As someone already said before, I don't have to be a designer to critique game design. If it bothers a lot of people, you can be sure there's something to it that isn't right TO US. Now this someone has also been nice to share her thoughts on how it could be improved, plus The Secret World system as an example, which had been given before but was ignored. I think I did say most games do NOT have a good quest system, which is entirely the point. And you missed it.

There was a reply which said these quests, as described by her, were the main scenario quests. I have to disagree completely. 1.0 side quests were similar to that, but not the main scenario ones. And if levequests are already a go there, kill this, return, get reward system, why the hell do we need ANOTHER? We don't. Sidequests, like any other RPG you've played in the past are not EXP throw-away quests. MMOs introduced this as a means to fill the game with content. Mindless content. I'm not requiring 11 hours to complete a simple quest, Psykotsu, but again, the difficulty to argue with moderation in mind. It's either black or white. I also am of the opinion that those who have very little time to play should stay the hell away from MMORPGs. So implementing content for those people will never change the fact that they will not enjoy the game. Who would, doing one content over and over again for years, without ever being able to enjoy the game in it's entirety?

Now, why would you ever want to activate a quest to go kill a mob? If you want mindless work, go do the mindless work without a silly excuse that a NPC told you to do it, if you won't even bother to listen to its request.

Now I'm sorry, Hestern_Nestern, but most of what I've gotten on these forums so far was conformism, hate towards criticism and infantile responses trying to ridicule the critics, lack of good arguments to do so, mostly repeating what's been debunked over and over again, such as "This is only Alpha". I know my anger clouds some of my points to those who will take offense, but unfortunately I cannot help it. I thank you for your thoughtful reply, however.

I doubt that questing in general will be different. If they showed us the lower lv 10, 20 levequests from 1.0, we could have assumed correctly that that was going to be repeated throughout the game until lvs 40-50, as it was. It didn't change much. And that's the point of it, I think. To make it a standard, easy to get/complete quest, for level progression. The thing that bothers most people is that level progression is important, and should be made the most fun and interesting as possible. Yet, some people erroneously assume actually playing as a lv 50 is the most fun they'll have, and that they should be made to get there as fast as possible.

Battle is a main concern in a RPG game. I don't think 1% of you here denies it, or dislikes it even. We play RGPs because we enjoy fighting monsters as something other than real people. Every RPG in the past lvled you through battle, and if you didn't enjoy it, then it's hard to believe you're here playing XIV. Some may like battle more than others, who also enjoy a good story, mini games, humor, cutscenes. But you have to enjoy battle to some degree. You also have to enjoy a challenge. Until now, games were meant to challenge us, some more, some less. But challenge already means getting you our of your comfort zone. Questing like that doesn't. It doesn't require you to play your role well in a battle, and it doesn't require you to interact with other players in a battle (note how I said _require_). Requiring it is important to make something engaging. If battles are important, questing is the main mode of lv progression, and questing isn't engaging, the game is pretty much screwed.

Battles in XI were the best a MMO has ever had. You can all disagree or argue with me, but no other game I know ever challenged you in such a way. You had to know your job to really succeed, you had to know everyone else's jobs, be aware of a lot of stuff. It was tense, engaging and rewarding when done right. It was also time consuming. I've reached high lv characters in most other games I played, and I never knew their role to the extent I knew mine in XI (because I didn't need to). Nor have I ever encountered difficulty when lvling in any of those games to the point I had to stop everything else and really focus. Arguing that XI's battle is not harder than others is silly. I don't think it can be denied.

But what does that difficulty accomplish? It bonds you to the players you're partying with. As someone else has mentioned here, XI parties were incredibly social. The game's social aspect was deep because of it. There was much frustration in the dunes, qufim, citadel. It was also memorable when you succeeded. I'm sure those who've played through that have very vivid, fond memories of great parties, more than they have of any other game. Now, how many memories can you really get out of lvling from 1 to 50 through a questing system such as this? Remember, this is not something you can just ignore, it's the main way of lv progression.

Did you not enjoy fighting in past games? Is fighting not a main aspect of a MMORPG? Then how can you prefer quest grinding, where you put little effort into your job and battles are usually fast and easy, over party based monster grinding, where you will put all of your skills to use, feel useful, have your new equipment put to the test, tighten bonds with party mates? This isn't supposed to be quest grinding over RO style of monster grinding, even though I personally would prefer that even over quest grinding, mainly because it was very challenging if you wanted a good exp rate. I think my main point and concern is quest grinding is rarely ever challenging. And if this is the main way through which we will evolve, then it can't be dismissed with arguments such as "Not every content has to be challenging". SURE! Make sidequests relaxing, interesting, about exploration, with minigames, or easy battles with a nice story (just the way it was in 1.0). Because those we CAN avoid and won't be doing them much if we don't want to. Make levequests easy and fast to get through, just the way it was in 1.0. But not the main tool of lvling up.

Do you honestly enjoy the quests that were shown in the video? I'd love to hear each and everyone of you defending this system to tell me you actually enjoy those specific quests. If you don't, then you must be expecting something different later, and I don't think it will happen for those quests.

Now I agree parties in XIV were boring, not social, and way too fast and easy to develop any skills with your job. People ended up honing or even learning their skills with their job in Dzamael or Ifrit, which is bad. Battles should be way more engaging than what the end of 1.0 proved to be. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening either.

I'll stress this once so that it can be clear. I don't want another XI. My first disappointment with XIV was the fact they were mimicking the races of XI (similarities ended there, though). But I'm not expecting an XI-2.

Making quests harder and taking away the hand holding, or at least introducing something to the quests which can only be perceived through the quest text would actually encourage players to read it. You can never force anyone to read the quest text, unless you make it so the quest text is the only clue giver, and you take out map indications. Now, since most people will obviously be against this, because it's not "standardized" and up to the current mmo market? or whatever excuse they'll give, at least they could implement something in the text that makes a difference to those who read it to complete it (lore is not a benefit when quests are as bland and uninteresting as those). There's a difference in posture when you care more about those who don't read instead of caring about those who do read. If you make it so reading is required, those who don't simply open up a wiki and complete the quest. But THEY have to do the extra effort, because they're the lazy uninterested people. Destroying difficult quests altogether so that the lazy people can complete it in game is a slap to the faces of those who enjoy an engaging story in a simple quest. They're not losing anything opening up a wiki, but we are with all the hand holding. You're just making it easier for the lazy.

A direct response to someone who clearly missed the point.
Oh look! One of THOSE responses. Let me spell it out for you bro. Not doing this (standardizing the game to the current market) and releasing 1.0 in such a pathetic state, was what made Xiv 1.0 a fail pretty much everywhere.
A game released in such a state doesn't need ANYTHING else to fail. In fact, you'll overlook everything when you can't get a single item fast from the market, your map doesn't work, your UI takes hours to load, and you crash every 30 minutes. Standardizing it was never mentioned as a major flaw in any review.