Option to unlock content without mandatory MSQ

[sauc]

I can't imagine SE being told that the main facet of their game is unwanted, so it goes both ways I wager.

On top of that, you know the "bits to round it out" i mentioned? The raids, the hunts, FATEs and all that? Well, welcome to the "rounding out" part. I enjoy the story and I enjoy the game, so I play every part I can. I'm not the one trying to get a game plenty of people to enjoy to change its main thing, because of whatever reason you may come up with.

It wouldn't change, not sure how many times I have to repeat it. You like the msq? Cool keep reading everything, I don't so I avoid it and everybody wins. There's no reason to believe the quality of it would drop down, there's already tons of ways to level your secondary classes ALREADY in game that exist only for that purpose. Roulettes potd/hoh fates sidequests exist almost solely for that purpose the only difference is now you would be able to do those on your starter class as well.

[Skivvy]

I can't imagine SE being told that the main facet of their game is unwanted, so it goes both ways I wager.

On top of that, you know the "bits to round it out" i mentioned? The raids, the hunts, FATEs and all that? Well, welcome to the "rounding out" part. I enjoy the story and I enjoy the game, so I play every part I can. I'm not the one trying to get a game plenty of people to enjoy to change its main thing, because of whatever reason you may come up with.

As it's been pointed out many times now, no one is saying to get rid of the MSQ. Having things be optional doesn't mean they suddenly won't exist.

Also, there was no talk of rounding out anything in the post I copied my snippet from. You said that if someone doesn't like the MSQ, they probably shouldn't play XIV. I was just trying to point out what a stupid mindset that is, but in a slightly nicer way. I'll be more direct next time. :3

[Enla]

It will never happen for one simple reason - SE makes money off of those MSQ skips and they'll be loathe to ever give up that potential revenue stream. Yoshi-P might potentially consider it some day down the road, though I highly doubt it, but the executives at SE absolutely would never willingly lose out on money when the game is currently only gaining more and more interest. Why change what isn't broken, especially when people clearly like what FFXIV is offering and the one aspect that's providing an actual barrier to entry is being nullified in three months with the simplification of the ARR leveling experience? Unless SE sees actual numbers showing that FFXIV is on the decline because of it's story you're never going to see an option to skip it that won't cost you actual money.

[Kenky]

Okay. Then, in your almighty wisdom tell me this.

If it moves from required content to Optional content, then why would SE put time and effort into maintaining it? You're asking for it to be optional and with that territory, comes the obvious issue of it just being neglected. There's no real counter to that, especially when other "optional content" in FFXIV has been left alone for quite a fair amount of time. Said time varying wildly depending on which optional content you're thinking of.

And I've still yet to actually get a response from either of you about why you continue to play, when the main appeal of the game (to many, especially with the games design featuring this, mind!) is the story.

And the "rounding out" part was more aimed at Sauc than you, Skivvy. However the "stupid mindset" you state is rather odd, if not laughable at best. What do you personally expect from a Final Fantasy game, exactly. If not its main selling point?

It wouldn't change, not sure how many times I have to repeat it. You like the msq? Cool keep reading everything, I don't so I avoid it and everybody wins. There's no reason to believe the quality of it would drop down, there's already tons of ways to level your secondary classes ALREADY in game that exist only for that purpose. Roulettes potd/hoh fates sidequests exist almost solely for that purpose the only difference is now you would be able to do those on your starter class as well.

See, here's where you fall into a snag. Yes, you can level up secondary classes doing sidequests, hoh, etc. That's the intent. But you need to unlock said content first and i've yet to find a game that doesn't have some form of progression-gating to ensure players go through a general learning curve. Not to mention you already can do all of these on your starting classes. Infact, you can unlock POTD at 20 and do POTD until you're blue in the face, but you still have to go through that learning curve, regardless of your level.

Unless you pay, that is. Which is its own can of worms I'd particularly like to not go back to.

[RayddenPrime]

For me I ‘d say, other ways to unlock and access other areas and continents without completing MSQ...if you bought the expansions.
Many things that unlocks through MSQ do make sense tho. But i do agree that the mandatory aspect of it can be quite the drag for many, and the part where you have to pay to skip too. So I’d say maybe at the very least , ways to access other areas and continents without going through msq would be great. And also features, like flying and diving. It Would for example , be a good thing for those who just wanna strictly only do side jobs.

[sauc]

Okay. Then, in your almighty wisdom tell me this.

If it moves from required content to Optional content, then why would SE put time and effort into maintaining it? You're asking for it to be optional and with that territory, comes the obvious issue of it just being neglected. There's no real counter to that, especially when other "optional content" in FFXIV has been left alone for quite a fair amount of time. Said time varying wildly depending on which optional content you're thinking of.

And I've still yet to actually get a response from either of you about why you continue to play, when the main appeal of the game (to many, especially with the games design featuring this, mind!) is the story.

And the "rounding out" part was more aimed at Sauc than you, Skivvy. However the "stupid mindset" you state is rather odd, if not laughable at best. What do you personally expect from a Final Fantasy game, exactly. If not its main selling point?



See, here's where you fall into a snag. Yes, you can level up secondary classes doing sidequests, hoh, etc. That's the intent. But, just like every other MMO out there you need to unlock it first. Guess where that comes in?

In the other mmos I played it's unlocked just by having the required level or at worst doing some sidequest. Example: you hit level 14 satasha is immediately available and queuable for regardless of anything else you've done

And why wouldn't they maintain it if it's as popular as you claim it is? Would be a pretty bad buisness move on their part to do something like that. If it so happens that it isn't worth maintaining anymore cause it's optional and no one is doing it then that would mean it's more a silent majority instead of a vocal minority.

Also I did say it I do raids and endgame in general, I also leveled every class to 80. Pretty much nothing I do is story related, I know the gist of it but none of my friends or my static really paid any attention to it.

On your learning curve thing, I would say people learn how to play their character more from leveling through combat all the way to 80 than talking to npcs and watching cutscenes.

[Kenky]

In the other mmos I played it's unlocked just by having the required level or at worst doing some sidequest. Example: you hit level 14 satasha is immediately available and queuable for regardless of anything else you've done

And why wouldn't they maintain it if it's as popular as you claim it is? Would be a pretty bad buisness move on their part to do something like that. If it so happens that it isn't worth maintaining anymore cause it's optional and no one is doing it then that would mean it's more a silent majority instead of a vocal minority.

Also I did say it I do raids and endgame in general, I also leveled every class to 80. Pretty much nothing I do is story related, I know the gist of it but none of my friends or my static really paid any attention to it.

And you ever wonder what the "sidequest" is meant to do? Let's have a think, shall we?

[sauc]

And you ever wonder what the "sidequest" is meant to do? Let's have a think, shall we?

Big difference in a 5 minute quest that unlocks at level 41 to go into aurumn vale compared to hitting 41 and realizing you have to go through 41 levels worth of msq to unlock aurum vale. Think unlocking raids sidequests.

[SannaR]

But again, the path in which you experienced the game was your own choice.

XI didn't force you to get BIS items. Some groups may have required that, but it was nowhere near a requirement to play the game and do well at your jobs. No different than how certain XIV PF/Static groups require extremely high gear for their groups. It's nowhere near a requirement set by SE, but if you want to play with that group, you'll do what needs to be done.

Options are a fantastic thing to have in an MMO. I don't think anyone here is saying to remove the story, simply make some of it optional.

Does SE make you do all that in XI? No but this thread is about making something optional so you can get to end game things. Then the whole XI doesn't lock you out of it's end game when it actually does as you have to advance whatever story or stories you need to advance until you're able to go and do which ever end game event you want to do. You want to do any end game event in a Seekers zone? You're going to have to go and do that storyline. unless they lately took off all the unlocks as I quit soon after it was being put into maintenance mode. Again if you want to actually get anywhere in XI without it taking a long time you'll have to go do various stories so that you can unlock all of the short cuts. Also you're not going to convince me that the majority of the player base didn't laugh at you if you didn't own a Byakko's Hidate for the longest time for certain jobs.

[linay]

There's no reason to believe the quality of it would drop down

Of course there is because how the game is played affects how the story would be experienced. If they make the story optional for people who don't like story, it's only fair that they make dungeons optional for people who don't like dungeons.

The next thing you know, you have a dungeon that doesn't have a story of why you're there or you have a story that doesn't go to any dungeon/raid.