Allow MSQ Fast Track To Latest Expansion

[Belhi]

It's like MMOs are meant to be a time sink, and the time sink we have these days is nothing like the days of old (in other MMOs) where leveling to max level took months.

Honestly if people don't like the idea of time sinks in an MMO then why play an MMO. Seems pretty counterproductive to me.

It tends to be more about doing the stuff the people you socialise are doing than having an issue with a time sink. MMOs are fundamentally a social game platform and the levelling process can feel very much like a single player game with a chat function. Doing treasure hunts or running dungeons or raids for loot with friends is always more entertaining than doing it on your own or with a pug of strangers.

[LunaFaye]

I don't think it's as trivial as you make it out to be, for a variety of reasons.

(1) Most people won't skip everything and purely focus on MSQ and dungeon unlocks. Not to say they can't, but most won't. Forcing players into a choice between taking reasonable amounts of time and stopping to smell the roses even a little bit isn't appropriate.

(2) Most people returning from lengthy breaks aren't as familiar with the process as you are. That's going to add time.

(3) Even by your (exceedingly conservative) estimate, you're still talking (4.5 hours/day on average) * (14 days) = 63 hours. Many people can't devote 4.5 hours per day to the game, though; if they're playing, say, 10 hours a week, it's over a month and a half JUST to get through the Heavensward story and gear up to i230 / i260. That's ridiculous.

In short, your tossed-off 2 week figure is relevant for people who know exactly what they're doing, aren't spending idle time on other tasks, and have significant amounts of time to devote to FFXIV. If all gamers fell into this category, I'd agree that the storyline setup is rather appropriate. Given this isn't the reality, though, I think jumping potions are needed at this point for SE to combat the grind.

I based it on the OP's question/suggestion. I don't think that his returning friends are not even falling in the non casual category, that would be the category you're trying to explain here, because if that would be the case the OP probably wouldn't be worried about his/her friends returning and trying to be ready for the expansion, if they would just play 10 hours a week. As well as he/she mentioned returning, meaning that they will know what they are doing, or the OP knows how the game works and can lead his/her friends in the right direction. I wasn't talking about players that just started for the first time and I was also not telling these kind of people that they should be skipping everything.

But to go with your example, even it it then would take a month, that's faster then we have done it. There was no exp bonus and such things, and it actually was a grind compared to today's leveling. And while I mentioned that I am not against the potion (if you would have not quoted half of the sentence), it's still not necessary or as high priority as you are trying to make it sound like. IF his/her friends would return now, they be not only geared, but having multiple characters till stormblood and wouldn't have to hope that this potion gets released way later down the line, if even at all.

[Wilan]

I agree with OP, especially having seen the daily complaint coming from my server's novice network: FFXIV really needs an abridged MSQ.

No need to censor anything or have players miss out on content, either. Most of it, especially in the early days, is filler whose only purpose is to drag things for longer, which is OK when the game is new but not so much when you need to catch up, and this filler is most of the time inconsequential.
Or to put it in other words, having to go sniff chocobo rears doesn't really add anything of importance to the plot.

I really like the direction they're going with the latests patches; have only half a dozen quests per patch, make them ALL relevant to the main plot, and everything else is a side-quest that you can do at your own pace. If they could go back and make so the old MSQ behaves the same way it'd be perfect I think.

[Maero]

Skip potions are on the way, this has long been discussed. This will be after Stormblood however.
And of course long time players will be caught up and moving on to the next expansion, it is unfortunate that certain things are tied to old content.
It could just be served as a lesson perhaps and going forward hopefully they do not do the same thing over again.

[Berethos]

dead ghost towns of previous content and once they finally catch up everyone is in the new expansion content is done with it.

With the roulette system set up the way it is, there's really no "dead ghost towns of previous content" unless you're counting some of the side optional stuff, and even that stuff gets run pretty regularly just not as often through duty finder.

And unless they plan on being part of progression raiding, people as a whole aren't done with the current expansions content until really the next expansion. We're less than 50 days out from Stormblood and queues for most content still pop quickly.

[Berethos]

And of course long time players will be caught up and moving on to the next expansion, it is unfortunate that certain things are tied to old content.

Roulettes keeps old required content populated, so this isn't nearly the issue it is in other games in terms of doing old content.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

The ARR leadup to HW msq's can certainly due with some editing. Many of the quests don't even have to be removed simply relegated to sidequests or +unlock quests. Editing down those 100 msq's to get into HW is certainly a good idea IMO. With that said, I don't like the idea of people outright SKIPPING the story. The story is the whole point of FFXIV. It's the very meat and potatoes of the game. Skipping the story is like paying to not play the bulk of the game. Now if there's some sort of "abridged" version of the required msq's available as an alternative for those returning or just far behind, I wouldn't be opposed so long as the abridged version at least gives them the gist of the story so they have an idea of whats happening and aren't going in blind.

[JCharms]

I don't like the idea of people outright SKIPPING the story. The story is the whole point of FFXIV. It's the very meat and potatoes of the game.

I keep seeing this line of argument, and I cannot see how anyone can come up with this conclusion?
This is an MMO, and the object of the team is to get you to keep logging in via any one or all of the systems in place to do so, like dailies/weeklies, achieves, progression, rep grinds and so on... Now the MSQ is won-and-done so to speak, so by its very definition, not possible to be one of those systems to keep you logging in month after month.
I am sure there are people that only play the game for the MSQ, but its hard to believe that's the focus of the game.. It makes no sense.

[Berethos]

An abridged version is an interesting idea (though a careful look at the story there does reveal that trimming it is harder than it first appears) but it's not as feasible from the development side - eventually they'd need to do abridged versions of each expansion as the game gets older and the story gets longer and might reach the point where even the abridged version is too long for new players, especially if it remains required.

Things like that take dev time - rewriting for clarity in multiple languages, testing quest triggers, developing the systems for two versions if said current system doesn't easily allow it (assuming it would work at all currently), and that will inevitably begin to cut into dev time for future content.

Ungating it from content unlocks but leaving it intact and requiring one to go through it if they want to experience the story is ultimately the more elegant solution.

[Belhi]

Here is the problem with an abridged version:

1) It would take a lot of resources:
It isn't just cutting out quests. It requires checking and altering dialog, modifying cutscenes, checking and adapting story flow to insure important information buried among the filler isn't lost and then all the QA that would be involved. That requires developers working on it. That means developers not working on endgame content. To do this they would have to cut back on the patch content we receive.

2) It would be a very short term fix:
The MSQ isn't stopping anytime soon. What happens in an expansion's time when SB has been added to the MSQ? What about the expansion afterward? There is a lot less filler to cut from HW so the actual gains you get will be limited.

Clearly its an issue but cutting back on the existing story won't really work. The other suggested solution, unlinking the story from progression doesn't sit well with me simply because I strongly suspect that such a change will almost certainly impact the story in a way I would find negative, if not simply to the story then to immersion. It would make far more sense to just let people skip forward in the story if they don't want to do it. Let the stories structure remain how it is. Just give people the option to skip forward.