Quote Originally Posted by Belhi View Post
GW2 runs on a different engine and GW2 offers a free jump to lvl 80 if you own HoT. FF14 is actually one of the few MMOs which don't offer such a service in the west at this point.
Levels also are fairly meaningless in GW2, so the level jump is not comparable. It is simply an example of how a coherent story can be presented without walling people off from participating in content that they'd like to engage in. It's not even the only example, as every MMO I've seen that does story expansions works in this way or similar.

As far as things like the Rising Stones, that would simply be unlocked when you get to the point in the story that you need to go there. It can be treated like any other phased zone in MMOs, and it wouldn't be all that confusing to the player.

Quote Originally Posted by Kaedan View Post
No, they are a necessity brought about by having multiple expansions and the level cap raising. Nearly every major MMO in existence (and most minor ones) have a level skip option after a few level cap raises.
But in those MMOs, they do not also require you to complete all of the old expansion story prior to participating in the current expansion content. The STORY JUMP potion is a cheap cash grab.