Massively OP: What content in Final Fantasy XIV is optional?

[Driavna]

https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...51165543759463

Players must first complete the main scenario quests “Ancient Ways, Timeless Wants” and “The Least among Us,” as well as the Chronicles of a New Era quest “The Light of Hope.”

From the Lodestone.

[Iscah]

https://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodes...51165543759463
From the Lodestone.

Okay, that does make more sense than fiddling about with sending reminders all the time.

It does make sense to ensure players do it at that point. Long before Shadowbringers, it sets up for Nero reappearing in post-HW and it's when the quest is supposed to happen.

[Kolsykol]

All of the unlocks etc back in Realm Reborn made me quit the game once before because it was overwhelming and the game was so different to WoW at the time in a confusing way ( I'd probably be confused by WoW today with all the billion new systems and currencies ).
I came back tho.

Regardless, FFXIV is a heavily story-focused MMO so it's not really that strange.
It's almost akin to complaining that you can't skip the story and still progress in Mass Effect or something.
One thing I remember that annoyed me tho was when I was trying to unlock the daily roulette and I had so many '' ????? '' dungeons. That kinda shiet in the game is annoying and the game doesn't really explain a lot of things to you which I think people take for granted if they've played the game for a long time.

[Miminming]

even the story mode is optional, technically you can just log in and not doing anything... oh wait log in is optional too! just chara make... and that is too optional...

[Vyrerus]

This thread just reminds me that I left a buncha stormblood sidequests by the way side due to, "I can't waste the EXP." Cause I had overleveled on Fates due to Raubahn Savage.

[Lium]

The contention in that thread wasn't about optional content being made mandatory, it was about the claim that the specific content (the Crystal Tower alliance raid) was somehow forcing players into harder content simply because it has the word "raid" in its description rather than judging it on the difficulty of the actual content.

No, not at all. That was not my intent, irrespective of the direction the thread took, or how people interpreted it. What you're talking about is where everyone took it. Basically arguing over what constitutes a raid and its difficulty level. I never once mentioned that in the OP, but somehow people equated that to, "Well, CT is faceroll easy so it doesn't count. Savage is the only raiding that really counts." And I was sitting there like...um, okay. That wasn't the point.

I can tell you exactly what that thread was about because I know what was in my head when I authored it. It was about optional things becoming less optional, such as raiding. And I used the CT raids and Ivalice as examples of optional content - meaning content not required to progress through the MSQ - that was becoming mandatory. (To be fair, getting your relic weapon is not part of the MSQ, so you can skip it entirely if you want to.) It was simply an observation meant as a point of discussion that triggered everyone.

And then this article comes out making the exact same points.

[Iscah]

No, not at all. That was not my intent, irrespective of the direction the thread took, or how people interpreted it. What you're talking about is where everyone took it. Basically arguing over what constitutes a raid and its difficulty level. I never once mentioned that in the OP, but somehow people equated that to, "Well, CT is faceroll easy so it doesn't count. Savage is the only raiding that really counts." And I was sitting there like...um, okay. That wasn't the point.

You were insisting that because CT is a "raid" that somehow instantly puts it on a separate level.

The running theme of the thread was that somehow the name set it apart rather than the gameplay. Put the same content in an MSQ dungeon or trial? No problem. Put the label "raid" on it? Suddenly "oh no I hate raiding and they're forcing me to raid!"

That makes no sense to the rest of us. There's nothing that you do in an alliance raid, in terms of difficulty, that makes it any different to the rest of the game. Coming in with no expectations of MMOs, I've never seen them as anything different - they were just another format of dungeon.

What is the point of arguing that you dislike them because of the name rather than the substance, when the name doesn't even have a consistent meaning? It could mean the 24-man raids, normal eight-man raids indistinguishable from trials, savage raids for high-end play...

There's also the matter that you're not required to repeat them. It's a one-time roadblock with content of equivalent-to-MSQ difficulty, so why is it objectionable if it's (now nominally) optional?