TL;DR: ffxiv good, wow bad, read the post omegalul
And of course, by “WoW needs some kind of MSQ”, I mean it needs mean a more linear, cohesive new player experience.
WoW’s new player experience is still god-awful. Exile’s Reach was a good two steps forward, but with it and the subsequent folding-over of all the legacy expansions, it feels like the experience has gone 5 steps back. There needs to be some kind of structure and immersion in the early-game if this game is going to survive as long as Ion’s roadmap probably tells him.
For those who don’t know, MSQ stands for ‘main story quests’, a term commonly used in FFXIV to denote quests that are part of the main story. This string of required (AFAIK) quests stretches in an unceasing straight line from the moment you create your character all the way to the most recent dungeon in the most recent patch. Along this MSQ you unlock most major content in organic ways, from Companies (guilds) to the casino, to flying mounts and most dungeons, new expansion content, new jobs, and eventually raids and the endgame.
This means that, instead of stumbling through an old expansion on an instanced continent where there’s no relevant content or experienced players, you’re riding the same train as everyone else, going through some of the most populated places in FFXIV’s world, getting to see all that the game has to offer before you hit the classic MMO directionless endgame, instead of being expected to after the fact.
Unfortunately for WoW, all new players are forced to stumble through that old expansion on an instanced continent where there’s no relevant content or experienced players. Plus, if this hypothetical new player is unlucky and doesn’t have a friend to show them the ropes of endgame, they’re going to be expected to do all the research themselves on how to have fun past reaching level 70… if they even make it that far.
Some sort of MSQ in WoW may fix this, but there are, of course, problems with shoving a system from one game into another. Namely, in FFXIV’s MSQ, a character must experience it before being able to do dungeons or raids, use mounts, travel to different expansion zones, pick up new jobs, etc. This obviously wouldn’t work in WoW.
Thus I propose the following:
Many people have said that the game is sorely overdue for an old-world revamp a-la Cataclysm. If this comes to pass, then the new player levelling process should be completely remade as an on-rails experience like FFXIV’s MSQ. Start a new story about the player character leaving home to be a part of this grandiose world, only to be conscripted by the Alliance or Horde and sent to Exile’s Reach. From there, you’re sent to Stormwind or Orgrimmar, and you get to see how the world is in modernity instead of experiencing how it was 10 years ago and being expected to be able to put the pieces together.
During this on-rails experience, quests take you around the Eastern Kingdoms/Kalimdor to show you everything. Vendors, mounts, dungeons, roles, talents, gear, bag slots, maybe even PvP. This MSQ will take new players on a self-contained adventure about their faction’s relationship with the opposite faction, the state of the world, and what the current threat is.
And, of course, this on-rails experience is opt-in. Experienced players will default to the usual methods of leveling, with Chromie Time and the racial starting zones being options for them. New players will be heavily pushed in the direction of the MSQ, but still allowed to take the nonlinear routes should they wish.
From there, the MSQ will be extended with each patch, forming a linear storyline that will immerse new players no matter where the game goes. Every expansion or two, cut off and make the current expansion’s MSQ legacy, and start a new story so that everything continues to feel fresh. This is to prevent FFXIV’s problem of the MSQ being hellishly long. This does, of course, mean that the old-world continents’ experiences will have to be expansion-neutral… no more talking about the Cataclysm 20 years after the fall of Deathwing.
The key here is to make things feel organic, natural, and immersive. Just because some recruit kicked an ogre in his [Meditation Spheres of Chi’ji] doesn’t mean he should be trusted to go on an IMPORTANT DIPLOMATIC MISSION WITH ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL MAGES ON AZEROTH.
Anyways, I tried to make this thread as little “ffxiv good, wow bad” as possible. Sorry if it comes off badly.
actual TL;DR: The new player experience in WoW still feels terribad to play, and it needs some kind of narrative and mechanical cohesion. Going from Exile’s Reach to Kul Tiras to Dragon Isles feels inorganic. Some form of MSQ may go a way to fix this.