The developers really need to take a critical eye to the 2.x MSQ because I don't think they understand how bad it is. A "split" in the story sounds interesting, but it would be easier just to relegate the quests to being on the side. Up until Ultima, there's a lot of tedious and annoying quests, but from what I've seen, it's tolerable to new players. It's later on where people tend to lose interest and quit, but that doesn't mean the entirety of the 2.x story could use some work. I'm really wondering the player retention rate past Ultima and before Heavensward.