It would be nice if they could tie in some of the "Escort Quests" to Aetherite Activation. It would (hopefully) be fun to protect a caravan from thieves, hooligans and wild, shiny-obsessed beasts as it travels to a more remote camp. If the Escort Quests grant decent exp/rewards, I suspect everyone would do it at least once if not a few times Lvl appropriate.

I know some hate Escort Missions and I read an article about how they are usually a keyboard smashing, controller throwing aggravation (cuz NPC's iz stoopid) but I like quests & missions of all types, esp. if it takes a group (not necessarily a party) to complete.

Personally, I would like to have Level Synch for these type of missions/quests but I'm ok with having Hi-Lvls plow the field for newbies also. (You pretty much needed an escort to Jeuno in XI, although I did it solo the 1st time after several painful deaths).

Keep in mind though that it is up to each individual to accept an easy port to a new area or do it the hard way. The argument to take away the temptation to easy-mode doesn't really fly. "Play Your Way" is FFXIV's motto and they are gonna stick to that mantra success or fail (but I am betting on success, with our help) ;>)

p.s Some of you sound like Grumpy-Old-Man, "...In My day, we had to walk through 3 feet of snow, battling sabre-toothed tigers and runnin' from goblins..." http://youtu.be/9N2E93VzQSA ... and I understand.