Square you need to streamline the main story

[Zojha]

If you want to skip content in any MMO on the market you pay for it. No matter what that content is.

... is that so? Thousands of people completely skip crafting, gathering or raiding, both 8 and 24 man. Same for chocobo breeding and racing. PvP, too, PotD as well. Same goes for treasure maps and aquapolis. That applies to the Hunt, too and stuff like the Diadem as well. Not everyone plays more than one job either and a lot of people skip sidequests such as the relic or Hildibrandt.

Fact of the matter is you can skip most content in this game and in others. You just can't skip the MSQ, because all other content depends on it to various degrees.

I mean, I agree that allowing people to skip it for free is a terrible business decision - a good business decision is to artificially bloat it as much as you can and sell the potion as solution. Just like a good business decision is to bloat item lists and sell inventory space. Or to throw stones into windows at night and sell glazing services at day. Or to sell mines to one side of an armed conflict and minesweeping services to the other. But that's business.

[Keridwyn]

I'm spending extra sub money for those alts. I don't want to pay to skip content. I want to be able to do content like dungeons and stuff when I'm at level without being funneled through a bazillion MSQs first. If I feel like doing the MSQ at some point, I can go back and do it.

So do I and I level using the MSQ. I understand I'm playing a story based MMO. I don't expect to be allowed to skip that for free. I don't expect to change your mind but it really is no different from any other MMO out there. They gate you by level and expect you to pay to skip it. FFXIV gates you by story.

[Aldora]

I don't really agree with these 2 statements:

This isn't abut the HW quests, its complaining about the 2.0 quests blocking off new players from staying, that needs changing.

The ARR quest line doesn't "block players from staying". Even though there are roughly 100 quests from the end of 2.0 till the beginning of 3.0, most of it can pretty much powered through. By the time they reach 3.0, they will have a class at 5.2 or higher. It's true that not every player is interested in the Story of the game, or want the "filler" content to be removed from the 2.x story line.

The thing is, the content which will form a blockade for new players (or alts) are the duties they've included within the Main Story like, like Primals, Dungeons and the Steps of Faith trial. You need to clear those before you can continue with the Main Story Quests. You can't really remove those quests since they are "essential" to the story.

The FFXIV team did learn a lesson with the 2.0 quests and decided to separate the main story quests from the additional content, like the (Warring Triade) primals. The Scholasticate quest line is also totally optional, even though it gives some more depth to the Main Story. You are not required to do those quests in order to get access to Stormblood. Due to this, the amount of Main Story quests you need to finish before getting access to Stormblood have been lowered quite a bit. This is a trend we will be seeing in Stormblood as well.

But, let's face it. Developers will not change the existing content and remove filler quests within the 2.x Main Story Quests, unless they will be revisiting the 2.0 area's and completely rework them. There is no reason to invest resources to cut and reconnect old story content, when they can work on new content to keep players busy. The same goes for flying in the ARR area's. The only way they will implement Flying in those area's, is when they are going to "rebuild" those area's through a new expansion (like 5.0).

So, it's up to the players to go through the story in order to reach the next expansion. If you really don't care about the story and you want to get immediate access to the next expansion (not the latest), they will be introducing those "Jump Potions". I'm not a fan of those potions being added to the game, but if there are players who want to buy them, just so that they can get access to the newer content, it's their decision.

Therefore, in my opinion. The FFXIV team doesn't have to change the current 2.x questline, so that players will get to Heavenward faster. As they are doing them, they will still gain XP for their class. This will make it easier for them to go through the Heavenward quests, since they are already at a higher level when entering the Heavensward area's.

NO OTHER GAME that I know of does this much gating, this one shouldn't ether, it does not matter if this is ffxi or not, it is called being smart to get more business.

I beg to differ. In my honest opinion, the gates Blizzard placed on their latest Expansion (Legion) are worse, since you can't progress the main story, unless you reach a certain reputation with factions from the Legion area's. If you don't play WoW every day, you will be left behind because you can't simply pick up the next quest they've released, unless you work on the faction reputation.

Since i only play WoW 1 or 2 nights a week for fun, i've stopped trying to go through the Main story, simply because i don't want to grind the Faction Reputation in order to continue. I simply have no interest in that. Since i only play WoW 1 or 2 nights a week, I'd rather create a new character to level a class to 110 i've never played before. Once i reach 110, i stop playing that character again because of this "Faction Rep"-gate.

Also, i still need to go through the content of several expansions before i can get to the Legion content. Blizzard did increase the amount of XP you can get from the quests and combining that with the Heirloom items, you can get to the next area pretty fast (without having the need to complete all of the quests from that area). But, it does create holes in the story. If you really care about the story, you'll probably would still go through all of the quests in the area before going to the next.

But still... Blizzard only removed quests from the old expansions, when they revisited the old area's. Like with the introduction of the Cataclysm expansion.

[Lexia]

Clearly you are unaware of all the people that don't due to the high costs. SE would make much more money by lowering the costs to get more buyers. (includes retainer costs)

So I guess that why they keep raising prices on the cash shop when adding new items cause of all those people not buying stuff? If so many people were not buying stuff due to the high cost we could see the prices come down not stay the same price or higher on new items.

[Ama_Hamada]

I don't really agree with these 2 statements. The ARR quest line doesn't "block players from staying". Even though there are roughly 100 quests from the end of 2.0 till the beginning of 3.0, most of it can pretty much powered through. By the time they reach 3.0, they will have a class at 5.2 or higher. It's true that not every player is interested in the Story of the game, or want the "filler" content to be removed from the 2.x story line.
The thing is, the content which will form a blockade for new players (or alts) are the duties they've included within the Main Story like, like Primals, Dungeons and the Steps of Faith trial. You need to clear those before you can continue with the Main Story Quests. You can't really remove those quests since they are "essential" to the story.

The FFXIV team did learn a lesson with the 2.0 quests and decided to separate the main story quests from the additional content, like the (Warring Triade) primals. The Scholasticate quest line is also totally optional, even though it gives some more depth to the Main Story. You are not required to do those quests in order to get access to Stormblood. Due to this, the amount of Main Story quests you need to finish before getting access to Stormblood have been lowered quite a bit. This is a trend we will be seeing in Stormblood as well.

But, let's face it. Developers will not change the existing content and remove filler quests within the 2.x Main Story Quests, unless they will be revisiting the 2.0 area's and completely rework them. There is no reason to invest resources to cut and reconnect old story content, when they can work on new content to keep players busy. The same goes for flying in the ARR area's. The only way they will implement Flying in those area's, is when they are going to "rebuild" those area's through a new expansion (like 5.0).

So, it's up to the players to go through the story in order to reach the next expansion. If you really don't care about the story and you want to get immediate access to the next expansion (not the latest), they will be introducing those "Jump Potions". I'm not a fan of those potions being added to the game, but if there are players who want to buy them, just so that they can get access to the newer content, it's their decision.



I beg to differ. In my honest opinion, the gates Blizzard placed on their latest Expansion (Legion) are worse, since you can't progress the main story, unless you reach a certain reputation with faction from the Legion area's. If you don't play WoW every day, you will be left behind because you can't simply pick up the next quest they've released, unless you work on the faction reputation.

Since i only play WoW 1 or 2 nights a week for fun, i've stopped trying to go through the Main story, simply because i don't want to grind the Faction Reputation in order to continue. I simply have no interest in that. Since i only play WoW 1 or 2 nights a week, I'd rather create a new character to level a class to 110 i've never played before. Once i reach 110, i stop playing that character again because of this "Faction Rep"-gate.

Yes they did learn, so why isn't the 50 quests is cleaned up? oversight is oversight, enough with the gating. Stop making players quit because of gating flaws.

Fine that is your view, be selfish and block out new players, why are you auguring that now?

If you played ffxiv like that, you be stuck on 50 quests for a month or more. That is not fun.

So I guess that why they keep raising prices on the cash shop when adding new items cause of all those people not buying stuff? If so many people were not buying stuff due to the high cost we could see the prices come down not stay the same price or higher on new items.

It is clear to me SE doesn't know economics, reflected in the game as well that they are bad at making an economy.

They simply think the best way is few high price sales, it isn't.

... is that so? Thousands of people completely skip crafting, gathering or raiding, both 8 and 24 man. Same for chocobo breeding and racing. PvP, too, PotD as well. Same goes for treasure maps and aquapolis. That applies to the Hunt, too and stuff like the Diadem as well. Not everyone plays more than one job either and a lot of people skip sidequests such as the relic or Hildibrandt.

Fact of the matter is you can skip most content in this game and in others. You just can't skip the MSQ, because all other content depends on it to various degrees.

I mean, I agree that allowing people to skip it for free is a terrible business decision - a good business decision is to artificially bloat it as much as you can and sell the potion as solution. Just like a good business decision is to bloat item lists and sell inventory space. Or to throw stones into windows at night and sell glazing services at day. Or to sell mines to one side of an armed conflict and minesweeping services to the other. But that's business.

hope the last part is sarcasm, lol

[Keridwyn]

... is that so? Thousands of people completely skip crafting, gathering or raiding, both 8 and 24 man. Same for chocobo breeding and racing. PvP, too, PotD as well. Same goes for treasure maps and aquapolis. That applies to the Hunt, too and stuff like the Diadem as well. Not everyone plays more than one job either and a lot of people skip sidequests such as the relic or Hildibrandt.

Fact of the matter is you can skip most content in this game and in others. You just can't skip the MSQ, because all other content depends on it to various degrees.

Thank you for pointing it out, I wasn't even considering all the extra content people skip. I do wonder what someone who skips all of those things gets from this game though?

[Ama_Hamada]

Thank you for pointing it out, I wasn't even considering all the extra content people skip. I do wonder what someone who skips all of those things gets from this game though?

As said I knew a pure crafter/gather that quit due to the gating 3.0 did.

[Lexia]

It is clear to me SE doesn't know economics, reflected in the game as well that they are bad at making an economy.

They simply think the best way is few high price sales, it isn't.

I'm amazed why you stick around and play this game since you seem to think SE sucks at everything they do.

[MomomiMomi]

But, let's face it. Developers will not change the existing content and remove filler quests within the 2.x Main Story Quests, unless they will be revisiting the 2.0 area's and completely rework them. There is no reason to invest resources to cut and reconnect old story content, when they can work on new content to keep players busy.

But they've already done some streamlining in the pre-15 quests when HW released. They DO go back and do this stuff. They just need to do more of it.

[Aldora]

Yes they did learn, so why isn't the 50 quests is cleaned up? oversight is oversight, enough with the gating. Stop making players quit because of gating flaws.

Fine that is your view, be selfish and block out new players, why are you auguring that now?

If you played ffxiv like that, you be stuck on 50 quests for a month or more. That is not fun.

For the record, as you were writing your reply, i've added more to my original post. But, i've already mentioned why the level 50 quests haven't been "cleaned up".

But, let's face it. Developers will not change the existing content and remove filler quests within the 2.x Main Story Quests, unless they will be revisiting the 2.0 area's and completely rework them. There is no reason to invest resources to cut and reconnect old story content, when they can work on new content to keep players busy. The same goes for flying in the ARR area's. The only way they will implement Flying in those area's, is when they are going to "rebuild" those area's through a new expansion (like 5.0).

But still... Blizzard only removed quests from the old expansions, when they revisited the old area's. Like with the introduction of the Cataclysm expansion.

That's not me "being selfish". On the contrary. It's the creator of the game deciding that they can best invest their resources elsewhere, in this case creating new content for everyone.

And again, new players aren't being "blocked out". Far from it. They can still experience the game as the old players did. But, with increased XP which will benefit them when accessing the new expansion. The main difference between the FFXIV Gate and the WoW Gate, is that with FFXIV you can pick up the next quest when you log into the game. You can rush through it, if you aren't interested in the story. With WoW, you will need to grind the Faction Rep in order to even get the next quests. So, you could say, that it's an additional gate for people who want to progress through the story.

Each version of the gate will have it's downside, as well as people who will dislike it being there. However, the team behind the game will not simply cut (story) content just to make it more convenient for the players to reach the latest expansion.