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[Column] Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn: Is the Barrier to Entry too Steep?
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
In a post titled, “New players and the expansion. Massive barrier to entry. You have been warned,” user Foomerang discussed how the currently-known requirements to access Heavensward content in the future were a bit of a frustrating thing for someone who preferred playing the game as a crafter-gatherer type. So, how bad is it really?
Read on for the rest of Victor's Eorzea Reborn - Is the Barrier to Entry to Steep?
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
In my opinion, the problem is the "forced" Dungeons and trials to progress the storyline.
Even with the extra incentives, no one Queues up for the pre-50 Dungeons anymore. Queue times are ridiculous! And then I am a tank even!!
And when Heavensward is released and People are far into the expansion! Good Luck catching up! Not going to happen.
People will be long frustrated and gone and quit again, before they reach Level 50! As nothing is more frustrating that not being able to progress the story, due to endless Queue times for dungeons and trials!
So, having to finish the storyline all the way up to 2.55 is not the problem. It's all the "forced" Dungeons and trials that are tied into it that are the problem, as less and less people queue up for them.
I am currently stuck myself in post Level 50 story line, where I cannot progress further, as no one is queueing up for this specific Dungeon. So there is no way for me to finish up to 2.55 now for the expansion!
Currently I am glad I did not pre-order and will not be buying the expansion! Pointless when I will be unable to play it!
I cannot even progress my weapon quest as no one is queu'ing up anymore for the Chrimea trial. :-/ Have tried several Nights queueing up.... after 2 hours every time I just gave up. I just don't have the time to sit in front of my PC for many hours at a time in hope the Queue pops up. /sigh
We all have to do things we don't necessarily want to do in an MMORPG. I enjoy the story and raiding, but I really dislike gathering and crafting.
Some people would say, "Well just don't do that then." to which I have to say, "But I have to make money."
I never would have finished my Zeta weapon had I not taken up the gathering professions and sold what I gathered from 1 and eventually 2 star nodes.
These jobs were always meant to start at level 30. Giving new players access to a free level 30 seems a bit goofy to me.
The problem is we are weeks from Heavensward and alot of people, myself included, are doing other things or playing other games to be fresh and ready for the xpac. Sure some are playing story catch-up, but I can see why there would be a drought on trials like chimera when everyone's focus is on heavensward right now.
The queue times will be normal just as soon as the xpac drops. All the tanks (DK) healers (astro) and dps (machinist) queuing for duty roulette and what have you. All my friends are evenly split between the rush a 50 to 60 camp and the grab a new class and rush that to 60 instead.
It isn't a barrier to entry for anyone but a purist of crafting/gathering professions and honestly that isn't the focus of the game at all, it's just a fortunate thing that they made it so damn good.
As far as the job thing goes...yes it is incredibly annoying if you want to play those classes from day 1 as a new player, and no I don't know why they would make a move like that for an expansion KNOWING that new people are going to be drawn in by new jobs....it's retarded.
At least it's easy to get to that point though, and the main story quests give a ton of xp. They're also pretty decently written...definitely not novel works...but considerably better than a lot of others out there.
Ultimately SE made a terrible move by limiting the expansion content to vets, and will lose out on a LOT of potential players who were going to sub (even if only for a month or two) to play these jobs.
My Husband and I just reached 50 3 weeks ago or something like that. Just this past weekend we started on our Level 50 Storyline quest that involved everything from 2.0 on. We are not at 2.4 content in the storyline, the 8 man trials they have we waited all about 15 minutes on average. Total time to get to where we are is 6 hours and have 70 item level after maybe a handful of instance runs, some Hunts which we got seals for gear. So no the content to get into Heavensward is not steep. Is more to keep old content active and not barren like other MMOs. Either you want to advance or you leave its a simple statement. This is the way the developers made the game, they dont want to leave old content untouched after an xpac so they are going this route.
I bet by the time we are done with the content from 2.0 to 2.55 and have a full 90 item level we will have put in about 8 to 10 hours in. And with people forced to do it the queues are fast for these instances plus with the roulette these instances pop often.
Originally posted by Dr_Shivinski
Having them start at level 30 and locking new players out seems goofy to me.
Did you even read?? /facepalm I could care less about the weapon quest now. I rather finish up to 2.55 so I can enter the darn expansion content! But I can't!
You would expect that People are prepping for Heavensward right now and that at least the post Level 50 required Dungeons for the storyline up to 2.55 would have normal Queues. Nope!
How is this going to improve when Heavensward releases? When everyone will be busy playing in Heavensward! With new dungeons and trials! New higher gear levels!
Please enlighten me?
Fact is! There is just no way to catch up anymore! Too late! Not unless SE makes the decision to make all the Dungeons and trials "optional", so you can finish all the story quests up to 2.55 SOLO!
Yes Queues can be a pain mainly if you are queueing solo. My Husband and I queue together and almost all of our Trials we had to do for 2.0 - 2.4 so far we had groups of people queue anywhere from 2 to 6 people queueing together from the same FC or server. It makes it much faster to get the content done. Find an FC you like and run with them. If you are on Siren and can run between the hours of 8pm ET and 1030 PM ET weekdays we would run with you. Our FC been running these as well but on PT time for a few friends of our FCM.
@MikeB Here's the thing, the Final Fantasy Online games (both 11 and 14) has never just let someone come in and pick any class/job they wanted, and it fits the Final Fantasy style admirably. Kind of like a "paying your dues" experience. As a player who has leveled up every class; combat, crafting and gathering alike, I'd be offended if a person who just started the game was able to taken on any of the new classes without experiencing the game at all. Honestly, this game has so much to it and you should want to experience it all and not just rush through and have the newest and shiny things without feeling you earned it.
The problem is that people look at how many games are out there that are Free-to-play (F2P) and it has developed this growing trend among gamers (along with changes in society in "common" behaviors). This is the Entitlement Age and the massive list of F2P games out and in development is truly ruining progress in the development of quality MMORPGs. However, the very small handful of companies that have Subscription based games that refuse to ever go F2P hold the reigns for the best MMORPGs. The quality of these games are far superior, but they will also get a bad review from players who say the subscription fees are too high (because it isn't completely free).
What you have to do is pull yourself away from falling into that "Entitled" and "Gamer ADD" crowd and give the game a true chance and experience it as a new player, not one who feels they should have everything handed to them. I know that can be taken as a rude comment, but the tone behind it is far from it. You'll enjoy the game a lot more if you do what I just said.
As for the quest requirements to get in (after hitting level 50) It will be annoying for players who have been missing out on the content patches, waiting for this expansion. But at the same time, you should be gaining exp beyond level 50 and giving yourself a head start on leveling to 60 on some of your classes/jobs. That and it will prevent players for doing their best to burn through all of the new content within 2-4 weeks and be stuck waiting for 2 months for the next content patch. It does have it's positives.
Sorry but nope. The LONGEST I've waited as a DPS is an hour and a half for anything and that was the exception not the rule. I came back for a while and leveled up a ninja, and got my relic upgraded to novus and didn't have any issues getting a group that weren't expected. That was in the span of about a month and a half.
To offer a solution though, next time ask FC members to join. The vast majority of capped players know those fights inside and out, and with the gear creep they're all mega easy so most don't mind jumping in to help for a few minutes. It's not like you're asking people to commit to running coil with you.....
I can understand the issue people have with the gate. However, for anyone playing the game I have wonder why there's any surprise. If you're not playing the game, why are you even rushing to the expansion? All of the 2.0-2.55 content is still new for you. Enjoy it because it's really good.
There's never been anyone who is a pure gatherer/crafter. You were always required to level a job to 50 in order to be able to access all crafting and gathering. Expansion is no different.
The amount of story content required does not take that long. In 6 weeks of casual play I have managed to finish the 2.0 storyline as a 50 SCH/SMN, 34 WHM, 26 Tham. So all I have left is 2.1-2.55. It might be worth adding that the storyline content is some of the easiest content to tackle in the game.
There are plenty of people running old content. I have no problem doing low level duty roulettes daily. Shortest queues on SCH/WHM - instantaneous; longest queue on DPS - 30ish min on avg. I have encountered 0 road blocks due to a lack of people while leveling up.
I believe the new jobs aren't available at character creation because you automatically start at level 30 which runs contrary to the argument that they should be available to new players.
We're talking about requiring players to finish the main storyline of FFXIV. The center piece of the game. It may be the best story of any MMO and is my favorite FF including single player titles in quite some time. I don't find it unreasonable.
Never thought I'd enjoy this title. Always avoided it. Picked it up on a whim. Massively enjoyable.
Steam: Neph
Originally posted by Moondrift
O and something EVERYONE who is complaining about the Storyline quest from 2.0 to 2.55 is forgetting. They will give EXP when HW is launched. So you WILL GET EXP and Level off these quest. So its not like you are doing them for nothing and not getting any advancement off them. The only reason they are 0 EXP right now is there is no level 51.
This. I was wondering about that before I stopped playing. When you have 500 level 50 quests, how is that going to work out after a level cap increase? I suppose its intent is for new people though, as everyone else will have already done them.
No it is not too steep.
A big problem with many MMOs that they hand everything over to a player - easymode. That player doesn't wind up feeling accomplished and winds up leaving a game because it is too shallow. Let there be easy modes for those that want it. Other people actually want to live and play in a an online world. BTW I only started playing this spring and I am max level in many classes - its not that hard -it is actually fun.
As if you would choose to post this instead of the problem of the gil spammers in game... Like really, MMORPG.com? This topic most people on the forums agreed that the entry barrier is fine as it is. There is a decent main storyline to follow along with, and without it the expansion would make zero sense to players.
Also, who pays monthly for a game like FFXIV just to craft it in it? I kinda think that's a very minor crowd... I hate crafting, in every MMO, hate it with a burning bloody freaking passion. You know what? I still do it because otherwise I wouldn't be able to make any significant amount of gil.
Smile
Yep. And with so many people trying to play catch-up for the expansion there's more people than ever in line for that content because of roulette and people finishing off relics, etc. I VERY HIGHLY doubt anyone QQ'ing about wait times.
My husband and I have no issues with any of the leveling instances at all. Most of the time we put our 2 man party up if we dont have other friends of FC members going at that time up in Party Finder and have a full group within 5 minutes. The PROBLEM is today too many people play MMOs SOLO and expect 15 minute or less queues. Sorry FFXIV is not that game. You make your Queue shorter by making friends and queueing as a group OR use PF and make a premade group. There are a lot of people who refuse to use DF for everything and most of mine and my husband's groups have been PF groups or Premade. Though we used DF for less than 10 instances vs the near 50 or over 50 we ran. Yes we love our dungeons and run with friends and FC members. We only Solo (the 2 of us) queued recently for the last 3 trials in 2.1+ Mog king, Lev, and Ramuh and never had to wait more than 15 mins.
If you and your husband are tank and healer! Then Yeah.... I totally believe you. As there are plenty of DPS around.
As tank, I can Queue up for the roulette, like the 50 story roulette and have Instant pop! Never have to wait.
For the post level-50 quests there are dungeons involved that fall out of the roulette. No one is Queuing up for those anymore. Just like the Chrimea trial. No one. Every night when I try... I get two DPS instantly.... but then it's stuck forever on healers or second tank and you see a tank and/or healer constantly dropping out again as it takes too long.
I am in Europe and on Balmung! It's an utter pain to find a nice FC with enough People on during Europe prime hours (CET). Most are from US or Japan and not on when I play.
I counted about 100 quest from 2.1 to 2.55 so its not too bad. I would figure people would get a minimum or 1 level from all these quest. More Likely 2 to 3 levels. So I wouldnt worry too much about the quest line.
The gear from what I can tell if I want to I can spend a few 100K gil and get item Level 90 as well.
So no it's not too steep I just think some people are being overly dramatic about all of this. They are too use to WOW and just get to X level and move on no problem. Well FFXIV is not going to be an exact copy of WOW.
You sure are entitled for someone who has a permenant +1 at all times. Most people do play MMOs these days solo, so the solo queue times are unacceptable. We get what you're saying but you really don't need to comment on everyone's post stating they should queue with someone else to shorten times. Not very many of us have that luxury.
Now, which one of you will adorn me today?
I'm pretty sure the reasoning for that gate is due to the game differentiating between Jobs and Classes. Jobs automatically start at level 30 because they are unlocked in game. However, you have always been required to start out a new character as a class in FFXIV not as a job. So really we're talking about a gate that's always existed and to the best of my knowledge is not any different than before.
As someone that has been playing FF titles since the original as a child XIV is actually the one I've enjoyed most since X with III/VI being my overall favorite. Not sure where I'd put XIV in rank order but IMO the story is really good.
Steam: Neph