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

[TarynH]

OK, lets talk about SE's only other MMO Final Fantasy XI. They didn't force full MSQ completion on you.

OK, let's talk about XI. I'll fetch my rose-tinted glasses.

They did, and they didn't force story in XI. It depends how you want to look at it.

XI made a point to make each expansion separate from any other expansion. So you didn't have to complete one story to go into the next. In that regard, XI's story wasn't "forced."

However, that being said, XI did force story completion. The main story had to be completed past the Shadowlord to open up Dynamis. The rest of the city stories were extra. Zilart had to be completed nearly to the end to open up Sky, its endgame content. CoP had to be completed to open up Limbus and Sea. Not to mention a certain part of it had to be completed to open up Dreamworld Dynamis. ToAU needed enough completion to reach Nyzul, more completion to do Salvage, and full completion (plus Assault rank) for Einherjar. WotG needed some slight progression to reach WoE, but had very little endgame content aside from that; making the story trivial for that expansion. Abyssea and the other 3 add-ons were all story driven, and somewhat forced progression. SoA had completion checkpoints to access Delve and Skirmish, but I feel they stopped caring about the story in this expansion. Rhapsodies even needs completion to a certain point to open up content.

XIV went a different path and made an overall connected story arc. Thus "forcing" the main story to be completed.

XI's case was actually a failure on many levels, imo. The main story probably should have been forced more, and had more incentive to help others do it. XI is extremely hard to get back into, and especially hard to get back into and finish up any story you missed.

XIV actually has incentives, and reasons to do story. So the people that actually enjoy that thing, have some help along the way. They've also done a lot to make the story, for the most part, soloable in many regards. Which is another area where it succeeds.

Regardless, forced or unforced, it doesn't negate that the story played a significant role in FFXI overall.

There is A LOT of other content outside of the Story (which really only lasts a short bit of time).

See... I'd disagree here. There really isn't that much to do after finishing the story, and I personally don't understand everyone's rush to skip the story or ignore it. It's a large part of the game. Eureka was probably the biggest grind (time sink) they have added to endgame in XIV, and I have a love/hate relationship with it. The rest of the content, however, is repeated raids/dungeons ad nauseam to get loots, which end up completely useless after a short time. Especially useless when the next expansion rolls out. Not to mention the only reason the gear exists, is to help you meet ilvl requirements for... more story, or... more raid.