MSQ

[Alaray]

My position's always been that MSQ shouldn't gate the game away in the manner it does, especially when most of it is a drag and, while it's an alright story, it's not going to shatter someone's world to miss it if what they want to do in XIV is located after it.

Like, it's an okay story. It's alright. If someone wants to raid primarily and doesn't care about the narrative, just... let them. Just let people pick an option, or something, that lets them get a massively streamlined story, or just skips it altogether without having to dedicate another chunk of cash for the privilege of not spending 80+ hours clicking on NPCs.

Especially when doing the MSQ is hardly content in and of itself, since it's just a click and point adventure game without anything interesting to do with the games systems and, even when you end up at Thordan with all the build up, the end result is more of a sad joke as your df'd group blows him up in a few minutes and you're back to "click npc, read. Move twenty feet. Click NPC." It's not riveting gameplay, and there's a lot of people who're interested in the gameplay elements that, in XIV, only end up fleshed out at the end game and are miserable to work with before then. I mean, I just go afk on some of the duties on the normal difficulty and somehow win. It's an extremely dull affair.

If the MSQ played like a game and not just the lowest budget movie you could ever ask for, maybe I'd hold a different opinion. But I also don't think the shining feature of a MMO should be the solo player experience, especially when it's more like a solo viewer experience.

Selling a solution to a problem isn't a solution to the problem. At best that's a scam.

And multiple expansions worth of hours to slog through terribly designed quests that promise just about 0 interesting gameplay fun from them is, despite what some people think, a massive turn off to people who do want to play a videogame at the end of the day.

[ReynTime]

My position's always been that MSQ shouldn't gate the game away in the manner it does, especially when most of it is a drag and, while it's an alright story, it's not going to shatter someone's world to miss it if what they want to do in XIV is located after it.

Like, it's an okay story. It's alright. If someone wants to raid primarily and doesn't care about the narrative, just... let them. Just let people pick an option, or something, that lets them get a massively streamlined story, or just skips it altogether without having to dedicate another chunk of cash for the privilege of not spending 80+ hours clicking on NPCs.

Especially when doing the MSQ is hardly content in and of itself, since it's just a click and point adventure game without anything interesting to do with the games systems and, even when you end up at Thordan with all the build up, the end result is more of a sad joke as your df'd group blows him up in a few minutes and you're back to "click npc, read. Move twenty feet. Click NPC." It's not riveting gameplay, and there's a lot of people who're interested in the gameplay elements that, in XIV, only end up fleshed out at the end game and are miserable to work with before then. I mean, I just go afk on some of the duties on the normal difficulty and somehow win. It's an extremely dull affair.

If the MSQ played like a game and not just the lowest budget movie you could ever ask for, maybe I'd hold a different opinion. But I also don't think the shining feature of a MMO should be the solo player experience, especially when it's more like a solo viewer experience.

Selling a solution to a problem isn't a solution to the problem. At best that's a scam.

And multiple expansions worth of hours to slog through terribly designed quests that promise just about 0 interesting gameplay fun from them is, despite what some people think, a massive turn off to people who do want to play a videogame at the end of the day.

As someone who enjoys the MSQ's writing (but hates the fact it's completely anti-co-op) and enjoys all sorts of jRPGs where story progression is basically "talk to this person then go where they're pointing" stuff, I think this is the best post in this entire topic.

[linayar]

And multiple expansions worth of hours to slog through terribly designed quests that promise just about 0 interesting gameplay fun from them is, despite what some people think, a massive turn off to people who do want to play a videogame at the end of the day.

Fortunately, there are other games that may cater to them. They don't have to change this one to be able to enjoy a game more to their liking.

[ZedxKayn]

Fortunately, there are other games that may cater to them. They don't have to change this one to be able to enjoy a game more to their liking.

XIV could cater to people who don't care for the MSQ despite it being mandatory.

[linayar]

XIV could cater to people who don't care for the MSQ despite it being mandatory.

Then good for them as well if they can accept the mandatory MSQ. I'm talking about the people Alaray say is turned off by FFXIV. If that makes them not want to play FFXIV, then there are other games.

[Alaray]

Fortunately, there are other games that may cater to them. They don't have to change this one to be able to enjoy a game more to their liking.

This is a pretty terrible non-response.

"Play another game" isn't a response to a critique of the current title, when it can easily offer the solution to players who might be interested in a different aspect of the title since the game isn't just a visual novel. Thanks for trying, I guess.

[DPZ2]

This is a pretty terrible non-response.

"Play another game" isn't a response to a critique of the current title, when it can easily offer the solution to players who might be interested in a different aspect of the title since the game isn't just a visual novel. Thanks for trying, I guess.

"Play another game" is, indeed, a valid response. One that you don't like, to be sure, but certainly more valid than "[SE could] easily offer the solution..."

Would you be willing to pony up the entire amount of direct funding for this easy "solution"?

Why is it that people think massive coding changes are ever "easy", or cheap?

[ZedxKayn]

certainly more valid than "[SE could] easily offer the solution..."

Source: me

If they had the resources to make stuff like fêtes or fellowships for patches, I'm sure they could figure out a way to make MSQ optional for a new expac.

[WhiteArchmage]

Source: me

If they had the resources to make stuff like fêtes or fellowships for patches, I'm sure they could figure out a way to make MSQ optional for a new expac.

Do they WANT to? Over 4 expansions now and going into the fifth and it's clear how the dev team wants to make the game. And that involves an MSQ as the "tree trunk" for all the other branches: Omega was introduced in MSQ, CT was made part of MSQ, Ivalice gets nods in MSQ, Eureka was tied to MSQ, Coil, Eden, PotD, HoH, Four Lords, friggin BEAST TRIBE QUESTS, almost all side content branches out from there.

That's why "You don't like having to do the MSQ? This game might not be for you" IS a valid response. It's asking the game to fundamentally change its most fundamental aspect just because you don't like it. And even then the devs gave you an out: just pay for a skip and run right into current expansion. If you don't want to invest in what the dev team obviously cares the most about making, you can do so, at a cost.

[Enla]

Do they WANT to? Over 4 expansions now and going into the fifth and it's clear how the dev team wants to make the game. And that involves an MSQ as the "tree trunk" for all the other branches: Omega was introduced in MSQ, CT was made part of MSQ, Ivalice gets nods in MSQ, Eureka was tied to MSQ, Coil, Eden, PotD, HoH, Four Lords, friggin BEAST TRIBE QUESTS, almost all side content branches out from there.

That's why "You don't like having to do the MSQ? This game might not be for you" IS a valid response. It's asking the game to fundamentally change its most fundamental aspect just because you don't like it. And even then the devs gave you an out: just pay for a skip and run right into current expansion. If you don't want to invest in what the dev team obviously cares the most about making, you can do so, at a cost.

Also SE is absolutely not going to offer a free solution to this when the skips are readily available. You're not going to convince a business to change what's working, especially when it seems like the current business model is only continuing to grow their brand.

Now with that said if the day comes where SE feels that the skips aren't making them enough money and the MSQ is truly an impediment to player satisfaction then they might offer an MSQ reduction or a 'free' one time skip to some middling expansion. But that day is pretty far off. The only reason ARR was cut down was because it was impeding the new player experience and because it had enough fat to trim that cutting down on the length didn't hurt the story in any way. A couple people on the forum saying they want the story to be reduced and that multiple people in their friend group feel the same isn't going to convince SE to do much to change the entire focus of their brand at this point. And if that sounds harsh, I am by no means stating you can't come here and ask for these changes. But you also need to be realistic and understand SE is a business. If there is no profit to these changes - and they do have the data to track these things because not keeping an eye on player retention is a potentially suicidal move for a developer - they simply are not going to implement them.