Quote Originally Posted by ApplePie View Post
How is it not an artificial barrier? It is something in game that you have to spam to gain access to something that is obtainable, just an artificial barrier in your way to access it.... That's why SE moved away from Reputation because it had no special point beyond to put barriers from people with certain items to waste our time to gain more money. CoP and beyond didn't have fame requirements. Am I the only one who noticed this?
Maybe I just don't understand what you mean by artificial barrier. In the sense you described, you could say leveling is an artificial barrier, since you have to spam battles to gain access to things. HNMs were an artificial barrier since you had to spam them to get obtainable items. What you call a barrier, I call a mechanic. They all worked in their own right, and together, gave players options on how to obtain things while diversifying content.

And you didn't have to spam repeatable quests to build fame, you could have also just done all the quests available, that just wasn't the path of least resistance. It was a hell of a lot faster to buy tons of Yagudo Necklaces and trade them in to gain fame.

I enjoyed the quest system for what it was, and enjoyed the big rewards when I got them. I enjoyed it because the rewards were more than just a virtual pat on the back from some NPC. I got something I could use, or sell, or discounts at stores. Unfortunately, we can't say anything similar for the current set of quests in XIV. They reward us with common items, all of which are supplied from crafters already. If they give us a fame system, it alone won't be enough to make people want to quest.