I prefer a simple start, it would be nice to have more active quests, the player would have to talk to the NPCs in some cases would have to gain their trust, something more realistic, and not the old generic quest system of some MMOs, which simply points out where you should go, in many cases the player just follows the map marking, this is what makes me most bored at the beginning of a game.
Another suggestion I make is: instead of simply pointing to the objective, make the player extract information with the NPC, for example, instead of pointing to a location on the map, the NPC says reference points, and other characteristics of the region where o the player must go, and in case the player gets lost he can ask some NPC on the road about the place he wants to visit.
It would be nice if the map doesn't show the player, but there could be magic items or scrolls that allow the player to find out where they are on the map, moreover these items/scrolls would be consumables could only be used X times. Good and that š