7.0: Maybe I'm Alone in This

[Rufalus]

The game could use a new paradigm to remain relevant across its second decade but levels aren't a major issue. The MSQ is a potential issue because not everyone wants to play every expansion back to back, including thousands of single-player quests, in order to unlock multiplayer content. They need an alternative starting point which unlocks a variety of new content, not locked behind the MSQ wall and maybe with its own independent leveling system. It's quite common to see couples try out the game but they don't feel like they are really playing together through all the quests and cutscenes, especially when many instanced story battles require them to enter solo.

[Iscah]

They need an alternative starting point which unlocks a variety of new content

All it needs is a "free MSQ skip to 7.0" voucher included in the purchase of future expansions. No second alternate narrative.

[BRVV]

All it needs is a "free MSQ skip to 7.0" voucher included in the purchase of future expansions. No second alternate narrative.

Then new players will not use it because they might like 2.0-6.x and heard that the story is so good. I think many argue for the alternative starting point because we are being told that EW is the end of the story so far and 7.0 will be a new beginning. So if it isn't connected to anything previous it will make sense to give players the option to start the 7.0 MSQ even if they haven't finished the previous MSQ.

[Iscah]

Then new players will not use it because they might like 2.0-6.x and heard that the story is so good. I think many argue for the alternative starting point because we are being told that EW is the end of the story so far and 7.0 will be a new beginning.

If they've heard that 2.x-6.x is good and they want to play it, then an alternate starting point that overwrites the old story is as much or more of a stumbling block than the offer of a story skip that they don't have to take up if they don't want to. Or they can play properly through the game the first time, and use the skip on an alt.

A completely separate starting point will cause more damage to the experience of full game players than it will benefit the skippers.

With a story skip, the skipper accepts that they have fast-forwarded through the early parts of the story and have missed being introduced to the people that their character already knows. 7.0 can easily be providing a "new beginning" in terms of the major plot arc without completely severing ties to what came before.

If the devs built an alternate story start, then everything they ever write afterwards would have to account for two alternate versions of the player's history, and avoid ever doing anything to disrupt the illusion that the latecomer has missed nothing. In a story where there is a good chunk of appeal in how they continually call back to and build on old plot points and characters, that seems an impossible task, and the people who are willing to skip the older games probably aren't even the ones who would appreciate the finer points of the story anyway.