(05-13-2015, 01:48 AM)Oswin Wrote:(05-13-2015, 01:43 AM)Graeham Ridgefield Wrote: You needed to be level 58 - 60 in order to access Outland during WoW's first expansion. You needed to be 68-70 to access Northrend during it's second expansion. This isn't anything new for MMO's and I don't feel as though ILVL 90 is a huge stretch. There's plenty of ways to attain it before the expansion launches and even players on a tight schedule will be easily be able to do it.Â
There's the Crystal Tower raids which are fairly simple and designed explicitly to help people gear up easily. There's the stuff that drops from dungeons, there's gear you can buy from the market or have crafted by friends. You can do hunts and trade seals for gear or you can exchange tomes instead. There's numerous routes to go down in other words.
If people feel like they should be handed everything on a silver platter without putting in minimal effort then that's their prerogative. If people are lagging behind due to placing role-play on a higher pedestal then that's unfortunate but not really Square's fault.
At the end of the day it's an expansion - something to expand on what's already there. I like that people are required to get through the main story since they'll know what's going on and it'll ensure that older content remains relevant in the future. Rather than becoming stagnant and rarely used like so many lovely raids and dungeons in certain other MMO's.
The flip side is that you didn't need to do the Plaguelands story, Scholo and Strath before moving to Silithus and doing AQ20. That's the issue that XIV has, it's not just the level requirement but the story/dungeon requirements.
I'd like to think that a significant portion of players stick around in FFXIV because of the story - which is pretty great when compared to the lackluster tales encountered in many other MMO's.
It's not a bad thing to have everybody be on the same page. Nor is it unusual for a journey in an MMO to take time. Would people really enjoy the alternative that WoW embraced which allowed players to skip through the bulk of content - therefore making it irrelevant - and purchasing character boosts with real life money?
If so, WoW's still running for those who prefer that sort of thing.