How should the next expansion be handled? For new players/characters?

[RitsukoSonoda]

Introduce mechanics to the game that players will inevitably use to torment the world's NPCs much like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Korok... >.>

[AmiableApkallu]

This is speculation - Do you have hard evidence that they're doing this, or is it the community coping? I would ASSUME they would do it, but I can't find any hard evidence.

Best I can recall off hand is what they said in a previous Live Letter:

The Unending Codex is still in the planning phase, but within the next ten years, we may eventually need something that allows people to play the game without starting from the very beginning, which is what we’re preparing for with this feature. If possible, we’re hoping to include entries on important lore concepts such as aether and the six elements.

[Iscah]

lPerhaps using this new 7.0 boost comes with a short summary of the WoLs journey so far, an abridged version, that takes place in a 10-15 minute cutscene or over the course of a couple of bonus 'starter' quests. In a similar way to how ARR solved for 1.0's destruction, but on a five-times larger scale.

a free skip (story & levelling) + a long cutscene with the main point of 2.0 -> 6.0 story

Having a lengthy cutscene seems to defeat the purpose of it being a good starting point. Either it's going to zoom through everything so fast it explains very little and spoils a lot, or it gets bogged down explaining every detail and bombarding the newbie with information that isn't needed for the story. (This is what made me dislike the storytelling in the Ivalice raids – lengthy history lessons about an array of things and people we didn't need to know at any point.)

A new player in a new story arc doesn't need the minutiae of where we went before. A great deal of it won't be important any more if it's wrapped up and resolved, and if something is important and unclear, they can pick it up as they go along. If they're confused, that's why we have the Codex reference now.

Edit to add: If anything, it's better to not go into too much detail about what happened previously, in case they find that they enjoy the story and want to go back and play the earlier part.

[Payotz]

Endwalker was said to be the end of the story started since ARR, and next expansion would be a new story. So, how should this be reflected towards new platers/characters? Should they still start in ARR or begin at the start of this new story?

I could see them doing what GGG is doing with PoE 2, where they can essentially choose if they want to go with the PoE 1 storyline or level through PoE 2, and the continuity works because PoE 2 is set 20 years after PoE 1.

Though I'm not really sure how that would work with XIV continuity-wise, cause I don't think they're gonna be doing a time skip anytime soon.

[DixieBellOCE]

One voucher for a free story skip and job boost included with the purchase of 7.0, which the player can choose to use immediately or save for an alt later.

The story for 7.0 can aim to be a "non-confusing entry point" but should not try to pretend that newcomers are meeting the characters for the first time.

Yes, just what we need.
More endgame players that never learned the basics of the games combat system.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Yes, just what we need.
More endgame players that never learned the basics of the games combat system.

TBH from personal experience the people I tend to hear complaining about how long the MSQ is are the ones that just want to get specific things like weapons from clearing Ultimates ASAP so they can tell ppl they cleared the content and show off the shiny thing. The ones playing the game to actually play the game I generally don't see complaining about the length of the MSQ. Just some complaints about certain things like early fetch quests that seem like someone else should have done them while you were doing the thing before them.

[Fyrebrand]

I'm always bewildered by this notion that a game's latest expansion is what everybody should be playing -- even new players -- and that previous expansions are an obstacle of some sort that requires a solution. It makes sense for some of the older, more grindy MMORPGs where leveling is a monotonous slog with very little if any story to keep you engaged. But in a lot of ways, FFXIV is basically a story-focused JRPG, much like any other game in the franchise. All the previous expansions are not "grind" to get to the real game, they ARE the real game. It's all just GAME, isn't it? If a new player can't play it in order and enjoy it for what it is, what are they even doing here? And why would they magically enjoy 7.0 any better?

Imagine a popular fantasy novel series, where a seventh book is coming out soon. Why on earth would anyone think "Newcomers really shouldn't be forced to read all six previous books, they should just get a brief synopsis and skip to the seventh book because that's the new and current end-read content!"

I'm sure there will be an available story-skip purchase in the store if people want it, but I don't think it should be the default introduction for new players.