Why does everyone complain about STORY based MMO's?

[Striker44]

In a game where the story is main focus behind the game, you are not rushed to get to endgame, you are not FORCED to play optimally to get through content...

Yet every day i see the same thing: 'WAH WAH STORY IS TOO LONG'

Seriously, The game IS the story.

It is a FINAL FANTASY game.

There are plenty of MMO's out there that destroy their own storylines for the 'endgame progression' aspect of the game, if you want to play those, then do that.

FFXIV should never move away from the story aspect of the game, the MSQ is what keeps this game coherent.

I think the answer to your question is that most people don't complain about the story - they actually love it! The forums here are probably the only place that has such a negative tone, and that's because there's a band of about a dozen or so dedicated naysayers who just badmouth the game whenever they can, seemingly because the writers didn't choose to write exactly the story they wanted (go figure). Peruse practically anywhere else, including Reddit of all places, and you'll see people being overwhelmingly positive about the story. The forums by their nature also tend to attract the more "hardcore" and eSports focused crowd, and there's more of a tendency among that kind of group to focus almost exclusively on endgame and find getting there (aka the story) to be an irritant, but they're far and away the minority when it comes to the FFXIV playerbase.

The only part of the story I find generally gets complaints is the post-ARR questline leading to Heavensward, but even that's almost disappeared since they re-vamped it. In-game, on Youtube, on Reddit - people are enjoying the story. I don't see SE changing that about FFXIV anytime soon, either - as you pointed out, it's the key draw and main focus for this game. So kick back, relax, and enjoy!

[ReynTime]

Most Final Fantasy games try harder than this with difficulty in their stories. And XIII aside have better level design.
They also have actual character management as a staple in jrpgs is the prep you do in a fight by fight basis. Even action rpgs like Kingdom Hearts have this.

A lot of text and cutscenes isn't what defines jrpgs. They lost that uniqueness to every other genre with narrative since the mid 2000s.

[Jojoya]

Most Final Fantasy games try harder than this with difficulty in their stories. And XIII aside have better level design.
They also have actual character management as a staple in jrpgs is the prep you do in a fight by fight basis. Even action rpgs like Kingdom Hearts have this.

A lot of text and cutscenes isn't what defines jrpgs. They lost that uniqueness to every other genre with narrative since the mid 2000s.

Single player games are always going to have the advantage when it comes to making more difficult content. Players feel no pressure to try to keep up with their friends. They can tackle the game's challenges at their own pace.

Those games also aren't dependent on recurring revenue like MMOs (whether subscription or microtransactions) because the volume of technical and customer support needed for the game should be fairly low past any initial release problems. Once the player has bought the game, the game company has all the money they're going to get from the player unless they later release a DLC the player wants. If a player gives up in frustration over difficulty, the company isn't going to be losing out on recurring revenue needed to support game operations.

MMOs that try to go the higher difficulty route with their content either don't last long or are stuck reliant on a very small, dedicated (and hopefully moderately wealthy) player base. A large gaming corporation that has a responsibility to its shareholders to produce profits isn't going to design their game around the high end players demanding difficult challenges. Those players are capable of playing less difficult content and possibly will still enjoy it even if it's not exactly what they're looking for. Less skilled players aren't capable of playing the high difficulty content and won't enjoy what they can't play.

MSQ difficulty is not going to increase from here on out. Too many players are hitting their skill caps as it is, needing other players to help carry them through content (wouldn't need the Very Easy modes for the solo duties otherwise). If some players want more difficult content, they should be asking for additional side content to meet that desire instead of asking for MSQ to be made more difficult.

[ZedxKayn]

Too many players are hitting their skill caps as it is, needing other players to help carry them through content (wouldn't need the Very Easy modes for the solo duties otherwise). If some players want more difficult content, they should be asking for additional side content to meet that desire instead of asking for MSQ to be made more difficult.

I don't think that the problem is that players are hitting their skill ceiling, is that it's never really explained at all how to play well, in addition to just being able to be carried through the content, players basically have no feedback whatsoever on how they're doing or if they're playing the game right. I firmly believe most of the players would find the MSQ to be of baby difficulty if they understood how the game functions. But it is never explained to them.

[SieyaM]

While sure you do need to have some relief after major plot points and heavy scenes there comes a point where it is just ridiculous faffing about. There were too many points in EW where it wasn't so much a little ease after major scenes but more faffing about for hours upon hours. There also comes a point in the story where you can't spend great lengths of time on comic relief and world or character building, the plot is in motion and nearing its climax you need to keep momentum.

[AmpelioB]

the samereason why digimon fans are complaining for the newest digimon game that is literally a visual novel with battle elements, they can't read.

[aveyond-dreams]

I shouldn’t need to put “this is my opinion” in front of every sentence in order for my posts to be interpreted in the intended manner. Continuing to focus on this aspect does not contribute to meaningful discussions. In any case, I would like to see a better quality main story moving forward than what we saw in Endwalker, which left me and many others disappointed.

[TaleraRistain]

I shouldn’t need to put “this is my opinion” in front of every sentence in order for my posts to be interpreted in the intended manner. Continuing to focus on this aspect does not contribute to meaningful discussions. In any case, I would like to see a better quality main story moving forward than what we saw in Endwalker, which left me and many others disappointed.

Yes, you do. You absolutely do. You nearly always come in with declarative statements that you claim are objective fact when they are completely subjective. They are based on just your opinion and you act rude and dismissive or holier-than-thou when someone has a differing opinion. Trying using that statement when you want to declare your take on something and I guarantee you'll find a much more receptive audience. Even just your usage here of "I would like to see" is leagues better, because you are making it clear that the viewpoint is personal to you and you're not trying to apply it to others or judge others who don't feel the same.

[Amenara]

I don't have a problem with story based MMOs, my problem is story based MMOs with little gameplay and when that little gameplay is just not good. Another problem I have is when you gate job progression behind completing a slog of story because you don't go back and redo the job quests for 50-60 to not require you to complete 80 quests in the MSQ to unlock those skills while you continue to level.

[Gararr]

Now. I will be 100% fair by saying that for SE to tune even Ultimate to how many healing tools 2 healers have at 90 is absurd.

This is a result of SE oversimplified healers but also NEEDING to give healers X# of buttons every expansion. They keep padding it out by constantly removing skills to give back to healers in new forms (Divine Veil > Largesse > Wings) and because of it the healer kit becomes more and more heal heavy while they do nothing to make the actual game play loop more interesting.