MSQ

[Infindox]

They tightened it up a hair but potential players still bounce off the 100+ hours of mandatory story before endgame (and that's only if they're skipping cutscenes). I certainly do not recommend XIV to anybody but the most hardcore story fanatics and even then I'm very explicit about the amount of story grind there is.

Story gating instances is just as bad as instance gating story and this game has both in spades.

Wow now this is a hot take. Then why is it that I know more then a handful of people who play this game and enjoy it (they have been playing for years) yet they don't really give a lick about the story?

[DPZ2]

Hey everyone. The OP has been a member of this forum since 2013.

They certainly know why there's an "MSQ Roulette" and why there were 100+ quests right after 2.0.

My conclusion is that they're trolling, since there's no reason this couldn't have all been said back in 2015.

[Tommara]

Hey everyone. The OP has been a member of this forum since 2013.

They certainly know why there's an "MSQ Roulette" and why there were 100+ quests right after 2.0.

My conclusion is that they're trolling, since there's no reason this couldn't have all been said back in 2015.

Um, no, I've quit and come back at least 3-4 times now.

The first time I quit was when my main toon was mid-30's, because my friends had.

I came back a few years later and started a new toon, and joined an FC (which we hadn't the first time). They later decided to play the The Secret World, which I had played at release and thought it a cool game, so decided to join them. That fell apart once the guild reached Tokyo (which was typical back in those days, when the Aegis system was still around).

One of those in the FC returned to FF14, and convinced 3 of us to join him. Two of us completed ARR, but we lost one somewhere in the 80 MSQ that needed to be completed after reaching level 50 before they could play Heavensward content. Not because it was any way hard, it was just too tedious for that player. That one was a player who I had played Everquest with, and so I fully understand why (people put up with amazingly tedious things when it's their first MMO, and after having done that once, become jaded about it after that.) There were a lot of other games along this journey, such as returns to WoW, EQ2, Wildstar, Warframe, Anthem, and usually playing the first few weeks of each new Diablo 3 season.

That player found Ark Survival Evolved, so several of us joined him, pretty much all from the first FF14 FC or Everquest.

Then I decided to join another long time gaming friend in another return to FF14. He is also my husband, whom I first met in Diablo in the late 90's, and eventually married him in 2005. He started a new toon, although he also played ARR at release.

I got invited to a most excellent FC, whom we both like a lot. There is nothing we can do to help him (other than money and resources, which of course I've done). Nor help me get through Stormblood. Neither of us will accept a carry, but rather we watch videos endlessly to make sure we understand the dungeon mechanics first (we've done it the hard way when ARR was first released, but refuse to use the roulettes as a carry.)

My apologies for the long post, but the troll assumption needed to be addressed, although frankly, only a multiplayer newb would assume that playing a particular game continuously is more important than playing with your friends you've met online, where ever that leads you.

Edited Note: And I do know why there are so many quests after each expansion phase. The devs are fulfilling their promise for new content between expansions. My ONLY quarrel with that is making all that content MSQ, so that new/returning players have to slog through every bit of it before being able to move on to the next expansion. Maybe created a new category of side quests such as "story recommended" or something? By all means, players who haven't completed group content should not be allowed to use the roulette to complete them (although of course, using the non-roulette functions are acceptable).

The fact that you can pay to skip the MSQ is also something that is behind my comments.

[Iscah]

My only quarrel with that is making all that content MSQ, so that new/returning players have to slog through every bit of it before being able to move on to the next expansion. Maybe created a new category of side quests such as "story recommended" or something? By all means, players who haven't completed group content should not be allowed to use the roulette to complete them.

Stop thinking of it like "an obstacle at the end of the MSQ", because it is part of the MSQ. There is pre-credits MSQ and there is post-credits MSQ. It's a serialised story and if you arrive late, you need to catch up.

And from the perspective of someone who enjoys the story, adding that many fluffy optional quests that can't drive the main plot forward and can't be referenced later (except in further side stories) would not be a benefit.

Additionally, if they can't tell this story across the post-credits phase, they're just going to have to stuff it into the pre-credits phase and make that even longer.

[Iscah]

The fact that you can pay to skip the MSQ is also something that is behind my comments.

Like it or not - and I don't particularly like it either - we have signed ourselves up to a game designed around a subscription model. It is intended to extract money out of us in exchange for game progress.

So from that logic:

Someone playing through the full game will spend a few months' subscription along the way.

Someone paying to skip is probably paying the same amount AND they've saved themselves a few months of gameplay time.

[VelKallor]

Ahem one further comment re the Ivalice raids, I submit to my fellow Warriors of Light that perhaps that content will be more...relevant, shall we say, in the near future?

We all know how much Yoship and the team play it close to the chest..so call it a hunch, a gut feeling if you will.

[BlitzAceRush]

Though they've already kind of did it this patch without telling anyone.

A certain farther of all dragons was conspectus by his absence when you went to wake his daughter, and even more that no one commented on his lack of appearance.

[Iscah]

Though they've already kind of did it this patch without telling anyone.

A certain farther of all dragons was conspectus by his absence when you went to wake his daughter, and even more that no one commented on his lack of appearance.

Kinda sorta.

Just not mentioning him at all is rather different to specifically discussing that they can't talk to him because he's currently unavailable.

[BlitzAceRush]

Kinda sorta.

Just not mentioning him at all is rather different to specifically discussing that they can't talk to him because he's currently unavailable.

That's kind of my point though, he really should have been there, but there is a reason why, but it's in a side story that only makes sense if you've done it, so they just act as if he doesn't exist. Without the side story there's zero reason for him to not have made some form of appearance especially given it was speaking with her and you that finally got him to fully lend his support to you, but nothing, at the very least no one noticing this only adds to it.

[Iscah]

That's kind of my point though, he really should have been there, but there is a reason why, but it's in a side story that only makes sense if you've done it, so they just act as if he doesn't exist. Without the side story there's zero reason for him to not have made some form of appearance especially given it was speaking with her and you that finally got him to fully lend his support to you, but nothing, at the very least no one noticing this only adds to it.

I don't think his absence was that conspicuous. It's not like we had a reliable way to summon him before that, and he wasn't the one we needed to speak to.