An option for characters to start at level 50, pre-heavensward, for FREE

[AndyMugu]

As time goes by, I believe that it’s getting harder and harder to get new players into the game. I believe the game’s quality skyrocketed ever since heavensward.

I know lots of people think jump potions should be purchased, but as time goes by I think jump potions shouldn’t be the only option for players to catch up. Starting level 50 from Heavensward makes the most sense to me so we get new characters without disrespecting existing players.
Upvote if you agree
EDIT:
WOW ! This post blew up!
Thanks for the (mostly) civil discussion, I feel like I need to addressing some common threads.
Would I rather they reworked the story? Obviously, but YoshiP did mention that wasn’t a possibility, the amount of time and resources needed outnumber just making new content.
Do I believe this will make us have an influx of “bad” players? No, I don’t believe ARR’s content is challenging right now, nor do I believe players at level 50 have really learnt much
Is this the same as skipping to the end, should players get some context for heavensward? Yes they should, but it shouldn’t take much to give people a bit of lore dump, and no it’s not like skipping to the end. I think most people would agree that the game really picks up from heavensward.

[Vahlnir]

I think that ARR's lvl 50 story quests need to be consolidated. Beyond that no, I don't think much needs to be done.

[ForteNightshade]

I think that ARR's lvl 50 story quests need to be consolidated. Beyond that no, I don't think much needs to be done.

This comes with an unfortunate caveat though. The devs have admitted consolidating the sheer amount of quests would take considerable work. Therefore, if they prioritize it, we, the veteran players, may lose out on new content for something none of us will ever see unless we level alts. It's easy to say "new players should do the story but just make it more streamlined." But far too many people forget there's a cost involved. For myself, if it came down to losing a trial, BA, Ultimate, more fleshed out side quests or really anything of significance, I'd be quite annoyed because as mentioned, fixing the myriad of pointless fetch quests in ARR won't have any impact on me whatsoever. I'll just have even less to do.

[Vahlnir]

This comes with an unfortunate caveat though. The devs have admitted consolidating the sheer amount of quests would take considerable work. Therefore, if they prioritize it, we, the veteran players, may lose out on new content for something none of us will ever see unless we level alts. It's easy to say "new players should do the story but just make it more streamlined." But far too many people forget there's a cost involved. For myself, if it came down to losing a trial, BA, Ultimate, more fleshed out side quests or really anything of significance, I'd be quite annoyed because as mentioned, fixing the myriad of pointless fetch quests in ARR won't have any impact on me whatsoever. I'll just have even less to do.

It is hard for me to sympathize with SE when they say "but muh workload!" They are a huge name in the gaming industry and are fully capable of doing what needs to be done when they want to in order for them to turn a profit. They have talked about this in the past though and I'm pretty sure they are keen on doing it. It'll just be a matter of when imo.

[ForteNightshade]

It is hard for me to sympathize with SE when they say "but muh workload!" They are a huge name in the gaming industry and are fully capable of doing what needs to be done when they want to in order for them to turn a profit. They have talked about this in the past though and I'm pretty sure they are keen on doing it. It'll just be a matter of when imo.

Money isn't the issue. Whether they throw thousands at this problem or do it on the cheap, it still requires people from the dev team to commit their time towards something else. That inevitably means they have less people working on new content. Think of it this way. If they had 100 people all working on new content but this consolidation required 30 due to all the work associated with adjusting code, possibly rewriting dialogue and etc. That means only 70 people are left working on things for Shadowbringers, which may result in longer delays or less new content overall. Yoshida has acknowledged this the precise reason they have yet to touch ARR.

I, for one, wouldn't want to lose content just so they can make ARR less of a slog.

[Vahlnir]

Money isn't the issue. Whether they throw thousands at this problem or do it on the cheap, it still requires people from the dev team to commit their time towards something else. That inevitably means they have less people working on new content. Think of it this way. If they had 100 people all working on new content but this consolidation required 30 due to all the work associated with adjusting code, possibly rewriting dialogue and etc. That means only 70 people are left working on things for Shadowbringers, which may result in longer delays or less new content overall. Yoshida has acknowledged this the precise reason they have yet to touch ARR.

So they should hire a few more people. I realize it's not as simple as that. They would probably need some training and such...but it would benefit them as a company in the long run. Sometimes a business has to spend money to make more money.

[Kaedan]

I think that ARR's lvl 50 story quests need to be consolidated. Beyond that no, I don't think much needs to be done.

Agreed.

They should definitely revisit their "New Player Experience" and consolidate a lot of the ARR quest lines to make them a bit more palatable. But short of that, starting new players at 50 in HW I simply can't agree with at all. If people really want to, they can buy the potions.

[Ronduwil]

As a new player, I am enjoying the leveling process. I personally don't find the idea of starting at level 50 attractive in the least. WoW went this route, and they effectively killed their game. I'm pretty happy with this game's pre-level 50 quality right now, and if it's even better post-level 50, then I have something to look forward to. I don't see any compelling reasons for a boost to 50. It's not like you even need to level characters from scratch to change classes/jobs.

[Vahlnir]

As a new player, I am enjoying the leveling process. I personally don't find the idea of starting at level 50 attractive in the least. WoW went this route, and they effectively killed their game.

To be completely fair, it isn't level skips that are killing WoW. It is ignorance and hubris that are killing it.

[Ronduwil]

To be completely fair, it isn't level skips that are killing WoW. It is ignorance and hubris that are killing it.

It isn't *just* level skips that are killing WoW, but they are a factor. Players buy the game, get a free boost to 110, clear 10 levels in a month, and then there's nothing to do except raid or grind WQs. Since they haven't invested anything in their character, there's no incentive to remain. There's a group of players who is just playing the game for the sake of having the best stuff as quickly as possible, which means jumping straight to max level and grinding out raids. However, I believe that there is a larger portion of players who actually enjoy playing the game for its own sake. I fall into that latter category. I've had a blast leveling all my gathering and crafting classes to 30, and it feels like I'm leveling at a pretty fast rate just by progressing through the story. I'm not even taking on leves or side quests on my main class, and I'm still about five levels higher than my story quest. I hear complaints that leveling is slow, but I just don't see it. I'm already level 37, and leveling still seems fast. If it slows down from levels 40-50, then that's only 10 levels that will be slow. That's not so bad. Again, I just don't see a compelling reason to make leveling even faster than it already is.