Hot Take: The MSQ grind is too long and its harmful to expanding friend groups.

[ZiraZ]

wtf I love gatekeeping

[Avoidy]

By selling story skips in the cash shop, the devs are admitting that the story is worth skipping. If the developers truly believed that the story was a valuable experience that everyone should witness once, they wouldn't sell skips that a first timer could purchase. It's the same design philosophy as those free to play mmos we pretend to be better than; they'll have some gatekeepy grindy gameplay and then tacitly imply that you can skip it for a few dollars. If they thought there was value to doing it -- real, genuine value -- then they wouldn't let you abandon it.

Imagine if you created something amazing and wanted to share it with people. Like, imagine you had an art portfolio full of your best stuff, and you sat down to show it to somebody who'd paid money to see it. When someone sat down to finally take a look at it, would you tell them they could skip to the very last page for 10 bucks? Of course not, right? Because you think that your collection of work is worth sharing. Taken from this perspective, it's honestly weird that a "story focused" "FF first, MMO second" game like XIV even has story skips to begin with. Especially for people who have not experienced the story at least once already.

On the main topic, I agree somewhat. All of the new people I've recruited into this game have quit during the post-ARR slog. The "filter," if you will. Trying to get new people into this game and having them see how bad it is at the start is so embarrassing that I don't even try anymore.

[magtuired]

Felt my eyes gaze over the minute you said "triggered". If your friends don't like the story and aren't engaged with the various side content you can do during those slow sections maybe it's just not for them

[kaynide]

By selling story skips in the cash shop, the devs are admitting that the story is worth skipping.

Actually, the devs (mostly YoshiP) are on record saying they didn't want story skips to begin with at first, but because that enough players wanted them and overall game trends, he decided to allow it. He revised his stance to "worried but hopeful".

They first introduced them to the Chinese/Korean market because it's standard there..and because it actually seemed to help with player retention (aka make more money) they decided to add it to US/EU/JP.

It was always about player/gaming trends and marketing.

More HERE

[LianaThorne]

Actually, the devs (mostly YoshiP) are on record saying they didn't want story skips to begin with at first, but because that enough players wanted them and overall game trends, he decided to allow it. He revised his stance to "worried but hopeful".

They first introduced them to the Chinese/Korean market because it's standard there..and because it actually seemed to help with player retention (aka make more money) they decided to add it to US/EU/JP.

It was always about player/gaming trends and marketing.

More HERE

This is why I kinda don't get why people call them predatory towards the community if the community were the ones that wanted them to begin with over the devs lol.

[Shougun]

This is why I kinda don't get why people call them predatory towards the community if the community were the ones that wanted them to begin with over the devs lol.

I'm sure there are more minds than just Yoshida, and certainly for ourselves. Why couldn't Bob call it predatory even if Steve asked for it? I'm sure someone at SE is quite happy this additional income exists too.

[Raoabolic]

Actually, the devs (mostly YoshiP) are on record saying they didn't want story skips to begin with at first, but... It was always about player/gaming trends and marketing.

The word "but", the word of concession, lmao. Also, real classy of him to blame the playerbase. :/

[kaynide]

The word "but", the word of concession, lmao. Also, real classy of him to blame the playerbase. :/

Where, specifically, does he ever blame the player base? You're welcome to your opinion, but not very "classy" to put words in the mouths of others.

I'm not sure what the disconnect it on "concessions".

FFXIV (heck even FF11) has a long history of implementing things that the player base specifically asks for, even if it's not what the original intent is.
Even more, they add some of these features fully aware it might cause hurt feelings/cause headaches later.

The ability to jump despite awful physics engine; Player housing despite there being nowhere near enough houses;

A lot less controversial like Male Miqote the 2.x Relic Weapons were because people asked. Point being it's hardly a "concession" of the devs to add what players want.

[Raoabolic]

Where, specifically, does he ever blame the player base? You're welcome to your opinion, but not very "classy" to put words in the mouths of others.

I'm not sure what the disconnect it on "concessions".

FFXIV (heck even FF11) has a long history of implementing things that the player base specifically asks for, even if it's not what the original intent is.
Even more, they add some of these features fully aware it might cause hurt feelings/cause headaches later.

The ability to jump despite awful physics engine; Player housing despite there being nowhere near enough houses;

A lot less controversial like Male Miqote the 2.x Relic Weapons were because people asked. Point being it's hardly a "concession" of the devs to add what players want.

"Additionally, this service is recently becoming much more popular in MMORPGs released in North America and Europe."
You're welcome. Also, it's not very classy to vehemently defend a multimillion dollar/yen corporation. Then again, I still have an active sub so I guess we are both eating a bit of this sandwich, lmao.

[Tuchkin]

Story is the main core of this game, the developers once said.
But this story, supplemented in addons and filler numeric patches, has become so big that... I won't tell you a secret if I say that the vast majority of players just skip all the dialogues and most of the cutscenes. Just because it's impossible to read and go through all this in a reasonable amount of time - no one will play the same thing for years (except for abnormal people like me).
So...EVEN if the developers ignore this issue, which has become a problem, then... nothing will change: most will just look the guide on YouTube and mechanically click trials, skip quests and cutscenes, and "unskipable" will simply be rolled into the window into the background (console players deprived of such an opportunity will simply go to drink tea or something like that).

WHY force a player to do something he DOESN'T like? What's the point of that? I suggest making the WHOLE story optional except for ARR - immediately add it to New Game+ and anyone who wants will find it there and complete.