Why does NG+ not award experience?

[Nadda]

I'm curious as to what the official line Square has in regards to this.

Is it because it could be manipulated by botting? I understand not giving out quest rewards but surely there is no harm in quests giving experience for completion.

To explain my experience further;

I had yet to make use of the New Game Plus feature before figured it be nice to level up one of my side jobs my Monk through the Stormblood quest line since it's a bit thematic and I could level and play along with a friend who just started Stormblood.

When I had gotten to stormblood content back in the day I was still doing post HW content so by the time I got there I was already level cap of 70. So It'd have been nice to have played through it as intended with a friend experiencing it the first time and level a side job to boot.

I know many probably aren't too concerned with this since leveling is already so easy but for me it would make the New Game + a better feature overall if you could level alternative jobs with it.

Again if there is a downside to this I am unaware of I apologize. I think NG+ should have quest experience for them. If it's to relive the same story we already have an unending journey to reminisce. There should be some practical incentive to want to NG+ because to be fair Final Fantasy Quests are not exactly engaging enough to play through an expansion with no reward.

[Iscah]

Probably to stop bots from finding the most efficient MSQ chapter and running it into the ground.

There's no need for a practical incentive. Play it if you want to re-experience the quests for their own sake; leave it if you don't.

Just because you don't find the storyline engaging doesn't mean that everyone feels that way. I've made use of NG+ to replay specific storylines when I wanted to review the plot events. Personally I like making alts though, so I'd be doing a start-to-finish MSQ replay though a new character rather than NG+.

[Nadda]

I find the storyline engaging. Which is what has me so conflicted. I will concede it probably does have something to do with bots but I don't know if that's exactly why things are the way they are. More to your point however, as I said I love the "experiencing the story part"

But the Quests however are not very engaging most the time outside the occasional solo duty the formal goes something like this:

Talk to npc (a)
Pick up x number of sparkly things on the ground. One of the sparkly things is purple therefore there will be one or two easy to deal with mobs.
Talk to npc (a).
Talk to npc (b).
Talk to npc (c).
Talk to npc (b). again
walk to a destination on the map. use item or emote.
Talk to npc (b). again
Go to place on the other side of the world.
Talk to npc (d)
Talk to npc (e)
Talk to npc (f)
Use emote or item on npc (g)
Talk to npc (g)
Talk to npc (f)
Go to location on the map. Pick up x number of things.
Talk to npc (f)
Go back and talk to npc (b)
npc tells you to go to where npc (h) is
Talk to npc (h)
use a camera to take a picture of a certain mob in the background.
Talk to npc (b)
Go back to npc (h) give him a letter.
npc (h) tells you to go back to talk to npc (g)
npc (g) tells you to talk to npc (d)
npc (d) gives you an item to give to npc (c)
npc (c) tells you to talk to npc (b)
and finally you go back and report to npc (a)
*text only cutscene plays*

I do apologize for how obnoxious that was but it was to emphasize my point. None of that is very story rich but it must be done.
I just think it be nice to experience the story the same way you would for an alt.

[Iscah]

I just think it be nice to experience the story the same way you would for an alt.

But that is what NG+ gives you now. The Unending Journey is a poor substitute – it's all the inbetween walking around, conversations between objectives and non-cutscene dialogue that fill out the quests and give you that experience similar to starting a new character.

And talking about the bare mechanics of what we do for a quest is not the same thing as why we are doing it, what conversations we have while we are doing it. You can't say "it's not story rich" because we can be getting a lot of deep lore or major character moments while doing those actions. "Pick up three items and deliver them to the destination" can be as mundane as picking flowers or as solemn as the aftermath of the raid on the Waking Sands.

Sure, not every quest is deep and insightful, but that's still "the way you would experience the story on an alt".

Either you want to play the story, in which case experiencing the story is itself the reward for carrying out the go-here-do-this motions, or you think viewing the cutscenes is a sufficient substitute and can stick to doing that.

[Hasrat]

I'm curious as to what the official line Square has in regards to this.

Is it because it could be manipulated by botting? I understand not giving out quest rewards but surely there is no harm in quests giving experience for completion.

To explain my experience further;

I had yet to make use of the New Game Plus feature before figured it be nice to level up one of my side jobs

You've already discovered the reason why. MSQ is reasonably fast easy lazy exp. If NG+ offered that exp repeatedly, large swathes of players would simply do that over grinding out dungeons and roulettes.

[Nadda]

But that is what NG+ gives you now. The Unending Journey is a poor substitute – it's all the inbetween walking around, conversations between objectives and non-cutscene dialogue that fill out the quests and give you that experience similar to starting a new character.

And talking about the bare mechanics of what we do for a quest is not the same thing as why we are doing it, what conversations we have while we are doing it. You can't say "it's not story rich" because we can be getting a lot of deep lore or major character moments while doing those actions. "Pick up three items and deliver them to the destination" can be as mundane as picking flowers or as solemn as the aftermath of the raid on the Waking Sands.

Sure, not every quest is deep and insightful, but that's still "the way you would experience the story on an alt".

Either you want to play the story, in which case experiencing the story is itself the reward for carrying out the go-here-do-this motions, or you think viewing the cutscenes is a sufficient substitute and can stick to doing that.

Respectfully if you could please stop trying to frame me as someone who cannot enjoy the story on its own merits.

I've tried being accommodating and reasonable but it's getting a bit out of hand with a false presumption I'd like to squash before proceeding.

We both have a mutual assumption of the reason Experience is not a reward in the NG+ because of bots? Is this actually the case? Who knows?

We cannot even discern this intent from Square because of this distracting false dichotomy you've constructed around my original inquiry. "You either want to play the story" or "Think viewing the cutscenes is sufficient"

It's neither A or B. At least in my case.

The story is indeed its own reward but is that truly an incentive that makes sense for such a game mode? I'd disagree with the notion that experience gain at the very least not be conducive to a NG+ experience you're playing. Most games that use the term for features similar have had many variants, such as increased difficulty or alternate endings. However in all cases to my knowledge are a continuance in the progression of one's character. So why not here? There lies the question.

Now if we were to create a third option, option C - The way you'd experience the story on an alt (character in this case) is how I would like to experience the story on an alt (job) where at the very least I can gain experience with which to progress my character and enjoy the story.

I cannot understand as it remains unanswered the reason why such a method would be denied when so many other access points for experience gain already exist. I believe that if I can discover the legitimate reason for its removal, I can be satisfied. However, our combined speculations do not satisfy.

I hope that is respectful enough to say.

[Frizze]

I believe that if I can discover the legitimate reason for its removal, I can be satisfied. However, our combined speculations do not satisfy.

Perhaps considering the history of this game mode will help. New Game + was added to the game during the Shadowbringers expansion(the earliest version went live with the 5.1 patch). Players had long asked for a way to replay the MSQ(short of an alt) so they could re-experience the solo duties along the way as well as the non-cutscene dialogue that couldnt be re-viewed via the Unending Journey. Originally it ONLY featured the MSQ but over time theyve added important side stories, class and job quests, and a bit more. Considering that this was an added system 3 expansions into the games lifespan, the devs clearly didnt just forget exp. No, they considered it and purposefully left it out. I dont remember any interviews/live letters where this was covered, but knowing it was a Shadowbringers feature added in the 5.1 patch would give someone a decent starting point if they wanted to look for one.

With that said, this must be mentioned. If our speculations dont satisfy, then you will likely never be satisfied. Unless someone finds an interview i have forgotten(not impossible - im certainly too lazy to google-fu this so it might exist), then our speculations are all you are ever likely to see. The devs post on the english forums with the frequency of bigfoot sightings, and thus your question will almost certainly not get an official answer here.

[Moomba33]

This topic has come up a few times over the years. To my knowledge, we've never gotten an explanation from the devs.

Here's a feedback topic from when the feature was first announced: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ave-no-rewards...

As you can see there are people who were disappointed by the lack of rewards, but there were also a lot of people who do enjoy playing the story content of 14 and were happy to be able to redo it without making an alt.

For myself the biggest strength of New Game + is I can play through the content with my max level character with all teleports and flight unlocked. It's a very smooth way to experience the game without having to worry about hitting level gates and having to stop and grind. It's also really nice to be able to replay side content stories without getting another character caught up to the relevant expansion. And like others have said, I find it better than watching the cutscenes in the inn since that's missing all the in between conversations and solo instances.

[Jojoya]

I suspect it's because the players who had asked for the ability to replay the MSQ said they didn't care about getting rewards, then just wanted to be able to replay the story without making another character. SE kept it simple and gave them exactly what they asked for.

While personally I would have been happier if they had added XP, I can also see some potential downsides if it was rewarded. There would be players complaining that if it rewards XP then there's no reason for it to not also reward the other items. Some players would want the XP rewarded to scale to their active job level instead of remaining at the level set for the quest. Other side content added to the game primarily to be a source of XP for alternate jobs could go ignored. Many players would take advantage of roulettes less often or avoid them altogether, possibly causing more problems with queue times.