Possible level/story jumps....really?

[Kosmos992k]

And once again, people who don't care about the story WILL NOT CARE in the future, but those who CARE ABOUT THE GAME will keep playing the game in the future. I'm not saying that there is just one kind of people: there are those who want a story and those who don't, which is TOTALLY FINE. It's however useless to say "oh but they won't care about the lore and the story if they can skip it": people already don't care, and they won't bother with the lore to begin with. Not all of course but still a good bunch of players will skip it and never bother. You won't change them. You won't change me. Ever.

Actually, I think I've posted before about players who don't care about story or lore, and how they hurt the game and player community, simply by not caring enough to be aware of the story. Whether I can change them, or you, is immaterial. You are seeking to change my game, I don't want it changed. Whether or not I change their minds or yours, doesn't impact the game, but the change you advocate would fundamentally change the game. Rather than fundamentally changing this game, one could argue that you'd be better asking SE to create a new and separate FF MMORPG with zero story and instant level buffs.

with normal RPGs, I can play any chapter of the saga in any order I want: I can play Shadow Hearts 2 before 1, or Ar tonelico 3 before 1, or Atelier Iris 3 before 2, or Digital devil saga 2 before 1, or Drakenkard 2 before 1, Legaia 2 before 1 and etc. It's my loss? Yeah, but guess what: I can play the previous game and learn the story, at my own pace. I usually don't but it's my choice, not the game's. And yes I know they're offline rpgs so they technically don't count, but I'm sure you see my point.

Xenosaga had 3 episodes, 3 separate games with a single overall continuing story. Only Episode 2 was ever released in Europe, resulting in most people there hating it. Granted Episode 2 was the least good of the 3, but the main issue was that people could not get into or understand the story in 2 without having previously played episode 1.

Stories are linear, there is no getting away from that, they are designed to be enjoyed from the start to the finish. Jumping in half way reminds me of when my son comes into watching an episode of Bones and get's quite annoyed when no one will tell him what happened in the 1st half, and he can't understand the 2nd because of it.