Length MSQ from all the expansions - it is getting insane

[Volgia]

So I had this friend who was watching me stream the savage raids and he was excited cuz and wanted to try it, but he got bored because there's around 10 hours before he actually has to play his class in someplace that matters (Satasha). He complained that there's too much talking and that's when it hit me that the MSQ can be a bar entry to new players especially during ARR where it feels like a drag.

It's kind of hard to justify that no really the fun starts when you reach level 50 and hit Ishgard and the full duty roulette, leveling alt jobs in your same character is already atrocious and unfun, I can't think of people wanting multiple alts and the exp they would have.

[Atelier-Bagur]

So I had this friend who was watching me stream the savage raids and he was excited cuz and wanted to try it, but he got bored because there's around 10 hours before he actually has to play his class in someplace that matters (Satasha). He complained that there's too much talking and that's when it hit me that the MSQ can be a bar entry to new players especially during ARR where it feels like a drag.

It's kind of hard to justify that no really the fun starts when you reach level 50 and hit Ishgard and the full duty roulette, leveling alt jobs in your same character is already atrocious and unfun, I can't think of people wanting multiple alts and the exp they would have.

Just tell your friend the truth. Playing this game (at this current state) just for the raids is not worth it. The endgame is so shallow compared to other MMOs and if he isnt invested in both the story and game itself then FFXIV isnt what hes going to like.

[Volgia]

Just tell your friend the truth. Playing this game (at this current state) just for the raids is not worth it. The endgame is so shallow compared to other MMOs and if he isnt invested in both the story and game itself then FFXIV isnt what hes going to like.

I mean for a new player he's got a lot of content to play through, not just the end-game raids. He's got a lot of dungeons, trials, ARs, all of it shiny new, but all of that is barred behind 100 hours of talk-quests and the occasional dungeon and solo duty. I glazed through most of ARR and it wasn't until 2.5 that I thought the story was entertaining, if I had judged the game for the story I played through ARR I would have considered FF14 generic.

[MistakeNot]

So I had this friend who was watching me stream the savage raids and he was excited cuz and wanted to try it, but he got bored because there's around 10 hours before he actually has to play his class in someplace that matters (Satasha). He complained that there's too much talking and that's when it hit me that the MSQ can be a bar entry to new players especially during ARR where it feels like a drag.

It's kind of hard to justify that no really the fun starts when you reach level 50 and hit Ishgard and the full duty roulette, leveling alt jobs in your same character is already atrocious and unfun, I can't think of people wanting multiple alts and the exp they would have.

No really, the fun is the MSQ and various sidequests. Duty roulette is just drudge work you do because you need to. Endgame is where the game ends and the grind starts.
Don't agree? That's too bad.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I mean for a new player he's got a lot of content to play through, not just the end-game raids. He's got a lot of dungeons, trials, ARs, all of it shiny new, but all of that is barred behind 100 hours of talk-quests and the occasional dungeon and solo duty. I glazed through most of ARR and it wasn't until 2.5 that I thought the story was entertaining, if I had judged the game for the story I played through ARR I would have considered FF14 generic.

Yeah but all the dungeons, trails and AR are still easy and shallow too compared to other MMOs. Why pretend that it isnt. To the new player it looks cool and pretty but actually playing it you realize how simple it actually is.

The battle content is just a small cheap thrill. Also the story gameplay content stays relatively the same throughout. If somebody didnt care about story going in, theyre not going to get invested in the story that happens later unless the quests become interesting mechanic wise. You still have to go through so much dialogue, cutscenes and talking for the entirety of the msq. Its not going to matter if the story was prettied up to cover the dull questing experience.

ARR questing is just the same as HW questing. HW questing is just the same as SB, and Shb and EW. We need to stop gaslighting newer players that "it gets better". No it doesnt. The narrative gets interesting sure but the gameplay aspect of it doesnt. If youre not invested in the world and narrative, you wont be by HW.

[Atelier-Bagur]

If anything, I would just suggest your friend to buy a story skip and just skip every cutscene in this game if they really want to see the raids.

Its a shitty solution for sure but if theyre that adamant to play the content, theres no need for them to suffer through the whole story if the narrative and gameplay didnt interest them.

[Troxbark]

I mean for a new player he's got a lot of content to play through, not just the end-game raids. He's got a lot of dungeons, trials, ARs, all of it shiny new, but all of that is barred behind 100 hours of talk-quests and the occasional dungeon and solo duty. I glazed through most of ARR and it wasn't until 2.5 that I thought the story was entertaining, if I had judged the game for the story I played through ARR I would have considered FF14 generic.

At the end of the day it's old and irrelevant content.

There needs to be an option to skip MSQ for new players, just straight to the level grind where everything just automatically unlocks at the appropriate level.

[Thurmnmurmn]

The issue with how the MSQ is told is that it's just cutscene to cutscene to cutscene, oop, you have a dungeon, back to cutscenes.
Even as someone invested in the story, it's way too much story and not enough gameplay. I'd argue it even gets worst as you get to the newer expansions. I mean they reduced the amount of dungeons per patch so now we have even less gameplay per story.

[Atelier-Bagur]

The issue with how the MSQ is told is that it's just cutscene to cutscene to cutscene, oop, you have a dungeon, back to cutscenes.
Even as someone invested in the story, it's way too much story and not enough gameplay. I'd argue it even gets worst as you get to the newer expansions. I mean they reduced the amount of dungeons per patch so now we have even less gameplay per story.

The best solution they could do is to at the very least severely cut down on dialogue heavy cutscenes.

You know, the ones where its just the characters talking and doing the basic emotes?

Yeah get rid of those and instead save those resources for actual cutscenes where you have motion captured animations and important plot progression. They can then pace themselves with keeping exposition and dialogue centric scenes to be in-game while still restraining themselves on its usage.

Basically the devs need to start focusing on better pacing their story because FFXIV's msq is horribly paced from beginning to end.

[ThaCa]

There isn't enough things people can do with each other while progressing MSQ. Even though roulettes make good use of dungeons and such, the story can be very lonely experience to some people. Not to mention the combat takes forever to get off the ground, it wasn't this bad in HW or even SB, but it has gotten progressively worse with bloated potency and lack of buttons.