I hope 7.0's has a way to skip most of the current story

[Amenara]

So the real question I have for all the naysayers is, how does someone wanting/not wanting to do the story affect you? The game doesn't teach you how to play your job at any level, so story doesn't affect that at all. You would never know if someone skipped the story or not unless they specifically told you. I just don't understand how giving new players an option to condense hundreds of hours of MSQ down to something less daunting for a new player would be bad.

[MikkoAkure]

Imagine not wanting to play the game you pay for as entertainment. Imagine treating content as a speed bump.

As someone who mostly plays for the story and completes all the sidequests, I don't think we need to force the hundreds of hours long story onto people just coming into this. That's not how you retain new players. At the end of the day, this is an MMO, and if it comes down to "complete over a decade of content hundreds of hours long" or "pay money" in order to get to where most of the playerbase is and where everything relevant is going on, people are going to lose interest.

As I said before, it wouldn't be the first time a Final Fantasy MMO allowed new players to quickly access content and skip other expansions, so there's precedence for it. Not everything needs to be done in a straight line. They could even gate parts of future content on requirements such as having completed up to patch X.X from the Hydaelyn-Zodiark story. Right before the gates, they could have mini-raids like Promyvion from FFXI where new-ish players can participate with everyone else and complete parts of the story up to that point but have it leave off on a cliffhanger they can come back to after finishing Heavensward, for example.

[Feronar]

How I would do it: When 7.0 comes out, during new character creation add an option to start at level 85, with a special origin story and starting quest chain to teach players their classes/jobs and get them caught up with some basic backstory and introduce important characters (I.e. the Scions) so they're not lost. It would lead directly into the 6.1 main story, with some of the story elements altered to depict the player character as a rookie adventurer looking to find his fortune, rather than the great Warrior of Light.

Of course, players would still have the option to opt out and start at level 1, which would continue to work the same way it does currently, with the 6.1 story remaining unaltered.

If SE wants to keep monetizing the paid story skips, the expansion could include one free level 85 character, with additional level 85 characters being paid extras.

[Raoabolic]

So the real question I have for all the naysayers is, how does someone wanting/not wanting to do the story affect you? The game doesn't teach you how to play your job at any level, so story doesn't affect that at all. You would never know if someone skipped the story or not unless they specifically told you. I just don't understand how giving new players an option to condense hundreds of hours of MSQ down to something less daunting for a new player would be bad.

As a naysayer, I say go for it. The learning curve is broken so why not pull a Bane on XIV's curve and break it? It's clear the devs are pushing towards a single player feeling game with multiplayer elements so why stop at the halfway point? They already let you pay to skip the majority of the MSQ, so the choice IS there. All you gotta do is pay up!

[Amenara]

As a naysayer, I say go for it. The learning curve is broken so why not pull a Bane on XIV's curve and break it? It's clear the devs are pushing towards a single player feeling game with multiplayer elements so why stop at the halfway point? They already let you pay to skip the majority of the MSQ, so the choice IS there. All you gotta do is pay up!

I guess the easiest solution is just give everyone a story skip/job level skip when an expansion drops akin to what WoW does. I would be strangely ok with that.

[Raoabolic]

...akin to what WoW does...

And as we know, WoW is a rousing success with devs who make decisions that ensure the longavity of their game! None of the decisions the WoW devs have done has hollowed the Warcraft IP in any way! :^)

[AmpelioB]

isn't stormblood eventually join the free trial tho?

also we already have story skips on mogstation, isn't that enough?

[Amenara]

And as we know, WoW is a rousing success with devs who make decisions that ensure the longavity of their game! None of the decisions the WoW devs have done has hollowed the Warcraft IP in any way! :^)

Level skips were definitely the beginning of a trend with WoW's quality for sure (on top of a lot of other really bad design decisions on their part), that being said, WoW's gameplay mentality is completely different than FFXIVs and I think the problem is how little gameplay and how much MSQ there is to get to the end vs how WoW does it. That is probably why I am ok with letting people skip to a certain point, 6.1 probably being a decent spot, with the glossary idea that SE was throwing around.

[Duskane]

even though 7.0 is gonna be new
doesn't mean past experience or characters we have now won't be relevant and if we go to Mercydia ARR and HW will be very important to that story regardless or SB if we go to the rest of hingashi etc etc.

[Shougun]

Personally I think one of the better solutions to the mounting wall is an 'alternate start' akin to the mods you see for Skyrim and such. I don't like the 'skips' like you see for here, WoW, GW2, or whatever- where they just sort of fly you at the 'end game' content and hope you stick the landing. I can understand joining a game for 'current' content, particularly like an expansion "oh my god I want to play X job, or experience Y environments so bad!" and be told it's going to be like 200-350 hours before you can.. and that having a negative impact... but I also don't like the whole 9 million mile an hour without breaks solution.

So I think alternate start is a good solution, and then unlock that via new game plus as extra story content for us current players with some sort of neat quest reward. Such that it can be even more valuable to the game than just a side path. Alternate start getting you into later levels faster, through the tutorial, giving you some basic combat, quick big brush stroke story, a direction to go after it's over, and some things to go unlock and enjoy as an aside (like a 'side quest' that has you go visit the saucer).

In another thread discussed some brainstorm opportunities and flow for such a concept. Sure you wouldn't be perfect but I strongly believe a well paced, high quality, series of events would be far more powerful sticking glue for players than a skip potion, and could also potentially still be interesting content for the rest of us too.

Also I don't think dropping players off at the last expansion is particularly needed, could always be part way through the previous expansion- like say one reference I had was to a mako inspired / fanfare sequence like Cloud had when falling into the mako in FF7. Here it might be your mind faltering under the stress of the light warden energy, and so you're going through cool sequences of dream like memories and environments as you get some big highlights, and even perhaps Emet Selch himself helps pull you out (due to his curiosity of you).

Edit: to be clear, not to create a new branch in the story- the alternate start should branch INTO the story and exist as a unit without causing issue. Much of say ShB for example didn't require a lot of past knowledge because as you played it, in most situations, they were actively reminding you of things (like what white auracite does). I definitely think the game should continue with it's story focus, I just think having 'on ramps' like a highway system isn't a terrible opportunity for some types of players and is particularly better system than potion skip solution, and particularly even more so a better solution than say games like WoW or GW2 that include the potion default into some expansion purchases (which imo would be the most egregious solution to ensuring a smooth landing for new players, and greatly ruins the ability to keeping a high quality flow).

A lot of major beats in this game are not hyper complex and I feel you could set down some core structure ground work such that a player might be learning as they go but also not blatantly lost and confused, though of course hitting every beat wouldn't be possible so you'd likely not have cool info like how Raubahn became all... right.. .