XIV Heavensward/Ishgard Access

If you are "tired" of this discussion, then do us all a favor and move on. The usual snide and smug remarks are not helpful - classes are not "content." Classes are how you experience content, some people play games and are attracted to them primarily by merit of what they get to play as. Some people enjoy games differently than you do. Okay? Now, for everyone else:

In short: Right now there's a lot of rumors and conflicting information on how the new jobs are accessed. We know that they must be unlocked from within Ishgard, and that Ishgard's main story requires completion of the present main story up to and including the 2.55 stuff. That is about all we know for sure, as far as I'm aware, as far as dev posts and the XX and XXI stream followups. There's talk of level 30 being a requirement, or having to finish all the current + 2.55 to get the new jobs, there's a few stray quotes here and there; there's nothing on the Heavensward page, nothing on the dev tracker, and it's frankly annoying. I know a handful of folks personally who are buying the game/resubbing just to play a new job, and they're going to be rather upset if they find out they can't without putting in a ton of time and burning a bunch of content that they want to experience as their preferred job!

What I'm asking is really simple - can we please get a simple, concise, and public statement about this? There are many of us who want to play the new jobs very badly and just want to know, for sure, what is required!

The common consensus seems to be that the new jobs require completion of all content up to 2.55 - if that is the case I ask humbly that it be reconsidered while there is still time, for the reasons below.

I feel that gating the new jobs behind this much content is bad for a variety of reasons. Level 30 seems far more reasonable if some kind of gating is absolutely necessary - the individual would be familiar with the game and you could also require, perhaps, some main story progress (i.e., as far as required for normal level 30 job unlock, maybe?) 10 makes more sense to coincide with ROG, but that's just me.

First off, for new and returning players, it's extremely misleading. Someone who is unfamiliar with the game will see the new jobs, get excited, and buy XIV+Heavenwards. They'll sit down, login, and find out they can't make any of the new ones. They'll shrug it off and make a character, expecting to swap at, say, 10, just like rogue does, or maybe at 30, like every other job, but they can't. They'll get frustrated and look it up online or search around and, suddenly, find that they have many many hours ahead of them to get to the job they want to play. On none of the game's advertising does it say "these jobs can't be played for 60+ hours of gameplay, sorry!" Most anyone even vaguely familiar with MMOs would never anticipate so much time to be required to play a couple jobs that, as far as they'd assume, would be available at the start or very early on. Even someone familiar with the game might be attracted to buy/resub to try out the new jobs and assume similar requirements to existing jobs, but be totally unable to without a significant investment.

At the very least, the Heavensward site should make it VERY CLEAR that the new jobs cannot be played remotely soon after getting the expansion. This is incredibly misleading to new players and, as I said, even vets who aren't combing through the rumors and speculation with a fine tooth comb. If someone sees  "these classes are in heavensward, yay!" they reasonably expect to be able to play them relatively quickly.

Please realize that not everyone enjoys playing a half dozen jobs, or even two or three. Some people very much like to dedicate themselves to one single job, while doing the bare minimum on the others for cross-class skills, etc. It isn't laziness, it just *isn't fun* for them to play these other jobs. Forcing people to play so much of a job class they don't want to play is a really good way to force someone to not want to play at all.

Second, it really kills the fun of re-experiencing the game. Some folks enjoy starting a new character with an expansion when it comes to new jobs and races - it gives them a chance to re-immerse themselves from the start. They can relive the main story and earlier parts of XIV, which are wonderful and often under-appreciated due to the pressure to hurry and rush along. Yes, I know, you can still "do that," but it's not the same when you don't get to play the job you want, you're forced to consume content in an undesired role, and a hell of a lot of content at that! If they're forced to do all this content as fast as possible just to actually get to the job they want to play it really defeats the entire purpose starting anew to re-experience the game. In this case they may as well pick up some character they already have and hammer out Heavensward in a few weeks, and forget about the game again. They're being forced to play something they flat out don't want to play just to get to where a desired job is, and worse yet, they are forced to consume great amounts of content that they'd rather consume as their desired job!

It's a lot more fun to work through the lower dungeons and primal fights and such *as a desired job,* which may be one of the new three for new and returning players, and I'm sure others feel the same way.

Third, most all MMOs which have added new classes have made similar mistakes - they start at, or very near, level cap, or have peculiar or heavy requirements to unlock. All of these have been changed or, at least, never repeated by the same company. I know there's a tendency in the genre to re-create the wheel every time around, but learn from what's already out there. All this does is punish players who want to start new and re-enjoy the game as well as those who especially like one of the new jobs, it punishes new players and those who don't spend hours researching every little detail jus to be safe.

There's really no down-side to making the jobs accessible sooner and more easily - as it stands if someone wants to rush and cap fast, they still can. But if someone wants to take it slow and enjoy the new class and all the content XIV already has to offer, while working towards the new content, they can't. All it does is harm the players who want to experience as much as possible of the game as their desired job, while saving the folks who wish only to rush a few hours of grinding at best.

Fourth, once someone does finally unlock the new jobs, they'll be stuck with very few options of how to play it - FATE grind, Dungeon grind, etc. All the story and intrigue and excitement of experiencing the world is all but gone after the first job or so is leveled up, it's just FATE grinds and repetitious play like that. That's a very unappealing thing to look forwards to once you finally do get to play as the job you want so that you can level up to reach Heavensward. It makes the prospect of the new jobs far less exciting. I'm sure Heavensward is great and all, but pretending like XIV doesn't have a great deal of existing and enjoyable content is a disservice to the game, and encourages the trend of excessive rushing so common today.

Lastly, I think it sets an even  more confusing tone. XIV has undergone so many changes.. We went from just disciplines, to also jobs, to two jobs per discipline but only once, then to a new discipline that's unlocked at 10.. We need something predictable. I'd still prefer to be able to start at level 1 with new disciplines/jobs, but having the jobs unlockable at 30 seems a fair compromise. A sidequest allows access to Ishgard, perhaps exclusively for access to these jobs.. The lore is far from hard to figure out - tension is high, Ishgard is desperate to fill out the ranks of those who can use their precious knowledge and skills, ergo they reach out to burgeoning adventurers!

In fact, doesn't this make more sense? If I'm some awesome level 50 guy, why would it behoove Ishgard to have me roll in and somehow poof down to a level 30 something or another that's new to me, when I'm already geared and decked out? What would that even benefit them lore-wise in terms of manpower? "Hey guys, you sure are a level 50 awesome adventurer.. here, take 20 steps back, take this new weapon, and go return to where you came from and learn how to use it. Thanks!" It's rather counter-intuitive! It makes far more sense for Ishgard to catch adventurers as soon as they have the ability to grasp the new abilities of the new jobs and use that to guide them to greatness, not shove them back and away strangely. I absolutely love lore, I think it's super important, but there's no reason it cannot work with the jobs being accessible sooner. If it's a sheer issue of continuity, well.. the game already has lots of "ignore the man behind the curtain" with NPCs and their presence in various times and places. A small, special instanced portion of Ishgard for each guild would be super easy to do. Talk to an NPC someplace, ride to Ishgard to talk to your trainer, repeat until you can properly enter Ishgard at higher level, if that's the case. Or have this individual out in Coerthas to sneak/escort young adventurers in, etc etc. Heck, even XI had gating for new jobs but it wasn't so extreme.. and that says a lot!

Please consider allowing access to the new jobs at least as soon as 30. In a perfect world I think 10 would be fair, precisely the same as ROG, even though I think leveling them from 1, like every other class in the game, would be awesome. Even if they don't have 1-30 quests, that's fine. Even if they don't have a base "discipline," that's fine too!

In short, you guys have a lot of confusion on this topic - nobody really knows for sure how this works right now, enough that people are making all kinds of connections and assumption. The current consensus seems to be that all of 2.0-2.55 is required, and if so, then I beseech you to reconsider. You are taking one of the most fun and appealing parts of a game for some people and misleading new players about it, while also potentially shutting out many present or returning players from enjoying a class they want to play. People like to play the class that appeals to them, and they'll work for it a bit, but not many are going to want to put in enough time to get all the way to 50, and then do ALL the delivery quests and trials and dungeons to get through that, and then, after all that.. find out they can only FATE/dungeon grind their brand new shiny job, since they were forced to consume all the content already up to the expansion. It's just bad design, guys.

At least clear up the confusion on this topic publicly, so that we can all plan accordingly. And, if you are locking the new jobs behind so much content, please consider changing it while there's time. Unfortunately I had to resub just to post this discussion, since players who purchased the original CE at 1.0 and have played a ton and all are apparently barred from discussion and involvement with the game unless they are constantly paying. :(

Thank you for your consideration.

Regards,

A long time fan of Final Fantasy in all its many forms.