Main Scenario Restriction Bloodstorm - Very Very Bad idea.

[Reynhart]

I could start reading Harry Potter on the 6th book. I can watch Ironman 3 before the first two. I can start watching a tv show 2 seasons in, 10 minutes in on one episode.

Even poorer analogies. You can't launch Heavensward if you didn't buy A Realm Reborn.

As I said previously, did people get pissed because they had to do the 4 acts of Diablo II before entering act V of Lord of Destruction ?
Or 4 acts of Diablo III before entering act V of Reaper of Souls ?

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Not for everyone, and there was legitimate tricky mechanics than can surprise you even if you're a good player.

Right. And not everyone who used a jump potion would find him difficult.

That's where you're wrong...they stay...and they complain over and over about how <insert_instance_name> is too hard.
Besides, job is not the only thing that the MSQ teach you. You also face a lot of important mechanics in those fights.
The gaze mechanics, the pack mechanic, the break-the-chain mechanics, the tower mechanic, etc...all of those are taught in a "newbie-friendly" way in story dungeons/trials so that you can deal with theirmuch harsher version in optional content.

Are we really going to suggest these mechanics are difficult to learn? Gaze, you look away. Towers, one person stand in the glowy spot on the floor. Giant arrows targeting one person, everyone stacks. All of these can be figured out either through very simple trial and error or by being told exactly in the manner I just did. Not to mention, plenty of people who may favor a jump potion are already MMO players and would have a general idea of those mechanics, especially trash pulls. Furthermore, a "Proven Grounds" like how WoW does it, would explicitly showcase these mechanics if you were required to complete certain dungeons. That all said, you can learn how to play this game within a day using nothing but Youtube. When I first started tanking, I looked up newbie tank guides, then those dedicated to Dark Knight. Those taught me far more than the game itself ever did. Keep in mind, people like MrHappy and Mizzteq literally explain every single mechanic you'll see in every dungeon within the first week of their release. Someone skipping ahead may also have friends, who would explain mechanics and/or the selected job.

[Reynhart]

Are we really going to suggest these mechanics are difficult to learn? Gaze, you look away. Towers, one person stand in the glowy spot on the floor. Giant arrows targeting one person, everyone stacks.

Considering they had to nerf Blighted Bouquet because "Stopping any action" was apparently really difficult...yes, we might suggest that

But the problem is not the difficulty, but the punishment. In dungeons, failing these mechanics won't result in a wipe, so you'll have time to learn how to deal with it by yourself.
In raids you fail a stack, you wipe, you fail a gaze, you wipe, you fail a tower, you wipe, you fail a split, you wipe...

[Nestama]

snip

Until I learned Fire III, yeah (THM/BLM is very boring at low levels. Doesn't really pick up until you learn Firestarter). From there was when I experimented and learned spamming Fire III is bad (thankfully I only did this once in Brayflox). The person I responded to implied that tanks would have no idea what they're doing if they didn't do the MSQ (the incentive to dungeons will still be there. Dungeons are the best way to get exp, especially if you're a tank and healer, since queue times are short).

[RLofOBFL]

I'm not reading 100000 posts but what I am for is cutting away the filler quests, point a to point b then back to point a to go to point c, that are not needed.

[RyuSaarva]

......story translates poorly to jrpgs......okay, I am out of this mental intitute.

[loreleidiangelo]

......story translates poorly to jrpgs......okay, I am out of this mental intitute.

Learn to read, please. I said sacrificing actual gameplay in favor of story/cinematics is more problematic for an MMO than it is for a JRPG, and yet FFXIII (go figure, another SE title) was critically panned for just that.

[Violyre]

There's no winners in this argument.

If you have a way to skip, or if you streamline the storyline, you gain new players but lose old, followed by new because the game has no depth and is just a better looking WoW clone, like every other MMO in the market anymore. Is it any wonder that some games have gone F2P in the struggle to retain people because they have nothing new to offer?

If you leave it as is, you're going to get old players staying, and new people will come because something intrigues them, and then they leave because their goal takes too long. And then you lose the old because how many people unsub between updates?

Let's take a look at another rift that has happened in FFXIV: Legacy vs ARR.

ARR people view Legacy players as hipster snobs who feel entitled because they played when the game sucked. Legacy people view ARR players as coddled and having the game handed to them. Is this true for everyone in a group? No, I'm generalizing.

Now let's throw in a group of people that get their skip/streamline. ARR people generalization now includes the generation that got the skip/streamline as the Legacy generalization thinks they are.

And then what happens come 5.0? They have to streamline 4.0, And then 4.0 skip/streamline group views the 5.0 ones that way.

So in the end, everyone is an idiot.

Nothing changes regardless of what happens.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Considering they had to nerf Blighted Bouquet because "Stopping any action" was apparently really difficult...yes, we might suggest that

But the problem is not the difficulty, but the punishment. In dungeons, failing these mechanics won't result in a wipe, so you'll have time to learn how to deal with it by yourself.
In raids you fail a stack, you wipe, you fail a gaze, you wipe, you fail a tower, you wipe, you fail a split, you wipe...

Touche.

Yes, but they wouldn't be going into raids. If you were jumped ahead to Stormblood, it would be the equivalent of Heavensward now. So you would be doing dungeons and occasional easy mode primals. And like I said, guides are available as would be a "Proven Grounds" type requirement.

[Reynhart]

Learn to read, please. I said sacrificing actual gameplay in favor of story/cinematics

Having people do the content is not sacrificing gameplay.

and yet FFXIII (go figure, another SE title) was critically panned for just that.

You mean one of the best selling J-RPG of the previous generation ? And one the most sold title of this franchise ? Clearly that was a bad idea...

Yes, but they wouldn't be going into raids.

The idea is that, yes, once you're sure that you gave them all the tools they need to go into raiding, they would. This is also why Alex Savage is gated by Alex Story (We're coming back to it), and why they decided to reuse Coil mechanics in story dungeons.

And like I said, guides are available as would be a "Proven Grounds" type requirement.

Guides are another topc entirely. For me, you shouldn't have to watch a guide to win a trial. The game should provide all the info you need to win, as long as you have the skill to perform the mechanics correctly. This is also why they streamlined the prompts, so that you wouldn't have to look for a guide to know that this new attack is a gaze type, a pack type or a split type.