New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[van_arn]

I think that the problem here is not "people wanting to rush to end game", it is the fact that, in order to unlock almost anything in the game, you have to spend hours doing solo stuff. FFXIV is a good game, but it's 90% solo and most people that play MMOs don't wanna play a single player game. FFXIV history is good, I like it, I've enjoyed doing it. But doesn't change the fact that it's a very bad design for a MMO, and everytime I get a new friend to play the game, I remember that.

Yes, you'll have people that want to rush to endgame - you'll always have, and I don't know why you people should care so much about them, since how they decide to play a game shouldn't be your concern. But they're hardly the majority. I think that there are a lot of people that would like to enjoy the journey, if only the journey wasn't getting to one npc to the next while reading text for hundred of hours.

Pretty succinct. I've recruited a few friends, and more than half ended up getting burnt out on the fedexing before they mattered. While a lot of them started off enjoying the story, the quantity of the social-discouraged play eventually wore them down.

[Melorie]

Pretty succinct. I've recruited a few friends, and more than half ended up getting burnt out on the fedexing before they mattered. While a lot of them started off enjoying the story, the quantity of the social-discouraged play eventually wore them down.

Yeah! And I mean, while I like the story, with the time that gets you to complete ARR main quest line, you can probably play a much better single player rpg out there, with a much better history and that will probably give you a bigger sense of progress while telling their tale and maybe even with less filler (if you're not going for those open-world rpgs...). Of course, it's going to be a solo experience but it woud be the same with FFXIV.

And giving people paid options doesn't really solve the problem. People have to like the game to start investing in it, and the new-player experience is far from something that will sell these expensive jump potions easily. Most people would rather give up than invest.