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

[SamSmoot]

you can press escape to skip cut scenes then watch most in the Inn room later. In the options there is a check box to not play previously viewed cut scenes. (Except the Damn MSQ one).

First (and last) time I ran Praetorium, I spent most of my time there hammering the escape key trying to get out of the cutscenes before I got kicked for wasting everyone's time. Eventually, I realized that everyone was forced to watch. Never again.

[NDubbaYa]

It's billed as a story-based MMO. You're gonna get a lot of story.

It's like going to a Harlem Globetrotters game and being really upset that they're using a ladder to make a dunk.

[Skivvy]

Who exactly is billing this as a story-based MMO?

Take a look at the SE shop and see how they describe each expansion.

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/a_realm_reborn/system/
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/heavensward/
https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/stormblood/

Advertised just like any other MMO - highlighting all the various types of content it has to offer (with story being just a part).

If someone can give me a quote from the Almighty Yoshi confirming that Story should be everyone's main focus and enjoyment, I will concede this point.

[DPZ2]

https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/a_rea...world/#!/story

[DeusOcha]

I'm a fairly new player to FF14. Started around 3/4 weeks ago and just now entering Heavensward content. Out of the MMOs I've played (WoW, GW2, and ESO), I'd say FF14 is the most engrossing but I do recognize that there's ways to improve/execute better, especially in regards to trimming down fetch quest content; post-ARR was somewhat of a slog to get through. But it might just be current WoW with the dumpsterfire of BfA; but having an MMO this story-focused/cinematic-like is a breath of fresh air.

[Mavrias]

The OP sounds like a perfect candidate for mindless mmos like WoW. They will love you there. Peace.

wow isnt mindless it has a story as well. its simply told more through quests, npc dialogue, and text rather than shoving thousands of unnecessary cutscenes down your throat.

[van_arn]

I notice how everyone keeps going on and on about the story and cutscenes, but conveniently forget how god-awful the endless teleport-fedexing is. Maybe that gets suppressed in memory.

[Anienai]

Can i have your stuff?

[RareItems]

I thought FFXIV's endgame is reachable at level 1. Just make a character in Uldah and go to quicksands bam done xD.

[Penthea]

wow isnt mindless it has a story as well. its simply told more through quests, npc dialogue, and text rather than shoving thousands of unnecessary cutscenes down your throat.

For context I quit WoW at the end of WoD. If the story telling has since improved, I don't know much about it.

WoW's story is told very badly.

For a start when the Vanilla content was still in the game it didn't do a great job of telling what happened in the rts games that came before. Then Cata came along and wiped the Vanilla content away so the scraps that did tell you about the rts games are no longer there. Which also means the chronological order of the game is messed up because you now end up starting with Cata content, then you go into TBC and Wrath which actually came before Cata. You go back in time because Cata replaced the original game content. So because of that you don't get a decent explanation as to why you literally end up travelling to a different planet when you go into TBC, and why you must fight the armies of Arthas in Wrath who is previously referenced as already defeated. All of this of course confused anyone interested in the story that started playing at Cata or later.

A lot of the story is hidden away in novels and comics, which lead to the end boss of an expansion being severely misunderstood by nearly everyone, and most of the playerbase having no clue why a faction leader was missing since the start of the game for several expansions and how he came back.

The npc dialogue is mostly in a quest window in walls of text with no voice acting, animations or cutscenes most of the time. So it's not really presented in a compelling way that makes players interested. The majority of the npcs are lifeless mannequins you will never see again after you leave the area. The lifelessness of the npcs is something I understand to a point, because WoW is an old game. The standards of game story telling have changed. But the above paragraphs are not aspects of being old school. They're just bad decisions.

WoW has an amazing story but my god the way it is told in the game is a blasted mess, and so many important plot points are completely absent from the game. You have to go to a wiki if you want to understand what is going on.

So yea while WoW doesn't "shove thousands of unnecessary cutscenes down your throat", it instead does itself a disservice by presenting such rich and wonderfully written lore in a bland and disordered manner with chunks missing to the point that players are encouraged to not care very much because they must literally stop playing the game and go read a wiki if they do want to understand it. WoW's story isn't mindless, but the majority of how it is presented is.

I have heard the story telling in WoW has improved since I left, but I assume the older content has remained unchanged. I seriously doubt Blizzard spent the time to improve much of anything from the old content.