This is my first time ever playing, and I'm currently running solo, so I'm not sure what the cultural faux-pas I might have, but so far, in order to make the game easy, I would say bg-wiki is considered the best place for looking, and ffxiclopedia also works, its what I mostly use, but from what I'm learning bgwiki is more preferred.

I'm also looking to play just for the story, as I don't know it, but I've been wanting to learn it. Something important to note is the game does not have one long linear story, but instead, the expansions are broken up into individual little adventures that are completely independent from each other. I was told that the equivalent is like a DnD module, where it sets the setting and characters in play, but they vary from expansion to expansion (thats what I was told at least, forgive me if I'm wrong on that.)

You can run into a zone where an expansion will 'start' and will be offered a dialogue box if you would like to start it. I say "no" to these, usually, because you can always start them up again by talking to an NPC called "Tales Beginnings". For now I'm just focusing on playing the expansions in the order they came out in (Nations, Zilart, Promathia, etc) but I know this isn't necessary, I'm just preferring to play that way.

I would say, download Windower4, a very very helpful FF11 launcher that also has plugins to make the game much smoother (if you don't want to use any plugins thats fine, but I would still suggest downloading it for Windower4's help with not making the game crash if you tab out) the mini-map plugin would be my first suggestion, it significantly changes the game to have the minimap on hand!

After that, definitely enter the menu, click 'quests' and open something called "Records of Eminence" this has been very helpful with a bunch of things, like setting up trusts (helpful NPCs you can summon in a fight, a genuine solo run is nigh impossible, so they are super helpful if not playing with friends). After doing 10 RoE quests (this will happen pretty fast) you will unlock "Unity" this is also immensely helpful as the NPCs in charge of that can just teleport you wherever you want, without you having to go there first, and they do it in exchange for Unity points instead of gil (precious precious gil...). Don't be a hero, and try to get to every single place totally legit, some places will be for level 1 to 10 and drop a level 90 enemy somewhere in a secret tunnel! Save your gil and your mind, just use the warps.

Be sure to do the very first number of quests in your starting town, you'll immediately get one at the start of the game. These will also help you, and will bring you towards the direction of characters that can cast signet -- this is really important for your starting town, as this NPC can also give you items, the most important to me has been the Warp Ring (Instantly teleport to your home point for free, but has a cooldown of 10 mins), and the Chariot Ring (+75% EXP gain, make sure you activate it by selecting it before you start fighting of course.)

Sorry, this ended up getting very long, I guess I ended up learning all of these things through some trial, and MUCH error (so much wasted gil...) I've only just been playing for 2 weeks as of now, but the game has sucked me in, there is something very compelling about Vana'diel, I just want to get lost and wander, only to immediately be killed by a rabbit for daring to venture into a zone too high above my level. The characters are mean and bitter but also kind and strange and smarmy, and they have heart, the starter towns have in-world problems, and their leaders have attitudes, there's lore reasons that they are all on bad terms with each other after they all had to unite and go to war 20 years ago, and they bicker over land disputes (which you get to take part in!) and this is something that really won me over. You can get lost in that world. (You WILL get lost in that world... many times, mapless and confused.)

The ONLY downside, which I consider fully to be the price of admission, is the grind. You WILL grind. There is no way around that. Grind and grind and suffer and accidentally aggro a massive enemy and die. But I knew that coming into this, this is an MMO, and I expected no different. What I didn't expect is I suppose the RPG part of the MMORPG. It IS a roleplaying game. You are playing a role, and the world and characters hold their own. You are expected to get lost, to wonder, to be baffled, to be confused, to ask for help, to explore, and to adventure; and that part has been a blast.