What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Rufalus]

IMO making the most important basis of your gameplay single-player centered in an MMO is an abomination in terms of bad decisions in the first place.

Big agree. I got tired of arguing with people on discord who think this is the best possible way to use resources. So much dev time goes into scripted events which people will see only one time ever unless they want to do new game plus for no reward. But it's an MMO and you have to pay for game time. In a live service game I care about dynamic repeatable content that drives daily and weekly engagement. Story scenes and single player instances are only relevant on patch week, not the following 4 months. I'm not saying FF shouldn't have story, but the ratio is weird here and all other content is locked behind that giant chain of msq which must be undertaken solo.

[Magikazam]

Big agree. I got tired of arguing with people on discord who think this is the best possible way to use resources. So much dev time goes into scripted events which people will see only one time ever unless they want to do new game plus for no reward. But it's an MMO and you have to pay for game time. In a live service game I care about dynamic repeatable content that drives daily and weekly engagement. Story scenes and single player instances are only relevant on patch week, not the following 4 months. I'm not saying FF shouldn't have story, but the ratio is weird here and all other content is locked behind that giant chain of msq which must be undertaken solo.

The sad part is that there correct way to make a story-centered MMO that still feels like an MMO. Just look at GW2, most of your time is spent in the open world leveling doing quests and Fates with others, while you also get a solo-centered questline every 5 levels or so, which basically let you progress the main story. each leveling zone also has its own sub-story so it makes the game feel more like a real world that is alive. It is similar to how job quest work basically.

on the other hand, FFXIV is so solo-content and story-centered It makes me feel like the whole universe revolves around the WoL. like mostly nothing happened in Gridania or Limsa since ARR, Garlean patiently waits for the WOL to do HW and resolve the sultan assassination plot AND let them help Ala migo before they come back from AFK or something, SHB whole concept work around the fact time continuation work perfectly so WoL arrive at the right time in the First.

Against, compare this to GW2 where sometimes you get to help some random small village cause there are some harpy building nests nearby and now they killing villagers, I have less trouble believing that while my char is busy fighting some BBEG 2 extension later, that while I'm busy doing that there probably a new adventurer going there and solving whatever new issue the villagers have with wildlife.