Just want to walk around

[EtherialOne]

There's no reason to subscribe for six months at a time unless you want to have a large number of characters.

I was going to pay up for the six months because I was super impressed by the game. Of course, at the time I also thought I was pretty much done with MSQ grinding. I didn't know I had months worth to go and how much simple ability to walk around was blocked behind it.

It's entirely up to you, but I wouldn't base my opinions on what some internet people think over my own taste and that of friends who like similar games to me.

This is totally good advice. And it's advice I've been given several times. And . . . it supports the opposite conclusion that people seem to think it does. ARR was atrocious. But people told me the conclusion was worth it so keep going. Treat it as an introduction to how to play the game. So I took their word for it. I spent a month working diligently to get past it to the good part. And it did start getting a little bit interesting around the end of 2.5. But ARR and post-ARR overall taught my own independent judgment that this was far from being worth the slog.

I have people telling me that it's just that my experience was soured by ARR and I'll really like it if I keep going. Of course I won't find out about that unless I hand over more money to the same people who created the lousy start. The 30 days were barely enough to get past the ARR stuff. And I discover that instead of being just about done with the MSQ stuff, I've actually got an enormous mountain to climb before I can even just walk around freely.

Every single person telling me how great it is so far has been playing the game for years. The MSQ was much shorter when they started. What they had to deal with was slowly added additional content. And, if I were dealing with that, I imagine I would be okay with it too.

But I'm getting greeted by this massive thing that the people telling me it's worth it have never experienced. I have not enjoyed it so far. And it's a blockade what I do enjoy--exploring a large world and meeting and interacting with people. In FFXIV, walking around and admiring the decor while talking to people seems to be endgame content.

So I decided I'd buy a story skip. I hate that idea. I actually do like stories in games, provided I can play through them at my own pace or at least they aren't so massive and mandatory. My problem here is not the story--it's the fact that the story is used to block so much basic stuff. But I learned about New World+. I can go back and experience it all again at my own pace. Perfect. The ability to do it at my own pace without the content locks. That's exactly what I want. In fact it's more than I want because it's a lot more than just walking around and saying hi.

(continued)