Unlocking Content

[Ashkendor]

I wasn't saying the quests be removed they should simply be optional instead of mandatory to unlock everything in the game.

Sorry, but people that aren't interested in the lore simply need to accept that in a story-centric game, encounters and dungeons are gated behind the main story quest and/or side quests and that's probably not going to change anytime soon. Just because you're uninterested in the lore doesn't suddenly give you an easy button to bypass all of the quests and other miscellany that everyone has to do. It'd be like letting you do T13 before you've even unlocked the first Coil. It makes no sense whatsoever for you to be able to just waltz into Bahamut's heart and die horribly to the first Megaflare fight his "final form" without having even known about the existence of the first fragment in Castrum Occidens.

Are fetch quests boring? Sure. But we all have to do them so get over yourself. :3

[Kuroneko_Jutah]

What we all basically really want to say without really saying it is: everyone has to do the quests to get to the content. If they "unlocked" the entire game and let you go off and do whatever you want right off the bat, that's what everyone is going to do. Basically you're taking a huge shit all over four years' worth of hard work rebuilding a broken game from the ground up and saying you don't want to play the content they provide in the manner they're providing it to you. You're asking them to give you the option to ignore a huge chunk of the work they put into this game. You can hide behind your subscriptions and say you're entitled to whatever you want since you're paying them to play this game all you like, they're not going to give you the option to skip things that other players were required to do. And most did so without complaining, because that's normally how you play video games in the first place.

[Edellis]

Yes I would have, because 99% of the time people skip the cutscenes and could care less about the lore of a dungeon they jus--

holy generalizations batman. Speak for yourself, please.

I HIGHLY doubt anyone who got through the main scenario of this game would have kept playing it if they had no investment in the storyline. It's one of this game's strong points, and it's certainly stronger than the vast majority of MMO plots out there.

[Zaft]

As for the Raider and story comments ill remind you of the Interview by i want to say SE with BG about there turn 5 win, when asked what they thought of the final cutscene there response was "dont know we skipped it". They probably didnt but seeing some of the comments in here makes you think lol.

Oh no, we did. We still don't know what any of this game is about or who these characters are.

[Dicejss]

so get over yourself. :3

Pat yourself on the back for being as snobby as you're trying to make me out to be.

Yes quests are part of the mmorpg experience I understand that but what do you think is gonna happen when all these quests pile up that are required to unlock all that content? Let's just say idk 5 years from now you have someone new pick up the game and now they have to find and complete these quests. Ok so now they have maybe 50-100 quests they'll end up having to do which involve clearing dungeons/trials in the DF with what playerbase? Everyone who is actively playing the game then is well past all that old content and you can't say DF is the answer because throwing all the dungeons/trials into the same queue is really not gonna fix the problem. Yes this is all hypothetical and maybe even blown out example but you get the idea.

[GenJoe]

Yes this is all hypothetical and maybe even blown out example but you get the idea.

It's really not too far fetched come 4.0..
How is SE going to get any new subs when people have to play catch up for 6 months? Once 3.0 is out, maybe we can see the numbers and project that to other comparable MMOs to see what the new player numbers look like.

[Ashkendor]

Pat yourself on the back for being as snobby as you're trying to make me out to be.

I should know better than to try and inject humor, I suppose. I thought the smiley face would at least help. :/

Yes quests are part of the mmorpg experience I understand that but what do you think is gonna happen when all these quests pile up that are required to unlock all that content? Let's just say idk 5 years from now you have someone new pick up the game and now they have to find and complete these quests. Ok so now they have maybe 50-100 quests they'll end up having to do which involve clearing dungeons/trials in the DF with what playerbase? Everyone who is actively playing the game then is well past all that old content and you can't say DF is the answer because throwing all the dungeons/trials into the same queue is really not gonna fix the problem. Yes this is all hypothetical and maybe even blown out example but you get the idea.

I'm sure the storyline will get streamlined with time, just like they've already said the Zodiac saga will. Lots of games either knock out portions of the main story quest that aren't "vital" (I'm looking at you, nigh-unrelated fetch quests) or give you ways to bypass sections of them. As of Heavensward, ARR dungeon content will be accessible in smaller parties instead of requiring four, so that's already a step forward in that regard. You're not asking for streamlining, though. You're asking for a big fat "Easy Button" to let you bypass everything in one fell swoop. There's a huge difference between going back over the content a couple of expansions in and saying "Okay, we need to make it easier for the newbies to catch up" and just letting people completely bypass all of the main quest content because they don't play the game for the story.

If you don't like the lore, by all means skip all of the dialogue and cutscenes. It's about as close as you're going to get to your easy button. Like it or lump it, the game is story-centric and always will be.

[ruskie]

YoshiP mentioned that for the first expansion they have decided to go with requiring story. We don't know anything about the next one at all. It could branch off of something completely different or just a new story arc. Or yes they could just redoce the story to the most important points thus making it be a few fights and some quests.

[kyuven]

snip.

By removing dungeon entry restrictions and EVENTUALLY making it faster to progress to 50 (all games do this, and since they'll likely be adding more new jobs in 4.0 it'd behoove them to do it this way) they've already taken the steps to streamlining it.
You're still going to have to DO the MSQs up through 4.0 at the least, as they mentioned WAY back in the early days of 2.0 that that's how far ahead they have planned, but as it stands right now you're playing through the content.
Story driven MMOs strongly encourage you to, y'know, actually finish the story before moving on to the next.

If FFXI, Vindictus, Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, The Secret World, and SWTOR are any sort of example, you're not going to be able to SKIP the main story, but you will be able to move through it at a faster rate, i.e. be able to go from 1-50+ JUST on MSQs without having to pick up other quests on the way.
But the idea of just unlocking everything from the get go is absurd for this game's structure. Even games as ancient as EQ1 and FFXI have access restrictions on certain pieces of content even to this day. Hell to do almost anything worthwhile in XI, you NEED to be nation rank 6 at a minimum (that game's equivalent of killing Ultima Weapon in this game). It's simply their design philosophy, and personally as a general rule if it's a philosophy that crossed over from XI to XIV and made it through all the way to 3.0, I kinda doubt they'll be dropping it.

The next expansion could be like, you know, A realm rebirth or something. After blah blah blah before all the dragons are extinct, they lay a havoc upon the world blah blah blah, the world went into chaos.

Hence we start anew in 4.0 just like when 2.0 started from 1.0. All the previous story line will be lost along with the Illuminati Cheese.

Somehow I doubt they'd pull a "cataclysm" for the SECOND expansion, especially since they already did one.

[Neri]

The next expansion could be like, you know, A realm rebirth or something. After blah blah blah before all the dragons are extinct, they lay a havoc upon the world blah blah blah, the world went into chaos.

Hence we start anew in 4.0 just like when 2.0 started from 1.0. All the previous story line will be lost along with the Illuminati Cheese.