I am extremely concerned about this

[Kaurhz]

The reality is - For as good as the MSQ is lauded to be -- and as core to the game as people believe it is -- Ultimately the length of the MSQ is bordering far too close to unmanageable.

People could very well view it as the best story in all of existence if they want to - But none of that matters, literally none of it matters if many players quit before they actually get to the stages where the MSQ is actually good, or if they quit because they essentially need to burn through 400 hours of story, before they are able to do the stuff they want to do.

I think the only thing I would change, and granted I know they won't -- But create different points in the game where players can decide to skip to, rather than the only choice essentially being 6.1 or 6.55 or whatever.

[sindriiisgaming]

The reality is - For as good as the MSQ is lauded to be -- and as core to the game as people believe it is -- Ultimately the length of the MSQ is bordering far too close to unmanageable.

People could very well view it as the best story in all of existence if they want to - But none of that matters, literally none of it matters if many players quit before they actually get to the stages where the MSQ is actually good, or if they quit because they essentially need to burn through 400 hours of story, before they are able to do the stuff they want to do.

I think the only thing I would change, and granted I know they won't -- But create different points in the game where players can decide to skip to, rather than the only choice essentially being 6.1 or 6.55 or whatever.

Right now ppl can skip cutscenes, but not dungeons. So they still learn the basics of everything. They can go from low level 15 healer/tank to 80 healer through the game and still grasp the core gameplay mecanics. Which continue to intensify as the level bumps up. A full skip of 90 levels would be completely overwhelming to most new players. If u want to sell an expansion to new ppl make the new jobs start at level 1. Most ppl are already overwhelmed by there level 70/80 kits

[Kaurhz]

Right now ppl can skip cutscenes, but not dungeons. So they still learn the basics of everything. They can go from low level 15 healer/tank to 80 healer through the game and still grasp the core gameplay mecanics. Which continue to intensify as the level bumps up. A full skip of 90 levels would be completely overwhelming to most new players. If u want to sell an expansion to new ppl make the new jobs start at level 1. Most ppl are already overwhelmed by there level 70/80 kits

If I am understanding your post right... - People can still skip cutscenes, and even if you imposed this on them, you're still putting them through 100-ish hours of pure slog, not to mention this is really a non-solution - The problem still exists wherein the story still accounts for 100-400 hours of work before they are at a relevant point in the game where they can play regular content with other players - Many of their friends whom may already be veterans of the game.

I'm sorry but putting players through 400 hours of story is far worse than the problem of dungeons being slightly elongated. My mentality with this problem is that if a player actually wants to learn their class, and wants to learn the game, then they are going to do so regardless of whether they elected to effectively skip to 90 or not. - Just in the same vein you can have many players that go through the entire course of the game with having little or no enthusiasm for learning the class. You can have people go through the entirety of Level 1 - Level 90, and not know a single thing about their class, or about the core gameplay elements of an MMO for that matter. -- It's entirely a decision on the part of the player as to what they do with that experience, and no amount of micromanaging a players experience is going to change that fact.

[Jojoya]

They can go from low level 15 healer/tank to 80 healer through the game and still grasp the core gameplay mecanics.

Can do is not will do. They can go through dungeons auto-attacking if they wanted. Most parties aren't going to notice, those that do won't always kick, and if the player does get kicked they can always requeue.

At the same time, someone can skip all the dungeons then research and practice their rotations on a striking dummy before picking up the MSQ.

Again, those who want to learn to play the game competently (or better) will do so. Those who don't want to put in the effort won't.

[NYCLouisGamer]

The reality is - For as good as the MSQ is lauded to be -- and as core to the game as people believe it is -- Ultimately the length of the MSQ is bordering far too close to unmanageable.

People could very well view it as the best story in all of existence if they want to - But none of that matters, literally none of it matters if many players quit before they actually get to the stages where the MSQ is actually good, or if they quit because they essentially need to burn through 400 hours of story, before they are able to do the stuff they want to do.

I think the only thing I would change, and granted I know they won't -- But create different points in the game where players can decide to skip to, rather than the only choice essentially being 6.1 or 6.55 or whatever.

That's a fair point! Something else that isn't being mentioned: all expansion storylines are not created equal, and that is subjective.

Everybody has a storyline they love, a storyline they hate and ones that are in the middle. For some people, their favorite storyline might be ARR and then they don't enjoy it again until Shadowbringers. My point is that there is no safe way to skip expansion storylines when they are all connected. The only exception would be people that don't care about the story.

How about this idea? If somebody is not interested in the story, they can start in the current patch (and still have to pay for the prior expansions). Except that they would also be required to do short training dungeons with Duty Support. One every 5 levels until they reach level 80. Each job would have its own unique set of training dungeons. If they fail the mechanics, they have to try again.

Frankly, I wish we had that option for everybody!

[Eastwall]

Honestly.... When check queue, if everyone in party bought the related expansion, Just check if party leader unlocked it storywise...

[Taliriah]

Lmao, "extreme concern" about complete non issues mixed with a dash of gatekeeping and sprinkled with unwarranted elitism.

Never change, mmo players.

[Kinazu]

I honestly think that giving a skip to be pretty up-to-date with the current playerbase is a good thing. I think its long overdue. I have a few friends and colleagues wanting to play, but knowing that they have to go through hundreds and hundreds of hours of story is turning them off by a landslide. I do find 6.1 to be an odd place to start, I think starting on 6.55 Pt. 2 with a unique introduction quest beforehand that quickly explains what has been going on and who the new characters are, and a solo-duty that shows you a quick rundown of how the game's mechanics work (dungeon markers, etc.) would be a good start.

Though if they do actually let people start at 6.1 that is going to be a rude awakening to many if they don't have previous MMO experience. Some of the trials can be a bit... hectic for someone who just booted up the game, that much I will agree on.

But yeah, I'm all for it, even if it'll mean a couple of extra wipes in the 6.1-6.5 content range.

[DiaDeem]

[Rithy255]

I feel like ARR is the biggest gatekeep to new players actually having fun.

I think the thing is that, this is because ARR is a terrible experience, The story for one is very boring, but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired, now obviously a new player shouldn't get everything at once. But the fact is most Jobs at 50 play nothing like 90 jobs, which is odd just feels terrible for one. Personally I feel as if they should invest more into making ARR and early content up to date, both for job design and time it takes, I'd argue that it could do with even more trimming and just making the fetch quests less annoying in general.

Would I be upset about a story skip? No I wouldn't I do like making alts but i don't really wanna go through ARR or pay a lot of money just to skip it quite frankly. I also don't think the story is important to everyone, you certainly might be confused if you skip content (I seemed to follow HW+ Quite well despite skipping 80% of ARR on my first playthrough), but I think it's such a hard ask at this point for people to just go through the entire story just to get to current content.

Thing is skips already exist, the only difference is you have to pay currently for a Skip, I think getting rid of that paywall is important.