Option to unlock content without mandatory MSQ

[Enla]

Trimming is not necessarily making MSQ optional to unlock content. It's shortening what is in the MSQ, which I support.

At least, that's from what I can gather. We'll find out more details when they're ready to tell us.

This.

And shortening a part they've gotten complaints over for years. A part where the story literally stops and says 'hey let's ignore the story and take you to this area because our team didn't quite understand how to meaningfully get the player through each set piece organically at the time'. To the tune of over 100+ quests where nothing of value would be lost if they were condensed because that was just how badly the story was integrated. No one I've met has demanded that HW and onward be trimmed down because none of the subsequent expansions have that problem. People's issues with ARR wasn't that they wanted it to be optional or that it took too long but that it took too long for literally no reason and was basically the equivalent of a 700 page novel that could safely be edited down into 200 pages without losing a single narrative beat. With that issue apparently slated to be fixed there is unlikely to be any retrofitting going forward.

If people think them doing basic editing work on the story is some hint or proof that SE is going to suddenly make the story optional then they've drunk a bit too much of their own koolaid and aren't paying a lick of attention to the reasons why that change is being implemented. Also, again, SE is notoriously greedy. People are out of their minds if they think they'll integrate story skips for free when that is a solid source of revenue for them to profit of people being impatient.