Option to unlock content without mandatory MSQ

[SamRF]

Which company in their right mind will do such thing, cutting their profit?

Good point, but they could perhaps make even more profit by broadening their market.

They could become a true WoW competitor for example. There are right now a lot of dissatisfied WoW players who have nowhere to go because MMO market is very underwhelming right now when it comes to non niche (WoW like) MMOs. They could create some new Final Fantasy fans by welcoming those players, who will perhaps after having a good time and having experienced the combat and beautiful instances become interested to do the MSQ and see what's the backstory and context for everything. The average WoW player will not have the patience to go through the whole MSQ while being stuck with very slow combat (because combat only gets interesting and faster at higher levels).

Now that we're talking about WoW, there's probably a good reason why WoW offers free level boost with purchase of an expansion. They want to keep the newest content populated and make the game more appealing to players who get interested in the game after seeing an ad for their newest expansion for example. All that would lead to more profit in the long term because they decided to offer free level boost instead of charging players. They comply to the demand so they can get more expansion sales and thus make more profit.

[Halivel]

They could become a true WoW competitor for example. There are right now a lot of dissatisfied WoW players who have nowhere to go because MMO market is very underwhelming right now when it comes to non niche (WoW like) MMOs. They could create some new Final Fantasy fans by welcoming those players, who will perhaps after having a good time and having experienced the combat and beautiful instances become interested to do the MSQ and see what's the backstory and context for everything. The average WoW player will not have the patience to go through the whole MSQ while being stuck with very slow combat (because combat only gets interesting and faster at higher levels).

They can do this, though. Buy the skip book for MSQ, buy the skip book for level, sink into the content, play MSQ with New Game+ mode (ARR coming soon, so they will get an opportunity to replay it from the very scratch).

Now that we're talking about WoW, there's probably a good reason why WoW offers free level boost with purchase of an expansion. They want to keep the newest content populated and make the game more appealing to players who get interested in the game after seeing an ad for their newest expansion for example. All that would lead to more profit in the long term because they decided to offer free level boost instead of charging players. They comply to the demand so they can get more expansion sales and thus make more profit.

It's all good, but there is also 1000 and 1 reason of why people are so unhappy with WoW and Blizzard. And there is a chance, that isn't even nearly zero, that there are people among veteran players who are unhappy with this free level boost system for a variety of reasons - and I personally knew some. Some of those reasons were brought up here already.

Also, we aren't in WoW. And if anything, can we stay FF14, please? If people come from WoW to FF14 to only say things like "In WoW it was better..." - they are honestly free to come back to WoW. Criticism and suggestions are a good thing. Making game A a clone of game B, while actually coming to A because you didn't like the way B was developing is not a good thing. Because mistakes and results will be the same.

Edit. To clarify: I have nothing against WoW. But I came to FF14 to play FF14, not WoW. Keep WoW at WoW, please.

[SamRF]

They can do this, though. Buy the skip book for MSQ, buy the skip book for level, sink into the content, play MSQ with New Game+ mode (ARR coming soon, so they will get an opportunity to replay it from the very scratch).

Newgame+ does indeed kind of make this possible for them. However, buying story + level skip is kind of a dedication and costs quite a lot of money (too much if you ask me). It also seems kind of awkward to play through the MSQ of latest expansion without having experienced former story. The story of previous content will also get spoiled (same when you unlock the instances without MSQ I guess, but likely to lesser extend).

[Jojoya]

Good point, but they could perhaps make even more profit by broadening their market.

They could become a true WoW competitor for example. There are right now a lot of dissatisfied WoW players who have nowhere to go because MMO market is very underwhelming right now when it comes to non niche (WoW like) MMOs. They could create some new Final Fantasy fans by welcoming those players, who will perhaps after having a good time and having experienced the combat and beautiful instances become interested to do the MSQ and see what's the backstory and context for everything. The average WoW player will not have the patience to go through the whole MSQ while being stuck with very slow combat (because combat only gets interesting and faster at higher levels).

Now that we're talking about WoW, there's probably a good reason why WoW offers free level boost with purchase of an expansion. They want to keep the newest content populated and make the game more appealing to players who get interested in the game after seeing an ad for their newest expansion for example. All that would lead to more profit in the long term because they decided to offer free level boost instead of charging players. They comply to the demand so they can get more expansion sales and thus make more profit.

As someone who originally came from WoW, I don't think it's a good idea. People who skip available content are usually the most vocal about how the game lacks content because development time is being spent on content outside of their personal narrow focus. It's already a problem here even with MSQ being mandatory (unless a player buys the skip potion for their character). It would be even worse under your idea.

As much as the development team admires WoW's original success, they've also stated they don't want this game to be WoW. They've got their own design vision. If there are gamers who don't like story-driven content, they should be seeking out other games to play instead of expecting this game to be changed to suit them.

Or they could give this game a fair chance and experience it as intended. They might surprise themselves.

[SamRF]

As someone who originally came from WoW, I don't think it's a good idea. People who skip available content are usually the most vocal about how the game lacks content because development time is being spent on content outside of their personal narrow focus. It's already a problem here even with MSQ being mandatory (unless a player buys the skip potion for their character). It would be even worse under your idea.

Hmmmm sure, but it's not like the MSQ will be gone. They can always play it whenever they want and thus have a shit ton of content readily available whenever they are ready for it. This way they can for example get into raiding at endgame while going through ARR MSQ at their own pace.