As a new player that really likes this game ...

[Zaene]

Most MMOs "gate" content behind things. How is anyone going to get a sense of progression without having to DO THINGS to be able to DO OTHER THINGS? Now, I can appreciate that especially in a game like WoW and even here, there is a lot of content to get through before you get to end-game. That's just par for the course though.

FFXI had Chains of Promathia. There were amazing zones deeply gated behind 3 difficult encounters called "Promyvions". The feeling from beating those encounters and gaining access to new zones was amazing.

Now, times have certainly changed since then and the general difficulty of content has lowered substantially, however, I believe that content should still be gated behind story. Sure you might want to play the game only as an armorer, but you have to admit it would be a little odd.