A serious discussion about abridging the story quest 1-50 (discouraging new players)

[TohruHonda]

I've always felt the main story was too forced since ARR hit, but blocking the entire expansion is taking it a bit too far. The most basic solution would be:
Have a stand alone quest for entering the new expansion zone, it would require you to have a level 50 job.
Once inside, players can pick up the next main story quest where it left off, "Before the Dawn"

This way players would be able to explore the new area at least, and do solo activities like leves, gathering, crafting, flying etc.

[ThanMazus]

People are met with a wall of flame when they make threads demanding to be allowed into Heavensward without beating the ARR story and with no clue what's going on.

Or liking FFXI/other MMOs, or wanting more bestial races, or wanting body hair, or wanting the bunny ears for male characters or...

basically asking for anything other than what is currently done, the exact way it is currently done :V

[EdenArchangel]

Or it could be like an ARR CE add-on (like fat Chocobo was) to have an item that allows you to teleport to quest Npc for 2.x content. This way, people can choose to use it or not.

Ding ding ding! We have a winner

[elemental10]

"The best part of the journey, is the journey itself."

- Anon Y

[Blamebot]

"The best part of the journey, is the journey itself."

- Anon Y

Not in ARR.

[Yellow]

I dunno, Iv'e had to do the 2.0 quests from the beginning since I quit after ARR was released .. and tbh I don't mind the story quests. There's a small handful of quests that could probably be changed since it's just a nuisance "talk to x" who is standing on the opposite side of the room kind of thing.

I think it's really important for everyone to do all the story quests before HW. It really helps you understand what's going on.

[Qaaliaa]

As someone who plays on an RP server and RP's extensively, I'd like to not have to do the MSQ on alts. I did it once, I know what the story is. I don't feel the need to do it again to bring an alt to Ishgard.

[LadieJayne]

No, you're not alone here. I am returning and so is my son. But we have brought 3 others. One has returned and 2 are new. I'm confused but hopeful. My son is one of those people who have more patience than god. He'll be ok. One other seems a bit embarrassed, but is looking for a guide as he can't figure out what he HAS done. The other 2 have not said they are not staying, but they are complaining about the same thing. Frustration abounds.
For sure there will be people who wont stick it out because the hill is too steep. That's a shame because they might enjoy the game in the long run.

[RichardButte]

I think it's really important for everyone to do all the story quests before HW. It really helps you understand what's going on.

While I agree with this in theory, the problem is that any player new to the game is going to feel pressured to reach the HW content quickly, and as such, they're very likely to go into "escape spamming" mode (which is why my friend did) and ignore the story quest entirely.

As people have mentioned, the real issue is that there's very little REAL story happening and tons upon tons of "go here, talk to this guy" quests, and when all you want to do is try out the new classes, that's the most annoying thing possible.

That's why I suggest brief summary cutscenes between the dungeon and trials that you have to do for the story quest. Even a 30 second narrative saying, "Fearing that something may go wrong, Alphinaud asked the warrior or light to blah, blah, etc." and then you're fighting Shiva.

As it stands, the amount of random busywork you have to do after hitting 50 is literally atrocious. I was listening to my friend on voice chat last night as he was actually seething about how annoyed he was with the story quest just sending him running all over the place.

It's at the unfortunate point where I quite literally CANNOT RECOMMEND FFXIV to any but the most patient MMO players. Most of us don't have as much time to play MMOs as we once did, and no one wants to spend the entertainment time they've set aside playing errand boy/girl just so they can actually SEE the content they've purchased in the expansion. :\

[seida]

I would totally support removing all the fetch quests and stuff that doesn't actually relate to the main plot. They are very frustrating BECAUSE there is a strong plot, and they just get in the way of finding out what happens next.

I think HW has greatly improved upon that, pretty much all the quests are interesting and I've really been enjoying the MSQ.

ARR, not so much. The story takes a while to get going and it's kinda slow. I was leveling an alt before HW and it was frustrating.

There's a lot they could do to streamline it and make it a better experience while keeping the plot.