Originally Posted by
Lane
Well, no offense, but there's nothing "tiny" about the amount of text FFXIV throws at you. A lot of it is unnecessary too, like an NPC blathering on about something that's completely inconsequential to to the story (which is a pet peeve of mine). In fact, some of them even admit in the dialog boxes that they're rambling. I personally feel that would have been better served added to random NPCs instead of quest NPCs. At least give the player the choice of whether or not to wander around chatting with NPCs or get on with their business. Ideally, of course, there would be an option to read or skip over everything.
Now, I'm the type of person who actually does read quest text and in all of the console RPG games (including many FF titles) I've played I talk to every NPC (usually multiple times after each story segment). Despite that, there have been times in FFXIV where I've said, "Oh, shut up already" when trying to accept a quest. It does get to be a bit much.
Also, you can't expect people new to the game to know that FATEs are the most effective way to level. Your post is the first I've seen about that and most people who are used to bouncing from quest hub to quest hub aren't going to completely forsake that in favor of running around (on foot at low levels) between FATEs that aren't always occurring and don't always have others to assist either.