Quote Originally Posted by van_arn View Post
The game is an FF MMO, so it's possible for it to fail as a FF or as an MMO.

The game has the FF bit in spades right now, but the MMO gameplay is lacking until you sink hundred(s) of hours into unlocking content. Not everyone is willing to suffer through bad gameplay to get to good gameplay. In fact, the hundred hour ask is an unreasonable ask. This is a difficult game to recommend to someone wanting to just jump in due to the amount of time it takes to just unlock the game.

This really is an issue that needs to be addressed, and simply skipping to the current expansion isn't enough to fix things. Combat needs to be engaging no matter what level a player is at, and the low-level experience of FFXIV is abysmal. Worse, due to sync and roulettes that abysmal low-level experience never truly leaves a player for good -- you're one unlucky roulette from sastasha or copperbell or praetorium no matter what.

Skip potions are only a partial solution; I'd rather have someone that enjoys the current expansion playing the current expansion than quitting halfway through Stormblood because they got sick of fedexing. They're still going to suffer through the awful that is Sastasha, though.

The story is nice, but it's only half of the game. Don't overstate its importance.
Tightening up the quest lines is a valid point, but that newbie is probably going to suffer through Sastasha because of other people pulling them along like a kite.

However, if you do what OP suggested, now we'll see people kicking the newbies because they want to go fast. If they can't kick the newbie, they'll abandon. Now the newbie can never get through this required group content.

SE has kind of shot themselves in the foot here with forced group content. They can't make it such a chore that no one ever does roulettes. That's there to keep things going so new people *can* get through their MSQ. But that means the challenge may not be able to be there for the newbie. There's really not a good solution.