All Purchasable Copies of FFXIV Should Have a Level Skip / Story Skip

[Aneshda]

You can Buy so many Story Skips and even Level Skips. In WoW you get with every new Expansion 1 Level Skip, it is always 10 Levels under the actual max Level you could make.

[Skivvy]

for the same reason they sell skips.. not everyone cares about msq.

Exactly. And even for those people who do enjoy the story (like OP), it's an enormous amount of backlog you have to get through before you can even get to anything that resembles current content. It's a bad system, and only getting worse as the expansions pile up. This would be fine for a single-player game, but definitely not for an MMO that is 12+ years old and constantly adding new content. And to boot, you'll be running around solo the majority of the time. Hope you didn't want to play with friends. :X

They really need to make some jumping off points for the expansions/content. If people don't want to do the story in a linear fashion, that should be their choice.

[CCheshire]

I get it, but SE sells story and job skips, so the point is moot since they'd never now leave money on the table for this in the future.

Also, the FT is v generous way to test out the game with no cost needed and, TBH, there's just not much to do at endgame beyond Savage/Ult and maybe chatting about the new patch? I mean, you can farm the wing mounts now, that's not a fun task as its p miserable with the low drop rates. Then I guess if you're into FF11 you can do the 24 man raids, but even then they are limited to once a week 1 gear item for the newest one and the wait times for the older 2 are much longer than anything else now too.

I mean, even the DT relic quests are back to back grinding sometimes with RNG low rates for step 1 or just spamming rous for the remainder steps and math tomes too.

Then I feel like if they disliked the VN-like MSQ from the start then they're going to have a huge problem later on, even in 8.0, since they will be the same kind of 6-8 hours fetch quests but now we're in the winter town and we're saving the world for reasons they don't know either with a new cast that they never met before either so there's less motivation to care about anything.

FWIW: I agreed with making FFXIV more alt-friendly, but it's not here or now that giving a free job skip will solve that for sprouts or even current players.

[Rore]

For alts, maybe, but only after you've beaten the quests on your main.
Imagine ordering a plate of spaghetti and meatballs at a dingy restaurant, eating the 2 measly meatballs, then rubbing the spaghetti all over yourself and proclaiming, "I HAVE FINISHED MY SUPPER!", before paying full price, plus 25% normieslop tax (a """""tip"""""). That's what you're doing by skipping the MSQ.
EAT YOUR SPAGHETTI. ENJOY IT.

[PyurBlue]

If they play the free trial and think "I want to skip this" then why would they want to buy the game? To get to the unskippable part of the thing they didn't like? And if they did like it, why would they want a skip?

When I started playing, being behind friends, some quick catchup method felt very desirable, enjoyment of the game having nothing to do with it. The MSQ enforces a time sink that can be very effective at separating you from other players. That's not very fun.

> floor 200 potd

>doesn't want to deal with single player content

Is your friend named Oxymoron?

Where is the contradiction? Especially once the word "wall" is reinserted into the original sentence? The player in question wasn't adverse to single player content. The problem was having to go through a very long mandatory grind to do content.

For alts, maybe, but only after you've beaten the quests on your main.
Imagine ordering a plate of spaghetti and meatballs at a dingy restaurant, eating the 2 measly meatballs, then rubbing the spaghetti all over yourself and proclaiming, "I HAVE FINISHED MY SUPPER!", before paying full price, plus 25% normieslop tax (a """""tip"""""). That's what you're doing by skipping the MSQ.
EAT YOUR SPAGHETTI. ENJOY IT.

I've seen many analogies like this, but I don't think they fit very well. If I were to modify it to match the situation with the MSQ, it would be like ordering spaghetti and meatballs and being told you have to eat a carrot before you can get what you wanted. The game isn't so simple that it boils down to you like it or don't, and there isn't anything to be gained by making the MSQ mandatory.

[Rore]

[...]it would be like ordering spaghetti and meatballs and being told you have to eat a carrot before you can get what you wanted. The game isn't so simple that it boils down to you like it or don't, and there isn't anything to be gained by making the MSQ mandatory.

Ok brotherman I'm either luigi's mansion portrait ghost vacuuming that kakakarrot (cake) down my GAM goatthroat and enjoying my spooghatti n shmeatbawllz, or getting up, doing a 360, and walkin outta the restaurant for poor Quality of Service.
They just gave me an uncompiled carrot salad; my stummy will sort that out.

[caffe_macchiato]

Then I feel like if they disliked the VN-like MSQ from the start then they're going to have a huge problem later on, even in 8.0, since they will be the same kind of 6-8 hours fetch quests but now we're in the winter town and we're saving the world for reasons they don't know either with a new cast that they never met before either so there's less motivation to care about anything.

Level and story skips for new players? Seems like a good way to make them bored and leave before their free month is over because "everything is done" and the only thing they have to look forward to is sitting in PF for hours waiting for hardcore content to happen (assuming they even want to do it).

2 measly meatballs

To get to the unskippable part of the thing they didn't like?

How are people having so little faith in 8.0 before it's even out?

If people don't want to do the story in a linear fashion, that should be their choice.

What we currently call New Game+ should be made a core part of the game. Most people can understand the concept of a prequel and will handle it well as long as Evercold is designed with it in mind. 200+ hours of content HAS to be taken in as side content to be done at a person's leisure, as has always been the case for all grinds in FFXIV.

So the reality is now, that SE has decided it's fine if a lot of players are going to take years to get through the MSQ.

We should stop believing that Square Enix is actively suicidal. With their embrace of the Switch 2, reviving Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, and actually giving FFXIV a budget, it's fair to say the new CEO has walked away from the ledge. This is the first time in 20 years that the company hasn't sabotaged itself.

[Underscore]

Nah.

Instead, why not let people sync their alt characters' MSQ progress up to match their main character, similar to the new item level sync feature coming in 8.0?

[Rore]

How are people having so little faith in 8.0 before it's even out?

Sorry brother I meant the meatballs are the rest of the game and the spaghetti is the MSQ and the skip is him rubbing it all over his GAM body
I AM FULLY FOMO'D INTO EVERCLEAR LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[CCheshire]

How are people having so little faith in 8.0 before it's even out?

We should stop believing that Square Enix is actively suicidal. With their embrace of the Switch 2, reviving Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, and actually giving FFXIV a budget, it's fair to say the new CEO has walked away from the ledge. This is the first time in 20 years that the company hasn't sabotaged itself.

Well, because I've been there and done that starting in ARR and since Stb was the first expansion I played through from release date to DT, from the hype to the early access, and they're not going to do massive changes to MSQ because some ppl dislike reading them.

Then I feel like if most ppl by Shb don't like the MSQ in the FT then it's time to move on to a different game or genre.

Also, we never know since SE might reveal a new gacha in the next few weeks or months that'll be EoS in 2-3 years too