The Great Filter of FFXIV



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42 thoughts on “The Great Filter of FFXIV”

  1. I think we need to let go of the idea that new players need to experience the story to have fun with the game. There have always been story skippers who still stuck with it and had fun because FFXIV the game is also good. The suggestion that people need to experience the story to be invested in the game sells the rest of the game way short.

    As for solutions for people who want to jump to endgame, I think the most pragmatic solution is to give a story skip and 1 job skip to anyone who buys the base game + the latest expansion (or equivalent, like the complete edition). No additional purchase, cut through the hundreds of hours to get to endgame. If someone wants to run MSQ post skip, there's always New Game+.

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  2. what i would love to see is a Alternate New player expiriance
    e.g u can make a new charicter right into the dawn trail story but ull still be able to go back and do ARR story and their may be lots of cool cosmetics and such for doind the hydalkin and zodiark story or somthing
    that way people who wanna get right into the mmo content they can but if the story intreigs people theyu can go back and play the story

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  3. I want there to be a third scenario guide. Right now we have the Main Scenario Guide and the New Game+ Scenario Guide. What if the Main Scenario Guide as we know it today became the Legacy Scenario Guide while a new one, the New Scenario Guide would take us through Dawntrail and beyond?

    How character levels would work with this though, I have no idea. It's a lot of work creating content that is for level 1->90 in Dawntrail. But perhaps Dawntrail dungeons could scale players upwards or something?

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  4. My issue with them doing a 100% from scratch start with DT is that the story will be VERY boring for at least 1-2 expansions if they do this.

    To keep the story going strong and be engaging for veteran players they must still include past events. You can't just forget everything that has happened in the story thus far and go back to being a green adventurer off the boat.

    If they include the past event context however then fundamentally new players that skip straight to DT will be very lost.

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  5. started in july last year, got to "to be continued" last week, it was 100000% percent worth it, it is now one of my favorite FF games, and im still hungry for more, i cant wait to enjoy an expansion on release when dawntrail comes out 😀

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  6. It took me over two years to get caught up to endgame. I started right before Shadowbringers dropped and got caught up in September 2021. Had it not been for COVID, I might not have caught up until 6.3 or something.

    Also, it really looked like they were going to make 6.1 a new on-boarding point, as that's where the Unending Codex is given to the player. Part of the purpose of the codex is to get caught up with the Hydaelyn/Zodiark arc without having to trudge through it. The biggest problem I see, honestly, is that the game teaches players mechanics gradually. So if the devs wanted to do this, they would have to implement a tutorial section for people wanting to skip ahead to 6.1. At the very least, have a few "mini-boss" fights where they learn things such as stack markers, spread markers, tank busters and their basic rotations at different levels.

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  7. The experience of going through ffxiv without the entire community screaming that you won't have fun for the first 3 expansions worth of content is much more enjoyable than the constant JUST IGNORE ALL THESE DAYS AND HOURS AND WEEKS WORTH OF CONTENT I KNOW ITS BAD OMG I KNOW ITS SO BAD ARE YOU HATING LIFE???

    FFXIV gameplay is the same from start to finish, questing in ARR is flying point to point and watching cutscenes 90% of the time, thats the exact same gameplay as Shadowbringers and Endwalker, anyone saying anything else is too lost in the sauce and hasn't touched grass from a new player perspective in a long time.

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  8. I wish they would remake arr for new and old players. roles are really boring early, most dungeons suck and the story could be streamlined even more. duty roulette would be more fun if we could do old dungeons for new players that are a bit more enganging than how the old content currently is. its sad that i cant really recommend people my favorite game because the start is a slog to go through for most people and isnt really representitive of expansion content

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  9. I finally got my friend into XIV and they were really invested for a time. They just hated going to through the story quests. I mentioned the skips on the mog station and that was the beginning of the end. They skipped ARR and bought a lvl skip to 70 and they stopped playing very shortly after. I guess it killed any drive to keep exploring because its the same game except now their character was OP. They still loved ARR soundtrack though and listen to that.

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  10. I have sporadically dropped 14 over the last 3-4 years. Taking a few months to almost a year off at a time.

    It is a slog, with so many fetch quests and having every to do so many miniscule things. Like wandering around Radz at Han two or three times to talk to 6 NPCs who club you over the head with exposition, and then getting a long cinematic that shows the same exposition.

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  11. I was already thinking about GW2 when you were acknowledging the split between the two games living within FFXIV: the multiplayer endgame and the mostly single-player story game. In particular, my mind jumped to the model GW2 uses for PvP as a way to have a separate game experience using the same avatar. If some of the multiplayer content at endgame could be decoupled from the story (either with a new Bozja-like zone that scales everyone's power and has its own power progression system, or a raid series that deals with baddies that are relatable by the end of ARR and can be accessed and reward players from the end of ARR to Dawntrail), there is space to bridge the gap and give meaningful multiplayer gameplay before reaching endgame.

    The main required hooks are meaningful rewards from this content for endgame players and novelty to veteran players. Retreading old content isn't going to keep us veterans interested for long, but if the 12 Gods Alliance Raids had been accessible to everyone at lv50+, scaled player power accordingly, and the gear drops scaled every ten levels to be of a useful ilvl, that could have provided space for many players to take on fun group content earlier in the MSQ. Or, if Bozja 2.0 is accessible by a ship out of Limsa Lominsa at level 30+ and anyone can go there and work up a power ladder to unlock emotes and mounts while also earning xp, newer players can participate in that game space alongside veteran players and everyone can experience something new, something rewarding, without requiring much MSQ. There's space for a group content experience to reward newer and veteran players in the same content and make the MSQ feel complemented by the multiplayer endgame instead of feeling like a blockade to the multiplayer endgame.

    Also: Audio sounded just fine, nice work with post-processing! And old/new hair looks awesome, bunderful even!

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  12. "We've made it possible to play solo"; oh no they haven't! I'm rushing to get my NA alt up to Endwalker (just gotten into Heavensward), and there are so many dungeons/trials/raids that cannot possibly be run solo to get through just the MSQ, let alone the unlock quests (for, for instance, unlocking flying). It'd be a great start if it were possible to do all dungeons/trials/raids in Duty Support so that I, an EU player currently spending all my time on NA servers, didn't waste most of the day running around totally alone waiting for NA players to be awake so I can run dungeons and the like… (Me, currently sitting outside Thok Ast Thok (Hard), waiting for America to wake up so I can continue MSQ…)

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  13. I think it was a mistake to keep the old main characters for Dawntrail. If the Scions retired at the end of EW, you could’ve easily made it so that a new player has an option to start from Dawntrail and not be totally lost with the narrative and characters.

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  14. The subscription for a nice story just feels bad. Sure, it is free for the first expansions, but it is so limiting. Even the free isn't exactly true if you are paid ahead but trying to catch up on earlier content either.

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  15. It’s really hard to fix this new player issue because they designed the game in a way that you NEED to put 300h into the game before you can play the current content. They just need to change the way they design the game because this issue will only get worse every expansion.

    The best solution I think is to not increase the level cap everytime a new expansion comes around. Keep the story separate from endgame content aka don’t make it so that a player needs to play the story first before they can play the endgame. Ofc right now they have designed the endgame stories to go alongside the main story, but for this to work they should stop doing that. Make raid/other content stories completely separate from the MSQ. So when the new expansion comes you can either play the MSQ or play the other content in whichever order you want.

    What’s the reason for a new player to unlock Bozja only after they are done with ShB MSQ? All this content should’ve nothing to do with the MSQ yet it’s mandatory because it unlocks the content.

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  16. LOL, you are still around? Reminding everyone that this creator is both transphobic & a racist. Please do NOT support people like this. If you must watch the trash they put out, be sure to use one of the many easily available browser add-ons that prevent the channel from getting clicks/views/ad-revenue & positive engagement.

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  17. Personally, story games don't hold my attention well enough, and I find myself paying attention to a 2nd monitor too much for good progress and to really get into it.
    I would like them to implement TTS for all non-voice acted script, even if it's a bit janky. ARR, HW and SB are so much reading.

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  18. I really hope they add one, i plan on coming back for dawntrail, but i haven't touched FFXIV since i beat Endwalker, so i'm sure there's tons of quests i'll need to do and honestly i don't care anymore lol, i've forgotten so much of endwalker i'd rather just skip straight to the next expac, i skip alot of the dialogue anyways (unless it's an interesting moment)

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  19. Good video, Zepla! It got me thinking about the Roulettes system and whether or not it's an issue. I know I'm guilty of just logging in to do roulettes and logging out again when drought hits. Or opening PF only to see nothing but PUG savage groups and going "no thanks". I know some folks only bother with the Expert roulette, too… As it stands right now the roulette system does not incentivise running the same one repeatedly; instead It's just "go up/down the list"!

    There's also several pieces of abandoned content in ARR that really do need addressing. Guildhests, Grand Companies, and Adventurer Squadron come to mind as three examples…

    I do have to take issue with the claim of "FF14 can be solo'd with the duty system" due to 8-player trials and the Crystal Tower alliance raid being mandatory.

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  20. Its definitely difficult starting out nowadays I had played ARR upon release (stopped before any expansions dropped) and decided to come back last month to start over again. MSQ has been pretty empty and lonely so far as MMO content is concerned (Up to Heavensward now). Most of the MSQ areas have been empty and devoid of players really highlighting how behind current content I am anytime I stop to take in my surroundings. I'm playing on a fairly high pop server, Leviathan, so I don't think its the server I chose either.

    In my experience, it'd be nice if there was a way to get caught up faster so it feels more like an mmo and less like a single player game. I came into FF14 with no friends who play the game so that's been tough (not having anyone to help or relate to when it comes to the grind). I want to get current but am afraid the daunting task of completing MSQ will eventually scare me off. I'm only 25 days in and have been trying to take my time with it as to not get burned out but its hard when all you want to do is get to the end game content with everyone else.

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  21. Yeah I started about a year ago and was getting BORED so bad with the pacing of the cutscenes and all I wanted to do was dungeons lol. I kept going “when do I get to play?” I had to forget about fomo and skip every cutscene and even then I nearly quit several times because it was so frustratingly ling just to get to the points where I could “play the game.” In the new expac I plan to try viewing the story again since i’m not trying to rush through 10 years of material in a short time.

    I don’t regret skipping cutscenes at all, and don’t feel a lack of connection to my character.

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  22. I've thought about this, and if Dawntrail really is the beginning of a new story, I think it wouldn't be that bad to allow a starting option from there, maybe with a recap movie. However, I think if they are going that route, all players who chose to start at the midpoint should still be able to play through the Old Saga just as well, as in, you could always switch between which MSQ you want to focus on at any point in time. Don't know how that would work with leveling, but then again, outside of instances, synced content, most of the story content is trivial anyway.

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  23. the reason why I love ff14 oposite to other games is how I've never felt rushed to max level. Ive played for thousands and thousands of hours, yet I still do raids, dungeons and everything only for max level in other games (im just lv 70 with 5 jobs after 1 year of playing) everyday)

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  24. I think its just a complete no to skipping to the end(if its your first time. Maybe even have a story questionaire of basic plot points, that anyone who played could answer without issue.)

    That way those into Raiding, and only care about raiding could just focus on that.

    While those who will care in the long run about story, will focus on story.

    With the increase of Upper La Noscea, i had hoped theyd add new options for low level zones and improve the old fates. or etc.

    But wed just have to wait and see.

    Syncing isnt really a issue.

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  25. A friend of mine joined to play with our friend group, but soon gave up because of how long winded and exhausting ARR is. He got really bored less than halfway in, and frustrated because the best thing we could say to him was, "it picks up in Heavensward." He was locked out of most of the zones that our friend group frequented and when we all had MSQ to catch up on, he was completely left behind. I think I was the only person who had the time and energy to play on an alt through some bits of ARR with him, but he still gave up and stopped playing altogether. I don't think ARR is insufferably bad and to be honest I would replay it over Endwalker any day, but for a lot of new players who have seen glimpses of where the story leads, I think the long slog as a brand new adventurer doing new adventurer things can be kind of hard. When I first started, I was completely left out by some former friends and forced to speedrun because I got sick of them telling me about how much fun they were having without me, and ultimately teasing me for not no life-ing the game in order to catch up to them. I've since stopped playing because I lost all interest in the story halfway through the Zero arc, and I was very disappointed in Endwalker, personally. About six people that I knew personally all played before Endwalker, and now all of them have left the game. None of us have played in over a year. I really hope we find a reason to return one day, but I think it would take a lot for us to spend more money in order to try again. After the hundreds of dollars spent as a result of being subbed to the game for years, it has left a very bad taste in my mouth. $15 spent every 2-3 months does accumulate into a pretty hefty number once you've been playing for long enough. And when a lot of that time during the last year I was subbed was spent alone or rushing through an expansion that felt was a waste of my time and money, the realization of how much I had given to the game really started to hurt.

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  26. I basically watched the MSQ on YT on x2 speed because I'm a silly goose

    Edit: not only the MSQ, but all manners of content, from raid questlines to relic weapons.

    Crafting and gathering I didn't watch anything (except for some jobs that I was really interested in), I just read the dialogue logs on Garland Tools or Gamer Escape

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