New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Jandor]

You are missing the entire point. The problem with a skip potion, particularly for a new, or returning player is that you literally 'skip' all of that previous content without being able to go back and do it.

They are sorting this out with Shadowbringers, it'll have a new game + feature so you can go back and redo the story without starting over.

[SturmChurro]

They are sorting this out with Shadowbringers, it'll have a new game + feature so you can go back and redo the story without starting over.

Does a new player receive a free skip potion or do they also have to pay 25 dollars to get to it?

However, if they did receive a free 'skip', I wouldn't want them to receive any rewards. In a perfect world I'd like it to be like them going through the content for the first time.

[RicaRuin]

Does a new player receive a free skip potion or do they also have to pay 25 dollars to get to it?

However, if they did receive a free 'skip', I wouldn't want them to receive any rewards. In a perfect world I'd like it to be like them going through the content for the first time.

Still gotta pay for it.

Also, need more than 25 dollars, as you'd need both the MSQ skip and the Level Boost.

[Jandor]

Still gotta pay for it.

Also, need more than 25 dollars, as you'd need both the MSQ skip and the Level Boost.

Could just story skip and spend an evening in PotD. I certainly wouldn't pay for level skip when getting to 60 is so easy.

[Bonbori]

Does a new player receive a free skip potion or do they also have to pay 25 dollars to get to it?

No and they shouldn't. I'm not a big fan of AAR myself, I feel it's padded out, poorly paced and kinda weak in terms of dungeon design, but it does at least serve as a tutorial to new players, introducing them to all types of content, core basics of their jobs and various mechanics reused throughout harder and better thought-out content in later expansions. A player who comes into the game and immediately pops a skip potion is doing themselves and everyone around them a disservice. By missing out on that tutorial and getting thrown into content they're completely unprepared for, they inconvenience other players they get matched with.

I believe I run into enough of such players as is. If I have to explain what a stack mechanic is in the final raid of the current expansion despite the fact that the mechanic has existed and been reused in one form of another since at least Syrcus Tower... a part of me feels like skip potions shouldn't be available to brand new accounts in the first place. Those tools by themselves do have a purpose and are entirely justifiable if one is trying to make an alt, but a new player who has no pre-existing experience with the game doing it kinda rubs me the wrong way.

That said, yes early content does have issues. However, no problem is ever solved by pretending it doesn't exist and skipping past it. What could be done is some parts of AAR being streamlined the way that Crystal Tower's introductory questline was in a recent patch, adding shortcuts and alternative paths that allow players the option to skip all the no longer necessary padding without missing out on the necessary learning experience and major plot points.

[Mavrias]

No and they shouldn't. I'm not a big fan of AAR myself, I feel it's padded out, poorly paced and kinda weak in terms of dungeon design, but it does at least serve as a tutorial to new players, introducing them to all types of content, core basics of their jobs and various mechanics reused throughout harder and better thought-out content in later expansions. A player who comes into the game and immediately pops a skip potion is doing themselves and everyone around them a disservice. By missing out on that tutorial and getting thrown into content they're completely unprepared for, they inconvenience other players they get matched with.

I believe I run into enough of such players as is. If I have to explain what a stack mechanic is in the final raid of the current expansion despite the fact that the mechanic has existed and been reused in one form of another since at least Syrcus Tower... a part of me feels like skip potions shouldn't be available to brand new accounts in the first place. Those tools by themselves do have a purpose and are entirely justifiable if one is trying to make an alt, but a new player who has no pre-existing experience with the game doing it kinda rubs me the wrong way.

That said, yes early content does have issues. However, no problem is ever solved by pretending it doesn't exist and skipping past it. What could be done is some parts of AAR being streamlined the way that Crystal Tower's introductory questline was in a recent patch, adding shortcuts and alternative paths that allow players the option to skip all the no longer necessary padding without missing out on the necessary learning experience and major plot points.

playing through 100+ hours of terrible story does not a good player make. there are people playing from 2.0 that are just godawful and there are people who skip potioned during 4.4 that are great players. if someone wants to learn they will regardless of whether they skipped or not.

like your example of stack markers; even if you use a skip pot, you have to progress through sirensong to get to endgame. the very first boss features the stack marker.

[SamSmoot]

They are sorting this out with Shadowbringers, it'll have a new game + feature so you can go back and redo the story without starting over.

Does the skip potion provide you with a suitable ilevel gear set to allow you to continue with the content? If you skip at level one and end up still equipped with level 1 gear and no gil, you're out of luck.

[Iscah]

Does the skip potion provide you with a suitable ilevel gear set to allow you to continue with the content? If you skip at level one and end up still equipped with level 1 gear and no gil, you're out of luck.

From boosting my alt to story Lv50, I received silver chocobo feathers (which can be traded for Ironworks gear) and a fair amount of Allagan pieces - 300,000 gil worth if I remember correctly, though I didn't need the money immmediately so I'm hoarding them to use for the Doman reconstruction quest hand-ins. Eventually.