Hey there Xakery (and everyone else in this thread). I just thought I would bring to this thread the perspective of someone brand new to the game (I only ever played briefly in beta, decided not to buy at that time).

I have not been power-leveled, or asked anyone to be power-leveled. To me, power-leveling is something you do for your third or fourth+ class (done by someone close to you, not paid for), when you know the ins and outs of the game and are simply looking to achieve a goal quickly.

But what I really wanted to focus on was this statement "I just think it would be more fitting if the veteran's give advice to the newer generation of players." I could not agree MORE. However, if that advice is out there, it is very difficult or sometimes even impossible to find. I think I will make another thread about this soon, but since your statement was the 'spark' I wanted to reply here first.

As a new player, trying to find something out about this game is not only extremely difficulty, but very confusing. Google searching something simple like "ff14 jobs" returns links to paid guides, youtube videos from the first beta, obscure forum posts, press releases, and many other things which are not really what I was looking for at all. It took me 20 minutes just to figure out what the class level requirements were for the job system, and then more digging after to that to find out their roles / uses.

Now I am not one to be squeamish about doing a little research, but these sort of confusing results show up for every little thing you want to learn about. And more often than not, the information you find is outdated / no longer relevant. I still am not 100% sure about what grand companies are, and what I need to do to be prepared to join when the time comes.

I guess my point is, you said "I just think it would be more fitting if the veteran's give advice to the newer generation of players" but in your whole post, you never gave me any advice. Where should I level? What should I hold on to / sell? How do the grand companies work? What is expected of players in parties? What are the level ranges for the various instances / boss fights? Outside the game, where can I find accurate, up to date information about the game? What's the best way to find a linkshell? And so on.

With 2.0 coming, everyone is hoping that a surge of new blood will give the game a fresh start and see it really take off. But it is my humble opinion that while square needs to hold up its end by making the game better, the community has a lot of work to do as well when it comes to ushering new players into the fold. I can tell you now, I have a LOT more patience than the average player is going to have when it comes to searching for the right answers, and it is my opinion that many new players will simply quit if they can't figure out how the game works a bit more easily.

Anyways, I don't mean to call you out, and I don't want to come off as angry or ranting because I'm really not angry. This has been a dieing game, but it's gotten a lot better. It's more sad than anything I guess that the games growing greatness is completely obscured on the internet by its past failures.

Thanks all!

~Chook