What most turns new players off from FFXIV?

[enthauptet]

IMO one big issue is there are too many servers so when you make a new character there are barely any other new players around playing with you so it seems like the game is dead. Another point to go along with that is it's pretty much impossible to try to find an FC or whatever yourself as there is no way in-game to do it (even the out of game stuff sucks). Also party finder should unlock right away.

[SagaSoluna]

I have invited three friends to join the game, and all of them told me that while they were extremely excited to follow up the story, the ridiculous amount of fetch/talk quests and the fact that between every bit of interesting plot developement there´s a dozen courier quests made them and a bunch of levels to obtain, frustrated them.

Precisely because they loved the story so much, they wanted to continue playing it, and not be pulled away from an epic evil god chasing to go collect 10 chocobo tails.

[thunderbreak]

None of my friends will play with me because of subscription fee and time sink.

[Windi]

IMO one big issue is there are too many servers so when you make a new character there are barely any other new players around playing with you so it seems like the game is dead. Another point to go along with that is it's pretty much impossible to try to find an FC or whatever yourself as there is no way in-game to do it (even the out of game stuff sucks). Also party finder should unlock right away.

What would seriously help with this is if there is an estimate of how many players are active displayed on the servers somehow. I don't even know how the server listings sort themselves in the char creation menus (least active top and most active bottom?)

[Mugiawara]

Streamline the MSQ at the very least.
The get X and Y, then go to Z...and go back to Y then finally return to X just to go to the new A NPC is annoying when it
has nothing to do with what we're doing. Most of it is better pushed aside as a random quest if anything.
The number 1 one is the Tea thing for Titan, which was comically unnecessary.
Making the MSQ easier to push through will let new players catch up with us, people who like the story
get to it quicker, and those of us who want to push through be done with it. Everyone wins.

because FFXIV is a mmorpg not a single player...if we could level with MSQ alone we would be done in 2 days.

And to be honest, I am sure a lot of people don't really play 100% for the storyline to start with.
It's FF, yea sure but doesn't mean everyone's going to play for the story. It's not the best story in the series.
[IMO it picks up at HW. Horrible in 2.0]

[DPZ2]

The number 1 one is the Tea thing for Titan, which was comically unnecessary

Are you speaking of the 'banquet' in Costa del Sol? I'm assuming so, since "Tea with Titan" doesn't appear on my list of completed quests.

What does that series of quest do for you? When you start, you have just finished up Haukke Mansion and are free of worries. Except for rumblings about Titan. Do you rush off at level 29 to face Titan? No! You don't even have a job stone yet.

In order to prove yourself worthy (and, basically, level up to 34 or 35) you are given tasks to ensure that you have the skills to beat Titan. Yes, it seems like a lot of "get me" quests, but it introduces several new areas to play in game while ensuring you gear up. You get an introduction to 'harder' instances with Brayflox.

I suppose they could have just had you go out around Costa del Sol and work at FATEs until you hit the appropriate level for Titan. No questing involved.

[Masekase_Hurricane]

Care to post a link to support this? Perhaps you might want to speak for yourself and not for most people.

I hear that every day from new players in my FC. Other things I hear, lack of large group content pre 60, too many fetch quests (tasks not quests), repeating everything over and over again i.e dungeons for story/ level lock out or tomes,lack of open world content, RMT, long PvP queue, lack of houses housing and very slow/long Duty finder queues (since Palace of the Dead).

All 50 end game gear is irrelevant, could fix this by bringing a system in to augment the gear with higher ilevel stats. Another thing why does palace of the dead need to be 15 why not just have it unlock from level 1. Players get used to partying with people from the start and get to see how others play.

Make FATES interesting why just leave quirky FATES just for events i.e doing certain FATES on mounts or all players changed into frogs you have to eat so many flies. Well anything except the same fetch,kill and escort that we see in FATES, levequests, quests, story, guildleves etc. At the same time stop with every new piece of content being involved in new/old FATES or repeating dungeons.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Lets not forget Garuda's series of quests for a corrupted crystal...

Yep. Oddly, this one didn't bother me near as much. I think because it wasn't obnoxiously long and at least had some small relevance to the story. Sure, the nonsense of you making the wrong corrupted crystal or whatever was silly, but it still played slightly into battling Garuda. Could be coming off the Titan fight left me with enough of a high to slog through it unnoticed though. I do love Titan.

Another one that comes to mind was that hunter storyline from Dravian Highlands, the one with the Miqo'te girl. Some of the moments that stuck out in my mind as questionable. The first being where she wanted flowers, so we'd run to talk to her, after doing so the flowers would spawn right at her feet. Um, did you really need me to run all the way over here when they were right on your feet? The other was a point where you had to again talk to her, she would walk away and vanish, then we'd talk to her a spot maybe 10 feet away, this was repeated four times. Call it a lack of dynamics thing but quests like that would be far more interesting with the npc walking the whole way while giving live speech while we follow them.

I... don't recall this one. Which probably says a lot about the quest itself, xD.

[Maero]

Damn fates for events and fetch quests, soooo many fetch quests...
As example, the Yo-kai event which as we all know is fates. I actually feel bad for players that are new as they may not get any credit, some do not even have mounts yet....
SE need to move away from the fetch quests and event or (Relic) tied into fates, it's just a bad decision and makes them look like they are not creative and use recycled content
I am still playing though after 3 years, do take breaks here and there though. Still like the game

[Alberel]

The most commonly cited reason from those I know to have tried the game is the slow pace of combat in the lower levels. I ultimately think this comes down to two major problems:

1) The game takes far too long to give you any really fun abilities. The first 20-30 levels for many jobs is simply spamming a handful of skills mindlessly. I understand that this is likely intentional in order to not overwhelm beginners, but this really isn't fun for any player already familiar with MMOs.

2) The GCD feels too long at low level. This one is really frustrating to me because the pace of combat at higher levels is actually fairly fast as most jobs have multiple sets of OGCD skills to weave in constantly. Unfortunately new players don't see any of this for a long time, and since it's never explained anywhere most don't even realise they can do it. They end up sitting there for a full 2.5s waiting to use their next skill.

The solutions to these problems would be to lower the levels that many skills are acquired and to teach players about using OGCD skills. I also think the jobs with lower GCDs such as MNK and NIN could do with being highlighted as such for newer players to pursue from the start if they want a faster combat pace.