Why does everyone complain about STORY based MMO's?

[DixieBellOCE]

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.

[Oizen]

Probably because the story has a lot of unnecessary padding with fetch quests that people flat out mock in other games.
In hindsight, teaching the Loporrits how to sew clothes didn't really affect anything in the plot of Endwalker did it.

[DixieBellOCE]

Probably because the story has a lot of unnecessary padding with fetch quests that people flat out mock in other games.
In hindsight, teaching the Loporrits how to sew clothes didn't really affect anything in the plot of Endwalker did it.

That's the point of them.
They're meant to relieve tension after a climax and build towards the next.

If the story was sitting at 100% from the get go, it would honestly take away from from the high points in the story.

Good story writing always has highs and lows, so that the high's really feel impactful.

[Oizen]

That's the point of them.
They're meant to relieve tension after a climax and build towards the next.

If the story was sitting at 100% from the get go, it would honestly take away from from the high points in the story.

Good story writing always has highs and lows, so that the high's really feel impactful.

Oh man if thats the case than the design of ARR being 50 levels of a flat line of Low points until the very last set of quests is genius design then.

When the story is not good this game's gameplay falls apart fast imo, its definately not for everyone, and it shouldn't be immune to criticism.

[DixieBellOCE]

Oh man if thats the case than the design of ARR being 50 levels of a flat line of Low points until the very last set of quests is genius design then.

When the story is not good this game's gameplay falls apart fast imo, its definately not for everyone, and it shouldn't be immune to criticism.

Lets be real, ARR is by far the lowest point in the story for everyone, i can't even deny that XD

The old Post-ARR 100 quest slog uptil heavensward was by far the worst thing i have ever had to deal with, and im happy it was shortened.

They have started making changes to ARR over time, and it has steadily improved over what it was originally

[Carin-Eri]

Oh man if thats the case than the design of ARR being 50 levels of a flat line of Low points until the very last set of quests is genius design then.

When the story is not good this game's gameplay falls apart fast imo, its definately not for everyone, and it shouldn't be immune to criticism.

Its very much a 'with the benefit of hindsight' scenario though.

Yeah, I'll agree that the fetch-quests and 'low point' early content seemed tedious at the time and were a low point overall considering what follows.

However - and to note am only viewing this from my own perspective - this was, basically, necessary world building. I don't think having our character start the game as some big hero would've been as effective. Having them follow the classic 'Zero to Hero' trope worked very well in my opinion, and it felt more impactful as my character achieved more and more and, slowly, became an increasingly more significant figure as the story progressed.

I mean, I loved the callbacks to this in Endwalker - for example, Zenos, of all people, using the fact that he knew we were still an Adventurer in our hearts (if you choose that route) to challenge us one last time. That and the fact that, in the Newfound Adventure content, NPCs seem less inclined to refer to our character a the Warrior of Light.

[Midareyukki]

That's the point of them.
They're meant to relieve tension after a climax and build towards the next.

If the story was sitting at 100% from the get go, it would honestly take away from from the high points in the story.

Good story writing always has highs and lows, so that the high's really feel impactful.

If this was the intended result, boy howdy did half the fanbase not perceive it that way.

You're not always going to get the intended response out of people. Not everyone cried watching Titanic, not everyone gets scared watching a Saw movie.

But when the writing is so polarizing for the way it's handled, then yes, it's a failed moment, even if it has people who enjoyed it. And we have countless posts here of people pointing out that for as much as they liked the Loporrits, their inclusion was literally Mood Whiplash. Simply because it was too soon.

Yes, there has to be catharsis, you need to find a way in the story to diffuse the tension felt by the reader after a climactic event. But there are ways to do it, and dropping everything we're meant to feel and all the questions we have, including the incoming dread, just for what people felt was forced and dragged out comic relief isn't one of them. Had they come just a bit later, even one more cutscene than they did, it would honestly have been fine! SOMETHING should have come in between to diffuse that tension, but many people felt there was nothing to lower their heightened emotional state before getting such a shock.

It's like a valley. You should take your audience a few levels down before changing the mood and the genre tropes, that way they, you and even the plot is allowed to cement what just happened and willingly proceed to the next stage without feeling like they're still mulling over. Failure to do that will make people feel frustrated and like you just dismissed what just happened. And the Loporrits' introduction wasn't a nice valley, it was a cliff.

It went from "You just killed the big guy, the main antagonist, this early on in the plot, but the moment you did you're made to feel like something bad is going to happen, and you never saw your character be in that much pain" to "ok now open this door to meet moon rabbits and kinda throw all your worries away". That is not normal, even if this is fantasy. If we're dealing with human-like beings who feel human-like emotions and behave human-like, then we're not just going to be all smiles and giggles that soon after such an event.

It's like water. If you're used to hot water, you won't like it when I suddenly turn the hot water off and make the water freezing cold. Not even glasses like it when you do that, they tend to break when there's sudden temperature changes, you're meant to slowly reduce the temperature to avoid a shock. And that's what happened. They WERE meant to diffuse the tension. They FAILED not because of their purpose, but the timing they were implemented.

[VelKallor]

If this was the intended result, boy howdy did half the fanbase not perceive it that way.

"Half the fanbase"?

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.

..and that "many" is..who exactly?

[Darthgummibear]

Probably because the story has a lot of unnecessary padding with fetch quests that people flat out mock in other games.
In hindsight, teaching the Loporrits how to sew clothes didn't really affect anything in the plot of Endwalker did it.

The point flew so far over your head it can't even be seen by the hubble.

[TaleraRistain]

Probably because the story has a lot of unnecessary padding with fetch quests that people flat out mock in other games.
In hindsight, teaching the Loporrits how to sew clothes didn't really affect anything in the plot of Endwalker did it.

This is basically every JRPG that ever existed, though. Even the ones considered masterpieces like Xenogears had fetch quests, and silly breather points because the people telling the story understand that stories need those low and high points. You can't keep everything tense and terse and fast 100% of the time or people become desensitized to it and your big story points lose all of their impact.