Let me explain.
Yes, you are thrown into content quickly, you get to lvl20 in the first 1-2 days of playing. You can easily get lvl20 on the island..
This is for two reasons. 1) This game is marketed as a "no grind" game. You dont grind to gain levels and all of that - Its just pretty much STRIAGHT into the meat of the game (lvl20 content) after a small island tutorial. and 2) with Factions, you gonna see that you are a noobie in a world of Tyria made chars that just came over - so you have to be on a competitive level with them level and skill access wise.
The island's required content isnt that hard....The Monastory has ALOT of information for a noobie to learn, and the required missions and quests teach them things that Presear in ch1 never even dreamed of teaching new players. You are helped along tougher stuff (like in the mission, you have a lvl20 char following you...how can you even think about dying?).
With armor - Crafting material right now is being inflated because it is being double hit. Old chars and new chars alike are rushing to buy factions armor. In a month prices will lvl out. Til then there is collectors armor you can get for free. (As for money on a new char, my char had no problem earning a net worth of 8k+ by the time I got to the harbor..Factoring in that you dont have to buy things like Kits and bags now, you have alot of money for skills and armor at that point).
I posted in another thread already the point of the skill setup in the game. Basically they are allowing more diversity in the skill bars of newer players. They dont just hand you what they expect you to use until the next area - you get alot of choices, so not everyone there has the same builds.
If your skill points dont allow for buying of all the skills, you pick the ones you like. Some of the crud skills you are better off buying with faction anyway.
This also has a good side effect for Tyria people, because they expected to be able to fly a rit/assassin throguh the game picking up all the skills, and it doesnt work like that. They cant just have the person run through the game, they cant just buy up any extra skills that arent given with quests because skill points are limited, and getting /rit or a on an existing tyria character isn't easy either, so they just cant do that on a char that has 100s of skill ponits nad buy up all the skills.
Basically...It forces you to play the game.
Edit In: Diluant De Peau - That was in Prop when they werent used. In Factions, I've gotten 3 Monstourous eye drops ALREADY.And their not to the trader because of the influx of people buying armor making the trader sold out alot. I already said in a mnoth or so the traders will be stabilized.
Edit 2: mqstout - There is no FoTm on the PvE side. PvPers have already faction-bought all the "good looking" assassin and ritualist skills and called it a day. PvE is a different story. a new player coming through the game has to think about his skills and this promotes that even more.
