Theory: The story might be the biggest hinderance to playing with friends.

[Ozreth]

It occurred to me that one of the biggest reasons I am hesitant to recommend this game to friends is because I realized I won't ever be able to do anything significant with them in game until the end, or until we are working on second jobs.

Being able to level with a friend and not have it feel pointless or insignificant is important in MMO's. In FFXIV the main leveling is done through quests, which WOULD be fine, except for the part where a big part of those quests are instanced, so you're constantly disconnecting with your party in order to go do the bigger parts of the quests. This is really annoying. You COULD just meet up with a friend and go grind for levels, but you're going to have to still do the quest line, which will sync your level down to that quest anyways, so you're technically backtracking, making simple grinding with friends feel like a detriment rather than something fun. So if I had a friend join me right now (and Im only lvl 32), it would seem like a chore to play together until they got up to my level, and even then we would be doing mostly separately instanced stories.

What a bummer!

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

Apparently this is what ppl want. An MMO where you play by yourself. I'm not sure what to tell you lol. Even if they put in a bunch of quests where u needed a group, ppl would complain super hard. I would just recommend running guildhests and dungeons with ur friend. And he can do quests when ur not around.

[odie]

I agree with this...I don't mind for job quests and such but for the main story quests, i hate having to drop the party to do the instance. maybe at least let us do it with 1 or 2 other people just for MSQ instances

[Enthy]

I agree with OP. I play with my boyfriend and I was very sad I had to keep dropping party/part ways with him because I can't do MSQ while in a party. Also wish I could duo some of those MSQ fights with a Real Person rather than a full party of stupid AI... @_@ this MMORPG discourages team-play so much it's crazy.

[KingOfAbyss]

Apparently this is what ppl want. An MMO where you play by yourself. I'm not sure what to tell you lol. Even if they put in a bunch of quests where u needed a group, ppl would complain super hard. I would just recommend running guildhests and dungeons with ur friend. And he can do quests when ur not around.

people complain about grouping because everyone wants to be linked with the best to clear content. When you waste your time on a dungeon or trial that usually takes 10 mins with 'competent normal people' you get into DF and.. ok 2 new members to this one. should still be ok. well.. nope.

so people wants to group with FC and friends, to have a good time and.. to clear stuff.

sad but true.

as per playing with friends, my GF needed to go through the hassle of MSQ alone.. I helped her giving her cues how to get things done (kill conjurers/healers firsts ) She plays WHM lol

it's an MMO, so of course you play over the time issue.. I took that time from 2.0 starts to before 3.0 to get all my jobs to 50; one cannot just expect the same when purchasing the game right now and hop on Heavensward..

They should unlock duty roulettes for 2 people maximum, same with the rest.

yup, having to split from a party to do the story.. solo, into an mmo.. hmm..

I feel you guys.

[Ozreth]

Apparently this is what ppl want. An MMO where you play by yourself. I'm not sure what to tell you lol. Even if they put in a bunch of quests where u needed a group, ppl would complain super hard. I would just recommend running guildhests and dungeons with ur friend. And he can do quests when ur not around.

The thing is I'm not even gunning for a quest system that REQUIRES groups, just one that makes it easy to do the quests together, whether you need to or not, which would seem like common sense but this game doesn't even offer that. I'm thinking something along the lines of early WoW (I stopped right before first expansion so I can't speak to what it became).

[Nadirah]

This was what killed ESO for the friend I started here with.

He actually had difficulty with all the main storyline quests and never actually got to killing Molag Bal, and I couldn't even help him.

Now he gets duty quests, gets anxious, fails it a few times, and then ragequits and waits until he outlevels it. -_-

[Ozreth]

The more I consider this the closer I get to unsubbing. It really is horrible for anybody who wants to play casually with friends THROUGHOUT the game, rather than just when everybody gets to endgame.

[Ryel]

Apparently this is what ppl want. An MMO where you play by yourself. I'm not sure what to tell you lol. Even if they put in a bunch of quests where u needed a group, ppl would complain super hard. I would just recommend running guildhests and dungeons with ur friend. And he can do quests when ur not around.

After the 60 levels to endgame the situation becomes even worse.

Too many or two few friends causes issues when all of the highest tier content is 8 man static based with an enforced weekly lockout.

Have 8 other friends? whelp someone gets left out.
Have 6 other friends? Time to play roulette with pugs.

Also you had better hope that you and the rest of your friends are able to keep similar hours for the next 2 months that it's gong to take to clear and then farm content. Because weekly lockout means that if the whole group doesn't make it through someone gets left behind.

Run an FC? Hope you have enough members for more than one static.

So you spend 60 levels playing by yourself mostly to get to an endgame that makes it difficult to play with others more often than not on any meaningful content.

Really hoping that airship content comes through in a big way.

[Avidria]

The thing is I'm not even gunning for a quest system that REQUIRES groups, just one that makes it easy to do the quests together, whether you need to or not, which would seem like common sense but this game doesn't even offer that. I'm thinking something along the lines of early WoW (I stopped right before first expansion so I can't speak to what it became).

Something like what swtor did would be nice. They have instance-locked story and class quests as well, but if you were in a party with the person doing the quest you could enter the instance with them. Made it possible for me to level with my friends, and it let us see the story for each others' classes on top of our own.

Heck, it'd be nice if we could just enter story duties alone without having to leave the party.