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I'm just throwing out a personal experience here, based on this discussion of buying the game for a specific reason.
So when I got this game, way back in the mists of time of... like a year or so ago, I wanted to play as a Black Mage. When I do RPG's, I usually pick Mages cause mages turn out broken in the end. I imported a character from another RP who was a Mage. I started as a Thaumaturge, because it would lead to my ultimate goal of being a Black Mage.
Fast forward fifteen or so levels and I realize, hey, I can't get into dungeons because DPS queues have this little sideways eight thing on them for queue times. So I putz around looking for other stuff to do in the meantime, and I realize that the game's opened up a bunch of different job options for me. It's not in character or anything, but maybe I can pick up Conjurer and do healing for a bit? Seems to get faster queue times and I don't EVER want to do tanking. I like big numbers and low responsibility for things.
Present day here I am, a Paladin main so vastly diverged from the character concept that I originally intended that I have to start referring to my character by the surname that I made up for them for this game alone so I can keep the two wildly different interpretations separate in my mind.
Sometimes you drift into things that you're not certain at the outset that you'll go into. The game does encourage you to try new things when they pop up, and it's making a real effort to keep old content relevant to you. People aren't going to be left in the dust in the old content while we're going nuts around the new stuff. People will go back into old stuff for glamours, for Zodiac stuff so they get the shortcut on the new relic gear, or even shockingly enough just to help out new people.
Another thing to consider is that Ishgard, the new classes and new features are all things that we, the people who have been playing for about a year or so now, are very much looking forward to, and the reason is mostly that we've done everything that's in the old stuff. We putz around Extreme Primals for magic horsies for crying out loud.
My question is for a new person, are they going to come in and want to play the new classes more than the stuff they have in Realm Reborn content? You can tout the new features of Dark Knight or the majesty of getting into Ishgard at last, but people need context for a lot of this. A lot of newcomers will still go 'I want to be a Dragoon' mostly for the sublimely simple reasons that Dragoons are awesome looking and jump real high. Will they be pinning hard for Astrologian? Machinst? Maybe, but it won't be a significant amount of people.
And of those people, should the game be catering to them? The fact of the matter is that any game that wants to last as long as something like WoW has to do a tremendous balancing act of keeping the veterans happy, while trying to keep every newcomer happy, and let's face facts, it's impossible. Everyone has a specific set of requirements, and SE cannot possibly do right by everyone.
While I never experienced it myself, remember that something like the transition to Heavensward has already happened. People who stuck with the game in Legacy still had to go through the main scenario like everyone else, even if they were poncing around low level dungeons with their Level 50 stats and gear. Maybe people took a different class through, but some people just want to level the one. Should they have been allowed to skip the main story and get to later content?
I've talked for a while, so to sum up. We're jaded individuals. For a lot of people, Realm Reborn content is still going to be a new, shiny, exciting experience. As long as we don't spend ages flying over them poking at the groundbound masses. Cause that's when the torches and pitchforks get pulled out.
So when I got this game, way back in the mists of time of... like a year or so ago, I wanted to play as a Black Mage. When I do RPG's, I usually pick Mages cause mages turn out broken in the end. I imported a character from another RP who was a Mage. I started as a Thaumaturge, because it would lead to my ultimate goal of being a Black Mage.
Fast forward fifteen or so levels and I realize, hey, I can't get into dungeons because DPS queues have this little sideways eight thing on them for queue times. So I putz around looking for other stuff to do in the meantime, and I realize that the game's opened up a bunch of different job options for me. It's not in character or anything, but maybe I can pick up Conjurer and do healing for a bit? Seems to get faster queue times and I don't EVER want to do tanking. I like big numbers and low responsibility for things.
Present day here I am, a Paladin main so vastly diverged from the character concept that I originally intended that I have to start referring to my character by the surname that I made up for them for this game alone so I can keep the two wildly different interpretations separate in my mind.
Sometimes you drift into things that you're not certain at the outset that you'll go into. The game does encourage you to try new things when they pop up, and it's making a real effort to keep old content relevant to you. People aren't going to be left in the dust in the old content while we're going nuts around the new stuff. People will go back into old stuff for glamours, for Zodiac stuff so they get the shortcut on the new relic gear, or even shockingly enough just to help out new people.
Another thing to consider is that Ishgard, the new classes and new features are all things that we, the people who have been playing for about a year or so now, are very much looking forward to, and the reason is mostly that we've done everything that's in the old stuff. We putz around Extreme Primals for magic horsies for crying out loud.
My question is for a new person, are they going to come in and want to play the new classes more than the stuff they have in Realm Reborn content? You can tout the new features of Dark Knight or the majesty of getting into Ishgard at last, but people need context for a lot of this. A lot of newcomers will still go 'I want to be a Dragoon' mostly for the sublimely simple reasons that Dragoons are awesome looking and jump real high. Will they be pinning hard for Astrologian? Machinst? Maybe, but it won't be a significant amount of people.
And of those people, should the game be catering to them? The fact of the matter is that any game that wants to last as long as something like WoW has to do a tremendous balancing act of keeping the veterans happy, while trying to keep every newcomer happy, and let's face facts, it's impossible. Everyone has a specific set of requirements, and SE cannot possibly do right by everyone.
While I never experienced it myself, remember that something like the transition to Heavensward has already happened. People who stuck with the game in Legacy still had to go through the main scenario like everyone else, even if they were poncing around low level dungeons with their Level 50 stats and gear. Maybe people took a different class through, but some people just want to level the one. Should they have been allowed to skip the main story and get to later content?
I've talked for a while, so to sum up. We're jaded individuals. For a lot of people, Realm Reborn content is still going to be a new, shiny, exciting experience. As long as we don't spend ages flying over them poking at the groundbound masses. Cause that's when the torches and pitchforks get pulled out.