New player feedback (AKA reasons why FFXIV has seems troubled keeping newer players)

[nuyu11]

FF14 game could me more interesting if they make a proper notification or highlight about our debuff, buff & skill cd like a timer and flash animation if that skill is usable again.
And the most annoying factor is latency, this game have the worst latency issue in my mmo experience.

[Niwashi]

The ability to relatively easily join up with friends for group content is, to me, fundamental for anything that's multiplayer. I say relatively because it's okay to have a little extra effort, but, the problem with gating content is that it prevents friends who have gone through those gates from playing with friends that have not. This, imo, has no place (or at the very least, a minimal place), in a multiplayer game, otherwise you're just kind of going at it the wrong way.

This I would agree with, but I disagree with your idea that FFXIV lacks it. You can start playing together with friends right from level 1 if you want to, and many people do that. The first FATEs are at level 5, the first instanced and exclusively group content is unlocked at level 10. Full scale dungeon runs can be unlocked either by leveling to 20 or by advancing the storyline to level 15. And for the storyline ones, as soon as you start unlocking them, you get several in a row, so you're never stuck with only one unlocked dungeon to choose from. The whole rest of the time you're leveling and going through the story, you can also do group content with your friends any time you want to.

When you talk about needing to complete the storyline, you're only talking about the endgame dungeons. That's not where you get the ability to play together with your friends, as that's something you've been able to do all along. Level sync ensures you can do so regardless of what levels your friends are at. (Plus the game's multi-classing opportunities mean its fairly common for friends to start leveling a new class alongside a friend who's starting the game, so that drastic level sync isn't even necessary.)

[Jonnycbad]

1.)))))))GCD is WAY too long. Like, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too long.

Some people don't seem to think this is an issue, and have no problem with it. That's understandable. I think the people that say this game is no slower than any other game must have been struck very hard in the head, or must have played almost no other MMORPG on the market. The GCD is way too long. This is less of a problem at 30+ because you have more to do, but if you want to know THE SINGLE MOST LEADING CAUSE OF NOT BEING ABLE TO RETAIN NEW PLAYERS? This is it.

This is an online RPG, not Marvel vs Capcom.If you want fast paced fighting, go get an arcade stick and play a fighting game.

[Urthdigger]

Maybe we should remove all cooldowns. Just hammer that 1 key as fast as you can!

[E-Zekiel]

This is an online RPG, not Marvel vs Capcom.If you want fast paced fighting, go get an arcade stick and play a fighting game.

I dunno if I can properly express how unhelpful this is. If you actually take a moment to read a bit, you'd see that I've made comparisons to other online RPGs, including SWTOR, GW2, Tera, and EQ 1 & 2. Funny enough I never compare to WOW because I only played WOW a week and didn't like it...actually largely because of how boring the low levels are.

On only being low levels for a few days: This is less of a factor leveling alts because of exp bonuses, and actual experience, among other things. You have to endure it for longer as a new player. I did my two week trial, and wanted to play a rogue...I had to level another class first, though, so I went with pugilist since I knew I'd need it later. This meant my experience was pretty prolonged. In fact, one of the players I referred did the same thing - pugilist to 15, then rogue, and quit when his rogue was 20ish.

To reiterate, about story:

I have no issue with having a lot of story content. This is fine. My issue is with gating content behind it, and how particularly cumbersome this is for new players/characters. SWTOR was my main game and I still play it alongside FFXIV, and story is one of my favorite parts of it. However, if a significant number of the flashpoints were gated behind story content, I would be angry about that. There was one decision in one character's storyline I couldn't make my mind up on for like a month. The game did not decide, however, that most or all of my progression had to stop for that month, because I was indecisive in the story.

[AzraelX]

ry.

well looks like you are clearly playing the game still b/c ur character avatar changed. I tihnk others posted everything I would have. if ff14 is not ur cup of tea- don't worry ff14 gets better- than i hope you find a mmo that does.

[AzraelX]

y.

I geti t its a looooooooooooonnnngg climb to level 50.

but thats how all FFs are.always have been and always will be. Its always a slow claw at the beginning but at the end i feel most people would say it was well worth it and u get way more than i think most would expect from a MMO.

Another thing lv-50 is meant to be a long tutorial so the hand holding ends at level 50 and with the expansion coming - its gives more reasons to invest into IMO the best MMO- I think in due time it will encompass WOW.

[Endeleon]

I'm a new player and I completely disagree with almost every point you made. The combat in beginning game was fine, even fast(AND I PLAY GLD). The MSQ are the main reason I like this game. The artwork and art design is some of the best I've ever seen.

So yeah like everyone else, I don't think this game is for you...

[Madsamurai]

Frankly speaking the story is getting so much better through the patches. The story from 1-50 may be kind of cliche at best though i love it, i love the story lines from the classes i played as well (PUGILIST one especially.. gosh really love it) I don't want to spoil anything for you but the plot twist is taking a little bit from Game Of Thrones approach in creating some shocking surprises.

[Inconcern]

As a new player (started just under a month ago) my only real problem so far is the amount of irrelevant main story quests. I like the story, but don't make me go buy a chicken egg for some unrelated npc so he will give the belongings of some other unrelated npc while I'm supposedly in a hurry to find the Sylph elder. Endless quests of talk to this guy who then tells you to talk this guy and... led my friend to quit playing around 15 levels into the game.

It's not like I don't have other suggestions for the game but that's the big one. I wish they just made them into sidequests when they have little or nothing to do with what's going on.