New Player Experience Sucks! - Impending Expansion Problems

[MistakeNot]

I personally never had an issue with the quests, or their quality, or their quantity. But as a new player trying to catch up, the quantity of quests can definitely be seen as an issue, especially when they try to grind through them.

Perhaps, but that is easily solved by not worrying about catching up or try to grind through the quests. Just playing the game make for a much better experience.

[Geigerette]

I'm a new player and I disagree. I still have the entirety of Stormblood to play through and maybe I will make it in time for the new expansion or maybe not, but what is the honest rush to the end? I don't get the complaints.

[van_arn]

Perhaps, but that is easily solved by not worrying about catching up or try to grind through the quests. Just playing the game make for a much better experience.

The issue is not everyone agrees with what you feel "the game" is. If a player is just blindly teleporting and skipping cutscenes and texts, only to watch them later in the inn, that is "the game" to them and the story that might be your little darling gets in the way for that player.

Like I said before, I'm not of the mind that everyone should be able to skip everything-- just that there's no need to start every player five years in the past. The MSQ plainly doesn't do its supposed job of teaching people how to play, a MSQ of this length can easily cause fatigue, and NG+ provides an avenue for new players to experience things they might have missed years ago, whenever they please.

A few sprouts or newer players that enjoy the MSQ as it is could still experience the MSQ anyway with a new starting point/NG+, but I'm not really concerned about the people that simply "just take their time" and aren't worried about what they're missing.

I'm concerned about the number of sprouts I've seen burn out from the fatigue that comes from 2.0-2.x, along with the lackluster options for interacting with players with very few or poorly-made content. They just quit the game, and rarely end up on the forums.

I do not consider paid options to make the game palatable acceptable. That's as bad as sending someone to the mog station for an equally asinine "story pack."

[Shurrikhan]

The change they made didn't overboost characters. All it did was sync you to HQ gear values instead of NQ gear values. NQ gear is garbage, so of course after that adjustment it seems like it was heavily nerfed.

Man, you really hate the game it seems like. Why are you still here? "Dont play with your friends, they are fine without you"

Also, I guess what you are asking for is to nerf the fairy. I hope you get what you wish for

"Level Sync syncs us to such a high item level cap that old content feels gutted into a mockery of its former self" =/= "I hate the game and all its content."

"Your friend doesn't require a level 70 helper to get him through level 50 fights that will take at most 90 seconds to complete even with half the party afk" =/= "Dont play with your friends, they are fine without you."

[SerLuke]

I'm a new player and I disagree. I still have the entirety of Stormblood to play through and maybe I will make it in time for the new expansion or maybe not, but what is the honest rush to the end? I don't get the complaints.

This was my experience as a new player as well, yes there was a lot to catch up on but it was Final Fantasy, in fact the best Final Fantasy in years so I loved it.

[Spy]

I'm a legacy player that created a brand new character to start over just so I could introduce my bf to the game.

I have managed to get him caught up to Stormblood, but we've focused almost exclusively on msq.

And although he still feels like there's a lot to do and very little time to do it, we both enjoy tackling the game together at our own pace. He's very much enjoyed this game, even if we are behind everyone else.

The game does what it can for it's players. Like the exp boost gear, and the multitudes of ways to get bonus xp/gil. Honestly, I'm not sure what else they could do to help New Players.

Of course new players are going to feel behind....they're new. And the amount of content in this game is quite vast. So I say, new players should just try to reach out to FC's that'll help make the content fun for them. Help them through content, teach them, make them feel welcome.

It's what my Fat Cat Lounge does!

[Melichoir]

Wrong. Those quests are not terrible. They are no worse than the quests before or the quests after.

Whether theyre good or bad is subjective. What is noteable is that when players are discussing the MSQ, this section seems to be a problem area players arent exactly happy with. Personally, I believe it to be an issue with pacing, where things felt drawn out because Dev's were busy trying to get HW up and running and needed to buy time.

Furthermore, what will be apparent is that if the pace keeps up, by another 2 or so xpacs, it will take a enw player a long time to actually catch up to the current content, possibly to long to be feasible for player retention. You do not want there to be so much stuff that you play through that you wont get to see the newest stuff that you probably got shown (if youre a new player). Doubly so since a lot of players start playing MMOs cause their friends do. So it is inevitable that streamlining older content will be required. I dont think anyone can realistically say this wont happen.

That being said, the question is how the streamlining occurs. Proposals to flat out scrap 2.0-3.0 is, IMO, absurd. So are proposals to disconnect the MSQ from content, where all you ened to do is be high enough level to participate. That model, IMO, will lead FFXIV down the same path of shenanigans that befell WoW. You want elitism, toxicity, and snobbery, make the primary focus of the game be about end game raids and gear, rather than something everyone can participate in (which is the MSQ and good story). My suggestion is simply take some of the quest lines in the MSQ which arent exactly moving hte overall story forward out of hte MSQ, but as content side quests. Meaning, you can progress the MSQ without actually doing some of that, and if players want that Lore content, it's there still to play. Its a happy comprimise, IMO, between cutting the MSQ out and making everyone play it.

[Maero]

I'm a new player and I disagree. I still have the entirety of Stormblood to play through and maybe I will make it in time for the new expansion or maybe not, but what is the honest rush to the end? I don't get the complaints.

I wish more had your viewpoint

[Carbon20XX]

I think the only problem with the new player experience is how slow the first few hours can be. Beyond that it’s a total blast.