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

[Kandraxx]

What they really should do is to split the MSQ from each expac apart and implement some sort of hub where new players would be able to choose which story/expac to pursue. That would also mean that they make the absolute baseline like materia melding, mounts, travel, etc a default and not a ARR progression.

For example, in Guild Wars 2 (which also locks content behind story progression) you can just activate/deactivate storylines from different expacs via menu and at least go where you want. Want to hop directly into the newest thing? No problem and you're not really penalized or at a real disadvantage either.

Now, obviously that is gonna create some kinda paradox and inconsistencies, where you would go from someone dead to that someone being alive again and so. But I think that still would be a lot better than the current implementation, where newcomers are asked to play for ~200 hrs to get to the first 'beacon of light' (which I personally think is Stormblood) or to fork out 25 bucks for something they might not even continue to play in a weeks time.