My problem with leveling up in FFXIV.

[ForctyusGold]

you can switch to other job and do with it these msq or other quest o/ after ARR its better, trust me and of course, this game is really about story so thats why so many msq o/ nobody is saying you cant do any gameplay besides reading bubbles

[Verlyn]

I'd say for all the story itself can be engaging, the actual questing process really isn't and doesn't start to get engaging until Shadowbringers gets into gear. They do a lot lot lot of empty yammering and pointless side trips and forced teleportation and very little actual gameplay outside of the occasional scripted duty, which forces you to disband your party because they don't want their MMO story to be a multiplayer experience. While the flow absolutely does get better as the game goes on (and I especially appreciate that SHB no longer makes you teleport back and forth all of the time), it's something the game can still improve.

[Harmonea]

I was just saying after working all day and only having a short amount of time it didn't feel like I was actively engaged enough. All my time spent playing was reading and traveling around to talk to people. I know it's part of an MMO but I didn't feel engaged. I was simply curious if everyone else felt the same way or if it was just me.

Whats amazing to me is that this topic has gone on for so long and that people are so attached to this game that they feel the need to defend it the way they do. It's odd to me and I would have never expected this topic to go the direction it did.

Many people have responded that they agree with you. Many others have responded that they don't agree with you. You've received advice going both ways, from "it gets better" to "mix things up" to "maybe not the game for you."

Are you really so "amazed" that you received posts that say things other than "yes, I agree"....? On a public discussion forum, you expected people to stick within your narrow boundaries of acceptable responses?

We get it; you work. Most of us do, you know that right? And different people enjoy different things to unwind after a day of work. I'm the sort who wouldn't mind curling up with a book, and I'm in love with the carefully crafted world of FFXIV. I look forward to a day of "traveling and reading" (aka new MSQ) more than anything else in this game. You don't, and that's fine; you might like endgame more if you can get yourself there, with all content open to you and two worlds full of action packed choices of activities for your meager free time.

Though based on your responses in this thread to people who dare suggest you might better enjoy your time if you don't bother... I hope not to bump in to you if that time ever comes.

[OhnoozeMyToes]

Many people have responded that they agree with you. Many others have responded that they don't agree with you. You've received advice going both ways, from "it gets better" to "mix things up" to "maybe not the game for you."

Are you really so "amazed" that you received posts that say things other than "yes, I agree"....? On a public discussion forum, you expected people to stick within your narrow boundaries of acceptable responses?

We get it; you work. Most of us do, you know that right? And different people enjoy different things to unwind after a day of work. I'm the sort who wouldn't mind curling up with a book, and I'm in love with the carefully crafted world of FFXIV. I look forward to a day of "traveling and reading" (aka new MSQ) more than anything else in this game. You don't, and that's fine; you might like endgame more if you can get yourself there, with all content open to you and two worlds full of action packed choices of activities for your meager free time.

Though based on your responses in this thread to people who dare suggest you might better enjoy your time if you don't bother... I hope not to bump in to you if that time ever comes.

"narrow boundaries of acceptable responses"?
lol...no. What an ridiculous comment. I have no issue with different opinions, that's part of forums. But when you purposely twist what someone said to justify being rude... I'm not ok with that. What I'm amazed about is that people get so defensive about childish things such as calling the ffxiv "mascot" a chicken. Or taking a quote completely out of context to fit their rude behavior.
A lot of people disagree with me and that's ok. I get it...we are all different. Others on the other hand just look for an opportunity to take jabs.

[Edax]

"narrow boundaries of acceptable responses"?
lol...no. What an ridiculous comment. I have no issue with different opinions, that's part of forums. But when you purposely twist what someone said to justify being rude... I'm not ok with that. What I'm amazed about is that people get so defensive about childish things such as calling the ffxiv "mascot" a chicken. Or taking a quote completely out of context to fit their rude behavior.
A lot of people disagree with me and that's ok. I get it...we are all different. Others on the other hand just look for an opportunity to take jabs.

Your complaining about rudeness while at the same time throwing insults Harmonea and me. You don't have to do that.

[OhnoozeMyToes]

Your complaining about rudeness while at the same time throwing insults Harmonea and me. You don't have to do that.

I prefer not to go on replying to you. I in no way regret the rude comments I made to you as you deserved it. You're dishonest and you spin things to make yourself the victim like your doing now. There are people like you in every forum...toxic. I'll let you have the last word if you feel the need but I'll most likely not reply back.

[YojimboM]

Don't let all the people saying it's "not for you" scare you off. This game IS extremely slow in the beginning, even by MMO standards. I've replayed the story on four characters and it absolutely has the most "busy questing" of any MMO I've ever played with so little meaningful content inbetween. It could be improved by introducing more interesting mechanics to the solo content and variation in goals besides "go to A, pick up X, go to B, return to A", but SE is a JP company that is pretty set in their formula.

The game gets much better from a gameplay perspective once you start to hit Stormblood content and catch up to the more recent dungeons.

[LauraAdalena]

OP, stop replying to Edax. You two are getting nowhere from this constant back and forth between each other.

[FinalPhantazy]

My thoughts after reading this thread ..

I really disliked most of the content before Heavensward. Only reason I went through it all was because people said it would get better, and I was looking for an mmorpg with controller support. I'm glad I went through it though. I returned to the game recently and planning on buying shadowbringers soon.
Also .. This is my first and only final fantasy game, you don't have to find final fantasy appealing to begin playing this game. A lot of people like me begin playing because it's an MMORPG, not only because of that, but it's the 2nd most popular one on the market. A lot of MMORPG fans with no experience with previous final fantasy games are playing this game. Most people who began playing WoW had never played Warcraft either.
Also fail to see how disliking early leveling in the game = RPG games not being for you.
But even if one completely don't care about story in video games, one can still enjoy so many aspects of the RPG genre. Progressing you're characters stats, the combat, learning new abilites, finding cool looking armor and weapons for your character, exploring the world, crafting. And especially in mmorpg's there's strong end game with Raids, dungeons and so on, and the feeling of being part of a community in a living breathing world, and making friends in guilds and all over the world. Even this game you could easily find so much enjoyment in with out even caring about the story.

[Jojoya]

Also fail to see how disliking early leveling in the game = RPG games not being for you.

He's not really complaining about the early leveling, though. He's complaining about how the MSQ design doesn't work well with what he wants to be doing with his limited schedule.

Getting past ARR does not remove all the quests that need to be read, cutscenes that need to be watched or traveling that needs to be done in the remainder of the MSQ. Those things all still exist and still take up a significant amount of time. A friend and I were joking around as we were leveling our alts through 5.0 together about how it felt like we were spending 10 minutes doing those things for every 2 minutes of combat required.

That is what the OP is complaining about - the lack of "action" while he plays. He's got to spend so much time in the more passive aspects of the story that it feels like he's not getting much done. And that isn't going to change for him until he either completes the MSQ all the way to 5.0 or decides he's going to put the MSQ aside to focus on the more "active" content he prefers.

But doing the latter means it's going to hinder his character progression. Access to new zones, new dungeons, new trials require MSQ progression. Access to certain job abilities require MSQ progression (can't do a job quest if you can't get into the zone for the quest even if you've gotten to the correct level through other content and some abilities are job quest rewards).

I'm not going tell him that RPGs are not right for him. There are lots of different game design styles to be found in RPGs and some of them work well with the type of schedule the OP describes.

I am going to warn the OP that this specific MMORPG might not be right for him because based on what he said he wants to be doing in the time he has available to play, there's a good chance it isn't. I'm not going to sugar-coat things and pretend everything is going to be better for him just because he's past the ARR portion of the MSQ because the ARR MSQ is not the real problem.

Ultimately it's his decision to make. Maybe he'll decide that he's starting to get immersed in the story so being "active" in his hour a night isn't as important. Maybe he'll decide he's happy with what content he's already unlocked and ignore MSQ progression to stick to the lower level content. Or maybe he'll decide he's just going to feel more frustrated than anything else and look for another game that fits his schedule better.

At least the discussion here has a chance of giving him information he needs to make a more informed decision about what is right for him.