The story is great, but it blatantly gets in the way of the rest of the game

[IdowhatIwant]

Again, this isn't WoW where prior content becomes obsolete. All the old content still has purpose even to a level cap player. You don't have to be at end game to play with others.

It's a very new player friendly game in that respect compared to WoW where long time players won't give you time of day until you're busting out high RaiderIO scores.

WoWs prior content became obsolete because of the level squish not because the content did not add to the story. That is why WoW is unfriendly right now you are dropped in world with no knowledge as to what is going on while being referred to as the champion of azeroth. FFXIV is not friendly because of the sheer amount of solo content you have to get through to play with others in a game that is a MMORPG. It is easily the main reason why most players quit the game before EW. To some that solo experience is the best aspect, to others it is the worst aspect. It being very new player friendly is subjective in the end, but it doesn't mean that people have had legitimate complaints and have quit the game, which should not be ignored. The other thing I see mentioned is go do new game + with your friends. Well the MSQ is about 95% solo content, the only thing you would really be doing with other players is the dungeons. Pruning doesn't actually help new players at all as they are even reaching the point where they would have gotten skills that were pruned.

And the busting high raiderIO scores is like 2% of the player base, WoW is about as casual as FFXIV but can be more hard core than FFXIV, it has a bit of a wider spectrum of difficulties that FFXIV doesn't have to offer but that is a different subject altogether.

[MagicalChase]

It doesn't help when the quests are mostly go talk to x, walk with y, follow z. EW was the first expansion as well where I skipped every cutscene in an entire zone, because how can prepping supplies for people to go to the moon be interesting. At least the other expansions had more frequent interesting duties involved in questing.

You lucked out that section was literal torture. Hell on earth. The area had a 30 second sound loop that didnt match with what was going on in the story. The map was almost designed to hide NPCs in the orange circle. There were even false NPCs you could select. I don't believe EW was playtested because aint no way any playtester played that and went "yeah this is fun."

[Broken_Wind]

I really do hope that the people here that are passionately defending the design are trolls. I suspect more are then people think, but some of course aren't

I see both sides of the argument really

I do think that FFXIV's decision, while certainly was an "I quit" moment for people, has been overall extremely beneficial to the game. I think shorter leveling times and lack of world building are the biggest cause of how 99% of mmorpgs have sharp population drop offs within months of releasing the game. Rift is the poster child for this. Everyone loved it at launch, 1mn sold. people loved the class system. The events were fun. But there was no hook to that game world and you were max level in 2 weeks. 3 months later the game was down to 1/3 of its initial population and it never recovered

I also think the 'slog' of ARR is greatly exaggerated now. There are a few stinker quests for sure, and the story doesnt always flow well. But its also where they start to really grow in their storytelling. From 2.3 on is pretty good.

The big issue, IMO of course, is that you go this whole time with no new skills, even when soloing. Later expansions get around this, but really the HW skills should not be locked behind class quests.

I do think that part of the reason for duty support is so they can remove the prior MSQ requirements. That way people dont have to worry about nobody queueing for stuff. Starting a new story arc gives them a good chance to do this.

[ZedxKayn]

I do think that FFXIV's decision, while certainly was an "I quit" moment for people, has been overall extremely beneficial to the game. I think shorter leveling times and lack of world building are the biggest cause of how 99% of mmorpgs have sharp population drop offs within months of releasing the game. Rift is the poster child for this. Everyone loved it at launch, 1mn sold. people loved the class system. The events were fun. But there was no hook to that game world and you were max level in 2 weeks. 3 months later the game was down to 1/3 of its initial population and it never recovered

I'm gonna bring up ESO for that. Granted there's already pre-existing lore, it's a good entry to the TES universe so new players can get interested, and it manages to rejoice lorebeards like Skyrim and Oblivion could never without forcing hundreds of hours of story and cutscenes down people's throats. In a way, similarly to ESO being helped with "The Elder Scrolls" being in the name, I think "Final Fantasy" being in the game's title helped, a lot.
It's truly great and enjoyable because people are able to enjoy all of that story and lore at their own pace without being gated from partaking in every other content the game has to offer. And a think a story heavy game like XIV would've heavily benefited from such a system.

Without a doubt I'd have given XIV's story a chance if I wasn't forced to do it to do what is relevant to my interest, namely harder content.

[Kranel_San]

FFXIV is a story-focused MMO. If you don't like that, then there are many other MMOs to play in the market. It's as simple as this.
Someone does not simply go walk into Runescape and say: "Hey, it's a player-driven game and that stands in the way of entertainment!" or to Destiny2 and say: "Hey, it's an FPS game and not tab target and that stands in the way of entertainment!".
In the same manner, one does not simply walk into a story-focused MMO and say the story is locking the content behind it. That's the whole point of the game. FFXIV without the story isn't really great. You can't come in and slam the story aside as if it's nothing. That's insulting.

[Broken_Wind]

FFXIV is a story-focused MMO. If you don't like that, then there are many other MMOs to play in the market. It's as simple as this.
Someone does not simply go walk into Runescape and say: "Hey, it's a player-driven game and that stands in the way of entertainment!" or to Destiny2 and say: "Hey, it's an FPS game and not tab target and that stands in the way of entertainment!".
In the same manner, one does not simply walk into a story-focused MMO and say the story is locking the content behind it. That's the whole point of the game. FFXIV without the story isn't really great. You can't come in and slam the story aside as if it's nothing. That's insulting.

Whats insulting is you didnt seem to read their post.

They want to do the story, but they want to do other things along with it

It is a valid concern and it does not really have an easy answer

There is no question that the expansions are going to be more impactful to people who have played through what was before, for most people.
The game could use some more content that these MSQ limbo players can do with their friends other than just the roulettes, for exp that they dont even need.

[Eelanos]

I'm a bit lost. Are we still talking about the 50/60/70/80 exp drought?

They want to do the story, but they want to do other things along with it

Other things alongside the story, like what? XIV is already called a "theme park mmo" because it has a truckload of stuff to do besides the MSQ, but doing any of that will halt the MSQ progress.
Many things get unlocked way before 50, from the ocean fishing, to pvp, the gold saucer, deep dungeon...

Also, I don't entirely get this. On the other MMOs I've played, it's usually rush the story then immediately farm X content ad-nauseam, which is why I quit most of them. This is the only one where I can play as if I was playing any other RPG and have fun with it without my friends chewing my ear about how the game is not fun until you do the latest dungeon or raid released.
It's great that people want to experience high level gameplay, but there's already a story skip for that, the unending journey book and New Game+ just in case they want to experience the story at their own pace without missing on the newest content. I don't know what else they could do to give you something to do while you're doing the MSQ.

[hagare]

Whats insulting is you didnt seem to read their post.

They want to do the story, but they want to do other things along with it

It is a valid concern and it does not really have an easy answer

There is no question that the expansions are going to be more impactful to people who have played through what was before, for most people.
The game could use some more content that these MSQ limbo players can do with their friends other than just the roulettes, for exp that they dont even need.

skip when they play and watch it on youtube.

[Broken_Wind]

I'm a bit lost. Are we still talking about the 50/60/70/80 exp drought?



Other things alongside the story, like what? XIV is already called a "theme park mmo" because it has a truckload of stuff to do besides the MSQ, but doing any of that will halt the MSQ progress.
Many things get unlocked way before 50, from the ocean fishing, to pvp, the gold saucer, deep dungeon...

Also, I don't entirely get this. On the other MMOs I've played, it's usually rush the story then immediately farm X content ad-nauseam, which is why I quit most of them. This is the only one where I can play as if I was playing any other RPG and have fun with it without my friends chewing my ear about how the game is not fun until you do the latest dungeon or raid released.
It's great that people want to experience high level gameplay, but there's already a story skip for that, the unending journey book and New Game+ just in case they want to experience the story at their own pace without missing on the newest content. I don't know what else they could do to give you something to do while you're doing the MSQ.

This is a fair counterpoint. There is a large chunk there, it doesnt help you get to endgame faster of course

And I do agree with your assessment on rush story > farm, but appreciate not everyone feels the same

[Tychonius]

Ultimately the issue is simply that the story gates all of the expansion content in this game, and that means if there is any part of the game you look forward to that isn't available from the start the story is now in your way.

I've been in the game for two weeks now and haven't been allowed to actually play the class that most interests me. I just don't see how that somehow makes for a better experience.