Thread: Changes to early game with 5.0?

Don't get me wrong, as a whole I enjoyed the ARR story line.
The good parts are good.
But the bad parts of it... are really bad.

Originally Posted by OcieKo

Have to keep in mind the leveling process in ARR is VASTLY longer than any of the expacs, even if you level through a chunk faster even before all the xp buffs its 50 lvls vs. 10. And this mind set of "the real game" is probably killing more newbies than everything else combined, its like telling them the story is worthless once your 70 and endgame grinding your finally playing FFXIV.

For the record, I've done ARRs entire MSQ 7 times already, hopefully my last round of it will be done before Shadowbringers.

The mind set of "the real game" is killing newbies across the entire MMO genre.

The trend in MMOs these days is to run with an established system and not innovate. Innovation comes with inherent risk, so most MMO developers opt to take the slow death by the endlessly widening sea of dead content than try something new and potentially nuke their entire playerbase. As we can all see clearly in the wake if FanFest, even relatively minor changes to established systems can cause people to fly into a rage.

Some MMOs have tried to innovate. One of those that I have experience with is RuneScape. That innovation largely failed, and they paid a price for it, but the game is still going strong, albeit now as a divided community across two versions of the same game.

In any case, as someone who is tired and disinterested in the current trend, I'm all for FFXIV taking some risks and trying to innovate. However, the more likely outcome is that they will refuse to innovate, until possibly after FFXIV falls out of its prime. Once a new online FF is released and FFXIV stops receiving expansions, I think it will actually be a much better experience for new players.

That's some irony for you.

Originally Posted by Hysterior

My partner started the game yesterday so I am going through it with him and boy this is tedious...
I am not a cash-shop person but I start thinking that this story potion could be worth it...

Its worth it! I've never bought anything else but the ARR's MSQ skip potion is almost a requirement to keep normal new players from quitting when faced with early game (and especially 2.xx). I don't usually recommend the leveling potion because this game has such fantastic and fast paced leveling content. Dungeons, Roulettes, Daily beast tribes, PotD, and even those damn Leves can be fun. Potion lets you open all of that up fast. Mix it all up to level and try out different classes. Then hit HW and SB head on and enjoy modernized MSQ progression as well as lvl 50+ skill kits that start making combat awesome.


Only... why is it necessary to micromanage new players experience to keep them from bailing? Isn't this something the Devs recognize as killing the game's bottom-line?