In a recent interview:"Mondes Persistants (MP): Regarding new players, what kind of content will they tackle in order to progress into the game? What about current players who already have all jobs to 50?
Yoshida : Actually the reps are posting about it on the forums, but we are trying to have the best leveling features, and for 2.0 it is going to be quite different from the current leveling system.
When I started working on XIV, I wanted to make the changes straight away but we couldn't because there was a lack of contents, and also the system wasn't ready, but for the 2.0 version I want to make sure once you complete contents, you will get the key to level up your character, so completing content is a key to leveling up in 2.0 version.
Completing the quests, getting rewards, huge experience points, or completing a dungeon and getting experience points, that's going to be the key thing to level up your character, not like at the moment where you have to do monster camping or farming, that's not going to work in 2.0.
For the new players, once you make your character then you start going into the storyline, experiencing the scenario, and completing quests, you will not really progress in the game, you would gain experience points and level up your character first, once you've experienced the storyline, you will realise that your character is leveling up at the same time.
For the level 50 players, of course they can try out the new main scenario of 2.0 and complete the battle against the Garlemald Empire, or try out the new Crystal Tower content; so, you can start trying out the end content if you want to, or, of course, if you can try the new scenario from scratch, there'll be several options given to players.
Also the map is completely different so just by walking around you'll notice a lot of new things, that should be interesting as well."
What do you guys think?
"RPG Site: As far as gameplay goes, how will grinding vs. quests work for leveling? Will players find more reward from taking on more quests as opposed to just outright level grinding?
Yoshida: We will be moving away from a grind-oriented leveling system to a quest/content-driven leveling system. No longer will randomly defeating public monsters be the most efficient way to level your character."