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

[CazzT]

To play devil's advocate here, you can't start as those and they are inaccessible until you complete ARR.

Small correction. You can play those once you hit level 50. You don't need to complete ARR to start those four jobs.

[Arngrim_Greyashe]

Small correction. You can play those once you hit level 50. You don't need to complete ARR to start those four jobs.

Didn't you have to defeat Ultima first?

[Edax]

If people are only forming opinions based on other games, that's kind of silly. FF14 should stand on its own merits.

It's the 14th entry of a franchise in a competitive MMORPG market. There's good reason to not consider FFXIV an island unto itself.

[Vahlnir]

Didn't you have to defeat Ultima first?

Yeah, but that's not completing ARR.

[Seraph522]

Didn't you have to defeat Ultima first?

Actually, you do not; you just need to own Stormblood and have another class/job at level 50 (for RDM and SAM, at any rate; it'll presumably be 60 for GNB/DNC); I unlocked RDM before completing 2.0, for example.

[SigmaOZ]

Why should your characters creation story be optional content? The story of ARR builds your character up as the incredible force that you are, from a lowly unknown adventurer. Without doing arr, you have no idea why one of the noble houses of ishgard trusts you so completely, basically making you a ward of theirs. You also have no idea why the leaders of the 3 other city states put so much faith into you or the scions. Remember, they all have standing armies as of the end of arr, and yet, every single leader breathes a sigh of relief when you show up.

MSQ potions don't teach you all events from ARR instantly so your argument has no point, a new level 50 player is no different regardless of the method used to skip all of 2.0!...

[Kaethra]

Believe it or not, FF14 is still an MMO first and foremost by a VERY large margint. Lots of people like to join to play with their friends and don't care much for the story when there's big, epic bosses to kill with said friends. Half of my friend group has been around since 2.0 and none of those people could tell you the name of half of the scions or major characters in the story due to how little they pay attention.

My group of friends does this as well. Currently have one playing catch up through Stormblood and they're skipping the cutscenes. I give them a brief gist of what's going on as they complete sections. But truth be told, if we had the option to go straight to dungeons. We would.

I'm not particularly fond of granting levels. I don't mind some sort of uber tutorial that offers a way to speed things along like my suggestion on page 2. Something akin to 5 duties covering the major points and each one gives 10 levels or whatnot. But truthfully I think it should be an option at the very least to opt out of the story entirely. If someone wishes to level 1-70 in dungeons and have access to any dungeon their level or ilvl lets them have access to without needing the plot, story, or interaction, they should be allowed to do so.

There is a ton of Dungeon content in this game. Far more than most MMORPGs. The MSQ for those of us who wish to skip it, is really a minor distraction. In less than two days you can go complete Stormblood in this manner. Why not simply give us back those two days to get some tomestones? Let friends who get started behind their group jump right in with the rest. Its hurts no one else. It doesn't cheapen the story for anyone who wants to experience it. It doesn't take away from how they wish to play.

Everyone ought to be able to play FFXIV the way they wish to play it. I'm personally not even looking for an easier way to get to max level. As everyone knows, the MSQ is one of the most efficient ways to level as a solo player. I just wish we had more options.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I wouldn't advocate skipping huge chunks of the game, as the game is very dense on story and lore and ARR is setting the ground work for everything else to come. I would advocate re-balancing job skills so that new players aren't just hitting two buttons for the first thirty levels. Or at least giving melee classes an AOE skill a lot sooner. Those low levels are just so boring.

[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.