Quote Originally Posted by MistakeNot View Post
There is no good reason to skip the story. There is very little point in rushing to the endgame - not much to do there, and you will have missed 95% of the game.
Also, why worry about "catching up"? All the content is new to new players. Lots of things to do along the way.

For those who don't care about the story, I would say there are plenty of other games better suited to them.
There are plenty of reasons to rush to endgame. It's where the classes finally feel good to play, and everyone at end game is more or less doing the same content which is great for cooperative play. I remember my new player experience in FF14. It wasn't the high point of the game. Classes remain simple for too long and some of the content is trivial to the point where it's kind of boring.

FF14's story (well besides ARR) is interesting, but making it mandatory creates a situation where some will be pressured to skip it. At least now there is no more skipping it for good as you can go back to it later with New Game+. I think it's a much better way to implement the story. Players have more options on how to approach the game and if they choose to go through the story, they'll probably be more interested in what it offers. Not everyone has to play a game the same way.