New player(s) thoughts

[Buki_jo]

So, me and some friends decided to start playing this game together after reading good reviews online. But quit after a day of quests, quests, quests, quests. There has got to be a way to streamline these quests to where you can get a good story, but at the same time not grinding endless quests that 99% of people skip the dialog anyway.

Also, the free trial is a joke. it's almost as if SE wants to punish people for playing the free trail and not paying. You can't even invite people to parties. I had to pay a sub just so we could group together. The entire new player experience in this aspect has to be relooked at. (heck if i didn't pay the sub i couldn't even communicate my new player thoughts to SE about this topic on the forums)

Maybe this game just isn't our style of gaming and I'm willing to accept that, just wanted to put in my 2 cents.

[hagare]

So, me and some friends decided to start playing this game together after reading good reviews online. But quit after a day of quests, quests, quests, quests. There has got to be a way to streamline these quests to where you can get a good story, but at the same time not grinding endless quests that 99% of people skip the dialog anyway.

Also, the free trial is a joke. it's almost as if SE wants to punish people for playing the free trail and not paying. You can't even invite people to parties. I had to pay a sub just so we could group together. The entire new player experience in this aspect has to be relooked at. (heck if i didn't pay the sub i couldn't even communicate my new player thoughts to SE about this topic on the forums)

Maybe this game just isn't our style of gaming and I'm willing to accept that, just wanted to put in my 2 cents.

that's why sprouts are usually invited to NN. So they can ask other paying players to group up together.
But if you only want to group up with other free trial players, yeah you can't sadly

PS: I'm pretty sure all the restrictions were clearly stated

[dspguy]

If the story isn't your thing, then it'll be a lot of "skip skip skip" for 90 levels. As for the free trial, it is free. You don't get the full experience for nothing. Many of the restrictions are in-place, in my opinion, to curb RMT and isolate the subscribed playerbase from the free-to-play players. You can't earn over 300K gil. Can't trade it. Can't create parties, Can't /tell or /shout.

All things considered, since you can get to level 60 and all the content before that - for free. That's a sweet deal. If you like what you see, you subscribe. If you don't, then you don't. It is probably one of the better free-to-play trial-type options, especially from a well-established MMO.

[Mikki]

Final Fantasy XIV is a story driven game. If you want to skip all the dialogue or find it to be a headache to get through, then it likely isn't the game for you because that's literally the entire game. You'll be doing a LOT of quests with a LOT of reading all the way up until current content - and you will do the same every time a new patch drops. There are literally cutscenes where it tells you to set aside ample time to view them in their entirety because you're gonna be sitting there reading for 20+ minutes. Yes, I will admit that ARR can be a bit of a drag but that's only because it's setting up the world for you so that you can follow the story. It's always going to feel a bit lack luster when you're just having the foundation thrown at you and you're not yet invested in said world and your character's place in it. Your character's place in the world and the story its telling really picks up toward the end of ARR. Personally, I like that our character takes some time to get going and that the early tasks are rather mundane before things really start to pick up.

As for the free trial issues... I don't know, they didn't even have a free trial when I started playing at least not that I can recall. If they did, it was only a 30 day free trial at the time. Getting to play all of ARR and HW for free is a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. It'll be a better experience if you have friends who are paying, I think, since they can invite others iirc. Not entirely sure.

[Jalei]

While I agree that ARR is a grind, its already been watered down due to the constant complaints. So at this point, if its still something to complain about then its probably not for you. As for 99% of players skipping the story, I highly doubt that. This game has a massive story fanbase. There are far less skippers than story enjoyers in my opinion. But again, its not for everyone so maybe its just not for you.

As for the free trial, the reply above is spot on. Its to curb rmt and it does to an extent. But if you came here expecting the full game experience for free over 60 levels, you didn't really pay attention to the trial restrictions. Aside from limiting rmt, its designed to give you enough gameplay to make the choice to sub or leave. They aren't about to rework that to make it even less incentivized for new players to actually purchase the full game and sub.

In the end, I hope you can find a way to enjoy the game as it really does offer players a ton of content and a fun experience in my opinion. Small gripes aside, give it another shot. Reach out to novice network for advice and help. There are avenues you can take to limit the frustrations.

[Jeeqbit]

So, me and some friends decided to start playing this game together after reading good reviews online. But quit after a day of quests, quests, quests, quests. There has got to be a way to streamline these quests to where you can get a good story, but at the same time not grinding endless quests that 99% of people skip the dialog anyway.

99% of people don't skip the dialogue, because it's a story-driven game and the story is part of what drives the excitement for the new content and patches. Everything is inspired by the story - the music, the mechanics, the dungeon design, the visuals, all would not be what they are without the story and knowing the story makes you more excited to do the content.

Those who do skip the dialogue usually get bored and quit, because the game is designed to enjoy the story. Even following the story but feeling that you have to rush to the end can cause you not to absorb the story properly and burnout.

As the name suggests, this game is the 14th and there were 13 more before it, most of them single player that were all about story and that is why this game is too.

Is there traditional MMO content such as raids, pvp and open world content? Yes, all of it has a blue story quest that unlocks it and depending on what you want to do, you need a certain amount of main story progression to do it. The main story quest (MSQ) is the one with the fireball.

My suggestion is to either try to enjoy the stories, or the game might not be for you because even unlocking basic menus involves a story quest. You can do what some people do and buy a story skip, or skip through all cutscenes, at the expense of knowing the context of what's going on and reducing your enjoyment/excitement for future patches.

Also, the free trial is a joke. it's almost as if SE wants to punish people for playing the free trail and not paying. You can't even invite people to parties.

All MMOs do this because of RMT (criminal activity), although it's effective at getting people to pay so that is probably a part of it too.

[LianaThorne]

Disagree that most people skip.
Agree that the free trial is hot garbage with what you can actually do.

[midnitdragoon]

I believe a lot of ppl skip the text.... They just want to play the game. Im guilty of skipping a lot..

[SannaR]

Hard disagree on the percentile of those who skip it. Also you could have asked in chat if someone would be willing to start a party for you and your friends. I've had a handful of free trial users ask for that and if I have time or if no one else has already started to help them I go and do so. I can understand most of the restrictions. The partying up one to me is kind of dumb. Any expectations you might have of how XIV is supposed to be due to it being an MMO just toss those in the trash cause I doubt the game will match most if any of them. It's a story driven game that has most things tied to its main story progress with gameplay that some will say isn't like any other MMO while having similarities.

[Nizzi]

No offense, but they're giving you access to all the content in two expansions and you think that they're "punishing" you for having restrictions? When I started playing the trial wasn't even that long and was only up to level 30 in ARR if I remember. I'm not sure why you'd think that SE is "punishing" you for giving you unlimited free trial access to a lot of things? Of course there are restrictions, the game is subscription based so they want you to pay.