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

[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]

All they want is the MSQ to not gate so much in the game.

Then, as I said, they should be going into the game fully aware that's the way it is. They can skip the story if they don't want to do it. Beyond that, what more do you want? This is not like many story games where you can't even skip cutscenes (not even on second playthroughs). The only cutscenes forced on your is Praetorium, beyond that a player who isn't interested in the story can just press ESQ and click "Skip Cutscene" from the moment they log in. There's many people who play the game and have never done the story and don't complain because it ISN'T completely forced upon them, but they still accept the story ties into the game and a lot of content is going to revolve around that leaving them not as much to do as opposed to less story-focused games.

Again, I repeat, just play another game. Why can you not accept this as an answer? There is nothing wrong with catering to a niche audience, going for mass-appeal and trying to be like every other MMO is not necessarily the right move and I'd strongly rather they did not, and it's certainly not how the game became as popular as it has.

[DPZ2]

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.

Am I reading your suggestion correctly here? The answer is to, quite literally, rewrite the entire game to resolve the problems some new players have with content being gated behind the MSQ? How about we do away with the MSQ entirely? That'd certainly mean a much quicker run up to the so-called "End Game" so that people can enjoy two months of content every couple of years. And, while they're at it, they may as well remove all the earlier patch end-game content, since it's no longer current. Dungeons too. That'd certainly resolve the issue.

Yeah, it's a ridiculous read of the OP, and your comment, but it would certainly take care of the "New Players hate slogging through 8 years of content" argument that keeps cropping up. Of course, at that point I'd expect most of the playerbase to bail.

[Skivvy]

Am I reading your suggestion correctly here? The answer is to, quite literally, rewrite the entire game to resolve the problems some new players have with content being gated behind the MSQ? How about we do away with the MSQ entirely? That'd certainly mean a much quicker run up to the so-called "End Game" so that people can enjoy two months of content every couple of years. And, while they're at it, they may as well remove all the earlier patch end-game content, since it's no longer current. Dungeons too. That'd certainly resolve the issue.

Yeah, it's a ridiculous read of the OP, and your comment, but it would certainly take care of the "New Players hate slogging through 8 years of content" argument that keeps cropping up. Of course, at that point I'd expect most of the playerbase to bail.

None of us can see any sort of retention/exit data, but the fact that SE bothered taking the time to rework ARR should be a clue that there is some concern over the MSQ and the player experience.

[MisterNublet]

None of us can see any sort of retention/exit data, but the fact that SE bothered taking the time to rework ARR should be a clue that there is some concern over the MSQ and the player experience.

While not completely accurate, Steam's player count can give you a general idea on how well the population is holding up.

December 2021(EW Release): AVG players: 53,729.2.....Peak Players: 95,102
March 2022(Content Lul): AVG players: 17,937.2....Peak Players: 29,126
Last 30 Days(Patch 6.1): AVG Players: 24,552.6.....Peak Players: 54,905

It's great that SE is bothering to fix the mess that is ARR/MSQ experience, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the endgame (or lack thereof) if they want to keep players around.