Quote Originally Posted by Squig View Post
Don't be ridiculous. If you know exactly what you should be doing and where you should be going at every instant during the MSQ, getting into 4.x content while skipping *all* cutscenes takes upwards of 100 hours. I hate seeing new users using skip potions but there's no denying that there is an absolutely ridiculous entry barrier for newbies getting into the game. *All* endgame content is gated behind the completion of the MSQ which, if you started with 2.0 or even 3.0 (as I did) it was manageable and the plot was delivered going forward in patches. The longer the game goes, the worse that barrier will get and there needs to be some kind of fix before long.

The early game content is garbage in this game because the expectation is that you'll either have the MSQ or knowledge of the game + the Armoury bonus to fasttrack you through it. For new players with little interest in the MSQ, sure you could ask why play a story-driven game if you have no interest in the game but there are people drawn to the other aspects. It's like a TV show that only gets good, like, halfway through. It's no problem if you were watching and got hooked from the start but if you're just in it for the ending, it's a total slog.

Maybe some kind of story squish or not gating future content would make it more tolerable, I honestly have no clue.
My understanding is someone speed ran from lvl 1 - clearing 04S (with 340 gear) in 4.5 days of playtime. Granted there's huge grains of salt to be considered like this isn't a new player, they had help, probably crafted gear, etc etc.

However, that is still fairly quick. I would hazard getting someone who's new to the game and to 4.0 and NOT having to worry about Savage and the like could probably be done within 6 or 7 days playtime reasonably(and I think I am being generous in that estimation) if they skip everything and have people speeding them through dungeons. That would be....168 Hours worth of play time. If you played ONLY a modest 2 hours a day, that's 3 months of play time. For an MMO, that is beans. I would hazard, btw, most people who do MMOs play averagely 4 Hours a day when things are relevant. So that cuts down the time spent to six weeks or so. Again, on an MMO, six weeks isn't long. That's shorter than a patch cycle. If you're in it for the story and don't want to skip, then yeah, it'll be longer but that becomes a moot point as you would be enjoying the content as is.

Chances are, yeah, you'll see an MSQ squish eventually. Probably by 6.0. It will likely be part of any new ARR sales going out to have one MSQ skip potion and class potion for new players because at that point the MSQ might be so daunting that it's more financially sound to have people skip that content, particularly since new game + will exist.