MSQ Needs Further Condensing

[Tuska]

Because it is a one and done deal doesn't mean it is the weakest aspect.

I wasn't implying that it's weak because it's one and done but because the story is really meh to me (the parts I did try to get into).


I agree it needs to be pruned more but they aren't going to want to keep doing it every so often because SE is a very small indie company, please understand. Also just realistically it doesn't make sense to do something that's going to require more work, just make it optional.

The story can still be what it is just make it optional. I actually like WoW's lore (find the game to be boring) and Archeage's lore to the point where I went looking for outside sources to get more of it. Forcing the story doesn't make it good or make the game more lore driven. (The last bit was just me speaking in general, not saying you're implying that)

New players can really easily get tired of the game before even reaching end game. That's what happened/happens with 2.X, and that could also easily happen with 5.X IMO.

This is what happened to every friend I brought here, even after the pruning they did. It probably wouldn't be as bad if you could atleast quest together but you can't, so many solo duties, everything is just so single player.

[LaylaTsarra]

This is what happened to every friend I brought here, even after the pruning they did. It probably wouldn't be as bad if you could atleast quest together but you can't, so many solo duties, everything is just so single player.

There are 3 different level skips for different prices. It's pretty easy to skip the story you don't want to do or skip all of it to SHB. A level skip isn't really needed and you can certainly help them level to 70 there are lots of options in game as I'm sure you must know where you can level together. I seriously doubt you'll ever get an optional free story skip for this game. It's simply not going to happen.

Those skips are currently on sale through January 26th.

They just finished ARR and whether or not they have plans to do other expansions remains to be seen. I doubt they'll go back and revisit ARR anytime soon. I've been doing part of that leveling a couple of alts to 30 and I must admit they did a pretty good job of eliminating a lot of the really annoying quests or shortening them. I can't speak for past level 30 given i'm not planning on taking those alts past getting a mount and being able to fight with them.

[glitteringcosmos]

There are 3 different level skips for different prices. It's pretty easy to skip the story you don't want to do or skip all of it to SHB. A level skip isn't really needed and you can certainly help them level to 70 there are lots of options in game as I'm sure you must know where you can level together. I seriously doubt you'll ever get an optional free story skip for this game. It's simply not going to happen.

Nor should it. It's a major part of the game, and the people most whining about wanting to skip it are the same people refusing to acknowledge that the option to skip IS THERE, They just have to pay for it. Why should other players have to suffer a reduced experience through what some are suggesting regular trimming, losing out on the same story that players who happened to start earlier got--all because of the people who can't be bothered to actually play through the game? And don't even get me started on the "story is the weakest part of the game" argument. That's a personal opinion--objectively speaking, FFXIV has some of the better storytelling of any mmo, and Shadowbringers is among the best. It's not lauded with accolades for nothing.

[SturmChurro]

How much of your game time, in comparison to the rest of the game, was spent specifically doing the story?

[GeminiReed]

That's a personal opinion--objectively speaking, FFXIV has some of the better storytelling of any mmo, and Shadowbringers is among the best. It's not lauded with accolades for nothing.

So were SW:TOR and The Secret World and see where they wound up. The former went so far as to only be about story and bled out. No MMO can stand on a single aspect nor should it sacrifice other activities to support it.

Square is well aware that their monolithic story is costing them in acquisition and retention. Those metrics are critically important to measure growth and to cover attrition. A growing game makes for happy investors while a shrinking one makes them cranky to point where they feel the need to meddle. They told us that their metrics indicated that the pruning and compression they did was needed so I think it's safe to say they're concerned.

Maybe you've got so much IRL cash to burn that throwing it away on a paid skip seems reasonable. I'm not one that considers "pay to stop it make hurting" a reasonable concept no matter how cheap it is. It looks like enough other people agree with me that Square shifted resources to address it. IMO they didn't do nearly enough, it's still a massive slog that will chase people away.

Unfortunately I think you're right in one respect. I'm not sure how much more they can outright remove or compress. At this point I think decoupling the MSQ from gating group content (and vice versa) is the better course of action. The lore nerds get to keep their story while those uninterested in it can play with their friends.

[Novae]

How much of your game time, in comparison to the rest of the game, was spent specifically doing the story?

For those who couldn't get trough it? 100% most likely.

[glitteringcosmos]

Maybe you've got so much IRL cash to burn that throwing it away on a paid skip seems reasonable. I'm not one that considers "pay to stop it make hurting" a reasonable concept no matter how cheap it is. It looks like enough other people agree with me that Square shifted resources to address it. IMO they didn't do nearly enough, it's still a massive slog that will chase people away.

I don't have a ton of money, and I think it's silly to assume I do just because I think that the paid skips are reasonable. But why pay for a game and then expect the creators of the game to hand out for free a way to not play a major chunk of that game? People who WANT the skips have the option to buy them. Those that don't want to skip, play the game it was intended to be played. "Pay to make it stop hurting" is a ridiculous way to look at it. Why would you buy a game, then pay for a subscription, if you go in with the expectation that you're going to hate this part of the content? At that point why even bother with this mmo and not go looking for one that better suits your expectations? In my opinion it's ridiculous to expect the creators--in this case SE--to bend over backwards to accomodate such a thing.

It boils back down to the fact that this is, at its heart, a JRPG before it's an MMO. That is why the content is story gated. On top of that it's a 10-year-old game with ever-releasing content. Going into the game not expecting to be playing some catch up is an onus on the player, not the developer.

[Theodric]

I think that there's definitely aspects of the story that could be trimmed down further and/or made optional. I care about the story, though I don't care about bonding with certain characters and in a typical RPG, that sort of thing is usually optional. Furthermore, a lot of things are just repeats of what we've already seen before already.

[Masked-dingus]

I think that there's definitely aspects of the story that could be trimmed down further and/or made optional. I care about the story, though I don't care about bonding with certain characters and in a typical RPG, that sort of thing is usually optional. Furthermore, a lot of things are just repeats of what we've already seen before already.

I agree that the story is not always interesting or told in an interesting way, as for the people who were talking about free skips, you can basically do it, by skipping all cutscènes, and treat the MSQ as it's any other series of quest
The only real issue i notice with MSQ even now, when i'm streaming my alt levelling, is really that some steps seems to have been made just for the sake of ruining the pace

There are too many exemple like when you go talk to NPC 1- triggering a cutscene in wich he will tell you to ask NPC 2 wich is standing NEXT TO HIM- only for NPC 2 to trigger his own Cutscene.... Where you could have had just only 1 cutscene for both of them with a more lively interaction
Or like, why is there a Cutscene for that npc i will never see again, just to tell me about Haukke's Manor ?

If we were to get more MSQ triming or so, for me it shouldn't be about ( is the story too long ? Not interesting ? ), but more about all these extra steps, here and there, with npc you will always meet once, for the sake of one quest, and who actualy add a lot of tiny extra steps and cutscenes

[MsMisato]

honestly I dont' think we are going to see anything big like we saw with the consolidation of arr quests,. Besides Yoshi P stated in an interview a few months ago the MSQ is central to the game and the FF series and is going to retain it to keep it in line with the FF series which is about the story first . Honestly from 2.0 to 2.5 felt a lot shorter and such especially with the introduction of flying as soon as you complete ARR. I do think they can remove alot of the aether points for flying in HW and StB and probably just retain the ones associated in MSQ or something because honestly the zones and its real drag on that part.