We should get exp boost in the game.

[Xtrasweettea]

I'm not familiar with 11 so I don't totally understand the scenario you're explaining. Playing the story cooperatively was an option (there were no FF14 like solo duties?) but no one wanted to participate? Did 11 have any kind of match making like Duty Finder? Was the story repayable in any way?

In FFXI, there is no DF or PF. If you wanted to group for something, you had to either:

• /shout in a zone that had a good amount of population and get /tells in response.
• Inquire your Linkshell
• Wait in the popular town zones with your "Looking for Party" flag up and add to your comments the purpose and what you can offer.

So, for example if I wanted to get EXP, I had to set up an exp party with the purpose of killing enemies that are high enough level for me to kill and to get EXP efficiently. Enemies were not really solo-able in FFXI (with the exception of two jobs being able to efficiently) A level 75 Rabbit can solo a level 75 PLD. So you had to group to get EXP.

Eventually they added some quicker ways to get EXP: such as repeatable hunt books that gave you EXP when you killed X enemies. When they added Abyssea, that was the best EXP/hr you could get. Abyssea has many similarities to Eureka, but didn't have an independent leveling system. Quests (main story and side) did not grant EXP until quests that were part of the last expansion were added.

Also, there were no instanced dungeons minus a few instanced dungeons that had limitations for access (either number of times for entry, length of stay, or both). Those dungeons also didn't grant EXP.

The story-line for FFXI, most people solo'd most of it as possible and only grouped when they were forced to. Unlike the FF14 MSQ, there weren't that many instances that required grouping up. This practice was done prior to Abyssea coming out.

Story is not re-playable, unless you do the forced group content with people who are doing it for the first time. There's no benefit nor reward for almost all of the main storyline quests... maybe some paltry gil.

[Cyreil]

Just say it.

You want instant max level, everything skipped, and the best current gear already in your possession. And everytime something new is introduced, you want everything in it instantly and automatically skipped as well.

[Kacho_Nacho]

Actually all jobs which are not your highest leveled one get a 100% Exp boost from 1 to 70 and from 70 to 80 it's a 50% boost.

Yeppers! It feels like you're turbocharged grinding Palace of the Dead on that side job.

[Anienai]

I'm not familiar with 11 so I don't totally understand the scenario you're explaining. Playing the story cooperatively was an option (there were no FF14 like solo duties?) but no one wanted to participate? Did 11 have any kind of match making like Duty Finder? Was the story repayable in any way?

FFXI put hair on your chest if you wanted it or not.

[SamRF]

And I hear complaints from such MMO forums that FFXIV is a Weeb game full of Cat (Now Bunny) Girls. Should The developers make the game less Anime (Whatever the hell that means), remove Ninja and Samurai and Delete the Mi'Qote and Viera from the game to appease these people too?

The difference here is that this would require a major creative refocus on the game if they are to change the weeb aspects. Offering an option to bypass MSQ or unlock content more easily is just that, an option that wouldn't require much resources to implement, so this isn't a good comparison imo. Besides that the weeb game complaints etc is probably made by people who were never going to play this game in the first place, while the complaints about MSQ were from people who actually tried the game and wanted to give it a shot.

One argument I've made before in different thread and maybe another reason why this MSQ barrier annoys me as much as it does, is the fact that the MMO market is pretty crap right now and lots of people are dissatisfied (lots of WoW players too), but they can't get into FFXIV because of this barrier while I believe they'd enjoy this game otherwise since there aren't many that offer this amount of polish and stable quality.

WoW players quitting will find FFXIV a difficult alternative because of the slow combat at the beginning and because of the forced MSQ. I see that most here don't care about that and don't want all those players, but I saw it as wasted potential and was therefore frustrated. Now my view on this has gradually somewhat changed because of some posts in this thread for example and I do understand where you're coming from. Almost even went full 180 on this due to a post a few pages back (responded to it too but added an edit saying where I disagreed ultimately)

Here's the problem Little Timmy. There have been Franchises, Companies and entire Genres that have torn thier metaphorical own guts out to appease a mythical "Wider audience" That NEVER EVER materialises. Each of them dead or living on as a husk of their former selves. This isn't hairdressing, one errant snip and this stuff don't grow back. This is why people get defensive of this happening to their game.

PyurBlue in post above you offered better response to this than I could think of or even understand beforehand. This just seems like an easy way to appease to a wider audience without making any drastic changes. According to you and others just having the voluntary option to unlock content without MSQ (again, not on by default) will change the game's player base into one with different priorities and fast food mentality. I just don't really see this happening, there will be a bigger portion now that doesn't care about MSQ but the story fans will still very much be there, and I believe some of those that initially skipped all will likely just experience the MSQ later on their own pace (e.g. newgame+) but they can do their weekly raids and decent combat content alongside that then so they won't burn out from reading all the time.

For the potential problem with the path of least resistance I had suggested being required to farm something trough combat just to get the possibility to unlock other content without MSQ, to the point it would take more time and effort to farm than to rush trough MSQ skipping reading and cutscenes. This will imo have to be accompanied with unlocking way more of your job kit much earlier so you'll have a more engaging rotation early on.

I get the concern you have but I don't see this in particular to be such a major move to removing your game's identity. It's imo not nearly at the same level as WoW that started offering a group finder for example, which was obviously a move to appease to the masses but changed the game in a much more fundamental way.

This was my response to TC who asked for proof that the game is sustainable and would you look at that proof. Final Fantasy still grows, alive and well for all to see. Since you where going to bat for the TC, in your usual contrarian way, I asked for evidence for stats for all these mythical people who think that the msq is too long and is killing the game. Suddenly there's a outbreak of crickets and tumbleweeds.

Well, I never made this argument and instead offered my own perspective to this issue, linking to a thread I had made a while back. I didn't read your prior posts or don't remember. I never claimed this game to be unsustainable so it's not my argument to defend, I'm not on OP's "team" or whatever and am not accountable for all arguments they used.

That said I do get what OP means. I used to be concerned the discrepancy between players before endgame and players at endgame would get bigger and bigger with each expansion as MSQ stacks with each patch, making it take longer and longer for new players to get to endgame to the point it might become too much of a reach and time investment to get there (we're talking months of gameplay for the average gamer). This may not be the case right now, maybe not even in next expansion, but the expansion after that? Idk. Just imagine the sheer amount of MSQ you'd have to go trough at 7.0 to get to endgame and relevant combat content. There has to be some kind of tipping point of people leaving endgame (for whatever reason) and not enough new players getting there because they're still only at Shadowbringers MSQ for example.

However, I think they will likely introduce a new Final Fantasy MMO before that tipping point is reached. From what I've gathered it's generally accepted that this game isn't meant to last forever and I like it that way tbh. Would rather have an all new game after a period than drag one out forever (like WoW). I've heard FF11 was still very popular when they went into maintenance mode and released FFXIV, same will likely happen to FFXIV?

[Sauteed]

In FFXI, there is no DF or PF. If you wanted to group for something, you had to either:

• /shout in a zone that had a good amount of population and get /tells in response.
• Inquire your Linkshell
• Wait in the popular town zones with your "Looking for Party" flag up and add to your comments the purpose and what you can offer.

So, for example if I wanted to get EXP, I had to set up an exp party with the purpose of killing enemies that are high enough level for me to kill and to get EXP efficiently. Enemies were not really solo-able in FFXI (with the exception of two jobs being able to efficiently) A level 75 Rabbit can solo a level 75 PLD. So you had to group to get EXP.

Eventually they added some quicker ways to get EXP: such as repeatable hunt books that gave you EXP when you killed X enemies. When they added Abyssea, that was the best EXP/hr you could get. Abyssea has many similarities to Eureka, but didn't have an independent leveling system. Quests (main story and side) did not grant EXP until quests that were part of the last expansion were added.

Also, there were no instanced dungeons minus a few instanced dungeons that had limitations for access (either number of times for entry, length of stay, or both). Those dungeons also didn't grant EXP.

The story-line for FFXI, most people solo'd most of it as possible and only grouped when they were forced to. Unlike the FF14 MSQ, there weren't that many instances that required grouping up. This practice was done prior to Abyssea coming out.

Story is not re-playable, unless you do the forced group content with people who are doing it for the first time. There's no benefit nor reward for almost all of the main storyline quests... maybe some paltry gil.

And I absolutely loved the game. Took me almost a solid year to hit my first 75.
Abyssea killed XI for me. Made a lot of good friends. I still have my account, I get on it here and there, but it's pretty well a sunken ship for me.

[Dfess]

Just say it.

You want instant max level, everything skipped, and the best current gear already in your possession. And everytime something new is introduced, you want everything in it instantly and automatically skipped as well.

No. That is not what I want. After reading the comments of the pages I have adjusted my thoughts on exp. Exp with the MSQ is more than enough to get to max level. However, I find leveling without the MSQ a grind and should be tweaked a bit. Leveling alt classes and alt characters is a grind without the MSQ. However, I see peoples points in the exp argument about having more than enough for new players and would like to focus on just getting the option to skip the MSQ. I don't want everything handed to me. I like going to dungeons and working for the gear. I like dungeons and I like the pvp in this game. I have been playing this game for over a year. If I did not like it I wouldn't be playing it at all. I just have criticism about certain things about the game. My main issue is with the MSQ. I don't see how adding an option to skip it is a bad thing. People who want to do the story still can and people who don't can skip. Even people who skip can go back and do it at a later date if they want. Their gear and skills will be scaled back in the dungeons and scenarios.

[Jojoya]

My main issue is with the MSQ. I don't see how adding an option to skip it is a bad thing.

And that option already exists. Make use of it.

[Dfess]

And that option already exists. Make use of it.

It doesn't exist. Tales of adventure from the cash shop exist and that is a different issue all together. There is no way to skip the story in the game without paying more for the game and that is something that should be fixed.

[BlitzAceRush]

It doesn't exist. Tales of adventure from the cash shop exist and that is a different issue all together. There is no way to skip the story in the game without paying more for the game and that is something that should be fixed.

There's nothing to fix, they don't want you to skip it, if you do anyway then you can but at a price, that's enough.
Besides you can look at it as saving you some sub money as you're simply paying up front for what would have cost you sub money to do the normal way.
Do the MSQ or pay to skip it, the option is there, you no liking it dosen't mean it isn't there.