Confirmed: ARR campaign will be pruned

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

They don't even necessarily need to remove quests from that 100 quest dash to HW, they could simply turn them into side quests so they aren't required as part of the MSQ.

[Verlyn]

There is no solution that will make 100% of players happy here. Just make all the MSQ prior to Shadowbringers (or indeed, whatever the current expac is) optional and let people suffer ARR at their own pace. You'll find people become a lot more tolerant of something's flaws when it isn't acting as a barrier to the rest of the game that they feel pressure to rush through.

Not to mention, condensing ARR is only a short-term solution. Every expansion and every major patch adds new story, heaping on the hours new players need to devote to reach content the playerbase (and their friends) is active in and they are hyped about. This is a problem unique to this game, because other MMOs simply don't care where you are in the story before you do content.

Condensing every single MSQ up to the latest is simply not a viable option. Divorcing it from game progression and letting people enjoy it at their own pace should be a good compromise as it doesn't involve chopping the MSQ up.

[Ayuhra]

There is no solution that will make 100% of players happy here. Just make all the MSQ prior to Shadowbringers (or indeed, whatever the current expac is) optional and let people suffer ARR at their own pace. You'll find people become a lot more tolerant of something's flaws when it isn't acting as a barrier to the rest of the game that they feel pressure to rush through.

Not to mention, condensing ARR is only a short-term solution. Every expansion and every major patch adds new story, heaping on the hours new players need to devote to reach content the playerbase (and their friends) is active in and they are hyped about. This is a problem unique to this game, because other MMOs simply don't care where you are in the story before you do content.

Condensing every single MSQ up to the latest is simply not a viable option. Divorcing it from game progression and letting people enjoy it at their own pace should be a good compromise as it doesn't involve chopping the MSQ up.

I don't think every MSQ needs to be pruned. ARR they were still trying to figure out where they wanted to go. The pacing is noticeably worse then even Heavensward's (Heavensward had the Moogles but the rest was mostly fine).

ARR has been in desperate need of a pacing fix for a while.

[Verlyn]

I don't think every MSQ needs to be pruned. ARR they were still trying to figure out where they wanted to go. The pacing is noticeably worse then even Heavensward's (Heavensward had the Moogles but the rest was mostly fine).

ARR has been in desperate need of a pacing fix for a while.

I mean that's true, but it's ultimately a temporary solution. Think about it:
Right now we have about 300ish hours of story easy before you reach current content. Say ARR is pruned and that cuts its to about 200 hours. Nice! Then Shadowbringers patches add another 30 or so total. Then the next expac adds another 60. Now we're back up to 300 hours again and the problem of new player retention rears its ugly head once more. Because honestly; while Heavensward on improves so much in the pacing and story department, it never goes the 100% to fix issues that have plagued the story since ARR.

We see players get farther before giving up, but burnout after running so much story at once, under pressure, is still a thing. So we start seeing complaints about all new quests and pacing problems pop up, and people start clamoring for pruning Heavensward. Now it's become a cycle.

And I guarantee people will go through the pruned ARR and complain about the story they lost. Don't tell me they won't; this thread is full of posts pointing out how necessary any minor quests A, B and C are to the overall narrative. It'll happen.

So it ends up being a ton of dev time and money spent kicking the can down the road. Simply making the MSQ optional will cause a lot of complaining too--I know this well--but it at least ensures the core problem doesn't come up again, and as a bonus it doesn't require any pruning at all.

[DynnDiablos]

I mean that's true, but it's ultimately a temporary solution. Think about it:
Right now we have about 300ish hours of story easy before you reach current content. Say ARR is pruned and that cuts its to about 200 hours. Nice! Then Shadowbringers patches add another 30 or so total. Then the next expac adds another 60. Now we're back up to 300 hours again and the problem of new player retention rears its ugly head once more. Because honestly; while Heavensward on improves so much in the pacing and story department, it never goes the 100% to fix issues that have plagued the story since ARR. We see players are getting farther before giving up, but burnout after running so much story at once, under pressure, is still a thing. We start seeing complaints about all new quests and pacing problems and people start clamoring for pruning Heavensward. Now it's become a cycle.

And I guarantee people will go through the pruned ARR and complain about the story they lost. Don't tell me they won't; this thread is full of posts pointing out how necessary any minor quests A, B and C are to the overall narrative. It'll happen.

So it ends up being a ton of dev time and money spent kicking the can down the road. Simply making the MSQ optional will cause a lot of complaining too--I know this well--but it at least ensures the core problem doesn't come up again, and as a bonus it doesn't require any pruning at all.

Honestly, I don't know why people are playing FFXIV if they don't like story-based games. The game is a story-driven RPG. Yes, it is an MMO but the story is the main driving force. If they start simplifying the story and streamlining MSQ's where they are 8 hours or less, I truly will not be interested anymore.

[Ayuhra]

I mean that's true, but it's ultimately a temporary solution. Think about it:
Right now we have about 300ish hours of story easy before you reach current content. Say ARR is pruned and that cuts its to about 200 hours. Nice! Then Shadowbringers patches add another 30 or so total. Then the next expac adds another 60. Now we're back up to 300 hours again and the problem of new player retention rears its ugly head once more. Because honestly; while Heavensward on improves so much in the pacing and story department, it never goes the 100% to fix issues that have plagued the story since ARR.

We see players get farther before giving up, but burnout after running so much story at once, under pressure, is still a thing. So we start seeing complaints about all new quests and pacing problems pop up, and people start clamoring for pruning Heavensward. Now it's become a cycle.

And I guarantee people will go through the pruned ARR and complain about the story they lost. Don't tell me they won't; this thread is full of posts pointing out how necessary any minor quests A, B and C are to the overall narrative. It'll happen.

So it ends up being a ton of dev time and money spent kicking the can down the road. Simply making the MSQ optional will cause a lot of complaining too--I know this well--but it at least ensures the core problem doesn't come up again, and as a bonus it doesn't require any pruning at all.

The MSQ cannot be made optional, period.

That's not an issue of narrative, it's an issue of coding. They've said before that so much hangs on the MSQ that redoing portions of it is very hard. That's why they've been reluctant to adjust it for so long.

[Verlyn]

The MSQ cannot be made optional, period.

That's not an issue of narrative, it's an issue of coding. They've said before that so much hangs on the MSQ that redoing portions of it is very hard. That's why they've been reluctant to adjust it for so long.

Well, clearly they've decided to do it. Would be a shame if they did it only to kick the can down the road and have to deal with it *again* later. You can be dismissive all you want, but it doesn't make the problem disappear.

[DynnDiablos]

I really enjoyed the ARR MSQ, so not sure what all the complaints are about. I was engaged with it most of the time.

[Mikhaill]

I really enjoyed the ARR MSQ, so not sure what all the complaints are about. I was engaged with it most of the time.

To add on with all are saying it's kinda boring and a slog to get through...

It's the fact that's so long and fetch questy, NEW players are detered by it and eventually drop it.
This has happened so many times. You're hardpressed to get any new friends to play this game for long.
If you want DRK/AST/MCH in HW? Welp, better haul ass for 300 hours + or so.
I don't even recommend this game to anyone until ARR MSQ is pruned. My boyfriend finds the story underwhelming in
ARR and he loves books and reading. Doesn't help when something finally gets interesting,
you're greeted with a million mundane side crap with you teleporting 4000 billion times everywhere.
Something has to give so we can have more new players more than anything else.

[Allooutrick]

I'm in favor of this. I joined the game after Stormblood and decided to do all of the story from the start. It took so long to catch up that I began skipping all cut scenes and any content that wasnt related to dungeons. If I recall correctly, it took my over 9 days of game time... Over 200 hours of skipping story to get into stormblood. Now I attribute a big reason to my love of taking a game slowly and also switching to a new main most of the way through. I would imagine it would take new players the same amount of time, give or take 100 hours.