Level Syncing isn't the best solution

[Spiroth]

You jumped right to the end and missed the entire point.

The "real stuff" isn't the endgame, because this game barely has an endgame. The "real stuff" is having a toolkit/rotation - the basic gameplay loop for XIV and the subject of this thread - that doesn't put you to sleep or otherwise feel like garbage. Unless you think jobs feel fine synced down in the ARR leveling dungeons, but then you should argue that instead of what you currently are.


I did. Look at the first page.

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No, sorry, it's not. The contents of the story being better or worse between the two is subjective, but one of these games forces players to slog through something like 150 hours of fetch quests and cutscenes to access basic game features/modes.

The other drops you into the world and lets you do whatever you want, when you want to do it. You gained access to all jobs (quests) once you hit lv30, and going to expansion areas was simply a matter of 1) figuring out where they were and 2) getting there without having your face ripped off. Very few content types were locked behind the story missions, and the ones that were didn't require the full completion of its story to unlock.

Oh, and the stories still managed to reference one another and feel connected.


Take a look at how many threads crop up (on Reddit, to be fair, but still) about people quitting the game around Titan's arc (30~34), towards the end of ARR or during the 2.1~2.55 stretch. Consider how many basic and obvious design choices, like Frontlines Freelancers, weren't implemented in a timely manner (or at all) because "lore reasons."

Overall player count is irrelevant; XI came out in an entirely different era. When they start giving away story and level skip potions with purchases of the game because they see a decline in player adoption and retention, will it still be story first?

You did not. That post has zero valid solutions.
Nastrond using Lancer in Sastasha is not acceptable, and everything you "offered" mandates that. So no.


And no, "real stuff" are not what you choose to include.
REAL STUFF is everything, not only endgame stuff.