New Player: Game feels bland and boring? Help?

[Chief]

I'm a new player (Free trial) and currently only level 20 with my rogue.

As the title states, the game feels bland and boring.

I've heard a lot of good things about the game and know its one of the top 3 mmos currently out there alongside WoW and ESO but I don't know what it is...the game just feels that way.

Here is a few things I sort of noticed and feel:



1. The area / map in general is dull and lacks any sort of color

2. I'm just pressing 1 and 2 (combo skills) back to back

3. The moves / attacks don't really feel impactful

4. Going from 1 area to another feels like a running simulator

5. The map navigation is probably one of the worst I've seen in any MMOs I've played.

6. There is no guidance in terms of area level recommendation or anything.

One minute you're in a level 10 - 12 zone and then next you're in a 45 - 50+ zone but
there is no indication what so ever.

7. To view regional map you have to click through so many things and not even knowing if the area you are looking at is where you should be.

8. Quests are scattered where 1 area might only be level 2 - 3 then as you cross to next zone its like 15 / 16 but there is no indication which area within the map you should be in within your level.

This makes new players like myself really hard to get a grasp of where I should be
without turning the game into a running simulator just to find the next area of where I
should be killing /questing.

Those are just a few things I've gathered so far since being a new free trial player.

Does the game get any better?

I don't want to spend money to get the full game / subscription and then dump time and effort in to this game if it is just going to remain like that.

[Oberon]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Amoc:

I loaded up classic WoW last year just to try it out. It hasn't aged well but one thing that it definitely still did was make the world feel dangerous. Even in the beginning zone of Durotar, there were plenty of ways to die. I had to run away several times trying to collect Zalazane's head simply because you COULD NOT fight more than 2-3 mobs at a time and win. There were numerous examples of this. I had to pay attention to my surroundings, I had to watch my resources, and I had to do things like kite and use CC to succeed.

They had that in 1.0. It wasn't fun, hence why they made the world easier to traverse in 2.0.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Amoc:

Despite all of this, new-to-MMO players still made it all the way to level 60 and the experience is so fondly remembered that Blizzard released Classic WoW.

And then WoW Classic came out and people realized just how rose-tinted their glasses were.

[Satsuka]

FFXIV is mainly modern JRPG and it's made for diffrent audience than those who like classic WoW. It's meant to hold your hand for long time, It's meant to have long opening that some times you have to go out of your way to figure out the lore cuz alot of stuff they talk about is 1.0 so you have to read up if you are interested more in to that,

Also being easy is turn off brain for me. I didnt try classic WoW and didnt bother checking what Blizzard has done whit it i left that thing in the past where it belongs. I enjoyed it when back in the days and had fond memory's of it and i want to keep it that way but now my tastes in games has changed and classic WoW dosent offer any chelange at end game.Hell i don't think i could even enjoy TBC now even tho that was the best part of my MMO career

[Amoc]

Oprindeligt skrevet af The Mayor of Murder Town:

They had that in 1.0. It wasn't fun, hence why they made the world easier to traverse in 2.0.

1.0 was an unmitigated disaster from why I understand. I think a lot more than that changed for 2.0.

Oprindeligt skrevet af The Mayor of Murder Town:

And then WoW Classic came out and people realized just how rose-tinted their glasses were.

Not really. I don't think it's any surprise that a 15 year old game is lacking in many regards, like basic presentation and QoL improvements in the years since. As of the end of March, 3rd party software was estimating worldwide active accounts at something like 450,000, which I'd say is fantastic. It's not for me anymore, especially since I'd already seen almost everything (except maybe the later bosses of Naxx 40). I don't have that sort of time to invest.

Where it WAS a lot better, however, was that it respected a player's intelligence and gave them challenging content to tackle from 1-60. There was lots of filler and padding throughout, but it wasn't nearly as bad the beginning to FFXIV (something that came out 10 years later) and it was far more engaging and challenging along the way.

Alternatively, if you want to start a new character in retail WoW and go from 1-120, they basically fast-track you through everything and let you skip the majority of it. Why? Because they realize that most of it's kind of boring and dated. For the next expansion they're letting you play through the later expansions for your initial leveling experience, because they at least have "stories" and give you a better path of progression. That's a great idea, and I imagine it's a significant investment in resources.

FFXIV's initial experience is stuck in the dark ages. I'm not arguing that WoW is a better game or anything, because I can't really have much of an opinion on it. I will, however, emphatically argue that it has a better leveling experience, past and present.

[Satsuka]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Amoc:

Alternatively, if you want to start a new character in retail WoW and go from 1-120, they basically fast-track you through everything and let you skip the majority of it. Why? Because they realize that most of it's kind of boring and dated. For the next expansion they're letting you play through the later expansions for your initial leveling experience, because they at least have "stories" and give you a better path of progression. That's a great idea, and I imagine it's a significant investment in resources.

But in FFXIV skipping ( especially the entire expnasion ) dosent make sense cuz alot of stuff even from ARR story are still relevant in Shadowbringers and it's JPRG like i said so it's mainly story basted game so story is far more immportant that WoW where most ppl dosent even know or care about the lore

[Amoc]

I understand and can appreciate that, but that's also a problem in itself. Because so much of the game's content is gated by the MSQ, and because most of the MSQ content is sublimely easy and boring, it ends up being a daunting barrier to getting into the game - one that I imagine turns a huge number of people off right from the start.

[Satsuka]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Amoc:

I understand and can appreciate that, but that's also a problem in itself. Because so much of the game's content is gated by the MSQ, and because most of the MSQ content is sublimely easy and boring, it ends up being a daunting barrier to getting into the game - one that I imagine turns a huge number of people off right from the start.

Than sad to say that this game is not made for them. Don't start playing JRPG if you don't want to listen to allot of story and narrative. MSQ is 2nd best part of this game and that everything has it's own story ( Normal and Alliance Raid's, every class and profession etc), ARR can get dull but still it's not really that bad except post ARR stuff witch is getting adrest

[Amoc]

The story may be the selling point of the game, and that's what a lot of people sign up for (like me), but that's not what new players actually experience. Instead, we're presented with a 20 level tutorial with excruciatingly slow pacing and dreadfully boring quest design. I was hoping to drag myself through it in the hopes it got better in a little while, but from what I understand it just continues to limp along awkwardly like this all the way to HW.

[Hinasil]

Such weak bait and people always fall for it

[Seera1024]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Amoc:

The story may be the selling point of the game, and that's what a lot of people sign up for (like me), but that's not what new players actually experience. Instead, we're presented with a 20 level tutorial with excruciatingly slow pacing and dreadfully boring quest design. I was hoping to drag myself through it in the hopes it got better in a little while, but from what I understand it just continues to limp along awkwardly like this all the way to HW.

Then there's some of us who didn't feel like the tutorial was a tutorial.

There's plenty of people who didn't find the pace excruciatingly slow.

Heck, I went through the post-ARR slog and went "where's the slog come in?" And then hit HW without hitting the slog. As I had been forewarned about the quests between ARR and HW being tedious.

So the experiences and opinions do differ between people.

The story felt like a realistic story where you start off as a literal nobody before you become a hero to the world and a friend to those around you. And your friends treat you like friends and colleagues instead of heroes. So you still do occasionally get told to do menial tasks as the story requires. And a hero rarely happens overnight. And when you go to places where your reputation hasn't preceded you, you're treated like a nobody again.

And I really enjoyed that realism in the story, even if it does lend itself to more mundane quests as opposed to running around and killing stuff every quest.

I do get and understand that you don't feel the same way and Square Enix is reducing the number of quests and the steps in other quests as they do realize that the pacing is slower than most like. Whether or not that will be enough for you, is unknown.

[Satsuka]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Amoc:

The story may be the selling point of the game, and that's what a lot of people sign up for (like me), but that's not what new players actually experience. Instead, we're presented with a 20 level tutorial with excruciatingly slow pacing and dreadfully boring quest design. I was hoping to drag myself through it in the hopes it got better in a little while, but from what I understand it just continues to limp along awkwardly like this all the way to HW.

I started playing this game in December cuz it was cheap af at that time. So i'm not that old of a player so i went thro this thing you call slog and never had problem whit it except the Titan part of MSQ cuz that was only thing i didnt enjoy. So like i said before it's JRPG story witch is oposite of western RPG's story telling (JRPG's mostly start slow and drag out the openings to build up you character, world etc where western RPG's jumps you from 0 to hero instantly). so if you don't like that than this game it's not for you. FFXIV story and start is exectly and its should be. It's simple as that

[Om3ga-Z3ro]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Amoc:

The story may be the selling point of the game, and that's what a lot of people sign up for (like me), but that's not what new players actually experience. Instead, we're presented with a 20 level tutorial with excruciatingly slow pacing and dreadfully boring quest design. I was hoping to drag myself through it in the hopes it got better in a little while, but from what I understand it just continues to limp along awkwardly like this all the way to HW.

Really sounds like we are playing two different games, I'd like to see this 20 level long tutorial because the only tutorial I found is the Hall of the Novice which gives nice things.

[philhinton71]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Om3ga-Z3ro:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Amoc:

The story may be the selling point of the game, and that's what a lot of people sign up for (like me), but that's not what new players actually experience. Instead, we're presented with a 20 level tutorial with excruciatingly slow pacing and dreadfully boring quest design. I was hoping to drag myself through it in the hopes it got better in a little while, but from what I understand it just continues to limp along awkwardly like this all the way to HW.

Really sounds like we are playing two different games, I'd like to see this 20 level long tutorial because the only tutorial I found is the Hall of the Novice which gives nice things.

I think he's referring to still having to do silly fetch style quests, well into end game. Quests that would normally be tutorial style quests, to show new players the ropes. Take Tataru's 2 quests, fetching a pick axe and the arcanists one, I'm now level 73 and just finishing Stormblood, and I can still see no real relevance to those 2 quests. Yes it added some flavour to the MSQ, but did we really have to devote an hour to them? Same for the looking for the kids in Vesper Bay, then having to fetch perfume, really!! Those were the best they could come up with?

[Om3ga-Z3ro]

If fetch quests is considered as a tutorial then WoW's open world is literally a whole tutorial outside of dungeons and raids when they mostly have "Kill X", "Loot Y" and "Fetch Z" in their quest.

Tataru's quests is about her wanting to contribute to the Scions new home in Mor Dhona because she felt useless and needed your help to make it happen and as a friend you help her. Thanks to you she has learnt skills in Weaving because that became her preferred profession and made new attire for the Scions. she is a typical Lalafell that only has money on her mind but for good reason it's called story telling.

[Fey Dragonette]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Amoc:

The story may be the selling point of the game, and that's what a lot of people sign up for (like me), but that's not what new players actually experience. Instead, we're presented with a 20 level tutorial with excruciatingly slow pacing and dreadfully boring quest design. I was hoping to drag myself through it in the hopes it got better in a little while, but from what I understand it just continues to limp along awkwardly like this all the way to HW.

Nah the story picks up in ARR too, I enjoyed the ARR story quite a bit, was a lot of fun.

[philhinton71]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Om3ga-Z3ro:

If fetch quests is considered as a tutorial then WoW's open world is literally a whole tutorial outside of dungeons and raids when they mostly have "Kill X", "Loot Y" and "Fetch Z" in their quest.

Tataru's quests is about her wanting to contribute to the Scions new home in Mor Dhona because she felt useless and needed your help to make it happen and as a friend you help her. Thanks to you she has learnt skills in Weaving because that became her preferred profession and made new attire for the Scions. she is a typical Lalafell that only has money on her mind but for good reason it's called story telling.

Yes like I said they added to the MSQ, but we didn't need to do those quests to find that out. She could of said something like "I'm no good at fighting, but I think I will be good at weaving" then you could of had a quest to help her achieve her goal.

And please stop using WOW as a benchmark, just because WOW did it, doesn't mean its either good or required. My first MMO was Everquest, and while over the years I've dipped into WOW starting back on WOW's release, I've never really stuck at it for more than a few months. FF14 is very good, the main story and the following expansions are great, the community is excellent, and they do so much right. It's the closest I've come to EQ over the last 20 years, and I've played most of the main MMO's.