The Merchant's Tale: A Social Commentary on the Playerbase by the Devs?

[Astronis]

I didn’t even realize the paradox of saying it’s ‘literally’ the same story ‘with slight variations’ lol. I should’ve used ‘basically’ instead lol - it’s not a play-by-play of the exact same story but the core message and drive for the plot seems to be largely the same - character is offered material wealth but finds it devoid of value before realising emotional/spiritual wealth is the true ‘treasure’. Theres probably a lot of other stories that fit that sort of ‘archetypal’ narrative too, since as you say its a fairly commonly used ‘morality play’ to demonstrate that stuff can’t buy happiness basically. Siddhartha was just the first thing that came to my head lol.

I just meant I wasn't familiar with the story you referenced! Very sorry if what I said came across otherwise!

[Connor]

I just meant I wasn't familiar with the story you referenced! Very sorry if what I said came across otherwise!

Ah I see what you mean! I didn’t take it as combative or anything, just that I realized my mistake after what you said and wanted to clarify in case I wasn’t making any sense lol (which is often)

[Aniise]

Did anyone else catch on that The Merchant's Tale is a clever social commentary on those players who do and do not complain about rewards? It's a video game inside a video game. A shiny weapon, a carpet mount, a housing trophy item...the Maiden was unimpressed because these are not what matter. A simple dirty plate is a memory of a journey, an experience lived. My dirty plate will be when I stopped beside the vast beautiful field of grapes and looked upon their massive number of polygons and I understood how much of an improvement the DT graphics update has been. Thank you Devs!

The 'blinders' for clearing all routes: the cherry on top!

Funny how easy it is for some people to laugh at casuals who are unhappy with the changes of the reward structure.
"Haha, well, just enjoy the game! Create memories! You should be happy enough with that! You are never happy, no matter what they give you. Just take the facemask and be happy you even get anything."

Hmmm...I wonder what would happen if they would just remove weapons from the next Ultimate and give them a face accessory for completing it instead. A stupid looking one at that.

"Haha, the experience and the feeling of accomplishment should be more than enough for you! Be happy you get anything at all. Oh and..memories and stuff bla bla."

...no, you wouldn't read that anywhere. The forums would be on fire. And rightfully so.

[Lord_Umbra]

Well if want speculate that it's that more fuel is that the Title for Completing 13 paths is Professional Protagonist so yeah can see how take as a angry Dev/s. So yeah kinder feels like a couple possible shots at the community for DT reactions.

[VeyaAkemi]

The main character option was funny, genuinely you guys need to learn to make fun of yourselves.

[ZephyrMenodora]

The main character option was funny, genuinely you guys need to learn to make fun of yourselves.

Voluntarily laughing at yourself is not the same thing as a company insulting their customer base because they can't take constructive feedback.

[TaleraRistain]

I thought the main character thing was kind of rude, too. A lot of the issue with base 7.0 wasn't so much not being the main character since that's been the situation in Heavensward and Stormblood, but not getting the chance to interact with the world and characters nearly as much as the WoL did in previous expansions. It felt very much like we were watching the actions instead of participating (which the post-patches did well in fixing so we feel part of the ensemble again) so if their only takeaway is players didn't like not being the main character, that is very much incredibly tonedeaf.

I also thought it didn't really make sense because the NPC has just said before talking to the maiden that they must be the protagonist. Are they saying our WoL is too stupid to know what protagonist means?

Also, it didn't make sense for the WoL to even make that reply because as we've seen from the DRK quests they are often acting on the expectations of others that they will fit a certain role and don't always want that. So that also made it very much seem like taking a shot at the players themselves.

I don't know what happens when you choose that since I chose the bodyguard option as that made the most sense for what the WoL character would say. But from what some have said, it doesn't sound good when you do choose it.

[HammAndCheese]

I thought it was pretty funny to be quite honest. I enjoy silly dialog from time to time.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I don't know what happens when you choose that since I chose the bodyguard option as that made the most sense for what the WoL character would say. But from what some have said, it doesn't sound good when you do choose it.

I can answer that, as I did choose the option just to confirm the writers were taking pot shots at player like myself who spent time discussing the plot.

Your character sulks and looks petty. It's how they view the players with concerns about their 7.0 writing I am sure.

[GraceHorizon]

I wouldn’t sweat it too much. It’s an exchange inside a magic storybook with a character who, while apparently good at her job, is also introduced as someone who will attempt to eat a rock to see how it tastes.