I wrote a bit on a few vague sketches of an optional accelerated start in another thread, if you care to read them I could find them in a bit but that's personally how I think it could work. So something like #3. Of course it wouldn't recap everything because that's too long and potentially very boring (exposition city) but it would spark note you up to some basic speed (if painting in massive brushes the game isn't that complex to explain, lots and lots of nuance lost though). Things to be sure to touch upon would be who is bad (main ones), some of your friends, what you are going to do next, where are you starting, some general combat/system intro, stuff like that. More info and direction than you get from the start of a Bethesda games, much less than you'd get from playing the game for 100+ hours of MSQ lol. If the player after starting out accelerated then wanted to learn more in depth they could new game plus.

There existing a growing list of reasons why I think it's better than just a skip potion or no option but you said this thread isn't for that sort of discussion and honestly thats probably a good thing. The discussion is just going to be a circular argument of people disagreeing on core concepts and how the game has to or has not to be in the eyes of other players.


It'll be interesting to see how streamlined the ARR story will be after they go over it though. May help waylay this issue.