Option to unlock content without mandatory MSQ

[Saefinn]

The skips don't take you straight to endgame, you still need to do considerable amount of very awkward story you will barely understand because you didn't experience everything that came before it. It will also spoil previous story which you may have wanted to do at some point after you've experienced some endgame content and got a feel for the combat.

When it comes to profit, the game could perhaps make even more profit by making it more accessible and draw in many more players who are used to other MMO's. They could potentially get more sales long term and thus make more profit. Complying to demand is why the game isn't costing 200$. You need to have a good deal to attract as many players as possible.

These are purely counterarguments against the "MSQ skip potion", not for the actual topic itself.

You speak like they're needing to compromise to get more players when it is doing remarkably well as an MMO. As though this isn't a ridiculously successful MMO already, which just got a standing ovation for its Shadowbringers expansion (with it being heralded as one of the best storylines in the FF series, which is high praise), an increasing player base and one miraculously rescued from its massive flop from 1.0. It's not like this hasn't been encouraging its share of WoW refugees either. It seems ridiculous that after the team has done this amazingly well, that they should be doing more to maximise profit. There's certainly things that need improvement (chronic moany healer here) and there are problems out there, but I'd not say it being a story focused game is not one of them.

They could try to please everyone to maximise profit even further, yes, but the idea of developer effort being driven to maximum profit for me already is a terrible principle. Hello EA.

But trying to please everyone can also dilute the experience, there being an imperative to progress story rather than it being optional encourages more investment in the experience of the game and this is what people come to expect out of a story driven game. And the game is tailored to provide a certain user experience. I cannot skip story progression in any other Final Fantasy. If I want to fight Ruby Weapon in FFVII, I have to progress to it, not just jump in and do the fight. I thought this principle was actually kinda well...normal for a video game. It isn't always different for an MMO and I like that it isn't here.