New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[Skivvy]

I mean its not really that basis, I read the forums I read Reddit, generally the same groups that brag about skipping all the cut scenes or say the story sucks so they don't bother with it, etc etc are the same ones that complain the game is too easy and there's not enough content for them to do.

I skip the MSQ CSs because it doesn't appeal to me in this game for whatever reason. I've tried multiple times to get into it, but it's just never clicked. I also don't particularly enjoy dungeons or EX or a good chunk of the standard "endgame" content, but I do enjoy other parts of the game. Point is, painting everyone with the same brush isn't a good thing to do as people rarely fit into a box so neatly.

Setting ARR aside bc both sides can agree that its a mess that needs to be worked (not to mention devs have mentioned they are in the process of fixing it) what parts of hw and sb are unrelated/pointless? How much of it is just bloat? Because if we place ARR aside I think you are wrong. These two expansions have very forward momentum quests and hardly any fetch quests unless they make sense. And its safe to assume ShB will follow suit if not follow the trend of being more streamlined and less fetch quests.

I actually don't recall HW and SB bothering me too much, but ARR has forever instilled a hatred for Minfilia in me due to her constant back and forth. We have a bloody linkpearl, woman! USE IT!. lol. But yeah, I'm happy they've cleaned things up in the later expansions.

My own personal gripe is that it's all required. My first MMO was XI, and you had the option to jump around to story lines as you wished and had no need to actually complete a line if it didn't suit your fancy. It could make for some rather chopped-up story telling depending on how you went about it, but having the option is nice. GW2 was next for me, and they also let you complete the MSQ at your own pace.

When given the choice, I very much prefer to have the story be something I can do when I have the time and not be something that is going to lock me out of items unless I complete it in full. There is probably some middle ground that could be found, but I don't think they'll alter their path too much. I think someone earlier had mentioned that SE is planning to address the ARR MSQ around 5.1 or so (I don't have an actual source for this, so I'm not positive). If that is true, that can only help the new player experience, and will hopefully be enough to keep them chugging along.