Bought the game yesterday

[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.

[Phe]

Why is Ul'dah so popular? I didn't think the desert looked nice which is why I chose Gridania.

I like you.

[Orsnoire]

Ok first thing I'll do after writing this is check the "lodestone's play guide." I enjoy reading and learning more about the game so thank you for that link Estellios.

I came to this game from World of Warcraft so I would have never guessed you were supposed to grind monsters to level fast. World of Warcrafts leveling is all just following quest hub to quest hub, and you get such little exp for randomly killing monsters your level that it's never worth it. Now that I know it's a good idea to seek out mobs my level and kill them, I'll do that while saving up some Level quests.

Ok so story quests just come available to me as I level... Lol I was looking all over for where to travel to in order to progress through the story.

Why is Ul'dah so popular? I didn't think the desert looked nice which is why I chose Gridania. I'm happy to know I can travel to any of the 3 cities at any time without consequence. Is there an easy way to find a Linkshell other than sit in the city and ask everyone 1 by 1 if I can join? I don't want to be annoying haha

Alright, I'm going to head back in the game and figure some stuff out. I've been talking to every single NPC hoping the game will make more and more sense. So happy my thread got so many replies and in a short amount of time.

The reason Ul'dah is so popular is because the story quests lead there, and so most people end up there for the majority of their leveling experience. As a result, people have naturally migrated their bazaar retainers to Ul'dah, and so after the game has been up as long as it has, pretty much it's to the point where virtually everyone uses Ul'dah as the primary hub of the game (think Orgrimmar or Stormwind; those are really good comparisons).

Basically, if you're coming from WoW, the best thing you could do is to find some good in-game friends who can teach you the ettiquette of FF XIV. It's dramatically different from WoW, and around here you can set people off in ways you don't want simply by doing things that you may be accustomed to doing.

Welcome, and hope you enjoy your journey!

[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.

[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...

[Molly_Millions]

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

lol, are you also unaware that there are chocobos on this game?

[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