New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Anselmet]

Snip

No offense, but exaggerating how long it takes to go through the msq really is not a good defense. I have leveled many characters from start to finish on this game. I have helped many friends who are entirely new go through this game at different points in time such as the release of hw or sb. It does not take 4 years and a ham sandwich to play through all three expansions and it never did. Just playing casually on weekends I have had friends make it all the way from level 1 to 70 and get geared in two to three weeks. Just because some people don't leave hw or arr does not mean this is normal. Could the msq be handled better, sure! But you want just current msq to be relevant but then the rest just optional no matter what? Ho boy! So let's drop an newbie into that and see how that goes. Because news flash, most newbies skip important things like potd, optional extra dungeons to help get them levels etc etc and now you wanna drop them in where we're trying to save two nations with a cast of people that we have used several expansions to get to know and care about? Suddenly new players are walled behind msq when they weren't before and they have to mandatorily play through story they don't care about bc they didn't have to/didn't do the previous msq? Ya that's gonna go well. All bc people can't handle the already buffed exp and quick leveling system we have now.

I'm sorry but if it is taking you years to get through arr/hw then most likely you aren't going to be the sort that is gonna be sticking around to enjoy sb once you get to the end. Don't get me wrong, I think there are plenty of things that can be improved with lvling in this game. Things such as having classes feeling complete by lvl 50 would be a start and not having to wait until lvl 60 or eventually lvl 70 once shb comes out would be nice. But once again, this game is a story DRIVEN mmo coming from a franchise known for its story driven content. There is another side to things other than consumer convenience and just because other mmos do something a certain way does not mean that ffxiv model has to follow. Or hell, even if it would be good for it. And clearly with devs releasing new game plus they are 1. thinking of a way to help people speed through the msq while keeping it in place and 2. believe that the final fantasy branding is important and that goes hand in hand with long, story driven content.

Now I am going to bed, good night.