My first 50 lvl and a few complains about game so far.

[Venerik]

In most mmorpgs what i played so far you also had to do side quests to unlock main story. So i cleaned like 2 maps of side quests when i was starting game(near of 30 lvl) and from that moment im usualy 10 od 15 lvl higher.

[Vidu]

In most mmorpgs what i played so far you also had to do side quests to unlock main story. So i cleaned like 2 maps of side quests when i was starting game(near of 30 lvl) and from that moment im usualy 10 od 15 lvl higher.

In FFXIV you can ignore sidequests more the most part, if you wish. Every quest that is required for you to progress through the mainstory is part of the mainstory and gets the "meteor"-quest-symbol.

However there are sidequests that have certain content like dungeons or (in the expansions) aether currents that you need to unlock flying in the zones behind them. Each quest that has something locked behind it has a blue quest-icon and you should pay special attention to those!

Now all sidequests that only have the simple yellow/golden icon can be ignored or saved for a secondary job etc.
Quests that get a small picture in the quest-window when you accept the quest usually tell a more involved story and have follow up quests. Often those start off with a blue icon but after unlocking whatever they open a whole questline that tells a story of its own (beyond "Go pick some flowers for me" or "kill that giant pig that stole my pumpkin")

Long story short: Following the mainquest is all you need to do to play the mainquest - but playing through the mainquest is the requirement for pretty much everything else in this game that has a heavy focus on its story. A story that gets better in the expansions! The end of ARR is often a slug for people but I promise you: it gets so much better after that - hang in there!