Please let me skip MSQ

[Genbe197]

All my friends play this game and they are already done with MSQ. I have barely started because I don't have a lot of time especially with the long queues. I don't care about the story I just want to have a good time with my friends doing dungeons. But I haven't been able to do that because everything new is locked.
The game is actively preventing me from playing with my friends. I have cried over this.
I want to have a good time when I get home from work and not be stuck running from point A to B for days completely alone because I have to earn the ability to not be alone in a multi-player game.

At this point I regret asking my friends to play this game with me because I isolated myself because I can't keep up anymore.

Please just let me play with my friends.

Get new friends. They can come do the low lvl dungeons with you nothing is stopping them. Apparently they just don't want to cause nothing is in it for them. Everything in this game they can sync down to you on.

[Azuri]

I will ask a genuine question for everyone who insists that "Story is the main focus and you are obliged to do it". What is the point? Is that some kind of "eat your vegetables before dessert" approach? No matter if you consider those "vegetables" the most delicious gourmet cuisine ever made, why force them on someone who has no interest in the story? Will the game benefit or you feel happier if someone like the OP spends several evenings just going between NPCs and pressing ESC twice to skip the cutscenes before they can do something they are interested in? Because let's be honest, MSQ is nothing but a series of cutscenes (with less than half of them voiced) intermingled with A to B fetch tasks.

And no, MSQ really isn't a social activity you can do with friends. Not if you don't care about the story. They can help you unsync an occasional mandatory dungeon but in the end this is likely not what you or them want to do. If someone just wants to do the latest dungeon/raid/whatever, is offering them a skip that includes the latest expansion on the mogstation really such a problem?

[Krotoan]

If someone just wants to do the latest dungeon/raid/whatever, is offering them a skip that includes the latest expansion on the mogstation really such a problem?

Generally the latest dungeon/raid will incorporate the mechanics that have been "taught" over the past expansions instances. Sometimes these are old mechanics brought back into use, sometimes they're new (in the sense FFXIV hasn't had them) concepts and markers (Like the tankstack marker).

People who skip straight into endgame are more likely to be a detriment to everyone elses experience. Not that these people don't exist now, but it's a barrier of sorts at least. These people don't know their job very well, don't perform their role beyond surface combos and in the case of a healer like OP have frequent responsibilities that if failed result in wipes or extra stress being heaped on others.

While I'm not entirely against someone being able to jump straight into endgame with their friends, it's also a consideration that they aren't usually ONLY going to be playing with their friends and they should have at least some understanding of the game itself before joining those who would like smooth runs and have worked to expand their skills and knowledge to contribute as such.

FFXIV being a theme park MMO people are of course welcome to enjoy the parts of it they want to and avoid the rest, but avoiding 99% of it is a bit extreme. "Endgame" currently being 2 dungeons and 4 raid instances that amount to about maybe an hour or two of content at best.

[Azuri]

Generally the latest dungeon/raid will incorporate the mechanics that have been "taught" over the past expansions instances. Sometimes these are old mechanics brought back into use, sometimes they're new (in the sense FFXIV hasn't had them) concepts and markers (Like the tankstack marker).

People who skip straight into endgame are more likely to be a detriment to everyone elses experience. Not that these people don't exist now, but it's a barrier of sorts at least.

While I'm not entirely against someone being able to jump straight into endgame with their friends, it's also a consideration that they aren't usually ONLY going to be playing with their friends and they should have at least some understanding of the game itself before joining those who would like smooth runs and have worked to expand their skills and knowledge to contribute as such.

FFXIV being a theme park MMO people are of course welcome to enjoy the parts of it they want to and avoid the rest, avoiding 99% of it is a bit extreme. "Endgame" currently being 2 dungeons and 4 raid instances that amount to about maybe an hour or two of content at best.

I really don't think leveling instances where you can fail every single mechanic, switch to "very easy" and proceed to clear with no sweat (and even stay dead for the entire encounter while the other three players clear it if we are talking about a dungeon) are such a worthwhile learning experience to attach twenty hours of fetch quests with cutscenes to them and make the whole thing mandatory. And honestly, just giving people a "hand out" with all those indicators you can access from help menu would probably be way more convenient and useful.

And there are definitely things beyond dungeons and raids you can do after MSQ. You have entire DoL/DoH gated by it and even something like farming FATEs with friends is more of a social interaction than doing MSQ together.

[Krotoan]

I really don't think leveling instances where you can fail every single mechanic, switch to "very easy" and proceed to clear with no sweat (and even stay dead for the entire encounter while the other three players clear it if we are talking about a dungeon) are such a worthwhile learning experience to attach twenty hours of fetch quests with cutscenes to them and make the whole thing mandatory. And honestly, just giving people a "hand out" with all those indicators you can access from help menu would probably be way more convenient and useful.

People have shown, again and again, they do not read tooltips, let alone the "hints" from the help menu. Dungeons can be cleared by 2 people who know what they're doing, this doesn't mean that they don't give adequate learning opportunities and guidance though. I would rather play with a vet who has done all the dungeons than a fresh person who has read a guide.
We COULD just let people skip everything, but in my opinion this would result in even more people being burdens instead of contributing to endgame instances. Again, this already happens, but at least there is some barrier to it.

And there are definitely things beyond dungeons and raids you can do after MSQ. You have entire DoL/DoH gated by it and even something like farming FATEs with friends is more of a social interaction than doing MSQ together.

There are a lot of things you can do after MSQ.. but there are only a few things that are truly gated by finishing all of it. If OP truly just wants to play with friends, they could easily just party up and be ferried around to fates or go grind Zadnor together... or run roulettes. I get there are certain things people want to do, I'm just doubtful the cons are worth the pros of letting people jump straight into it.

[ArkenaeuxBelmont]

I really don't think leveling instances where you can fail every single mechanic, switch to "very easy" and proceed to clear with no sweat (and even stay dead for the entire encounter while the other three players clear it if we are talking about a dungeon) are such a worthwhile learning experience to attach twenty hours of fetch quests with cutscenes to them and make the whole thing mandatory. And honestly, just giving people a "hand out" with all those indicators you can access from help menu would probably be way more convenient and useful.

And there are definitely things beyond dungeons and raids you can do after MSQ. You have entire DoL/DoH gated by it and even something like farming FATEs with friends is more of a social interaction than doing MSQ together.

So the fact that the only things MSQ in EW locks out are the Expert Roulette (2 90 dungeons), and the new raid which literally just dropped, is somehow so detrimental that all the other content in the game doesn't matter?

OP can easily play with their maxxed end game friends in:

50/60/70/80 Roulette
Leveling Roulette
Trials Roulette
Main Story Scenario Roulette
Alliance Raids Roulette
Normal Raids Roulette

Not to mention they, as a group, can go around doing Fate farming. The maxxed leveled friends will be getting Aphorisms for queueing for the roulettes at max level, and I haven't met anyone yet who has leveled every single job and has the entire set of 570 Tomestone gear for *everything* so far, so...

To touch upon the "teaching aspects of the game during the level up process"... That's literally what a good video game does. It is not the game's fault that a player refuses to read tooltips, learn mechanics, etc. The same player who just outright refuses to learn, is going to be bad regardless of skipping or not, if a current-content story skip was on the table. So I'll agree with you on that aspect. However, I feel those types of players are a minority. A good chunk of people that I've met and played with during my course of playtime have learned by doing in this game, and seeing mechanics introduced over the course of the leveling experience tends to help them out a lot when they get to the "endgame".

[Azuri]

So the fact that the only things MSQ in EW locks out are the Expert Roulette (2 90 dungeons), and the new raid which literally just dropped, is somehow so detrimental that all the other content in the game doesn't matter?

OP can easily play with their maxxed end game friends in:

50/60/70/80 Roulette
Leveling Roulette
Trials Roulette
Main Story Scenario Roulette
Alliance Raids Roulette
Normal Raids Roulette

Not to mention they, as a group, can go around doing Fate farming. The maxxed leveled friends will be getting Aphorisms for queueing for the roulettes at max level, and I haven't met anyone yet who has leveled every single job and has the entire set of 570 Tomestone gear for *everything* so far, so...

To touch upon the "teaching aspects of the game during the level up process"... That's literally what a good video game does. It is not the game's fault that a player refuses to read tooltips, learn mechanics, etc. The same player who just outright refuses to learn, is going to be bad regardless of skipping or not, if a current-content story skip was on the table. So I'll agree with you on that aspect. However, I feel those types of players are a minority. A good chunk of people that I've met and played with during my course of playtime have learned by doing in this game, and seeing mechanics introduced over the course of the leveling experience tends to help them out a lot when they get to the "endgame".

You've conveniently ignored two of the most relevant endgame instances the game currently offers - the two extreme fights. In two weeks, entire tier of savage raids will be added to them. If this is the kind of content their friends are focused on, OP is quite literally gated from playing with them.

[Lexis]

I will ask a genuine question for everyone who insists that "Story is the main focus and you are obliged to do it". What is the point? Is that some kind of "eat your vegetables before dessert" approach? No matter if you consider those "vegetables" the most delicious gourmet cuisine ever made, why force them on someone who has no interest in the story? Will the game benefit or you feel happier if someone like the OP spends several evenings just going between NPCs and pressing ESC twice to skip the cutscenes before they can do something they are interested in? Because let's be honest, MSQ is nothing but a series of cutscenes (with less than half of them voiced) intermingled with A to B fetch tasks.

And no, MSQ really isn't a social activity you can do with friends. Not if you don't care about the story. They can help you unsync an occasional mandatory dungeon but in the end this is likely not what you or them want to do. If someone just wants to do the latest dungeon/raid/whatever, is offering them a skip that includes the latest expansion on the mogstation really such a problem?

It's not skipping the MSQ that is the problem so much as people picking the one Story-focused MMO to play and then complaining that they have to play through said story. There are MMOs better suited for the 'skip to end-game' style of gameplay. If you prefer FFXIV over those, for whatever reason that may be, and choose to stay here, more power to you, but don't come on here and cry about having to play one expansion worth of story in a STORY DRIVEN MMO. I've spent enough time on WoW to know what happens when the developers start catering to the end-game players above all else so yes, it does affect us if skipping the story becomes the norm.

I wIlL nEvEr SeRvE

[Lium]

Wait, I just realized OP is level 80. I'm not trying to be rude but...really? Your friends can't help you through 10 levels? When OP said they were crying I thought it was because they were back in ARR or something and all their friends were max level. But they are freaking level 80???

So, they've played through ARR and three other expansions and are now crying about not being able to play with their friends at max level because of the story? Um...you know what? Nevermind.

I will ask a genuine question for everyone who insists that "Story is the main focus and you are obliged to do it". What is the point? Is that some kind of "eat your vegetables before dessert" approach? No matter if you consider those "vegetables" the most delicious gourmet cuisine ever made, why force them on someone who has no interest in the story? Will the game benefit or you feel happier if someone like the OP spends several evenings just going between NPCs and pressing ESC twice to skip the cutscenes before they can do something they are interested in? Because let's be honest, MSQ is nothing but a series of cutscenes (with less than half of them voiced) intermingled with A to B fetch tasks.

And no, MSQ really isn't a social activity you can do with friends. Not if you don't care about the story. They can help you unsync an occasional mandatory dungeon but in the end this is likely not what you or them want to do. If someone just wants to do the latest dungeon/raid/whatever, is offering them a skip that includes the latest expansion on the mogstation really such a problem?

Because it's about game design. You have to look at the game you've chosen to play. For example, when I played WoW or some FPS game or looter shooter, I'm not playing for the story. I'm playing to kill stuff and get loot. And that's pretty much it. When I played Overwatch I didn't care about the story at all. I know one was there, but the story of Overwatch wasn't why I played it. I played to PvP.

In FFXIV or LOTRO or SWTOR, story is what matters most. So when I want to get immersed in the story, those are the games I play. Endgame and loot is not the reason I play FFXIV. I play for the lore and the characters.

If all you really care about is dungeons and the like and aren't really into story, then FFXIV may legitimately not be the game for you.

[LaylaTsarra]

Wait, I just realized OP is level 80.

Probably bought skips to 80 but want them to 90. It's not ever going to happen in this game so it's really a mute point.