Maybe its because I have more patience but FF14's ARR/"new player" experience isn't that bad. This is coming from me whose been playing the game since 2-3 weeks ago as of this post.

I'm a "WoW Refugee" of sorts (stopped playing/quit the sub around mid-February), but I'm fairly experienced/knowledgeable in other MMOs such as GW2 and ESO. Level 50 BLM atm and I'd say FF14 has the best new player experience beating the likes of WoW (which Blizzard has long abandoned bothering to fix/update since Cata) if not rivaling atleast ESO.

The only real problem I had in jumping into the game is how the lack of sub/free trial restricts chatting with other players and how dense the map of your starting citystate is filled with quest exclamation points; took me a week or so to learn that I don't have to complete everything I see on the map.