Main Scenario Restriction Bloodstorm - Very Very Bad idea.

[Nayout]

Because if you want a story driven game there is something called Visual Novel.

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And if you want a MMORPG story drive that you play Guild Wars 2 or Wow

[Voltyblast]

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And if you want a MMORPG story drive that you play Guild Wars 2 or Wow

SWTOR: it does story telling much better than ffxiv does, your character isn't a silent meatbag, your actions have a (small) impact in the story and none of the expansions (as far as I know) is locked behind the main story, HOWEVER it will recommend you to complete it because of spoilers. Much better than completely lock it (But yes it's a crappy f2p: I can't even recommend it to anyone "sigh")

And yes, even GW2 does story telling better in some regards: it lets you choose your path for one thing and your character has a voice: it gives them personality - a bland one, but it's better than none. On top of that some of the world can permanently change depending on the story (Lion's arc: I still remember it got me by surprise when I got back after my yearly pause), which is something that really makes old player feel valued ("I remember Lion's Arc before: it was amazing").

WoW is the weakest in terms of story telling but 1) It has over 20 years of lore 2) It has more (and better) voice acting 3) there are far more cutscenes (in CG) than FFXIV does. However the lack of story department makes it a more approachable game and that can be either a bad or a good thing, depending on your taste.

That's my two cents however so feel free to disagree: I'm just concerned for the new players. I already am skipping most of the story anyway.

[Jetstream_Fox]

I really don't care if they want to restrict the expansion behind story, the people wanting it to be opened up upon releases, in my eyes have no idea of how properly build up a game. If all of ARR was skipped upon entering HW the content wouldn't even be able to be done because it's scaled to lv 50, so you'd have to go back and do ARR content, same likely applies to going into BS, the game will likely scale to 60.


Now this is also pure speculation as BS is going to be entirely different from ARR and HW, as there is a new battle system, so it's possible in a very small way that BS will have us start over at level 1 and rework up to 70, as certain skills will be taken out in order for the new system to take hold.

So I wouldn't really take anything they say as a solid foundation of what to expect going into BS when we don't know how other aspects of the game are going to work.

[Lavarinth]

For what it's worth, I'm all for restrictions. What's the point in jumping into an MMORPG if you don't even have an interest in the RPG element of the MSQ?

Your friends want to jump in late? Let them at it- the story it great and of traditional FF quality.

[Khanscott]

I say keep $40 expansions ungated and let new people figure the story out themselves. Leveling is their problem as well. As for skill, I see people in i260 who can't "1, 2, 3" already so what would gating Stormblood do for teaching people? People who want to learn will learn. The MSQ is single player 2.0-3.xx anyway; hopefully they will add this in Stormblood. 90% budget increase and all that. I can dream.

[ErdrickLoto]

The MSQ is single player 2.0-3.xx anyway; hopefully they will add this in Stormblood. 90% budget increase and all that.

I'm always mystified when people say this.

People do have to do dungeons to complete MSQ quests, right? Not just me?

[Khanscott]

I'm always mystified when people say this.

People do have to do dungeons to complete MSQ quests, right? Not just me?

Its a hallway with some text. Only dungeons with actual significant story are the Castrums, Keeper, and The Airy. That makes 4 out of dozens of dungeons that are little more than "go get this over there."

[Nestama]

I'm always mystified when people say this.

People do have to do dungeons to complete MSQ quests, right? Not just me?

Storyline is mostly single player, with a dungeon thrown in to kill the monotony (run here, do this, run back, quest done).

[loreleidiangelo]

I'm always mystified when people say this.

People do have to do dungeons to complete MSQ quests, right? Not just me?

In my opinion, this is why the MSQ should cease to be mandatory. Veteran players will never be able to move beyond the content funneling them into Sastasha at every turn, because of "WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE NOOBS?!?!?!". New players, if they stick around long enough, will become the vets in turn and be made acutely aware that their days of running those dungeons are FAR from over, except that they'll have all of 3.x, 4.x, 5.x, etc. to add to it.

Meanwhile, if it's NOT mandatory, people can still queue for that stuff if they like, but still continue their questing and leveling in a meaningful way. Yeah, some parts of it might not make sense if the player opts out of every dungeon quest, but it's no different than the lack of people who don't know wtf happened in Castrum/Prae because of all the pressure to CS skip.

[Kondor]

But you can though. You can still socialize, meet up, trade and do many other things with them. We help new players through content everyday or whenever we have new members join. People act like just because they aren't doing the last tier alex RIGHT NOW there is nothing to do. If you join a game and your friends can't be bothered to help or the FC you join can't help well that is some crappy friends/FC right there.

We are talk about Day when Expansion will release. You will drop your progression and discover expansion and go to Sastasha to help players? I don't think so, and expansion will take you a month or more so people who will join you and have to do MSQ will just leave this game.