How will new players perceive this game? (A pessimistic outlook)

[Azurymber]

I agree they should tax trades as well. However from my perspective as a 2 month new player, Gil wasn't hard to come by at all in the beginning. I also have found the behest system to be great for parties as I always join the other behest players in a party. I have also found the economy to be pretty stable. I just want to say I agree with your points. I disagree with your view (I'm an optimist)

Lets say you started today as a Leatherworker. You start with what? 50k? that will buy you less than 10 sheepskins.
The game was designed so you could main as a crafter or gatherer without ever having to go out and battle. thats what it was advertised as. That is essentially impossible today on pretty well every craft. And thats because of inflation. And the thing is, it will just get worse and worse and worse over time. I guess if the game is focused on dow/dom it might be fine since you can essentially get all the gear you need overtime as leve rewards. But starting as a crafter is no longer really viable. Its not the same as it was when it was released at least (which is how i think it had been intended to be). When the new dev team took over i think they strayed wayyy off path from what the original devs had seen as the direction for the game and economy. and i think that's what has resulted in these imbalances and problems.


But i love your optimism and i hope it all pans out <3

and as for the quest thing:

It doesn't matter if they come. Its about perception from new players. If they come in to a bunch of horrid quests combined with the other problems i mentioned they will not feel like the games worth sticking with. The quests will always be there, and new players may get them and think the entire games like that. Whereas FFXI had almost all cs-based quests. I mean even years into the game i still had to worry about which npc i talked to in san'doria since so many proc'd a 5 min long cutscene for a quest.

I've gotten about 8 friends to try the game. All have quit within two weeks. Most are now playing Rift lol.