Irony?

[The_Last_Dragoon]

I find it extremely interesting that FFXIV is suffering from too much end-game content coming into this next expansion when so many MMORPGs suffer from a lack of such content. Personally I enjoy having a ton of story that can't just be skipped over, because that means it's integral to the story line and it means that players can't just skip over story dungeons and not know how to play their class/job in a party setting.

In fact, while it may potentially burn out new users, it will definitely make them veterans of the game by the time they hit Heavensward content.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

I find it extremely interesting that FFXIV is suffering from too much end-game content coming into this next expansion when so many MMORPGs suffer from a lack of such content. Personally I enjoy having a ton of story that can't just be skipped over, because that means it's integral to the story line and it means that players can't just skip over story dungeons and not know how to play their class/job in a party setting.

In fact, while it may potentially burn out new users, it will definitely make them veterans of the game by the time they hit Heavensward content.

I would like more dynamic content with unique gears and rewards rather then stagnant content where you study for a test and you know the test.

[Eidolon]

Let's face it - the story isn't going to make anyone a veteran. Just look at how many people whined who couldn't clear steps of faith. These players aren't going to become vets because of story / blocked progression. They need it to be simple enough to clear it so they can experience the game too.

With any luck we'll see some fun optional challenging content in HW with rewards to match. But let's not mix story in as a reward. Players ecpect to see the whole story, that much I can appreciate.

[JayCommon]

snip

While it does hold true that you can't just skip over story dungeons, that in absolutely no way correlates with them "knowing how to play their class/job in a party setting."


Should probably familiarize yourself with that now...

[Edenholt]

I think keep ARR's content relevant (or rather "mandatory") for a new player is a plus for this game. A new player coming after one or two expansions will have the equivalent of three brand new games (to him!) to play. The concept of "only the end-game matter" is bad for the game and specially for us, gamers, because we steal ourselves the pleasure of experiencing the game, since most of us will just rush through it all, reaching the top and feeling the game didn't worth the subscription.

[The_Last_Dragoon]

While it does hold true that you can't just skip over story dungeons, that in absolutely no way correlates with them "knowing how to play their class/job in a party setting."


Should probably familiarize yourself with that now...

You shouldn't be finding any main class tanks who don't know how to tank or healers who dps in the new dungeons. These would be legitimate problems otherwise that was extremely apparent in dungeons like Brayflox's Longstop and The Stone Vigil(which is when it became extremely crucial that tanks hold threat). Granted, I won't say that players who are starting a Dark Knight as their first tank class won't be FATE grinding up to Heavensward, so you will probably get experienced players who don't know how to tank, which could potentially be worse. XP

What's going to be really weird is that lv50 players need to have an average item level of 90 in order to clear all of the required story duties, and that could turn out to be either a major grind for them alone or a pretty expensive venture for a new player on the market board. While they could just run the old level 50 dungeons for either marks or the like, who is going to be doing them by the time new players hit 50? I get the feeling that it's very likely that level 50 craftable gear is going to skyrocket as a result.

@Eidolon, As for challenging content, I've heard that a great majority of English server players haven't completed Coils, and Extremes are still extremely punishing if you pug them. Considering that Coil gives the best gear and that Extremes give mounts that now play their primal's music while you ride them, I'd say there's quite a bit of reward for doing them. Not to mention that Extreme primals are essential for desynth. I do agree that rewards should probably be bigger for that content, but it's not like they just hand you an achievement and kick you out.

[VargasVermillion]

'too much endgame'? more like not enough, level 50 dungeons don't count as actual endgame when they are easier than low level ones imo. The dungeons have no real stakes and don't even require you to know how your job works. (the earlier ones did but they didn't have level 50 rotations for obvious reasons.)

Recent example regarding stakes is the demon walls in AK hm, even if you fail it doesn't matter, you can just continue from where you wiped making the whole mechanic wasted more than it already was by the item level scaling. When steps of faith came out I was excited, I thought this meant they were going to stop treating us like complete morons but alas we proved we can't handle a little challenge. Main scenario isn't a real excuse btw.

[Izsha]

Story quests aren't endgame. Endgame content is what do you do when you finish leveling to cap, unlock everything, and then go play (usually with a slant towards combat content. Buying a house is generally not most people's definition of 'endgame'). Finish story, unlocked all dungeons/areas (heavensward areas in a month) and then see what you have left to do. Right now it's:
*Grind weekly tomes.
*4 coil bosses.
*WoD (before they unlocked fcob. Now you'd just do more fcob)

Think of a single player rpg. Many have an serious of trial beyond the story. Super crazy side bosses. Playing it again on higher difficulty, replaying with harder objectives for special endings etc. Endgame is AFTER the story.

[Lemuria]

The problem with the 'endgame' is that it tries to negate all of the previous content. With each update, more and more of yesteryear's content becomes meaningless, with huge chunks of game being effectively skipped over by new players because they can outgear it in days. The rewards in this game are such that only the very best equipment is actually worth pursuing, and anything else is a stop-gap.

The problem we face now is that these stop-gaps are so close together that many players can skip over several in one bound. New jobs are going from level 55 to 90 in one bound, and then straight on to 120 or higher. This will only worsen as more high strength gear is released and more of yesterday's quests and dungeons become obsolete. The life-support that is the zodiac quest will be dead once Heavensward arrives, and I don't expect they'll be focused enough on vanilla gameplay to fix it afterwards.

[Gralna]

Let's face it - the story isn't going to make anyone a veteran. Just look at how many people whined who couldn't clear steps of faith. These players aren't going to become vets because of story / blocked progression. They need it to be simple enough to clear it so they can experience the game too.

With any luck we'll see some fun optional challenging content in HW with rewards to match. But let's not mix story in as a reward. Players ecpect to see the whole story, that much I can appreciate.

From what I saw in DF for SoF, it wasn't the new players complaining that the fight was too hard, it was veterans leaving before fight even finished loading that created frustration for new players. Out of the two dozen or so times I got SoF in trial roulette, there was only one time where after explaining mechanics, the party wasn't able to clear before we timed out. Most of the runs were actually one shots.

Now the fight is just another no talk faceroll, where the now now now crowd can get their daily tomes, while new players try to figure out what is going on.

Not everyone knows to look up guides either, there are maybe what? a couple hundred people who actually post on forums, maybe a couple thousand that read them? Game has 4M registered accounts, know that's no where near actual count of active players, but even if that's as low as 100k, thats still a much larger portion of community that doesn't even read forums, or know which youtube guides to follow, or even know there is a reddit community for game.

I could maybe understand if 3-6 months after 2.55, people were burned out on explaining mechanics, but this was less than a month after release, and people were abandoning in droves, rather than take the 2-3 min to explain basic mechanics of a unique, although easy, fight.