Island Sanctuaries - End Game Only

[Amenara]

Everything you mention has its place in the story and we have yet to even see where IS falls into place. Aside from that, there's nothing of actual importance IN Island Sanctuary, so what difference does it make if you have to wait a bit? What's wrong with having something more to look forward to at the end of the whole Hydaelyn / Zodiark saga?

Why gatekeep content that has no actual importance then? You are already gatekeeping the vast majority of the game through the MSQ, might as well give newer players something that could be fun on the side to do.

[Deveryn]

Why gatekeep content that has no actual importance then? You are already gatekeeping the vast majority of the game through the MSQ, might as well give newer players something that could be fun on the side to do.

Why are you getting all worked up over this? It looks like you've already completed the story. What's with the white knight routine?

Newer players have plenty to do. Nobody's signing up for this game to play Island Sanctuary. There are plenty of mobile games to fill that space.

[Amenara]

Why are you getting all worked up over this? It looks like you've already completed the story. What's with the white knight routine?

Newer players have plenty to do. Nobody's signing up for this game to play Island Sanctuary. There are plenty of mobile games to fill that space.

White knighting...? I guess if advocating for a less terrible new player experience is white knighting then sure, that's what I am doing. I don't understand why you are so focused on making it a level 90 only experience and how it would affect you if a newer player had access to them. I care because I want the games new player experience to be the best it can be. Adding Island Sanctuaries to a lower level so new players can have access to a fun feature while they are grinding through the MSQ seems like a good quality of life idea. It is a positive with no negatives that I can see, however gating it through the entirety of the MSQ seems like nothing but a negative to me.

[Stormfur]

How soon before we see that the ladder is just too high to put all the new content at the top and that it's not a service to new players to dumb down all the rungs along the way?

Those story skip potions aren't going to sell themselves!

[Kuroka]

Did you finish the game? No? then carry on and wait till you get your Island one day, it wont go anywhere....

You dont care for story etc and just wanna play Animal crossing or Sims? Go do that, thanks.

[Jojoya]

Newer players have plenty to do. Nobody's signing up for this game to play Island Sanctuary. There are plenty of mobile games to fill that space.

Yet there are players who get the game solely for the Mahjong Tournament in the Gold Saucer. You can't be certain that there aren't people who would get the game solely for Island Sanctuary - (or at least would if it wasn't locked behind a couple of hundred hours of MSQ).

Why withhold content that a new player would enjoy and that seems to have no real lore attached to the island content itself, only to how it is obtained? Again, SE could have made the lore for the quest that unlocks the island anything they wanted (Adventurers' Guild is bequeathed an island by a mysterious benefactor and our trusty Adventurer self has been asked to be the caretaker, as an example). Why is it important for it to be locked behind level 90 MSQ? No one loses anything if it's available to low level players because it is isolated content. What a player does on their island affects no one else.

[RyuDragnier]

I think I know why it's gated behind EW. The Island Sanctuary is likely in Thavnair, which is ruled by a certain individual, somebody who wouldn't just trust anybody, who wouldn't just give away something like that for no reason. You've earned their trust massively by the end of 6.0, so it's likely also a gift for helping keep Thavnair safe. So it'd make no sense for it to be obtained before 6.0's end.

And on a technical side, it's probably also to save server space, as the sanctuary is as big as an EW zones. Less people with it means the server won't struggle as badly, and it'll be easier to adjust for any large increases in players.

[Skivvy]

Did you finish the game? No? then carry on and wait till you get your Island one day, it wont go anywhere....

You dont care for story etc and just wanna play Animal crossing or Sims? Go do that, thanks.

MMOs, by design, are filled with all sorts of various content that appeal to a large number of people. We have the story, PvP, hunts, gathering, crafting, RP, hanging with friends, glamour, chocobo racing, high-end fights, gold saucer, TT, gardening, and all sorts of other things that lure people in. Not everyone plays for the story. Not everyone plays for battle-related content. The 'fluff' and lighter activities are just as important as the rest and there is absolutely no reason to lock Island Sanctuary behind a massive MSQ grind.

I think I know why it's gated behind EW. The Island Sanctuary is likely in Thavnair, which is ruled by a certain individual, somebody who wouldn't just trust anybody, who wouldn't just give away something like that for no reason. You've earned their trust massively by the end of 6.0, so it's likely also a gift for helping keep Thavnair safe. So it'd make no sense for it to be obtained before 6.0's end.

That may be the case, but they could have also just added it as a new feature with reasonable requirements (EW purchase and....level 60? ARR completed?). The island activities seem like they're going to be self-contained and won't impact the outside markets in any way, so why gate it so heavily? As it is, the majority of players are already locked out of housing (which only requires level 50 + a specific GC rank). Offering up Island Sanctuary could have been a nice way of saying "Hey, we're sorry we've screwed up housing so much...but here's a gigantic island to play with!". It's obviously not the same thing, but it would be content that players can throw themselves into for a decent amount of time.

[RyuDragnier]

That may be the case, but they could have also just added it as a new feature with reasonable requirements (EW purchase and....level 60? ARR completed?). The island activities seem like they're going to be self-contained and won't impact the outside markets in any way, so why gate it so heavily? As it is, the majority of players are already locked out of housing (which only requires level 50 + a specific GC rank). Offering up Island Sanctuary could have been a nice way of saying "Hey, we're sorry we've screwed up housing so much...but here's a gigantic island to play with!". It's obviously not the same thing, but it would be content that players can throw themselves into for a decent amount of time.

If they're trying to save server space and avoid causing massive problems, gating behind MSQ is a good way to avoid a Raubahn EX or Pipin Savage moment again. As of the current census, there are 1,054,495 endgame characters, and doesn't include how many are alts. There are a total of 27,286,890 characters across all worlds, and doesn't include how many are alts or F2P. It's going to be much easier on them to make this so you have to be at the current endgame than allow people prior to that to have one, and will make it easier on the servers. From that perspective, this is a pretty good idea on their part to alleviate problems in advance on server space that may arise. Unless of course, you WANT another Raubahn EX or Pipin Savage, when people couldn't do instances for almost a full week...

[Midareyukki]

Why gatekeep content that has no actual importance then? You are already gatekeeping the vast majority of the game through the MSQ, might as well give newer players something that could be fun on the side to do.

Gatekeeping content through the MSQ is the main process of an RPG. It's meant to be a world that evolves as you go along and reacts to your actions\the actions of others:
- Pokémon only lets you progress when you beat gyms and have access to moves that unlock routes.
- SMT games only let you explore new areas if you've gone through the main story (read: P3 tower levels, P1 Snow Queen, SMT3 Amala Labyrinth, even basic functions like fusing demons)
- KH locks minigames, items and equipment behind story progression.
- Final Fantasy itself has entire areas that only unlock after you've beaten a certain dungeon or watch a specific cutscene.

We're not playing an open world\sandbox game. We're playing a progression story, and content is gradually unlocked through it. Not even Skyrim does that. It's not gatekeeping in a negative sense. It's not "You cannot join this unless you're this sort of person".
The stuff new players unlock on the side as they progress the story are meant to be what they do on the side. It's called "side-content" for a reason.

The game doesn't have FOMO other than events, and events are (for the most part) available at level 15, provided you have access to every ARR city hub.
Sidequests and alternative content like PvP is stuff they can go ahead and unlock. But the main point of the game is its MSQ. Gatekeeping said content is part of the nature of the genre itself, it's not an inherent design flaw by Square directly to keep "the unworthy" off of their content.