New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Avidria]

You forgot the parts where, if you're "playing with a friend" you get to constantly drop from the party while they do yet another solo fight that requires you two to disband and not play together.

This is the single worst part about catching a friend up on msq. Not only are you not needed, but you get in the way.

They really need to remove that silliness. It's almost as ridiculous as the fact that we used to be unable to queue for things with our chocobos out...

[linay]

Although evaluating it like that I'd lean towards FFXIV is not a hardcore game and so it should be more mindful of accessibility than a "dark souls" mmorpg.

The MSQ is very accessible. Some people just don't want to do it.

You forgot the parts where, if you're "playing with a friend" you get to constantly drop from the party while they do yet another solo fight that requires you two to disband and not play together.

This is the single worst part about catching a friend up on msq. Not only are you not needed, but you get in the way.

So just drop out of group and rejoin. There are plenty of times where you can be in a group while doing MSQ and there are times where you can play together without being in a group. Only with solo instances are you truly separated from other people aside from chat.

[Shougun]

The MSQ is very accessible. Some people just don't want to do it.

Was an evaluation of time required, in that aspect then not really. The time is not accessible, its many games worth of time to catch up (for some people that's a good thing, for others that a horrible thing though). Having to invest multiple games worth of time on content you didn't want to do, I don't think is accessible. Obviously some people do in which case thats good for them.

[Lynesse]

Was an evaluation of time required, in that aspect then not really. The time is not accessible, its many games worth of time to catch up (for some people that's a good thing, for others that a horrible thing though). Having to invest multiple games worth of time on content you didn't want to do, I don't think is accessible. Obviously some people do in which case thats good for them.

You are so right. And wording it this way is super spot on. I think this is how most of us feel, and when put this way, it's hard for that little voice in my head to argue.

[Shougun]

You are so right. And wording it this way is super spot on. I think this is how most of us feel, and when put this way, it's hard for that little voice in my head to argue.

I think many are having trouble imagining that some dont want to do some part of the MSQ or that they value other content way more. To be honest a lot of this thread has turned into people refusing to imagine different goals out of this game (some people play just for the story as it is amazing while others hated the story from day one and did it because quest exp yay). But like I was trying to say before a lot of new players get in because of the hype of new content, not because they dredged up some ancient trailer of ARR. The content many (not all) people want to do is therefore stuck behind a mountain (of potentially enjoyable or potentially way too long quest chain). Like I was trying to say about witcher 1 2 3. Many entered at 3 with interest exclusively in 3, maybe even having heard of or not cared to try 1 or 2 already. After they loved 3 they might have went back, although some didn't and they still clearly enjoyed 3.

I don't think deep end placing people with zero context is optimal which is why I suggested an accelerated start, which I think would be enough of a core bit of info to let people go off into the world. Like with some story recap and some combat guidance, Ascian bad, mother crystal good.. probably, for example- people are very adaptable and with the right seed of info they could build back parts of the story as they went and understand it like that (it might feel a bit like lore in dark souls game for a little while then, but players given a decoder ring as a headstart will improve acclimation).

[linay]

Just to reiterate what I've said in the past before I make my response, I don't mind making the MSQ faster to get through in some way as long as it stays the MSQ and not become some optional long questline.

new player here Ihave to say after playing Wow (and many other MMOs over the years) and coming from wow/bfa. I found FFXIV refreshing. the more I learn about the game the more I love it (like my chocobo can have different colors by feeding it). However after playing through the main story line and completing it for ARR. hitting 54, and finding after much research and confusion(couldn't find npcs as example) that I can't yet get to ishgard(even though NPC gate keeper to ishgard zone says "get heavensword expansion and do the before dawn quest and you are golden") to do the Heavensword expansion because I have 100 quests I have to do first, was demoralizing. As mentioned I can't get my new class spells (I'm already 54 now) because I Can't see the NPC that gives em. AND I have about 70 quests still to run before I can access "Before the dawn" quest is available to me. Its a bummer really. it wont stop me playing but IMO this should be fixed (or made more clear) for new players.

In terms of making it more clear, I believe they tell you after finishing the level 50 job quest that the next job quest won't be available until you're in Heavensward.

Was an evaluation of time required, in that aspect then not really. The time is not accessible, its many games worth of time to catch up (for some people that's a good thing, for others that a horrible thing though). Having to invest multiple games worth of time on content you didn't want to do, I don't think is accessible. Obviously some people do in which case thats good for them.

I don't think it's fair to view having to invest time on the game as an accessibility issue. Endgame is not the whole game, it's just the part of the game at the end. If you want to play the game, then it's accessible for you to play it, or pay for a skip.

[Shougun]

I don't think it's fair to view having to invest time on the game as an accessibility issue. Endgame is not the whole game, it's just the part of the game at the end. If you want to play the game, then it's accessible for you to play it, or pay for a skip.

Keep in mind I see after a certain amount of content as a new game, this is why I keep bringing up games in a series. So I do think it is fair to see having to do 100+ hours of content you dont want to do to get to the expansion you did as a fair vision of an accessibility issue. Like Rokke said he came to this game to do the dragon content and had to trudge through ARR to get it.

The longer we go the bigger the time requirement of course. Also I'm not thinking of an accelerated start to drop people at end game but to put them at the gates of fairly new stuff that they were getting into the game for like Rokke's story (so they avoid say 100 hours of msq but still have some more related to their interest hours to go till end game). Again to me I shouldn't have to play warcraft 2 to get into warcraft 3, and I see at a certain point FFXIV should be seen in units like that because it's too freaking big otherwise lol. If you want wc3 then you should have to invest in wc3, that doesn't require investing wc2 though.

[Melorie]

I've seen quite some people give up in the 2.X slog. I'm also always weary of suggesting the game for friends because I know what expects them, and I know that I can't help them nor play with them like you would expect out of a MMO. The max I can do is queue with them for the new story dungeons and maybe do some palace of the dead (that in the end of the day doesn't really matter because it won't help them progress to unlock new things) but even so, the huge chunky of the game they're going to do on their own and that's not... fun. Everytime I invite someone to play FFXIV I have to give them a lot of warnings about these problems and people just lose their interest.

I hope that Square Enix has some solution in mind or is working on one besides jump potions because as the years go and you get new expacs, quests and content in general, this problem will just be worse.

[LaylaTsarra]

New 70 level skips coming you can be sure. I would also suspect the 60 level skips will be reduced significantly in price. Look forward to it.

[sf23]

new player here Ihave to say after playing Wow (and many other MMOs over the years) and coming from wow/bfa. I found FFXIV refreshing. the more I learn about the game the more I love it (like my chocobo can have different colors by feeding it). However after playing through the main story line and completing it for ARR. hitting 54, and finding after much research and confusion(couldn't find npcs as example) that I can't yet get to ishgard(even though NPC gate keeper to ishgard zone says "get heavensword expansion and do the before dawn quest and you are golden") to do the Heavensword expansion because I have 100 quests I have to do first, was demoralizing. As mentioned I can't get my new class spells (I'm already 54 now) because I Can't see the NPC that gives em. AND I have about 70 quests still to run before I can access "Before the dawn" quest is available to me. Its a bummer really. it wont stop me playing but IMO this should be fixed (or made more clear) for new players.