Discuss : Have boosts been detrimental to the playerbase

[sindriiisgaming]

It is in my opinion that both job boosting and or story skipping have both been determental factors for the players. Both the new players who grab them rushing for engame and the players who get dutys with them. One potential mitigation may be to put an accountv restriction on skipping. Say you want to skip to endwalker or beyond depending when you see this post. We'll with such mitigation in place, you would first need one character at dawntrial + in order to do that. - I understand such a change would impact xivs profits, but somethings are much more important such as the health and dignity of the game and players.

Now seeing how yoshida was considering a flat out skip to dawntrail so people don't have to play the game.. I think this discussion is more important now than ever.

We should also mention the effect that allowing new jobs to be started higher and higher level is having on the health of the game. I personally am overwhelmed by super high level job kits on launch because I don't get to experience learning them through leveling. Sure I can go farm 1-80 dng. But such a move is an utterly pointless waste of time that doesn't help offer anything good for my time. (The exp is nothing) so I'm either forced to facilitate the games desires over my own or just waste my time on a motonous grind. There should be an optional toggle to reset all job exp to 1 on new classes

But I speak only for myself, and I wish to know what your opinions are on the matter and if they've helped/hindered you

[DiaDeem]

Now seeing how yoshida is considering a flat out skip to dawntrail

Final Fantasy 14 won't let you blast past its story for free anytime soon because Yoshi-P worried 'the value of the game itself will be diminished

"For the story we are not currently planning any kind of new skip feature"

[sindriiisgaming]

Final Fantasy 14 won't let you blast past its story for free anytime soon because Yoshi-P worried 'the value of the game itself will be diminished

I took some time off the game and likley missed this article when it came out. Thank-you for brining it to my attention

[Eraden]

Mao only used job boosts for side jobs. Mao main job, BLMs, Mao learned mostly by doings. Mao thinkings though, that without story skips and job boosts, would be lots peoples whats not even try play game because thems can't play with friends right aways. Mao nots know how much of financial hit to SE would result if story skips and job boosts taken aways. Mao nots want try that experiment though. Mao has feeling Mao would nots like result. Is up to friends and FC mates as well as players whats done the boostings, to help players learn ropes of how play characters. Mao thinkings in some ways this kind of silly question because durings most of Human History, peoples in communities taught young ones how to do thems crafts by showings and watchings over the young ones. For some reason, is lots people in this day and age whats no longer believe in thats.

[rawker]

It is actually, especially if the player using said boosts are completely new to the game with little to no experience playing mmos like it and are used to gacha mmos and not respecting puddles.

[Jeeqbit]

It is in my opinion that both job boosting and or story skipping have both been determental factors for the players. Both the new players who grab them rushing for engame and the players who get dutys with them.

I mean, not really? People are just pretty casual and not very good at the game, mostly. There are lots of "returning players" who simply forgot the game and it's as if they skipped anyway.

One potential mitigation may be to put an accountv restriction on skipping. Say you want to skip to endwalker or beyond depending when you see this post. We'll with such mitigation in place, you would first need one character at dawntrial + in order to do that.

When skipping was added as a feature, they based the decision on data from other regions where they do it like china - most people who skipped already had done the story on an alt, so they felt that the data showed it was not usually used on the first playthrough.

[Valence]

I don't mind story boosts. Not everybody enjoys the story and as someone that does thoroughly enjoy the story, sidequests and the lore, I don't think i'm too far off by saying it's probably an absolute unit of a chore for people that don't enjoy it. Same thing, Dawntrail is a brand new story arc where it's literally not a problem to not know of the previous arc at all. It's the perfect spot for someone new to start and I'll always advocate for it, by increasing player retention and make them interested in trying out the former story arc after as a result of them liking the game.

I mind job boosts a lot more though. There is very little reasons for those to exist.

[Kemiko]

I don't think their presence adds much, which at the same time, removing them wouldn't also remove much. Watching most of the playerbase level up a job from 1 to 90 they're pretty much as skilled as if they bought a job skip. In that same token, people who are more likely to buy the story skip would just be manually skipping the story anyway. Someone who's checked out enough to spend money to skip aren't going to be any less checked out if you force them to mash keys to blast through it.

Also personal opinion: But despite Dawntrail being a new arc, I don't think previous arcs hold no merit. The players involved lore wise, their journeys and development (or lack thereof) will always be important and that context lost if not experienced by the player.

[Kaurhz]

No they aren't.

The amount of players dropping out of the game due to needing to play through hundreds of hours of story before they even have a modicum of content that they can engage in is detrimental more than anything.

Also, I would argue that it's no different from before their existence to now. The ability to improve and read your tool tips is something so fundamental, which I would argue if people wanted to read their tool tips and improve, then they would do so regardless of whether they skip or don't.

Equally, I would argue people that don't want to improve, nor read their tooltip, aren't going to do so regardless of whether you make them (or don't make them) go through 200 hours of story or 20-40 or so hours of levelling.

Feeling overwhelmed by job kits for new classes is semi-understandable, however, they aren't going to make people go through 100 levels of a new job, as this would take away from their ability to do a lot of content on launch of an expansion, e.g., want to raid early? Well that's gonna be rough -- Want to do the extreme primals? Well I guess you'll have to wait. -- Putting them at a -20 of the new level cap is ideal, IMO, as it still gives players that leeway to learn the class, and if I am being honest, everything of what you have said can quite as easily be balanced out by spending 45 minutes reading your tool tips, and a further 1 hour on the striking dummy.

[Merrigan]

I'm traditionally against skips, but on FF I think they have their place. So yes: understanding of the story suffers, that's for sure. It's also true that running into a tank who's used his skip and falls into a dungeon for the first time can be... Chaotic (but no more so than a guy returning to the game after a long break).

Having said that, I think you have to remain pragmatic. The game can't keep this narrative structure and prevent all skips. It's feasible to ask players to do three expansions in a row; four is fine. How about five? That's starting to sound like a lot, and it's going to be a serious problem for anyone new to the game from now on, even if they're a more story-oriented player. The rigidity of ff's story (in terms of its structure, i.e. the fact that all the content is locked behind this story) needs to leave a few doors open, otherwise it's going to put off a lot of players. There are two solutions here: either change the way things are done, by giving less importance to the story (... erk, no), or offer free skips, one with the purchase of DT and only at the time of this expansion (a new arc = perfect).

So on the contrary: I find Yoshida's decision questionable. Because he's delaying a decision that's going to have to be made sooner or later, and he's probably delaying it for the wrong reasons (buying skips).