why i quit before reaching endgame (feedback from a new player)

[Melorie]

I also loved the story as a new player.
Doesn't change the fact that the way that it is designed is bad and it's not surprising that many people get bored or burnt out.


Just because the game has a good story (for some part, since not all of it is that good), doesn't mean that it is well-told and is above any kind of criticism.

[ErryK]

Try Black Desert Online [..] You will never get bored in that game.

That game is literally 99% grinding. The only thing it has going for it is combat because the only other thing is cash shop and we know how that song and dance goes.

[savageink]

thanks to all the people who did not offend me. i just arrived at my working place and will think about giving the game a shot during my work.
i really like the gameplay, graphics and music and i love that i can have all jobs on one character. perhaps i should just try to do the last 10 levels.

You did 2 full games and a crapload of patches in 2 weeks. That's a lot of cutscenes at once. Lol! It's not that bad when you do it over a few years.

Basically that's 2 whole Endgame lulls you didn't get for breathing space. Not sure if you should just slow down and play the HW endgame for a bit, or burn through to the end.

[Penthea]

I feel for you, and you'll have a better response (maybe) from the subreddit as they aren't quite as die-hard about the whole "THIS IS A STORY DRIVEN MMO, WHAT DID YOU EXPECT??!" bs. It's an MMO, with a forced story. That's it. It's truly a shame that they ham fist it down your throat as it does turn away people (like yourself).

But you can skip almost every cutscene in the game...is it such a horrible task to do that? It takes less than a second to skip. If even doing that is still too much grief...then play something else. The cutscenes aren't going away.

It's not bs to point out it's a story-driven game part of a series of games that for over 20 years have been known all over the world for being story-driven. Complaining about the presence of a story in a FF game is like complaining that Halo has guns.

What is bs is playing a story-driven game and then be shocked and offended that it is story-driven. Reminds me of people who play pvp games but complain that players can kill them

[Physic]

I've played them all too, maybe you were skipping the cut scenes? To me this was the best Final Fantasy story I've played since IX, and I greatly enjoyed it from the moment I started playing.




Also can we quit lying about saying how this is a bad experience for ALL new players? I was a new player just a few years ago and I freaking loved the experience from the start, I have new players that join my FC that say they've loved and are enjoying the story from the start, I've had friends that have made SEVERAL alts because they like experiencing the story over and over. It is a bad experience for some people, not the kind of people this game was designed for stop demanding the game be changes to cater to you and your friends needs its highly inconsiderate of the people who are actually enjoying the game as intended, people who don't enjoy it can go play what makes them happy, then everyone is happy. do you want everyone to be happy? I do.

the fact that cutscenes exist does not make them the same. The problem isnt, hey this game has cutscenes, the problem is that the narrative is not balanced with the action for a new a player.





Of course its not bad for all players. Many players like it, but there are many that dont and skip it, and many who dont like the idea that they have to spend massive amounts of time skipping story, due to the way its delivered, and the fact that it is preventing them from doing something with other players at that moment. The reality is the beginning of the game does not represent how people will spend most of their time playing the game. So, claiming if they dont like the story, they have no place in the game is nonsense. Even people i know who love the story spend the vast majority of time doing dungeons, raids, gear hunting, leveling new jobs etc.







I said its a bad way to deliver the story, which is my opinion,


but its definitely a bad way to gate content for current new players, because it was not designed to be consumed in the way that new players currently experience it. This doesnt mean every new player will hate it, but there will always be a bunch who feel trapped by it. Even people who like the story have complained about having to do msq when they were more focused on some other task/goal at the time.

[Physic]

There is exploring and battling both via the MSQ and outside of MSQ. You can literally explore and battle alongside doing MSQ or focus on MSQ, going from point A to point B while exploring and battling, then do the rest of the exploring and battling afterward.

the game does not reward battling on your way to any place. Open world monsters are best avoided and give you very little actual progress, and have virtually no relevance. Yes, you can make the story less of a chore by ignoring it for a time and doing things the game mechanics discourage you from, but that doesnt help create a smooth user experience for people who dont want pure cutscenes.



Which leads to the other problem, the more content you do outside of story, the more MSQ holds you back from content, for example, FAtes have benefit, but the truth is, gaining levels is going to be inefficent, which new players dont realize directly, but they realize later when they seem to make very little progression because their level is signifigantly higher than the content they have access to. Thats when many people get burnt out. Basically post ARR where there is tons of content that gives very little progress, because its actually designed for the time period when there was no progress. But if you do all those dungeons, and dailies, you will be 5-10 levels over the content, which isnt keeping up with your power level/progress level.


Most post expansion/ARR content is designed that you do a few hours of story per month. The balance is totally off for new players coming into the game at this point. There is a reason story skip sells well. However, i dont think they make more money in the long term by having people who dont like story delivery/gates choosing between annoyance, pay, or quit.

[Physic]

But you can skip almost every cutscene in the game...is it such a horrible task to do that? It takes less than a second to skip. If even doing that is still too much grief...then play something else. The cutscenes aren't going away.

It's not bs to point out it's a story-driven game part of a series of games that for over 20 years have been known all over the world for being story-driven. Complaining about the presence of a story in a FF game is like complaining that Halo has guns.

What is bs is playing a story-driven game and then be shocked and offended that it is story-driven. Reminds me of people who play pvp games but complain that players can kill them

when you start skipping cutscenes and text, it becomes literally just busy work for no purpose. Which is how a lot people handle it, but thats not an optimal game design/user design. What you are saying is, hey man, why cant you just spend 40-80 hours literally doing nothing but running from npc to npc clicking buttons just to get past them?

[linay]

the game does not reward battling on your way to any place. Open world monsters are best avoided and give you very little actual progress, and have virtually no relevance. Yes, you can make the story less of a chore by ignoring it for a time and doing things the game mechanics discourage you from, but that doesnt help create a smooth user experience for people who dont want pure cutscenes.

You want exploration? Many times exploration leads to nothing except just knowing what's out there. If you're scared of going out of the laid out path and only want progress then that's the MSQ.

Which leads to the other problem, the more content you do outside of story, the more MSQ holds you back from content, for example, FAtes have benefit, but the truth is, gaining levels is going to be inefficent, which new players dont realize directly, but they realize later when they seem to make very little progression because their level is signifigantly higher than the content they have access to. Thats when many people get burnt out. Basically post ARR where there is tons of content that gives very little progress, because its actually designed for the time period when there was no progress. But if you do all those dungeons, and dailies, you will be 5-10 levels over the content, which isnt keeping up with your power level/progress level.

They're there for variety. If you just want progress, then you do the MSQ. If you just want something to do, then it doesn't matter. You decide how much progress you want to do in a video game with your free time.

Most post expansion/ARR content is designed that you do a few hours of story per month. The balance is totally off for new players coming into the game at this point. There is a reason story skip sells well. However, i dont think they make more money in the long term by having people who dont like story delivery/gates choosing between annoyance, pay, or quit.

And you don't have to rush through the quests. You can literally pace it as if it's current content and you'll be doing the exact same thing long time players have done in the past. In the end, it's up to you how fast you want to progress through the game and what detours you take along the way.

[Skivvy]

But you can skip almost every cutscene in the game...is it such a horrible task to do that? It takes less than a second to skip. If even doing that is still too much grief...then play something else. The cutscenes aren't going away.

It's not bs to point out it's a story-driven game part of a series of games that for over 20 years have been known all over the world for being story-driven. Complaining about the presence of a story in a FF game is like complaining that Halo has guns.

What is bs is playing a story-driven game and then be shocked and offended that it is story-driven. Reminds me of people who play pvp games but complain that players can kill them

What I may not have made clear is that I have no issue with the MSQ existing. I loved the story in XI, and there was far, far more of it there. Stories are a big thing to a lot of people, and I'm glad that people enjoy what XIV has to offer.

With that said, MMOs need to be able to provide a wide variety of content in order to lure the masses. Not everyone is going to want to have to do 100% of the story line just to unlock current content. I feel there are ways that SE could design the MSQ in order to keep the story intact, and to bring people to the new content (zones/battles/etc), while also not requiring a 100% clear for those who aren't that interested in the story.

As an aside, I've played Archeage for years - heavy-PvP game for those not familiar. I'm not a PvP fan at all, and I'm quite horrible at it, but I absolutely adore that game. It has so many amazing non-PvP features and systems in place that I've never had a problem enjoying my time there. Their MSQ even forces you into PvP zones in later stages (many deaths were had at this point), but just about none of the other content is tied to their MSQ and so I could continue the story when I felt up to it. The flexibility to be able to do things at your own pace is a great trait to have in an MMO.

Before that last bit gets taken out of context, no, I am not saying that XIV should completely uncouple the MSQ from the dungeons/raids/etc as it is in AA. I do however think they could rework their handling of the MSQ in order to provide a better middle ground for all players.

[gumas]

well the game was design with story as their primary focus.

if you are not really a story a person, it can be a hard time in this game even with skip button.