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

[Gyson]

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.

I really don't understand the complaints mentioned here. I started playing FFXIV around the time Coils was introduced, when level 50 was still the cap. Regardless, it felt like there was more content available at level 50 than there was on my trip from level 1 to 50. And, honestly, I couldn't have been more happy about that. I was thoroughly enjoying the game and my only thoughts about the seemingly endless amount of content ahead was that there was more of the game I loved to enjoy. It was impossible to see that as a bad thing.

FFXIV isn't like some other MMOs where all of the fun stuff is locked behind an end-game. Most of its systems (like 8 man trials) are introduced on the way to 50, and by level 50 you've seen most of what there is to see gameplay wise. Everything beyond that is just variations on a theme. Yes, the designs of dungeons and raids get more interesting as the expansions roll by, and classes have more options. But they were good to start out with and the improvements over time just make the ongoing experience all the more enjoyable.

I have played and enjoyed this entire game with friends and (outside of grinding something specific for myself) never alone, and so I don't understand the complaint that the game isn't multiplayer friendly. And complaining that there is too much story, when the narrative is arguably one of the game's strengths, is like complaining about having too many romantic encounters. Sorry, I had to think of a PG way to say that.

Now, if your friend doesn't like the story (and there are people who don't, who just want to grind their way to max level and take on whatever challenges await there), that's understandable. But that doesn't mean there's a problem with the game. It just means this type of MMO is probably not for them. Or settle on a story skip - you're worried that they won't know what's going on, but it doesn't seem like they really care, else they'd be happily consuming the story. I enjoyed it so much that I went through it twice when new-game plus was introduced, and wouldn't want to see it reduced at all.

I would like to see more combat woven into the story, but often the most entertaining form of that comes from the solo-duties as the kill-tasks out in the open world can be spoiled by the presence of random players. This MMO is certainly not like WoW or Everquest where you spend more time grinding on mobs than anything else, and I'm not really sure I want it to be. FATEs exist for that option.

If I were a new player coming into this game I would be in heaven. But that's because I enjoy the game and there's a lot of game here to enjoy. So I don't think the game fails for new players, but that doesn't mean it can or should be a game for everyone.