Bought the game yesterday

[Estellios]

People have been gathering in Ul'dah for several reasons:

1) It has the most convenient layout
2) All the cities' storylines eventually meet up there
3) For a long time early in the game's life it had the best high level levequests
4) Due to all 3 of the above, everyone set their retainers to sell items in Ul'dah's Markets, and because of that it's the only place you will find players selling things.

It's fine to hang around in whatever city you like now that we have airships, but if you want to socialize you'd want to head there. As was mentioned /shout that you are looking for a LS will help, or you can try your server's forums on this site.

[NefarioCall]

I'll mention what has already been mentioned. Ul'dah is where the people are

~~Also, Server merges this month will soon make for more people.
~~Also, as far as what to do, any time you see an NPC with a ! mark, that's a quest.
And being in Ul'Dah, you can see who's shouting for what.
Visit the Forum for the world you joined here on lodestone and find a Linkshell, or shout for one in Ul'Dah.
And err... prepare as best as you can for 2.0? xD

[Zumi]

It's fine to hang around in whatever city you like now that we have airships, but if you want to socialize you'd want to head there.

There is airships in the game that's news to me and I been playing since launch.

[neminis]

Welcome to the game!

[Forte]

Welcome to Wutai soon to be Masamune Hope you enjoy the game; Always good to see new people coming into the game If Im on and got any questions dont hesitate to send me a tell always glad to help others

[Ilethius]

http://cojenova.enjin.com/

You can apply to our ls there, we are pretty busy at the moment and have several new starting players such as yourself, apply to the website and then look for Ilethius Tarraban in game and I will accept you in.

Have fun!

[Tonkra]

If you want to see more people, they are mostly around Ul'dah etc. you can walk from gridania till Thanalan/U'ldah which you can see at the map.

Gridania is not much populated

it will take you a while to get there if you touch the aetherytes you can easily port back to them.

[Felis]

When I started playing, I started in Gridania and followed the main quest chain which had a few cutscenes, a lot of talking that I read, and it eventually ended with the adventurers guild lady telling me to go to the first camp and do some leve quests. I took some battle leves, did them, and repeated that like 3 times. I've done like 8+ of these level 1 quests and now I'm given no direction where to go. I talked to so many NPCs in the city but none of them had a quest marker over their head, and I can't figure out how to advance in the story line. I've played for about 10 hours now yet all I have done is walked all around the pretty city, and walked down to that first nooby camp to do some leves and botany.

I have no idea where to go now...Please help >.<

You need to talk with the lady in the adventure guild again

If you lost direction in a quest best is to look in your journal menu. There you can read the text to the quest and there you find a map button for directions.

Or read here: http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Souls_Gone_Wild

[AnaviAnael]

Welcome to the game! You just joined up right before the most exciting patch patch; the job system patch. Hope you enjoy your stay, and don't be afraid to ask questions. Only the bad players don't ask questions. =^_^=

[Umo]

There is airships in the game that's news to me and I been playing since launch.

Huh!? You serious? IIRC there's a quest at the Adventurers' Guild of each city in order to introduce this feature to the players... You should read 1.19 Patch Notes (09-30-2011).

Once more, are you kiddin'? No offense, but I'm still shocked...