New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[van_arn]

To be completely honest all would be solved if ARR got cut heavily and condensed, with an exp increase to make up for the cuts.
It would make for a better experience without all the meaningless quests, and those who would not care for story can skip through everything at their leisure.

I played WoW the majority of my teen years, the only reason why I got the story of the overworld was due to me having played the Warcraft games previously.
Unless you sat there and read every quest description you would literally not be immersed in the story, you'd just be a roaming character going from zone to zone leveling up via dungeons and sidequests - because that was your purpose, to level so you could raid - I still got 7 great years out of that MMO regardless but in terms of telling a story FFXIV is superior.

This changed later on, I left the MMO before Pandaria came out, mind you. So I am not gonna comment on the current state of storytelling in WoW, but from what I experienced back then telling the story via huge block text (basically - optional) is more or less bad design IMO.

FFXIV due to limitations has the same text, however, it's cut up in chunks and serves it to you with cutscenes, options to answer and traveling. You are, after all, an adventurer - so your exploits and rewards have to feel earned, that's why you earn everything in this game. Everything such as additional dungeons, dyeing your clothes, etc. are all locked when you start the base game, you go out and earn it by design.

if you remove the work before you unlock certain things they won't feel earned, if all I had to do to get to endgame was to walk into area, unlock dungeon rinse repeat I wouldn't care half as much, now if I had to enter an area in search of an NPC I've traveled with for many expansions or due to something else that made me care I've suddenly gotten way more immersed and invested in the game, there's a reason why a lot of people have strong feelings when entering the Vault and when they leave it, and that's not entirely due to the battle with Charibert but the story around it.

This is an MMO by SE, SE has always had bloated grand stories and this one isn't any different, in fact, it has better storytelling from HW onwards than most of the recent numbered FF titles. So even though some may play this for a different purpose, detaching the MSQ from your progression would imo hurt the game more than make it more accessible, what we need is cutting the unneeded bloat in ARR.

I don't disagree in principle, I disagree in execution.

There's simply too much for a player to unlock now, with all features, expansions, and patches taken together. It prevents players from playing, and randomly teleporting hither and yon is not playing beyond a technicality.

This is why I want more sprouts past ARR, even if it requires the starting point of the storyline (not the storyline itself) to change. I've seen too many give up on the "hard work" of ARR and 2.x. Incidentally, ARR and 2.x isn't hard work at all-- it's just a rat's nest of hodgepodge unlocks that may or may not lead to anything interesting except for the very end.

That very end is covered by the Heavensward trailer well enough.

[MistakeNot]

There's simply too much for a player to unlock now, with all features, expansions, and patches taken together. It prevents players from playing, and randomly teleporting hither and yon is not playing beyond a technicality.

In what way is it too much? Most current players have already gone through and done all that, and it is not more work for a new player.
I really do not understand all the whining about ARR. The game does not suddenly change and gets noticeably better or even different after ARR. Yes, the MSQ gets more focused on a single story in HW, but that is the only difference, and the latter half of the 2.x patches is part of that story anyway.

[Physic]

In what way is it too much? Most current players have already gone through and done all that, and it is not more work for a new player.
I really do not understand all the whining about ARR. The game does not suddenly change and gets noticeably better or even different after ARR. Yes, the MSQ gets more focused on a single story in HW, but that is the only difference, and the latter half of the 2.x patches is part of that story anyway.

you did it slowly over the course of 4 years. its different when its lined up back to back with no breaks. It literally locks you out of level appropriate content if you play with friends and get extra exp.

its the difference between telling your friend they have to do 150 quests to catch up, and telling them they have to do 850. Even if its good people start to get frustrated with it.

120 quests a year is fine. 700 quests before you are free to do what you want is a bit much.