New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Awha]

It's worth noting that giving what players want may not be healthy for the game at large. Just because people want to skip the MSQ doesnt mean itd be good for FFXIV to do that.

Consider the following:

There are players who speed past all the dialogue, cutscenes, scenery, dungeons, etc once an xpac drops. They charge for max level, foregoing everything n between. They hit 70, devour what 70 content is in a day or three, then spend the subsequent weeks witching about how the game is boring, there's nothing to do, "go figure the devs would make a crap xpac", etc.

What this highlights is that when given the choice to enjoy the game or skip past it all, some players make the stupid decision to skip content because they think what's best is to get to 70 asap. Now, if they give new players the option to skip most content for free, what makes anyone think this wouldnt be an issue? Players would skip content, not know what is going on story wise (they have very little investment in the world/characters/stakes), which would incline them to skip even more content going forward by rushing it. They willl think the 'fun parts' of the game is current stuff, not realizing there is a lot of enjoyment to be had from content in ARR. Not saying it's perfect, btw, but mostly good for what it is.

Instead, I figure youll see players skip stuff, get to the end, say the game sucks cause there's nothing to do and they have no investment in the story aspects, and end up quitting. And theyll do this thinking this is the better option, not realizing that actually taking your time with things will make the experience better, not worse. The players will choose poorly for themselves out of ignorance and assumptions if given the opportunity to skip any effort required to go through ARR and similar content. That's probably part of the reason why jump potions arent free. That acts as a deterrent to new players. You have an option you have to pay for, and new players will more likely play through content they paid for then skip past it if they have to pay for that skip.

I get this fear, but if the story is as important as people make it out to be then making it so content is level gated would not deter those that want to invest their time and enjoy the story from doing so. For some reason I just get this feeling that if SE made the content level gated instead of story gated people who enjoy the story get the feeling that without the game forcing you to do the story many would not even bother thus maybe showing that the story itself is not all that important to the game. Which I do not think would happen, I am willing to concede that maybe most people play this game for the story, and making content level gated would not deter people from enjoying said story. All level gating would do is make it so people who in that moment are not ready to do the story or simply do not want to do the story do not have to do it in that moment. (general you)

Though I also agree this will never happen because people like myself buy story skips and or job boosts for friends that wish to try FFXIV, and with new game + coming out if they wish to go back to the story they can do so. In the end I think it comes down to the fact that for some the story is side content, for others it is not. I know very little about the story in FFXIV, but I do enjoy the crafting, gathering, housing, raiding, trials, and the community. Those aspects are the my primary content that keeps me subbed to FFXIV.

Maybe I am just naive, but I do not think people in general are that dumb that they will skip content then complain later that they have no content to do, since as players we all have different priorities on the content that we enjoy. Way I say if people skip certain content that content because moot to that player since they had no interest in. Sure people may complain about not having enough content that they personal enjoy, but I do not think people who skip content would complain about the general lack of content as a whole. I am sure some will, but I do not think it would be a large group.

However in doing so, if my dungeons are unlocked by simply reaching the level and not by doing the quests around it (forced quests), that to me loses the value of it if for example Sohm Al gets unlocked at say level 53 (instead of going through the quests that lead you to it. You can say "Oh, but do the quests before the dungeon" however it still wouldn't fill in the context for me). I hated it in WoW in the end, not knowing why a duty was unlocked, it just appearing. The duties felt like they had no real purpose to me. That being said...



I have to say I like this idea, IF Square Enix can feasibly pull it off. For the people like me who can't stand the idea of a duty being unlocked just by reaching the level with no context other than the level, we have the "natural" way of the story. But for those who cannot stand the MSQ, it would offer a way for them to be able to access the content they're likely to enjoy (dungeons etc), without having to go through the MSQ. If they don't care for the lore behind each dungeon, who am I to deny them the ability to play it? Unfortunately, I guess it would cut into "Story skip" sales which means it wouldn't happen.

That is the thing the quest tracker will still exist, if you follow the quest tracker then you will never lose your place in the MSQ follow the tracker and it will function just as the MSQ does now, expect that if someone does not want to they do not have to. The quest tracker maps out everything for the MSQ it is a step by step guide as to what one needs to do, how will you be missing out on context?

WoW is a poor example because their quest tracker was horrible, but FFXIV has a pretty decent quest tracker, unless one ignores it completely I do not see how one could get lost or lose out on context for dungeons if they follow it. Overall I get where you are coming from though.