The new player experience and how FFXIV fails as an MMO.

[Arohk]

Today i was talking to my sister again, and asked her when she might continue to play the game.

So i give you some of her responses why she and her friend doesn't continue playing for now , they are somewhere in the middle of Shadowbringers before they quit some months ago.
And i do agree wholy with her.

Even though she likes the story overall and the characters, and she knows the game has a lot of cool things to offer from what i showed her, here is the main issue:

The story is too long and not multiplayer friendly.

We are now several years and multiple expansions in the lifespan of FFXIV, but the MSQ gets longer and longer and longer ever since. It simply takes way too long now to get through it all, we are now at 300+ hours to the end of Dawntrail, if not more. A casual player will take months to get through it before reaching the current content of the game, also unlocking all trials and dungeons takes a really long time.

There is also the other problem that the MSQ is a mostly single player experience, she tries to play with her boyfrined but beside dungeons and trials there is pretty much no multiplayer content or reason to run around in groups. You can't do any of the story sequences ina group because they are all solo instances.
they sit literally next to each other at home, but have barely any interaction in the game together.

Then there is the problem of unlocking dungeons, trials or raids. You can't simply do anything together in this game if one player hasnt unlocked a thing.

Another critique is that the MSQ has almost no combat interactions, when she took a longer break and got back into the game, she forgets what she is even doing with her class because unless you do a dungeon there is no combat during MSQ, you maybe kill one or two easy mobs for a quest but thats it, and then it is just running around and talking again.

> MSQ needs more combat elements to keep the player awake in between dungeons and trials.

I do not suggest buying a story skip to get there, because then you know nothing about what is going on, but something must be done to reduce the lenght of the MSQ, it must be cut and trimmed down by 30-50% at this point. A lot of not plot relevant quests must be removed or turned into side quests to keep the story.

fazit: The game fails new players as an MMO, but also kinda fails as a good single player experience because of its excessive lenght and boring gameplay elements during the MSQ part.

[BigCheez]

I think the new player experience is actually pretty good. I would say it's one of the stronger parts of the game. It does take a long time for someone to get caught up but there's plenty of content that they can play along the way and a huge back catalogue of stuff to do.

The cracks start to show once someone has been at max level for a few expansions and realises that every expansion has the same cookie-cutter formula cut, pasted, and drip-fed at a snail's pace. And with more of the rough edges sanded away each time, so it just feels like you're playing through increasingly simplified versions of the exact same thing.

[Mawlzy]

Even though she likes the story overall and the characters, and she knows the game has a lot of cool things to offer from what i showed her, here is the main issue:

The story is too long

This is only true if you regard the purpose of an MMO is to reach endgame. As I've suggested elsewhere, "endgame" in an MMO is an artificial construct taken from single-player games, particularly when applied exclusively to PvE.

The cracks start to show once someone has been at max level for a few expansions and realises that every expansion has the same cookie-cutter formula cut, pasted, and drip-fed at a snail's pace. And with more of the rough edges sanded away each time, so it just feels like you're playing through increasingly simplified versions of the exact same thing.

Exactly this.

[Jeeqbit]

I would prefer if the MSQ was multiplayer in the way SWTOR is. For whatever reason, SE actually pondered this from the start and decided against it. I can't understand why they would but it's hard to really go back without fundamentally changing the story to say some other players are also scions and have the echo.

I also hate having to read quest dialogue to myself instead of it being voiced, but it's hard to see them going back and voicing it all at this point, especially with voice actors having changed sometimes.

The lack of action is a common complaint and the best solution I can think of for that is just having some cutscenes happen where you follow an NPC and they talk (voiced) while they are running, so you get to fight or move around during the dialogue. That's something games have done for a very long time, but mostly we're still stuck trapped watching it play out. There is some value in proper cutscenes some of the time, because following an NPC can make you miss an important event because you weren't paying attention or ran away to do something else. The other thing would be that we wouldn't get to see the cutscene at an inn anymore, most likely.

It's always made a lot of players quit, but at least it accurately shows them what it will be like later on, because quests work the same at level 100 as well and you still have to do them a lot to unlock new content.

I have thought that the MSQ is very long but if you think about it enough, this is more of an issue for people who feel pressured to rush to endgame, perhaps due to pressure from a max level friend. If all you're looking for is a final fantasy story, you've got a banquet of story waiting for you and that's not a bad thing if you like story. In any case, Yoshi-P was asked about this around Dawntrail release and said he decided it's fine because new players consistently say how they loved the story, and they wouldn't say that if he added a mechanic to skip it, so at least for now that is the mindset.

[Hallarem]

Only people I've managed to get to stay or seen stay are roleplayers at this phase. Either serious ones or ones that hang out in nightclubs and other social events, because the game has very very good systems if not the best in the MMO-sphere for roleplay. There is no meaningful gameplay loop in the end if you aren't going to go fully into savages, most multiplayer content is playermade and even then the game tries its very best with its outdated systems to hamper your attempts. No chat bubbles, because...? Can't put down a marker for the whole alliance raid becauuuuuse....? These small details are very important for roleplay.

- Questing together? Doesn't exist, because most quests are cutscenes and fights that you could solo with your butt just randomly pressing on your keyboard. There's no organic "Can someone help with this? Team up for this?" The open world being so tame to traverse is by FAR the biggest MMO crime this game does. Flying mounts were a mistake too, aetherytes existing EVERYWHERE was a mistake. But then again designing a tunnel MMO with loading screens was a choice they made. Farming mobs together for cool drops? Doesn't exist.

- Fallguys wouldve been fun multiplayer, but its seasonal and the engine cant handle it. More of those types of events please

- Exploring together? Doesn't exist, the mobs barely tickle and there's nothing to find on the map.

- Dungeons might as well be solo, because they surmount to nothing. Help your friend gear? Buy them the crafted set.

- Chasing 10 year old achievements together might be fun for a moment, but an MMO relying on old content to float it when they have absolutely nothing new to do for big cycles is sad.

- Skipping the story doesn't help either, like the OP mentioned you miss out on EVERYTHING, you are confused when new content comes along. Not that anything below an extreme needs you to know anything.

- The story definitely needs a big cutscene for some previous expansions on what happened, but let's say there's a big cutscene for ARR - Endwalker and you land at Dawntrail? OOOOOOOF. Big damnable OOOF. I don't think that's possible until the game has a revamp, the worldbuilding/story changes. Endwalker would've been a perfect spot to nuke the world and change the atmosphere a bit, but I don't think they have the talent nor the resources to do that unless we get another 1.0 situation where it gets so bad they just press the exterminatus button and go for a Realm Reborn REBORN. It was sure a decision to visit the end of the universe, space, the moon and other shards before we even touched on Ilsabard, the north, meracydia or some other regions like Hingashi proper. I still have no idea what they are speeding towards other than the demise of their worldbuilding being destroyed even further by them pressing fastforward, but here we are.

Awaiting for 8.0 that is now the "real real, for real guys the new beginning" unlike DT that they said would be.

[Shurrikhan]

I don't think the new player experience is quite so bad, let alone uniquely bad among AAA MMOs, but it definitely has room for improvement. Just to name a handful of obvious points...

• UI could and should be more intuitive.
  
  
• The world could and should be more alive.
  
  
• Dead systems like the Hunt Log should be revitalized.
  
  
• FATEs could use better scaling systems so that you aren't punished at one end of a zone for the previous FATE, 10 levels apart, getting cleared quickly elsewhere (see also: Occult Cresent).
  
  
• Ilvl caps should be tightened, quite possibly to simply what the given content drops, so that dungeons can be nearer their intended difficulties.
  
  
• Trusts should probably script themselves as to, if anything, be smarter/better than the average dungeon-runner, while increasing enemy HP accordingly to remain slightly less efficient, as to be a learning tool instead of picking up more bad habits than good ones.
  
  
• The early level kit needs to make up for what has been pruned from it, or better, (e.g., giving us the kind of compelling kits sometimes not found until level 68 or so now... as early as level 48 instead), and the devs shouldn't be afraid to return the more granular upgrades we used to have in order to make the leveling kits feel like intended play (e.g., Disembowel starting at 12s, so that even before level 50 it still actually feels rotational instead of merely a wonky addendum) instead of treating them as just an accident that happened on the way to the real [end]game.
  
  
• Any further cumulative effects of power creep on early content should be mitigated through slight tuning re-tweaks.

[PercibelTheren]

I remember being new and really thrown by the fact that the opening of the game isn't voiced. IMO, this is a big mistake. The MSQ, at the very least, needs to be fully voiced.

Another thing that annoyed the heck out of me was constantly having to leave party for solo instances. Either make them mini-FATEs with level sync or make them instances you can join with friends, also with level and item sync so they don't get instantly deleted. Actually, just let us level sync to a friend when in a party with them in the overworld, period. RIFT did it with its Mentor system and it was pretty nice to get new players into the game if you were a vet, since it enabled you to do beginner content with them very easily.

Thirdly, doing anything solo as a healer is absolutely miserable. I started out as an Arcanist and went Scholar because I mained healers in every other MMO. I knew healers didn't deal that much damage. But in XIV they hit like wet noodles. Killing anything takes forever. If DPS can get regen with Brilliant Conviction, please at least give healers a damage buff for those duties.

[Uncle_Jafar]

Just my opinion but I love the long campaign. Makes it feel like an epic journey from humble beginnings. If someone thinks that it’s too long or want their friend to co-op with them so they don’t get bored, maybe they don’t appreciate the story as much as they should.

[Arohk]

Just my opinion but I love the long campaign. Makes it feel like an epic journey from humble beginnings. If someone thinks that it’s too long or want their friend to co-op with them so they don’t get bored, maybe they don’t appreciate the story as much as they should.

The MSQ feels like playing any other FinalFantasy game , but with random encounters turned off.

[PyurBlue]

This is only true if you regard the purpose of an MMO is to reach endgame. As I've suggested elsewhere, "endgame" in an MMO is an artificial construct taken from single-player games, particularly when applied exclusively to PvE.

Endgame isn't artificial. You can think of it as the point where you've stopped progressing and it makes more sense to focus on honing your gameplay with your complete skill list instead of having to incorporate new skills all the time. The consistency of endgame makes it more likely that challenging and deeper content exists because it doesn't need to account for a huge range of participants that might have different levels or quality of gear. Different people will have different ideas of what makes a game or genre and in my view I prefer the endgame state more than the progression state. I enjoy getting better at a game more than I enjoy getting better stats, especially when better stats are an illusion that only makes for bigger numbers on screen at the end of the day. I also don't want a static game, that's one of my biggest complaints with FF14, but the variety is best applied to the environment that your character is in, rather than coming from your character, at least in my opinion.

Exactly this.

Speaking from my own experience, the MSQ was a sore point from the beginning. I agree with many of the issues brought up in the first post. I didn't like being forced to play solo without friends. I didn't like having to go through many hours of story to catch up with friends. I did like dungeons but I'd have to make time for the MSQ because the entire game depends on it. I don't think FF14's approach to the story is very good. A more open world where you can do things without very specific prerequisites or only in a very tightly intended order would be much more fun.

Just my opinion but I love the long campaign. Makes it feel like an epic journey from humble beginnings. If someone thinks that it’s too long or want their friend to co-op with them so they don’t get bored, maybe they don’t appreciate the story as much as they should.

I feel the same way about length. I'd much rather have a long campaign than a short one. The problem is that FF14's long campaign blocks off 95% of the game. It doesn't have to.