The new player experience...

[Zarchery]

There is nothing wrong with spoon feeding people when they start, especially when there are no players around in that area anymore to guide or aid them.

Except that with the Records of Eminence system, they are being spoon fed, and this still isn't enough for you, apparently. Even if you're spoon fed, you still need to know how to swallow.

[Kraggy]

Any new player will have no idea of anything, a returnee that does not know to read ffxiwiki or similar sites again will have an awful time, even then you have to know what to look for.

'Twas alway thus, when I first started in April '05 if you didn't have a copy of Brady you might as well uninstall and go elsewhere.

The game now is hugely better in several respects, but the one thing it's retained is the total opaqueness of the quest system, which is tied to total opaqueness of the reputation system .. the game give no clue reputation exists beyond a hugely inscrutable NPC interaction that gives zero clue how rep. is gained and you have no idea an NPC that won't talk to you today will talk to you tomorrow when you've bumped to the next rep. tier you don't know exists.

It's a damning indictment of a game that is largely unplayable without a 'guide'.

[Kraggy]

Except that with the Records of Eminence system, they are being spoon fed, and this still isn't enough for you, apparently. Even if you're spoon fed, you still need to know how to swallow.

You clearly have no memory of what it was like on your first few days in the game, knowing no one and understanding nothing. One of the core problems with XI these days is the amnesia suffered by so many long-term players.

[Zeargi]

You clearly have no memory of what it was like on your first few days in the game, knowing no one and understanding nothing. One of the core problems with XI these days is the amnesia suffered by so many long-term players.

But the thing is that time is LONG gone. I remember having no clue what to do, but I had people to help me in my linkshell or in parties. Now a days, those parties aren't there, but the knowledge of those people is. The Wiki is open to everyone and has that information ready at a click of a button. So a new player has MORE than enough resources to do this. It just takes a little foot work on their part. FFIX had a quest line that most American players didn't even know existed, but that didn't stop some people from learning it by playing the game. It's an RPG, and in the same sense the First Final Fantasy was the exact same, you had to talk to people, and had to learn which ones you needed to talk to to get a quest or main story line completed. But then again, I grew up playing Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. People nowadays just don't play games to actually PLAY them.