point as well. It's not necessarily just about The Story because it really is that the entire levelling progression process for a first character is based around the MSQ. Not that there aren't other ways to level of course as we always have extra jobs to level somehow but the general course of character progression does run straight through the MSQ. If SE completely detached the story from the progression then we'd largely be left with a fairly hollow levelling experience. I can understand someone being discouraged by the amount of story to play through to get to "end game" if they're just starting out new, but I'm not really sure they'd be more encouraged by being told "Okay, just do your dailies/weeklies and grind dungeons/FATEs for a couple of months and you'll be able to play with us!" any more. At least the story can be clicked through and the cutscenes can be skipped in a way that the grind can't.

In any case, I do think the best thing for SE to do at this point is find some way to create an alternate starting point, which is something they are clearly thinking about as YoshiP himself has mentioned as much.

[Chopstix]

I agree with the OP. I remember those 50 60 70 80 points. I called them the LIMBO. U get virtually 0 XP. U need to grind through DOZENS of quests, cutscenes, and dialogue. Good lord. Even if u fast track everything, it takes many, many hours. Ugh.

[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.

[splinter1545]

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 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.

Their opinions do matter though. It's absolutely ridiculous to expect new players to go through all this story content to actually be able to get to the parts they want to play, regardless if they did their research or not. Look at ESO, players can do any zone and any expansion whenever they want. Sure, they can just go play that game if they want, but the point is that this is an issue that will just keep getting worse as the game continues (and it's already really bad now). Whether they are people who researched every inch of this game before buying, or a "FOTM" player, all opinions are valid especially when it comes to a huge one and done time sink that the MSQ is for them.

[Lily_Skye]

So, I've been playing this game for the last two weeks about. I've owned it for longer than that, but never really got into it until some friends told me they were really enjoying it so I resubscribed and gave it another shot.

For the most part I've been having a lot of fun, but I have run into a problem that really annoys me: The way the main quest gates access to the expansions makes your progress grind to a complete halt in an obnoxious way at several points of the game.

For example, the ARR storyline has 80 (!!!) quests in a row at the end of it that are all level 50. I understand that this made sense when these quests were released episodically with game updates when the max level was 50, but from the perspective of a new player it's absolutely ridiculous.

You can't make any real progress on any classes you have at 50 with those quests.

You can't use the quests to level other classes up to level 50 either, because they are too low level to do them.

The only thing you can do is just accept the fact that the game randomly completely stalls out your progress until you've completed the quest chain.

The same thing happens at level 60, 70 and 80 again.

This is honestly the only thing in this game for me so far that has stuck out as a genuinely negative experience.

I enjoy the story, but I also enjoy leveling up and exploring other aspects of the game. I want to get to the content my friends are playing. Suddenly the story goes from being something I was enjoying at my own pace to something that is blatantly getting in the way of me accessing the other content. It takes a lot of the fun out of of the story when you feel pressured to just grind through it to be allowed to access the rest of the game.

go play fortnite then

[Amenara]

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 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.

go play fortnite then

Do people not even read the OPs post before they shoot off with their toxic mentality? They literally said they enjoy the story, enjoy playing the game, and are having fun. All they want is the MSQ to not gate so much in the game. It is a very valid complaint and I think they are 100% correct, it is one of the biggest problems with the new player experience.

[YukikoKurosawa]

Their opinions do matter though. It's absolutely ridiculous to expect new players to go through all this story content to actually be able to get to the parts they want to play, regardless if they did their research or not.

What if.


WHAT IF

The story is the content people play the game for? And the story getting longer and longer is only more content for those players and thereby not a bad thing? It's like complaining about a TV show going on too long "Man if I want to get to the latest season I gotta watch all these other seasons first!".

Your entire problem is you see the story, along with all other content prior to "Endgame" (whatever that even is in your mind) as an obstacle. This is the way the game is. This is what it's about. If you don't like it, PLAY ANOTHER GAME and stop trying to change the game to suit what you want. You are not being forced to play this game. You CHOSE to play this game out of countless other MMOs. You have no excuse.

I am so sick of these FOTM kiddies and narcissists who think every game should cater to them and cannot accept the existence of niches that cater to a more limnited, but specific pool of people. They can either buy a skip, just speedrun the MSQ and skip all the cutscenes, or play another game better suited to their interests.