Quote Originally Posted by Ultrazen View Post
I quit this game twice trying to get through the MSQ, I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm stubborn and came back, but how many people do? One of the big problems with the MSQ, especially early on, is how much running you do. There is a severe disrespect for the players time. There are so many quests, that are literally 'run for 10 minutes, get one line of dialogue, run back for 10 minutes'. To me, this happens to the point of being insulting. It gets particularly bad early on when you still don't even have enough money to teleport back, which just happened to me last night. I started a new character, on a new server, just to get a feel for what they did to the MSQ, as it's always been my warning to people that ask me if they should try FF. Same old stuff.

To argue that even half of those quests are indispensable to the story is pretty laughable. ALL of those quests, especially early on, should auto complete instead of making you go back to the original quest hub. Any MSQ that has you running back to the original NPC, only to then run back out to the area you were just in, should just issue you the next quest in the series when you complete the previous one. That alone would cut the time it takes in half.

It's fairly obvious, that the MSQ was designed, at the time, to pad the game. That padding is certainly no longer needed, it's a real barrier for new players trying to get into the game. The biggest problem for retention for new players in this game, is how rudimentary the combat is early on, combined with how much time you spend literally doing nothing but running. This game still makes a horrible first impression.
Give me the name of a quest or post a vid that requires the player to run from one location to another for a quest that takes 10m. I only want a single example. Here is a hint. You won't find it. It doesn't exist.