Same start town/city?

[bebop_bo]

did they not think that friends/family would be playing this game together!

Having to start in different places unless we choose same race/class (which would be a little backwards!) until we are higher level aint good, i now know theres a way around as you guys mentioned, but still.. its seems complicated to do that when all i wanna do is group up with my son from the start as hes new to mmorpgs so wanted to show him the ropes etc & have some fun grouping with him!

im not too impressed!

but thanks for info anyway guys, appreciated

[Chiramu]

It has nothing to do with race. You can be any race you want and start in any of the starting cities. The only reason the classes are separated is because of the class quests. Anyway, your son can always go Lancer or Bard or he can go Conjurer too. You don't have to keep those classes all the way to 30, you could level them to 15 or something and head to another city to pick up the class you want to play as.

How can you be unimpressed with the game before understanding the system?

EDIT: if your son wants to tank he can go Conjurer for 15 levels and then travel to Ul'dah and pick up Gladiator. For Paladin you need Gladiator level 30 and Conjurer level 15.

[Slatervonjager]

did they not think that friends/family would be playing this game together

Of course they expect family and friends to play together. but that doesn't mean they have to cater to just that single group. The first 15 levels of the game, are basically the learning experience. the quests are simple and easy, and there are no dungeons(until you finish a certain lvl 15 quest at least).

To be fair, if your son is new to MMOs, then you should really encourage him to NOT play as a tank first. Until he can get a decent grasp on how parties work, he should just be doing DPS. After a bit, he can go for tank. You can learn all classes on a single character, so its not like he'll never be able to be a tank on that character.