MSQ

[Theodric]

If the goal is for the game to become even more popular over time, then at some point the elephant in the room that is the MSQ's will need to be addressed once again.

[linayar]

If the goal is for the game to become even more popular over time, then at some point the elephant in the room that is the MSQ's will need to be addressed once again.

I gave my thought on this: move the starting point forward. 6.1 is a good place, let's go to another time bubble and leave the current one behind.

That said, whether it's more popular over time isn't really my concern, though I'd be happy for the devs if it were. As long as there are enough people to continue development and for me to play the content I want, then I'm happy as is.

[Enla]

If the goal is for the game to become even more popular over time, then at some point the elephant in the room that is the MSQ's will need to be addressed once again.

And if the data reflects that the MSQ is an impediment to that popularity gain that can't be solved by the current skip system then the dev's will address it. So far however the growth that Shadowbringers gave them seems to lend credence that it isn't such a big issue at this point. It'd also be harder to chunk down the amount of MSQ post 2.5, because ARR's issue was that many of it's quests were there simply to give you a reason to visit it's bloated map. It was basically the MMO equivalent of being put on the trolley at a theme park and being given a tour of the park. Useful mechanically but having no real narrative weight. Their writing philosophy changed after they rightly received backlash for that style of bloated writing, and as of SB there's very few quests you could fully cut without losing something in translation. So the same method cannot be easily used twice.

[Rinhi]

give players the option to create a raiding character that completely disables anything MSQ related and jumps their character to 80 with some barebones gear in 4 classes, add several checkmarks that they REALLY don't want to do the MSQ to be absolutely sure and disable every side quest, too
they can level up with deep dungeons or just jump to the next level cap once expansions get released

[DPZ2]

give players the option to create a raiding character that completely disables anything MSQ related and jumps their character to 80 with some barebones gear in 4 classes, add several checkmarks that they REALLY don't want to do the MSQ to be absolutely sure and disable every side quest, too
they can level up with deep dungeons or just jump to the next level cap once expansions get released

Hey, I'd be more than willing to see players given an option to create a raiding character with the following restrictions:

Instant level 50 ... advancement dependent on successfully completing all Savage instances at-level

Single job, minimal gearset for raiding at level 50.

No MSQ, no duty finder, special queue for current level instances - this is a raiding-only character, right?

No gathering/crafting - single job, right?

No access to the Marketboard


Who can come up with a more ridiculous proposal?

[Rinhi]

Hey, I'd be more than willing to see players given an option to create a raiding character with the following restrictions:

Instant level 50 ... advancement dependent on successfully completing all Savage instances at-level

Single job, minimal gearset for raiding at level 50.

No MSQ, no duty finder, special queue for current level instances - this is a raiding-only character, right?

No gathering/crafting - single job, right?

No access to the Marketboard


Who can come up with a more ridiculous proposal?

I don't see anything wrong with any of this? They can just create a second character if they want to do the story and sidequests...

[ZedxKayn]

Hey, I'd be more than willing to see players given an option to create a raiding character with the following restrictions:

Instant level 50 ... advancement dependent on successfully completing all Savage instances at-level

Single job, minimal gearset for raiding at level 50.

No MSQ, no duty finder, special queue for current level instances - this is a raiding-only character, right?

No gathering/crafting - single job, right?

No access to the Marketboard


Who can come up with a more ridiculous proposal?

Just say you hate people having options and want everyone to go through the MSQ whether they enjoy it or not because you personally like it an go.

[DPZ2]

Just say you hate people having options and want everyone to go through the MSQ whether they enjoy it or not because you personally like it an go.

SE already provides a method for ignoring 3/4 of the current MSQ instantly, at no additional cost to their bottom line. Why not accept that fact and work with it?

[Breezelyn]

We're already....what, going on 4 expansions come when Endwalker releases this year? If they haven't bothered to change their formula years ago, what makes you think they're going to do it now? Clearly they aren't going to. If decide to do the next big FF MMO, whenever that might be, they could change things. Just uprooting with how everything is programed now will take a good chunk of money (no doubt). I'm no programmer, so I can't say for sure how messy ARR's code is. I'm sure changing the code of an entire game, when centered around the MSQ, could take many weeks to months. You can post your views, but SE isn't going to budge if they didn't when HW came out 6 years(?) ago. At least they eliminated all that needless filler in the base game (which is a good direction imo).

Just don't expect change from SE. They won't, probably not until FF14 is over and done with.

[Tommara]

We're already....what, going on 4 expansions come when Endwalker releases this year? If they haven't bothered to change their formula years ago, what makes you think they're going to do it now? Clearly they aren't going to. If decide to do the next big FF MMO, whenever that might be, they could change things. Just uprooting with how everything is programed now will take a good chunk of money (no doubt). I'm no programmer, so I can't say for sure how messy ARR's code is. I'm sure changing the code of an entire game, when centered around the MSQ, could take many weeks to months. You can post your views, but SE isn't going to budge if they didn't when HW came out 6 years(?) ago. At least they eliminated all that needless filler in the base game (which is a good direction imo).

Just don't expect change from SE. They won't, probably not until FF14 is over and done with.

Actually, A Realm Reborn's biggest claim to fame is the dev's willingness to correct what wasn't working. That's the only reason why I keep coming back to FF14. Each time I have has been well worth it. I've played most of the PvE focused MMO's since Everquest and FF14 is the only one that play anymore, and has the best MMO community ever (the fact that almost everyone has been civil in this thread is awesome, and I'm in a really nice guild/FC, but there's not much they can do to help get through the MSQ, is there? since the grouping requirements isn't an issue), but I'm currently playing No Man's Sky at the moment and will abandon that when Ark's Genesis 2 is released.

So I'll keep my FF14 subscription active (because I very much want MMO's to survive and I'm betting on this one), even though lately I've been spending most of my time in games that allow me to do whatever I feel like, and every few days or so, log on to FF14 to whittle away the MSQ grind.

Edited Note: by "well worth it", I mean that issues that caused me to quit before have been corrected, for the most part. Only the MSQ being required before moving on to the next expansion remains a reason to quit. (and to be clear, all of the group content should be required before being able to enter a duty finder, it just shouldn't be required for doing the next expansion's content. Any protestions about "but you need to know the story!" fall flat since you can pay to skip them.