(10-31-2013, 11:54 AM)S Wrote:(10-31-2013, 09:22 AM)K Wrote: "F**K ISHGARD AND I HOPE BAHAMUT COMES BACK AND LEVELS THIS WHOLE MOUNTAIN".This is a sentiment I can wholeheartedly get behind.
Personally, I've been enjoying the story, and the content gating hasn't really hit me too bad since I've generally tended to only be a level to three levels beyond required, so while (especially) the first dungeons found me getting a bunch of gear that would have been great several levels prior, as a whole story/gameplay dealie has been fine for me.
Note the bold, please.
On the other hand, I finally persuaded my friend to try the game. I'd had an extra copy (since I'd had 1.0 and played it like, twice, and hated it, but thought I had to rebuy the game for 2.0- which I hadn't, leaving me holding a second copy). So I got him to install it and give it a go, thankfully well after the main slew of 1017 and 90k and all that rot was done with for the most part. He's playing, he's having a good time- mainly grinding through mobs and fates even from the start. He's an old-school EQ1 player and that's his preferred playstyle. Finally, he asks me, 'when do I get to a dungeon?' I told him 15, and he was excited because he was already getting close. So I had to burst his bubble... "Well, you know all those quests you didn't feel like doing? You have to do them."
I haven't seen him in game since, and every time I ask if he wants to play, he says 'yeah, maybe later, but first let's <insert something not FFXIV here>'. I'm pretty sure he's not coming back. I... truly don't see why a lot of this stuff has to be gated, especially the 'MMO' bits. I don't see why the game can't have an option for you (for instance) to hit 15 and grab a quest similar to the other optional unlocks, where you get to run out and talk to a guy by the dungeon and hey, you can do the dungeon. Or why (as is the case with many/most MMOs) you can't hit the right level, and join a grand company to work for your mount (yes, I know that's part of the quest, but it ought to be easy enough to include a flag, and Storm Sergeant Recruiter Wedge says, "Back off, guys, we've already nabbed Storm Corporal Biggs, you can't have him" and move along.
Short version? Forcing everyone to follow a single gameplay paradigm is bad, since people play MMOs for a variety of reasons. What works for one person (like me, who has loved everything but the number-soup errors and gilspammers) does not work for another.
If I remember correctly, during Beta 3, most of the "attunements" just required you to walk up and talk to someone, and whammo, bammo, you had access.
Which was both good and bad. Â Even in the game now, it's sometimes hard to know (when you're first getting started) when you are missing a dungeon because it's a side quest. Â Most of the dungeon quests originate in one way or another in Vesper Bay, but the one for Cutter's Cry, for instance, is a random quest in the freaking Ul'dah markets. Â Which can be easily missed if, for instance, you were like me and started in Gridania and purposely left all of the lower level Ul'dah quests alone so that I could come back on my first alt class/job and not have to fate grind so hard.
![[Image: hFalP38.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/hFalP38.jpg)
