New player(s) thoughts

[R041]

I’d like to illustrate just how dire the situation is with this game’s story.

Refer to this spreadsheet. There are 110 hours of cutscenes in this game. That’s not all dialogue, just cutscenes. No gameplay. If this were a film series, it would be by far the longest film series in history.

And that doesn’t even include the dozens of hours it takes for the rest of the dialogue, or moving from one NPC or the next. The amount of multiplayer gameplay in the MSQ is extraordinarily small compared to text and story. It is, for all intents and purposes, a visual novel with small and isolated gameplay segments. The cutscene-to-gameplay ratio in FFXIV is by far the worst in any Final Fantasy game or RPG ever measured, far exceeding the ratios in games like FF13 and MGS4. And for an MMO!

This is a really good write-up, and I'm coping that 7.0 will finally do something about the insane barrier to entry into the MMO portion of this game that I love so much. I absolutely detest that we've been praising this 12 year arc as if that's something to be celebrated. It's not for celebration, this is a visual novel with a housing crisis. We're a book club at the end of a 10 book series and venomous at anyone even itching to play current content with their friends without reading it all beforehand.

The WoW exodus brought us an increase of 4x our playerbase and a crazy amount of content creators that are just gushing for all the wrong reasons and twisting truths, only for them to all probably leave in the next few months because they'll realize that they wanted an MMO and not a visual novel. I don't want to doom, but I honestly think we're going to see a playerbase crash pretty soon, just watch the Steam Chart. (At least I'll be able to buy a house then)

[Espon]

This is a really good write-up, and I'm coping that 7.0 will finally do something about the insane barrier to entry into the MMO portion of this game that I love so much. I absolutely detest that we've been praising this 12 year arc as if that's something to be celebrated. It's not for celebration, this is a visual novel with a housing crisis. We're a book club at the end of a 10 book series and venomous at anyone even itching to play current content with their friends without reading it all beforehand.

The story is one of the biggest things that pulls me to this game. WoW completely shat all over its story and lore after building it up in the RTS games and first few expansions. I used to be quite invested into it and was excited whenever we got to learn more about the Titans and Old Gods, but instead they rather ignore everything so they can kill off your favorite characters or turn them into villains. They have absolutely no idea how to handle time travel plots properly and will suddenly retcon over 20 years of story to introduce one of the worst characters ever and justify the horrific actions of another.

110 hours of cutscenes really isn't much when you consider this is a heavily story-driven game that's now on its fifth expansion and each expansion being a full game story-wise on its own.

The WoW exodus brought us an increase of 4x our playerbase and a crazy amount of content creators that are just gushing for all the wrong reasons and twisting truths, only for them to all probably leave in the next few months because they'll realize that they wanted an MMO and not a visual novel. I don't want to doom, but I honestly think we're going to see a playerbase crash pretty soon, just watch the Steam Chart. (At least I'll be able to buy a house then)

Too bad auto-demolition remains off. The whole player-base could quit and you still won't be able to get a house.

[R041]

The story is one of the biggest things that pulls me to this game. WoW completely shat all over its story and lore after building it up in the RTS games and first few expansions. I used to be quite invested into it and was excited whenever we got to learn more about the Titans and Old Gods, but instead they rather ignore everything so they can kill off your favorite characters or turn them into villains. They have absolutely no idea how to handle time travel plots properly and will suddenly retcon over 20 years of story to introduce one of the worst characters ever and justify the horrific actions of another.

110 hours of cutscenes really isn't much when you consider this is a heavily story-driven game that's now on its fifth expansion and each expansion being a full game story-wise on its own.

The core problem is that it's a requirement. I don't think anyone wants to get rid of the story itself, but the format of the MSQ just needs to change and we need better entry points with more in-between MSQ coop engagement. Wanting to keep a good story and also engaging multiplayer components aren't mutually exclusive.

[Arazehl]

Thought this game was an MMORPG? RPG part is the game is driven by it's story plot, with the technical stuff such as experience, loot, skills and combat that which follows the regular mmo genre. So why the surprise of the main story quests to advance the game?

[Jojoya]

So, me and some friends decided to start playing this game together after reading good reviews online. But quit after a day of quests, quests, quests, quests. There has got to be a way to streamline these quests to where you can get a good story, but at the same time not grinding endless quests that 99% of people skip the dialog anyway.

Also, the free trial is a joke. it's almost as if SE wants to punish people for playing the free trail and not paying. You can't even invite people to parties. I had to pay a sub just so we could group together. The entire new player experience in this aspect has to be relooked at. (heck if i didn't pay the sub i couldn't even communicate my new player thoughts to SE about this topic on the forums)

Maybe this game just isn't our style of gaming and I'm willing to accept that, just wanted to put in my 2 cents.

What was said in those good reviews that attracted you and your friends to the game? A well-written review wouldn't have skipped mentioning that the game is heavily story quest based.

How would you suggest a game deliver the actual story other than through quests? A dungeon can't really tell a story though it can give depth to one through the combat experience. Most players would agree that the ARR quests could use some additional trimming though SE already cut out about 30% of the original quest. There are spots where some more could be removed. But they need to be careful about what they cut because some details that appear to be unimportant actually become very important later.

The free trial is not a joke. It's far more generous than the free trials offered by other games. But it is just a trial. It's to let you experience the basic game, not give you a full experience. There are also ways around some of the restrictions if you get a subscribed player to help you, as you found out. I've helped trial players create parties and linkshells with each other then left but they're still in those parties and linkshells.

It may or may not be the right game for you and your friends. That's true of everyone and every game. You need to decide what it is that you want to be playing then seek that.

[SassyAssassin]

Its not your type of game and that’s ok, it wasn’t made to please everybody as nothing ever is in life.

[caffe_macchiato]

Its not your type of game and that’s ok, it wasn’t made to please everybody as nothing ever is in life.

And that's okay! In fact, I think it may be better for Square Enix to keep things the same for as long as possible. 7.0, 8.0, and so on. Many people love and cherish how this game operates. Unfortunately, the pool of fellow players will shrink over time as the mandatory story grows longer. Friends will leave, new players will stop coming, and communities will be gutted. The game was designed for a server population half the size that we have now, so many current players will enjoy the breathing room. And everyone else can pick up a better game that's not FFXIV, because let's face it, this game is kind of a let-down. Win-win?

[SassyAssassin]

And that's okay! In fact, I think it may be better for Square Enix to keep things the same for as long as possible. 7.0, 8.0, and so on. Many people love and cherish how this game operates. Unfortunately, the pool of fellow players will shrink over time as the mandatory story grows longer. Friends will leave, new players will stop coming, and communities will be gutted. The game was designed for a server population half the size that we have now, so many current players will enjoy the breathing room. And everyone else can pick up a better game that's not FFXIV, because let's face it, this game is kind of a let-down. Win-win?

Someone dropped their fortune tellers on the forums again please come mop them up.

In all seriousness, Final Fantasy games are story driven. That won’t ever kill the game, it will just keep a different playerbase than the one you want.......and thats ok . And please go pick up a better game instead of just giving us hope that you will.

[R041]

Someone dropped their fortune tellers on the forums again please come mop them up.

In all seriousness, Final Fantasy games are story driven. That won’t ever kill the game, it will just keep a different playerbase than the one you want.......and thats ok . And please go pick up a better game instead of just giving us hope that you will.

Don't get too smug about the playerbase we've retained all these years, it's not the MSQ that keeps the players around and subbed for 2 years each expac cycle. When we have nothing to do and can no longer feed off of the bright eyed young, we'll just eat ourselves.

[SassyAssassin]

Don't get too smug about the playerbase we've retained all these years, it's not the MSQ that keeps the players around and subbed for 2 years each expac cycle. When we have nothing to do and can no longer feed off of the bright eyed young, we'll just eat ourselves.

Such goes with every mmo. Most people play for two or more years and then move on, come back or not, new players sub when their current mmo lacks content for a while, then they go back as well etc etc, people will keep recycling as long as new content keeps dropping, and they said they’re not letting the game end anytime soon. Unless they mess up completely there will always be those that have interest in story driven mmorpgs and ffxiv can provide a very long story.