Playing an expansion as current content has been a lacklustre MMO experience

[Iscah]

While I wouldn't remove 3.0 from the MSQ because there is a fair amount of Ascian involvement not to mention the resolution to what happened to one of the Scions following the Bloody Banquet, I'd be more than happy to relegate 4.0 to side quests.

Other than introducing Zenos, it did little to advance the main story and what actually happens with Zenos in 4.0 is pretty irrelevant to future events. We could have been introduced to Zenos as Gaius and Estinien burst in on him killing Varis and it would have made little difference to the later story.

So yeah, turning 4.0-4.3 into side quests would be possible. Those events could be presented as echo flashbacks of things that occurred while the WoL was finally getting to take a nice long vacation for a change (or perhaps not so long since all of 2.0 to end of 6.0 was supposed to have happened in a single year).

It may not do a lot in terms of driving our personal story forward, but it makes a huge impact on world politics. It completely rewrites the state of Garlemald's empire, making it critical that it happens at that point in time so that further MSQ can take place in that altered state. It's not something you can just put to one side and do later.

Maybe it could have been written differently back at the beginning, but it's too crucial to remove now.

[Atelier-Bagur]

The anti-Stormblood cult is honestly getting super cringe.

[LaylaTsarra]

The anti-Stormblood cult is honestly getting super cringe.

Hey don't worry they'll drop everything for 7.0 and redo 3.0 and 4.0 instead. Thing is though when they're are done they probably won't like them either. I enjoyed all the xpac's some were better than others but overall they were interesting and fun. Whoa is me.

[Axxion]

The anti-Stormblood cult is honestly getting super cringe.

What does that mean?

ShB and Mostly EW made class rotation focused around having downtime where you gain ressources that you will spend at the same time as the rest of the raid on the 1-2 minute CD. While paladin got some aspect of that (the magic phase being on a 1 min cd) It mostly about doing constant strong flow of damage rather than going all at on a burst mode. Hence it kinda fit weirdly in the ''Meta''. A class work differently so they gonna make it more like the other cause god forbid we have some diversity other than how we spend or metters and stickers on mobs

you are not wrong tho

[Deveryn]

You realize they do that already and I'm saying do the opposite and make shit thats there to do whenever that has no expiration date. I am literally saying add the opposite of FOMO.

How would you be forced to do content and get rewards completely optional, if they're completely optional? DO you feel forced to play PvP for the cosmetics there?

That's PvP. It's different there because the incentive is needed to help keep people going back for more. DD is there and never changing for those that want to do it. It also takes several hours to complete, where PvP is just 20 minutes a run. Your desire for more gear is satisfied every patch. DD has its set loot table. It doesn't need anything further.

What does that mean?

Stormblood's writing wasn't led by Ishikawa, so the stans get especially uptight about it.

[R041]

...

Is your main BLU or something? You either have terrible reading comprehension, or everything you say in response to anyone has been in bad faith or a skewed perspective of what XIV is and has been for the past 5 years. Or maybe you're playing XI.

Stormblood's writing wasn't led by Ishikawa, so the stans get especially uptight about it.

Neither were ARR, or Heavensward and they're 'Critically Acclaimed'. She also wrote a large portion of Stormblood, what's your point? People out here just making up a narrative.

The anti-Stormblood cult is honestly getting super cringe.

No, but most of Heavensward and Stormblood are considered filler MSQ outside of the Hydaelyn Arc itself (I understand there's some sprinkled between and it's world lore, my wishlist was an extreme, have you no imagination!?).

I'm not saying anything in particular is horrible, but my make-believe wishlist for MSQ as a whole is in regards to how linear it is for such long hours. It would be amazing if I had the OPTION to go do some Hydaelyn MSQ, then leave and go do some Stormblood stuff. Everything as it's currently designed encourages a week long linear rush of MSQ each expac then a whole lotta nothing. It's not sustainable, and I'm really afraid that 7.0 is going to be more of the same just pushing us further and further away from the shore. Nobody playing back in ARR-HW thought it'd get this bad, but here we are now.

"Bro just go do MSQ, quick adventure 400 hours in and out." - It's like asking someone to go play all numbered FF back to back. When it should instead be a pick and choose. If things were cut up properly from the beginning, we wouldn't be in this mess. Which is why I ultimately wish for each expac to be a self-contained story, or worst case each 2.

[strawberrycake]

People out here just making up a narrative.

This. I've seen at least several people in this thread trying to talk about issues and others making up stories over just saying, so any ideas to fix this? Any thing we can all come together and say yeha this sounds solid. Everything else has been semantics. But, I hope that continued blind trust in Yoshi P works, genuinely, because I want XIV to keep going. As I want the same for all other MMOs, but tbf, argung semantics is not helping and ever will help.

[Raoabolic]

This. I've seen at least several people in this thread trying to talk about issues and others making up stories over just saying, so any ideas to fix this? Any thing we can all come together and say yeha this sounds solid. Everything else has been semantics. But, I hope that continued blind trust in Yoshi P works, genuinely, because I want XIV to keep going. As I want the same for all other MMOs, but tbf, argung semantics is not helping and ever will help.

You know, back in the day people blindly praised other companies thinking they can do no wrong. It never turns out as a net positive for the IP in question. There is something to be said about being critically objective. There were issues with the EW story but if we are cleaning house then there are bigger underlying issues than the story. There is the fact everything is instanced. There is the fact that the 2 minute burst window will only hamstring how you can design classes. There is the fact that every class is losing it's uniqueness in favor of "balance". There is the fact that housing is hosed. There is- We can keep doing this but i'm a lazy person and if XIV goes the way of other MMOs then oh well. There will be more games in the future and if you don't have a backlog of good games to play then you need to start lookin'!

[DPZ2]

It would be amazing if I had the OPTION to go do some Hydaelyn MSQ, then leave and go do some Stormblood stuff.

This option is available. It will cost you an additional $50US max. Purchase a job skip to level 80, and a story skip through the end of Shadowbringers. Log in, go to Vesper Bay and grab the New Game+ blue quest. Problem resolved.

That particular solution works well for new players who just want to get to current content. Not so much for players who started back in 1.0, but they've all quit the game at this point, right?

Nobody playing back in ARR-HW thought it'd get this bad, but here we are now.

As someone who began playing through ARR when it was still working through the 2.x patches 8 years ago, and HW directly after that, I do not see the game as getting worse, so the use of 'nobody' in the above sentence is a foolish generalization.

If things were cut up properly from the beginning, we wouldn't be in this mess. Which is why I ultimately wish for each expac to be a self-contained story

You appear to be assuming that non-linear storytelling can be a thing for an MMORPG. I've read how wonderfully that works out for current new players of World of Warcraft and experienced some of it in their Free Trial. It is a disjointed mess. Then again, the WoW story line has been retrofitted so many times that it may indeed be a blessing. Long-term players such as I became less enamored of being "that guy who shows up and doesn't get to do anything heroic because this is a story about the NPCs from the books".

Every expansion so far has been a self-contained story from the initial leveling release into the .3 patch. Self-contained does not mean "no context or relation to any other story". Self-contained does not mean a brand-new cast of characters who have no relation to what went before or what comes after. What one loses by doing so can be made up by utilizing New Game+. Heck, even the job quests can be run through these days, so your Dark Knight doesn't lose out on what went on before level 70.

[DPZ2]

There is something to be said about being critically objective.

If you are a professional game critic, sure. If you are recommending a game for someone else to play, yes. If you are continually disappointed that the choices you would have made for game design are not the choices made by the actual development team, not so much. Feel free to be critical. Just don't whine about it when someone else's ideas of what deserve criticism are different from your own, because, frankly, the only one who can be critically objective is that professional game critic, who does not play the game after assessing it.

Do the mechanics in this game work? Obviously.

Was the 2-minute burst window a development team design, or was it a meta that became so popular the developers decided to incorporate it into the game officially? Chicken, meet egg. The majority of players will look at you and ask, 'what burst window'?

Was the choice to create everything instanced a good one back in 2014? Absolutely. It allowed members of different worlds to play a dungeon together.

Is that choice still a good one in 2022? It provides a means to increase the number of players leveling in a particular zone, as an example. Would you rather have a queue for each zone in the Open World during an expansion launch?

Are classes losing their uniqueness? It depends on what you mean by 'unique'. The playstyle for a Black Mage is indeed different from a Red Mage. The difference between Dancer and Bard is high enough that one is chosen for raids more often than the other. Your definition of 'unique' will be different from mine.