Hot Take: The MSQ grind is too long and its harmful to expanding friend groups.

[SturmChurro]

How about instead of spending 200-300 hours doing the MSQ, that may be a slog for many players, especially those who are there to play endgame with friends, they (SE) make the new player experience better? By encouraging the usage of a skip, there isn't a huge incentive to "fix" any issues there may be with the new player experience. They have to play hundreds of hours of content they may not be interested in just to get to the part they actually wanted to play.

[TaleraRistain]

How about instead of spending 200-300 hours doing the MSQ, that may be a slog for many players, especially those who are there to play endgame with friends, they (SE) make the new player experience better? By encouraging the usage of a skip, there isn't a huge incentive to "fix" any issues there may be with the new player experience. They have to play hundreds of hours of content they may not be interested in just to get to the part they actually wanted to play.

And?

SE chooses to offer skips only at a premium. They have experience in other MMOs. I'm sure Yoshi-P is well aware of what catering to the mentality that the endgame is all that matters will do to a game. Vyrerus made some good points on page 5 about why this is a faulty mentality even among those who prefer to just raid.

[MistakeNot]

How about instead of spending 200-300 hours doing the MSQ, that may be a slog for many players, especially those who are there to play endgame with friends, they (SE) make the new player experience better? By encouraging the usage of a skip, there isn't a huge incentive to "fix" any issues there may be with the new player experience. They have to play hundreds of hours of content they may not be interested in just to get to the part they actually wanted to play.

You mean those who want to skip most of the game to get to the last 1% of the game? To be honest, I don't care about them and wouldn't miss them if they didn't stay around. Why bother with players who are not interested in playing the game?

No game can be designed for everyone, and it is stupid to try.

[kaynide]

How about instead of spending 200-300 hours doing the MSQ, that may be a slog for many players, especially those who are there to play endgame with friends, they (SE) make the new player experience better? By encouraging the usage of a skip, there isn't a huge incentive to "fix" any issues there may be with the new player experience. They have to play hundreds of hours of content they may not be interested in just to get to the part they actually wanted to play.

These people are not the intended audience SE is trying to entice to play. SE is happy to get any money, but their target player is the one spending that monthly subscription getting through the story.

Players only interested in “Endgame” content are trying to do an extremely small slice of content, or glamours/socialization/rp which doesn’t require level cap to begin with. This small tiny bit of content is easily burned through. Again, SE is happy to take their 1-2 month subscription, but they are hardly “bell cow” customers.