Quote Originally Posted by Skivvy View Post
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.