New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[xLucia]

Playing with a friend of mine, returner from ARR content, I can already feel how demoralized he is trying to catch up in time. To actually reach relevant content he has to go through a backlog of slog, and I have a feeling he never will actually reach the content that he has paid for, and I have a feeling a lot of new players have the same point of view, and will also never likely reach content in time (without paying for a skip) to actually play the new expansion. I do not think a skip is a good thing, not only for the intimidating price, but because these players cannot go back and do the story any longer, I would assume (I have never actually used one).

They feel like they are just wasting time. I think there needs to be something in place, to alleviate this feeling. In WoW a new player has a boost, but can reach the relevant (expansion) content, and can go back and do older content at their own leisure. Granted, FF is very story based, and centered around your character (WoL). I think a way to go back and do the old story content (expansions) to catch up and do later, would be a good way to get players to relevant content, and keep them playing the game, while being able to go back and do the story content when they want to, so they don't miss out, and can get the full context of the latest story arch.

The more expansions and story content, added just make this worse, and worse.

What is it with new & returning players wanting to rush through content they haven't seen yet, just so they can play the expansion as it comes out? It really doesn't take THAT long to catch up. So you might be a week or 2 behind when xpac launches. So what? I don't see a problem. I have a friend who was forced to create a new account and start ALL over due to personal issues (she wasn't banned, though). She's already lvl 53 on 2 classes, after only 2 weeks of playing (almost) every evening. The level 70 earring that comes with preordering Shadowbringers make things a hell of a lot easier already. Just play the content like everyone else when they first started playing :3