Possible level/story jumps....really?

[Teryaani]

Why play a story driven game if you have no intention of watching the story in the game?

Otherwise wouldnt something like LoL or overwatch or FPS's be better suited to you?

Maybe they stink at first person shooters?

I don't see a problem with them ultimately introducing something like this after a few expansions. This feels a little early. Shortening the MSQ or removing certain completion requirements? Sure, but this seems a bit soon.

It's worth noting that Yoshida muses in interviews about a lot of things that never come to pass. I'd put this in that same category.

[Eifahlwyn]

Ultimately they will need to address the issue of leveling and gated content like all mmos do as they age. The better solution imo is to remove the filler quests in the MSQ by turning them into side quests or outright deleting them.

They also might want to stop increasing the level cap after the next xpac and start releasing expansions as side stories that are not sequential (ie similar to what FF11 did with many of its xpacs)

Regardless introducing a leveling potion (especially at this stage) is a lazy and honestly greedy solution that will cause more problems than solve.

[Laerune]

Personaly, I do not care if someone wants to skip contant, since its their business to do what they want ingame, but I do fear what will happen once SE sees that a big group are skipping stuff. I do not want SE to tailor their contant to those type of players, I do not want short Main Story Quests, I do not want them adding less and less Side Quests and I do not want this game to be one where the new contant is only made of dungeon running.

I do not want this game to be a exact copy World of Warcraft with Final Fantasy theme. Story is important, I reckon one of the reasons why we are playing Final Fantasy XIV is this reason. So my advice to SE would be:

1. Remove the filler quests (the fetch quests ) from 2.1 -2.55.
2. Since new Jobs will start at level 30, let players who have not reached the new expansion (storywise) unlock those classes and play from level 30-50. When they reach 50, they need to finish 2.1-2.55 quests so they can enter Ishgard, same could also be said for the new expansion.

[Voltyblast]

I do not want this game to be a exact copy World of Warcraft with Final Fantasy theme.

Except that this game IS a copy of World of Warcraft: the combat is the same (and even slower), the stats are pretty much the same (but even fewer: this is something that a lot of players complain, me included), and not only that but it copies other games when it comes to mechanics and features: FATEs are GW2 events, the combo is taken out from Aion (that's the first idea that comes to mind: I might be wrong) and so on. Infact I dare say that it copies them without even being very polished: we don't even have a talent system to change skill effects like Aion or WoW does: two monks will play the same, the only exceptions are their stats - forcing the player to reach a Meta, something that shouldn't be in there to begin with.

The main difference is that this game is story heavy...but in a MMORPG it shouldn't lock major content out. I don't care a single bit if FFXI did this: that game is from 2001. It's 2016, and games like SWTOR showed us that story and gameplay can merge perfectly. In SWTOR I could skip my story and go directly for the expansion if I wanted so much - the game would simply warn me that there would be spoilers and that "it's recommended to finish your story". That's freedom of gameplay, which is SOMETHING that they should have attempted to copy. You know, interesting side stories, choices that actually matter, an interesting main character, better voice acting...but no, all we get is tons of filler quests, boring characters (for me at least), and overall a story that doesn't really affect the world as, say, Guild Wars 2 changing world does.

So I'm still for making MSQ optional for those who REALLY want to follow it. Or else enjoy your potion, because I honestly have doubts that this will avoided: it's very easy dosh, just like retainers.

[Zadocfish]

Why play a story driven game if you have no intention of watching the story in the game?

If I was to play a game for the story, it WOULD NOT be this one. The 1-50 story in FF14 is substandard at best, unbearable at worst; it's mostly padding and the characters are as flat as a board. The job stories are... okay-ish. It's an MMO story, it has no choice but to be weak because of the medium. This game shines on ambience, setting, and gameplay complexity. I'm sorry, but if this game is your idea of a story-driven experience, you should probably think about raising your standards for story in games.

[seraf]

snip.

That's fine if you don't like the story and would rather do without it then go ahead. But a large portion of the player base do enjoy this game for the story and story based content. If it weren't for the story then I probably wouldn't have been subscribed to this game for 3 years now without missing a single month's sub during that entire time frame. When a new patch comes out it's the first thing I look forward to doing and I enjoy discussing story elements of this game with other players and coming up with future plot theories and soaking in the Lore the game offers.

Do I enjoy this game for its gameplay and complexity? Sure and I always strive to be the best at any Job I play at. But without that story I wouldn't care as much about what I'm doing within the games world.

[Voltyblast]

But without that story I wouldn't care as much about what I'm doing within the games world.

I always find this situation funny because, I always want people to do this test when it comes to Final Fantasy: try removing the title and insert a generic mmo name like "Eorzea Online" or something.
I would like to know how many people would still consider the game's story great - or even the gameplay for that matter.

What I mean with this is that I understand if people enjoy the game's story and gameplay, but I also don't understand why people are constantly defending it. For example - and how blasphemic it is - I actually love the lore of Warcraft (my sister even reads the books) however I do understand if some players don't care about it and don't follow it: you won't see me complaining or bashing them for disliking something that I do. On top of that, a lot of the moments in the game are actually somewhat important to understand what's going on so while the story isn't vital, it is good to understand it in order to know the situation.

For the matter of FFXIV's story, while it's not ENTIRELY bad it makes me wonder if it's the name that actually makes people follow it and enjoy it, rather than actually having a good story (not to sound too offensive, I do think it's a very badly written story, especially due to the pointless olde english writing that really feels forced in). Infact I had similar issues with FFXIII: I had people defending its story in many ways, such as how Lightning isn't supposed to be liked by everyone (then how am I supposed to immerse myself into the world?), how the game gets good after X amount of hours (why can't it be good from the beginning? Because of the plot?), and how the story is deep and complex...if you read the datalogs (which leads again to the fact that story shouldn't be work: it should be enjoyed and easy to follow). There are flaws yet they're heavily defended, just like now people are defending the MSQ of this game.

So my point is, I understand if you (and many others) like the game and its story, but to the point of not caring if this game (and all FF games) had no story??
I might even suggest to play visual novels or read a book at this point...

[Talligan]

snip

FINALLY SOMEONE WHO GETS IT. Its mildly infuriating to watch people respond with 'but ffxiv is a story driven game' because ... the story that drives it isn't very good. The MSQ 1-50 is good enough with the filler quests, it gets you through the area and explains the world. But right now its the 2.xx quests that are required for HW that are bringing me close to quitting the game. If the story was really good, or if the df instances weren't 'gogogogogo' where you had to skip the cutscenes and dialogue to avoid being locked out of fights, then ... maybe. But its all just filler for the sake of being filler and is a huge hurdle to getting to more interesting content.

You're right about the characters too, they're deadly boring. Its impossible to describe their personalities because they have none.

[Yallaid]

snip

I think your reply misses a point as well. Saying that you or others don't enjoy the storyline doesn't negate the argument that FFXIV is fundamentally about the player's storyline. The main scenario quests are required because the devs have put considerable resources into the storyline and cutscenes and they want players to consider those an important part of the experience.

Blithely allowing players to skip that is insulting. I think the argument you're putting forward is that FFXIV should not put as much time and as many resources into the storyline as they do, so that it can be made more optional and easier to progress without it. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the game, imo. the 1.0 - 2.0 revival was successful exactly because of the amount of attention that was given to the storyline and integrating the player's experience into the story.

[giantslayer]

I'm gonna toss my 2¢ into the bucket.

I would favor streamlining over skipping.

1. The 2.0 MSQ was chock full of filler. Pointless "go here and grab these items" quests. Going back and forth from the Waking Sands a billion times (seriously, just put a dang aethyrite in there: it'll save new players multiple hours). The friggin BS of the Titan quests. Honestly, it felt like the 2.0 story was designed to waste people's time through pointless quests and unnecessary travel. They could probably cut 50+% off the time it takes to complete the 2.0 MSQ without compromising the storyline.

2. Level progression could be sped up rather than skipped.

Jumping people to 50 is a bad idea. Anyone remember in the early days of Heavensward the influx of lvl 30 ASTs, DRKs, and MCHs flooding into Haukke who had trouble functioning? Keep in mind these were veteran players who got at least one class up to 50 the hard way. Imagine starting a fresh newbie at level 50, especially with the garbage default system of assigning abilities to buttons. Dusk Vigil is not an easy dungeon. Do you think you could queue up DV, hand your controller to someone who has never played this game, and expect anything other than disaster?