Is there anything meaningful/gratifying to do in this game that's not MSQ?

[Lunavi]

read his interview from Gamescom, the future of 14 seems rather underwhelming. You can find the full interview with a quick Google search.... but this part interested me.

"For me, I kind of feel that 5 years doesn't really matter. I mean, it's been 8 years since 1.0. What's more important is how FFXIV is going to evolve next. I think we're running out of features that we're missing as far as the global standard for MMORPGs goes. If I had to say, I think that in order to prevent other MMOs from catching up, we should flesh out what it means to "live" in the world of FFXIV with things that only FFXIV can do, like Perform and the housing roleplay stuff."

Underwhealming? That sounds exactly like the kind of stuff an MMO should focus on in my book as that is something only an MMORPG can do.

[Iscah]

Heavensward might actually have a good story, and I may even enjoy it when I view the cutscenes later at my leisure, when I'm in the mood to watch a movie, not play a video game.

This isn’t a great way to experience the story if you intend to at any point - a lot of dialogue cannot be revisited. Only the ‘cinematic’ cutscenes (ie. the skippable bits) are available later. All the other dialogue boxes are only given to you “in place” and you can’t see them again - so watching cutscenes later will only get you a very fragmented version of the story.

Following the story as it happens also makes the dungeons more relevant, because you understand why you’re in that place and what you’re trying to achieve.

[CrystalRainbow]

I used to really enjoying the game. However since 4.3 I haven't played nearly as much.

I would cap every week, Do GS lotto, Play card games. and get about 1/2 the weekly challange log.

In 4.3 I may log on once to twice a week for 1-2 hours No interest in capping. Pago Seemed a failure to me, The 1st zone was fun but Pago I can't get into.
I have little interest in getting all my jobs to 70.
I haven't truched SAM or RDM..

I liked the job quest but I can't bring myself to level.
My FC also has almost totally fallen apart with the fact the balmung is a closed server so people quit but never come back and population isn't going done fast enough to reopen it.
My FC has 72 member but the FC leader has un sub, put someone else in charge who hasn't logged on in 32 days.
There maybe 8 active people logging on. I've talked to the person who will likely become leader of the FC and they don't want it so it will likely fall on myself or my wife.

My wife ran a active LS in FFXI with 60 + active member loggin in all the time and it just about killed her keeping everyone active and happy.

I didn't really mean to rant but I can see this game needs something enjected into it but I couldn't tell you want it was.

[Anselmet]

Please understand that I'm not inherently averse to a story. Far from it.

Yes but you have admitted you are skipping the HW cutscenes. I'd suggest you stop that right now if you are going to continue with this game. Its a great game and the story in HW is probably the best out of any modern Final Fantasy game. (My personal tastes is I like it more the FFVII that you seem to like) I would go watch a video on youtube and see what you missed since you started skipping and then pull up your pants and start questing. HW questing is nothing like ARR, and by the time you reach SB there will be less fetch questing.

But then what about the challenge?

You're leveling 61 and in shire gear. That was probably a mistake now that you're over geared because let me tell you: there are a few dungeons in HW that are more than dangerous and challenging for a newbie. But even in shire gear I am more than certain you will not be 'face rolling' through the lvl 57 dungeon nor the lvl 59 dungeon. The lvl 59 boss just takes one person to be retarded for you to wipe over and over. The lvl 57 boss is not kind to healers and if you are a fresh tank, I hope you know how to do cool downs in case your healer is not competent because that boss will make sure you suffer.

Still, whatever, right? I just roll my eyes, it's an MMO, and hey, WoW was like this too, except it didn't gate quite as much of its content behind quite as long a main story.

We are not WoW and I hope we never become WoW. Go play WoW if you do not like that FFXIV puts emphasis on our story. WoW does not put emphasis on story the same way, nor is it as engaging (or at least when I played who knows what its like I haven't looked back in five years since I started playing FFXIV) And there are jump potions past HW, but if you do that you will miss out on an enjoyable story. And when new content comes out you will simply not care for it. With ARR I skipped most of the story and when I started HW I actually watched most of the cutscenes. I did not get the same impact as others did and I had to go back and level an alt just so I could care about the characters and the narrative. And let me tell you, I am forever grateful I did because I would have missed out on a lot. The story is sometimes all that brings me back after a patch hiatus.

I really do hope you continue playing and take peoples advice because the content in the MSQ does slowly get more challenging than ARR.

[Penthea]

Heavensward might actually have a good story, and I may even enjoy it when I view the cutscenes later at my leisure, when I'm in the mood to watch a movie, not play a video game.

This won't work because for a lot of the cutscenes to make sense you're going to need to know what npcs say outside of cutscenes. You can try it but don't be surprised when a lot of it doesn't make sense.

But you are wrong to fault me for skipping the story when it functions in practice as a roadblock. Many of you are veterans compared to me, and probably played through this content when it was new and live, and there were other people going through it for the first time, experiencing it together

People are "faulting" you because you have complained about having to do something that is central to the entire game. It is highly unlikely for a person who finds story as little other than a roadblock to be able to enjoy most Final Fantasy games, including this one. You complaining about having to go through a story in a FF game is like complaining about having to fight in Tekken.

Also don't assume everyone got through the story because they started it with their friends and when it was new. Despite what my join date says, I didn't get to play the game properly until long after HW launched and I didn't join a fc until I was max lvl, so I worked through the majority of the available msq on my own without anyone to push me into it. I personally know people who started playing several patches after SB launched and like me didn't need encouragement from other people to play.

I on the other hand cannot overstate how desolate these areas are now, rarely I'll pass somebody else on a black chocobo to remind me that I'm playing a multiplayer game

Are you new to mmos? It is extremely common for areas that are for old or mostly only lvling story content to be "dead" given most players at max lvl will be hanging around at places where they can do max lvl content. This is far from unique to this game.

WoW was like this too, except it didn't gate quite as much of its content behind quite as long a main story.

Oh nevermind, you're not so new to this genre. But that game has dead zones too so....yea.

If you want to play WoW then I suggest that you play WoW. Don't go to another game with a completely different name, made by an entirely different studio and developed on the other side of the planet...and expect it to be very much like WoW.

Look man, I get it that you don't like to essentially be told "you're playing the game wrong" but you complained about the most pivotal feature in the game and then asked if other content was worth playing. Of course people are telling you to play something else. You don't sound like you're part of the target audience, and that's fine. Not every game is for everyone.

[Aylis]

read his interview from Gamescom, the future of 14 seems rather underwhelming. You can find the full interview with a quick Google search.... but this part interested me.

"For me, I kind of feel that 5 years doesn't really matter. I mean, it's been 8 years since 1.0. What's more important is how FFXIV is going to evolve next. I think we're running out of features that we're missing as far as the global standard for MMORPGs goes. If I had to say, I think that in order to prevent other MMOs from catching up, we should flesh out what it means to "live" in the world of FFXIV with things that only FFXIV can do, like Perform and the housing roleplay stuff."

I need to bring up the full interview to see for myself o.O but that one snippet comes out as half really arrogant and half total ignorance and out of touch on the state of current MMO's. Running out of features to meet the global standard? Ummm, I as well as plenty others can come up with lists of things FFXIV is lacking as per the global standard. Prevent other MMO's from catching up? Yeah, quite the opposite. Things only FFXIV can do? Perform? Ummm yeah wasn't it Archage that had a similar thing? Housing roleplay stuff? Right >_> hello every MMO ever created that had player housing or even just buildings players can enter in general.

It feels like he's saying "Pfft, It has Final Fantasy in the name! They'll play it no matter what!"

[Fynlar]

Eureka is a kind of content that heavily strays from the rest of the game. It takes a huge turn towards oldschool systems with its grind and penalties, things I've seen people ask for (no idea why, but then again I'm not into this kind of grinding myself). Making something like Eureka was already a risk, quite noticeable by the ruckus it has caused.

Eureka (at least, Anemos, never stepped into the new one) is literally just the same hunt zergfest we've been used to since 2.x, in a new zone. Let's not unnecessarily sugarcoat things.

[HyoMinPark]

Eureka (at least, Anemos, never stepped into the new one) is literally just the same hunt zergfest we've been used to since 2.x, in a new zone. Let's not unnecessarily sugarcoat things.

I think what they mean is that, the intended way to do both Anemos and Pagos is to grind and chain mobs, which is how one would level in old-school MMOs. In FFXIV, chaining/leveling via mod-grinding is not the usual way you level; you do MSQ for your main job, and then spam dungeons for subsequent ones. Overworld mobs are more or less irrelevant past level 10 in terms of experience gain. Especially for the newer jobs as they don’t even give you a Hunting Log for them.

[MistakeNot]

I used to really enjoying the game. However since 4.3 I haven't played nearly as much.

I would cap every week, Do GS lotto, Play card games. and get about 1/2 the weekly challange log.

In 4.3 I may log on once to twice a week for 1-2 hours No interest in capping. Pago Seemed a failure to me, The 1st zone was fun but Pago I can't get into.
I have little interest in getting all my jobs to 70.
I haven't truched SAM or RDM..

The game did not really change with 4.3, so it sounds like you have simply burnt yourself out on the game. That easily happens when you play a lot for an extended period of time.
Take a break. The game will still be there when (if) you choose to come back.

[OurMom]

It feels like he's saying "Pfft, It has Final Fantasy in the name! They'll play it no matter what!"

And he's not wrong, a friend of mine was just talking about how this game is boring and he doesn't do much in it but he's going to keep playing simply cause it's a FF game. And yes Archeage had a "perform" type feature that's way better than the one here.


On topic: Honestly, just power through the cut scenes, as someone that likes story but now how it's done here, just skip it all. It's super predictable and you aren't missing anything. The fun honestly doesn't start until end game, you've made it through the truly awful part, ARR, you can do it.