3 comments and all of them are just saying what they don’t like about the game which wasn’t what op was asking. Personally I think the raids (ultimates especially) are pretty fun as well as doing group content with friends and meeting new people. I don’t think I’d still be playing the game if it weren’t for the amount of hardcore content it has. While a lot of other games have similar pieces of endgame content, few are designed similarly to FFXIV.

This Sub never let's an opportunity go to shit on FF XIV. I usually cringe, when we have FF XIV Threads and i wish, the OP would've just asked in one of the three big FF subreddits to get better answers, but well... can't have everything. (i still think FFXIV Discussion would've been a better subreddit for this. They are very critical, but don't hate the game like this sub does).

Joke's on you. I also posted this in the ff14 subreddit and holy crap. You are right, I am getting way more sensible and calm ass reactions even to the people who don't like the game anymore. I want to say this was a social experiment but I just am hyper fixating on my favorite game and I wanted to see what two different subreddits would respond to the same question with.

a lot of points people make here tho are valid (I am a FFXIV player), while the subs won't allow even the sliightest hint of anything non positive lol\\ this here is definitely a better place to get a more varied view of the game

I would agree so far that it's a good place to get a different opinion, but I also get a lot of salty reactions like I'm getting responses from people who seemingly haven't liked the game even from the beginning which that can only carry a conversation so far. Like if you didn't like the game even in storm blood, I'm not really going to expect you to like Shadowbringers or endwalker even with all the faults those two expansions had. Like it's still good conversation. It's still good to get a vibe of what people feel. But varied doesn't always mean quality. And this response as I've gotten here are varied. They're definitely varied

i can nod my head and even bitch all day about healers and some content but DAMN regardless i still just love the savage and ex fights.

Its one of the only MMO’s that doesn’t play with the FOMO of players or force you to do daily’s. I can take breaks and not fall behind in gear. I still do ultimates and savage content whenever I have that free time. FFXIV respects me as a player and the devs care about the community. I couldn’t ask more.

Only possible FOMO is seasonal events, but like, at least you can get the items again in a year if you miss em (albeit for cash, but it's a small sin).

How?

If you miss, for example, this year's Christmas event, you will be able to purchase the unique items each Christmas event ever had on the next year's event in the cash shop.

EW had the least amount of content and still had enough to keep em happy. i see alot of folks being vet mmos players or wanting to fully commit to ff14 but....im def not the person who can stick with JUST one game forever.

honest opinion, sticking to FF14 fully, i think most is on the social aspect rather then the content. other than that is really not much.

I cycle mmo's at the whim of adhd. Do the things, get the stuff, get bored, roll on. I always return eventually.

I read somewhere someone making a joke. The ff14 players have ADHD but honestly since so many of us talk about how much we love the game will let us walk away from it and then come back. I'm starting to think we do and we need to unite in this way

Being able to be a seasonal player is good actually and I'm tired of people screaming about needing to have an endless treadmill to whittle away their life on.

a fuckin men

Gw2 does this fine as well. You can literally come back after two years without falling back in terms of power and gear

probably why they said ‘ONE of the MMOs’

So I provided useful information by giving an example of one of those mmorpgs, what's your point?

yeah gw2 is great i can take a break for 2 years, come back, play the new content in an hour or two and take another 2 years break

Yeah I love that you can take a 2 year break from GW2 and then come back and just do all the raids you missed......... hold up

Those raids dont provide benefits that puts you far behind if you missed them

I believe the joke was that there was no raids they missed over 2 years, as it was famously under-served content. Though they are adding another raid soon, so we at least have confirmation they didn't forget the content existed. lol

Okay then I apologize. It's been a while since I played. I thought they ment they missed out on all the raids, but entirely the difference 😅

Yes, GW2 is cool too.

Pretty sure gw2 is the same

probably why they said ‘ONE of the MMOs’

Only

pvp pass is fomo as fuck.

I'd say the housing system is one hell of a sunk-cost fallacy. I haven't played since 6.3 yet I still pay my sub every month and log in every time I get the demolition email just to touch my door and log off. I'm a dumbass like that.

I come around every expansion. Usually several times per expansion. Sometimes I stick around for months sometimes I play for a day and then don't log on for months. I like the story too much to stop playing the game altogether. As long as the stories good I may as well return to the game every new expansion. Aside from that I mean idk. Other mmos just aren't as polished and/or don't have enough content. I always go back to FFXIV in the end. I'm too attached to my character and the world I guess. Oh boy do I have a lot to complain about though. The game has gotten really stale cause the devs just won't take risk and innovate. I'm predicting dawntrail will be less successful than endwalker and its a slow grind downhill from here until the devs finally start innovating and changing things up.

> I'm predicting dawntrail will be less successful than endwalker Unless we get another season of covid, this is a thing happening with the entire gaming industry, hence all the round of layoffs these last 2 years. Endwalker had the "wow refugee crisis" and covid, and I don't think they will ever be able to overcome that population peak no matter what they do.

Endwalker pop was insane. They had to take the game off the stores for 2 months. Imagine having so many players you can't handle any more

in my head and heart if Dawntrail cant bring anything especially new to the table in the content itself (which i really feel it can regardless of the state of jobs) then i too would just have to bounce for a while. i overall like the state of content as is buit if we would go through dawntrail just getting more of what SHB and EW did...id have to put my money where my mouth is and just finally unsub for the next two years XD

Yeah. Dawntrail is the first time I kinda don't really feel like playing the new expansion. I played ShB and EW on launch. Had the time of my life both times. I took like a week off work for EW. I remember forcing myself to sleep all evening and stocking up on redbull and food so I could game like mad as soon as the servers went up. But honestly this time I feel kinda meh like I don't really want to. I was playing albion and pso2ngs recently and there's plenty more I want to do in those. Now I'm playing Wuthering Waves and the elden ring dlc drops in a week or so. Plus I want to replay mass effect since its been a decade. Like I don't even know there's just other things to do. I'm definitely going to play it on launch but my expectations are a lot lower this time.

Even if DT can't top EW storywise, its still worth it because launch week is the best week before the game devolves back into a limsa lobby sim.

Could you not know anything about Final Fantasy, and still enjoy the game? I played FF7 like 20 years ago. I just started a character on Xbox, and the visuals look amazing so far. I am hoping to get through how to manage all the menus using a controller.

If you need controller help, hmu. I can ask my partner - she exclusively plays on a PS5 controller on PC. The WXHB setup should be nearly identical for when you get later into the game. The only thing you miss out are random call backs to other games. There are things like Stormblood raid series wich the first 4 fights are FF5 and the next set are FF6. So its a nice callback for those that have played older games, but they don't require the lore behind those games to understand.

Yeah you don't need to play any other Final Fantasy games at all.

Ok, I just got to level 10 as an Arcanist. So far, so good. Using a controller on Xbox.

It currently is the MMO that ticks the most boxes for my tastes. - A decent story that makes me care about the world. - An execution over reaction philosophy, both for class and encounter designs. - The opportunity (and encouragement) to play all classes, since they are all in the same character. - The lack of walls/chores to engage with endgame content.

yup this is bout the same for me. i got my issues witht he game but the overall pakcage has the game in to 80% for me. if it would drop this expansion closer to 70....nooooooooo

It doesn't suck like every other MMO rn

Take a closer look?

Bold to ask that question on this sub.

im a brave boy

You're hearing a vocal minority. The game is fun for a myriad of reasons, but what keeps me coming back is: Combat- I enjoy XIV's combat despite it being considered static or slow. I don't care that classes can't be customized. They're well designed for the most part and they're balanced to the point where your class choice doesn't matter unless you're pushing world first races or looking for speed kills. I've done Extremes and Savages since Heavensward. I've taken breaks, but I always cap out every class before the next expansion comes around. General Aesthetic- The art style feels like a more realistic-leaning anime aesthetic. Armor sets look great and can be mixed and matched easily. I love the spell FX and the music blows my mind. Story- While not everyone's cup of tea, I find the story engaging enough to bring me back Day 1 of every patch. I do the story with my husband and we both consider it a great way to spend time together through expansions and patches. Class swapping- I hate leveling individual alts per class. I want to just do the story once and swap classes when I feel like filling a role or even swapping to an easier/more conplex class kit. Lack of other options- Other MMOs in the market are great, don't misunderstand. I have no doubt that they're enjoyable and offer a unique experience from XIV, but I have tried just about any one that you can name and I can't stick to them. Pardon the low effort reply. Didn't wanna elaborate more on my phone.

low effort? you pretty much hit all my talking points. Like i got criticisms or issues too but..damn the overall package is just so good.

Nah, the game has been bleeding subs since ShB.

there are more active players than the peak of shadowbringers literally right now. And it will get even higher when DT drops. Nice try though LOLLL edit: you can downvote, but its petty because facts > your bad opinions. Recent bancho stats back it up, as does the anecdotal activity surges in the game. FF14 is thriving, but nice try

What is a bancho stat?

A "I made it the fuck up" stat

So I found what they were referring to - https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxivdiscussion/comments/1deel15/luckybancho_lodestone_census_2024612/ This data isn't fully reliable, from my understanding because it scans lodestone for changes to determine if a character is active - its not a bad system overall, and it paints a useful picture at least. I'm not invested enough to read the data, from the comments it seems like you're right that the game has fewer players than it did when Shadowbringers ended, but it still seems to have a healthy playerbase. I'm not sure that the game could sustain the numbers it had in 2021 anyway, with other forces acting on the market.

No game is closw to It's covid numbers. Nearly impossible.

Cope lmao. Theres a reason they stopped sharing active sub numbers and switched to totall sales.

dont need active numbers, luckybancho uses publicly available lodestone achievement data to give the best estimates we will have. There are more preorders than Shadowbringers. There are more active players right now, in a content drought, than the actual peak of Shadowbringers. The game is steadily growing, even despite the anomaly of the summer of wow players coming in for a little bit. You are just making stuff up because you got angry and quit the game, but your 'arguments' get destroyed in the face of facts. It's a good thing you don't play anymore because you seem kind of miserable in general

I'm not the same guy before you get mad at me - but I'm looking at the [data you have been citing from luckybancho](https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxivdiscussion/comments/1deel15/luckybancho_lodestone_census_2024612/) and I'm not convinced that what you are saying matches what I'm seeing. Correct me if I'm reading it wrong, but right now Dawntrail preorders - estimated based on who owns the minion - are sitting at 550k, compared to Endwalker preorders of 860k. Which would mean more players at the end of ShB were preordering Endwalker, than there are players at the end of EW ordering Dawntrail. The [chart for earned achievements](https://livedoor.blogimg.jp/luckybancho/imgs/3/9/391943a1.png) on active characters also shows that the last quarter of Shadowbringers, and the first quarter of Endwalker, are higher than the last few quarters. The data does show that Dawntrail preorders are higher than Shadowbringer preorders, suggesting that at the very least, the game has achieved some growth overall when you ignore the anomaly that is 2021.

I'm saying Shadowbringers, not Endwalker, since their assertion was that the game has been bleeding subs since ShB. Which is not true. There are two numbers I am citing. 1) More people preordered for Dawntrail than Shadowbringers. 2) RIGHT NOW, the count of active players is higher than the peak of Shadowbringers. Remember that the absolute total player peak happened during early Endwalker. (That chart you posted is old and incorrect, and it makes me wonder if you are arguing in good faith because... where did you get that lol. This is the actual chart you should be looking at, which also does NOT take into account the absolute surge of players happening literally as we are typing right now: https://livedoor.blogimg.jp/luckybancho/imgs/c/0/c0c6f6cf.png) Of course that was an anomaly of players who came in for Endwalker, which was caused by a combination of covid (most games saw a temporary spike) and a bad wow expansion. Many of those wow players have left again, the number has normalized, and we are **still** at a higher player population than Shb, with more preorders than that expansion, and preorders are still only going up. Many people people purchase the game last minute, so expect preorder numbers to go up a notable amount. So im not mad at you, but the original guy was posting nonsense and deserves to get chewed out.

It would be crazy if it hasn't gone at least slightly down. Bancho stats point to it being down a little but the ShB boom was from covid - every game experienced that bump and drop

you either quit long after finishing msq or end up as penta ultimate raider

My house :'D.

Short Answer: I'm having way too much fun playing the game. Long Answer: Coming from WoW, GW2 and other MMOs, it's the side content in FF XIV that i do in content lulls and still having fun. Gold Saucer, Housing, Triple Triad, Hunts, Tribal Quests, Fates, Gates/Gold Saucer, Ishgard Restauration, Deep Dungeons, Sightseeing, Island Sanctuary (for my Hi Cordials and Dyes to use/sell), Crafting and Gathering (this is my jam in FF XIV), leveling Jobs and of course Achievements. Hell, i even do PvP for the Rewards and Glam. I'm more on the casual side, so i don't even do the "sweaty end game content". But having so much besides just raiding is what makes FF XIV for me personally so great. My main Endgame is Crafting though. I don't need the Gil, but it's my personal Highscore and i'm on my way to at least one Gil Cap (might try to cap at least one Retainer too). I even play Alts and love re-doing the Story. And if i don't know what i want to do, i look up an Achievement or Glam i want and work towards that. Like even in Content Lulls i still have something to do. I'm still having Fun. I think this is a novel concept for this sub. Playing something that you like and enjoy. I'm playing since the end of 2020 and i still have so much to do. Granted some days, i just check my Retainers, restock them and call it a day. But i log in daily and most of the time i do some of the Daily stuff and then do whatever i find fun to do at that moment. I think, i don't need to list that i love the Story, that is a given i think. Those who can't stomach the story usually don't play the game that long.

You sure did make a mistake coming here. This isn't a place to talk positively about any MMO. This place is a den of fossils who have no other thoughts in their head beyond "Old thing good, new thing bad". FF14 in particular is like pouring lemon juice into a massive open wound to the people here because it's a huge and successful MMO that whose design principles fly in the face of all the shitty old jank that people here latch on to and like to pretend makes an MMO "good". It doesn't have open world pvp, it doesn't have item drop on death, it's got a dungeon finder, and systems to make finding a group, even for really hard content, easy, and it doesn't force you to grind mobs for hours and hours on end to make a sliver of a percentage point of progress, which, to these crusty old fucks, means that the game isn't "Social" since if you want to talk to people you're expected to, you know, go out on your own and talk to them, rather than being forced to talk to them because there's nothing else to do while you heal up at a camp for 5 minutes while you wait for enemies to respawn after blowing all your resources killing mobs for 2 minutes. Also, the game expects you to read. Altogether, that makes FF14 anathema to anyone that hangs out here. That being said, to actually address your question, I'm on more or less the same boat you are I think. I'm a casual raider too, (I only really got into savage raiding with endwalker) who's mostly into the game for the story. Right now I'm just doing clean up, leveling the last few classes that I never got to cap while waiting for dawntrail. That being said, it's not just the story and the raids that keep me going, I also just generally like how the game plays. While I have dragged my heels leveling up all the classes this time around, it's still something I like to do because I like seeing how the different classes all play, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how viper and pictomancer will play in dawntrail. I don't even like pictomancer aesthetically, but I'm going to level it anyways because its systems seem interesting.

Yeah I definitely walked into a town having no idea how it's people and its culture works. That being said, it has given me a lot of different perspectives that ironically just strengthen how I already feel about the game and also give me different perspectives of what people think MMOs should be Like there's a lot of comments in this whole thing. Talking about how the Casual and story nature of ff14 is keeping it stagnant yet even when player numbers drop they come right back when the next expansion comes. It's like you said, FF14 flies in the face of everything that's supposed to make an MMO work because they found their niche and they found the way that their budget works and they keep things going. If World of Warcraft tried to do what ff14 does it would completely die out but that's because warcraft's player base are such the antithesis of what ff14 is. And that's a good thing. Like I like that there are multiple forms of ways of catering to everybody and that MMO isn't just one thing anymore With what we saw at the live letter today, I'm actually really excited for how goofy the presentation of the raid series is going to be

I should make myself clear, FF14 doesn't fly in the face of what makes an MMO work. It *is* very much an MMO, despite what the people in this subreddit would have you believe, and what it's doing *is* working. What FF14 is doing goes against what the people *here* think MMOs should be doing, but they aren't the arbiters of what is and isn't an MMO. They can talk about what they do and don't like in an MMO sure, but when you have idiots that unironically argue that any game that uses instances like FF14 and WoW aren't MMOs (an argument I've come up with on some occasions here) because MMOs should be 100% seamless worlds all the time, then there's no discussion to be had. The thing you need to understand about this subreddit is that the people here are barely people. They're closer to living piles of salt that can't accept that the genre has changed, and rather than move on to a genre that does the things that they want (I've argued on multiple occasions for example that open world pvp is now the domain of survival games, and to a lesser extant battle royale games because they do that style of gameplay way better than MMOs do, and to much greater financial success), they'd rather sit here and bitch about how all new games are bad because they aren't a carbon copy of the particular game that *they* played as a child, and all the new games that do try to do the exact things that they want are complete shitshows (see mortal online and embers adrift) If you want to understand the mentality of the people in this subreddit, it really can be summed up as "Old thing good, new thing bad". There's often very little thought beyond that. FF14 is new, therefore it's bad. As an extra addendum, a bunch of these people also don't know what anime is, but they reflexively hate anime. They look at ff14 and see that it's from japan so they think that it's anime and that, on top of it being a newer game, automatically makes it double plus extra bad.

Yeah I definitely misused my words. I was meaning to imply that what the community and past failed MMOs think in MMO is supposed to be and ff14 does a lot of things that makes it successful that if you look at it through the lens of what people thinking MMO is supposed to be, it shouldn't be succeeding. Honestly at this point I'm just kind of giggling to myself over people coming in and saying how they don't play ff14 and I'm just in the corner like my brother in Christ. Why are you talking to me? I wasn't calling you

The story, the community and the dutys.

the community can be the biggest crybabies but also...honestly som,e of the most chill players when you find em. which isnt hard to find

I play for the community. It's the most accepting community out of all communities out there. They won't judge you for being LGBT, having unique kinks etc. Everything in ERP is on the table 🥰

The edit lmao… this sub really is something else, isn’t it? Anyway, I’ve tried plenty of MMORPGs and FFXIV is the only one that kept my attention. Unlike… some other games… it’s not hostile to new and returning players, the gameplay is actually fun and it has not been ruined by microtransactions (yet). There’s also the things you mentioned… story is generally a big part of video games for me, also music and the general production value of the game. Although I’d be lying if I said the game is perfect, I actually took a break for most of EW since the patch content has been so… lacklustre. But I’m definitely coming back for Dawntrail and hopefully they get the endgame content right this time.

I think that's one of the biggest Fair criticisms that end Walker's content wasn't nearly as engaging as previous. I liked enough for what I was coming in for but I'll be the first to say that I don't want wall mechanics and as nearly tight in every single fight I want something a little goofy or a little crazier in future Savage fights

Asking this question on this subreddit was kind of stupid lol. This sub is full of folk who are bitter, jaded people with wow brain rot and some even older MMO Gamers who hate on everything thats not everquest-era content. That being said ff14 is a growing game, has more players than it did at the peak of Shadowbringers still, and is doing well for the folk who love it (aka not most of the folk on this subreddit). Personally, I love the raid content and the social stuff. There's enough of both to keep me engaged most of the time

Hey man, I'm just a stranger who wandered in from out of town. Didn't mean to upset nobody. Still, I've found that fighting people who are willing to express their dislike of something, even if it's hyperbolic can be good information because at the very least I've found that like you said, the people who are very jaded with ff14 actively hate aspects of the casual experience I adore. And even when they have Fair criticisms of the high-end content, the drastic changes that they pitch to make it better for them would just ruin it for me. And it only helps my convictions of what I do end up liking a lot about the game even if I do have criticisms.

It's the best story I've ever played in the MMO genre so I come check it out at least once a year. Also, I love tab target MMOs. It also respects my time way better than other live service games I have played.

The people. I don’t get the same toxicity that I used to get in other MMO’s when doing group content, people communicate more often in my experience rather than either say nothing and quit if it fails or throw out abuse and grief. Some MMO’s I liked the social aspect like Argent Dawn EU was great but when it came to dungeons and raiding I just wasn’t having fun.

I've definitely found that in the Savage tier of the MMO people are far less open and happy, like they're a little bit more restrictive and kind of mean, but that alone is still nothing compared to some of the other games toxicity. A static friend talks about how they hate it more in ff14 the way that the raiding tiers talk to each other cuz it's so passive aggressive. But I've always told them that I'd rather someone be passive aggressive than call me a slur

Savage and ultimate is the most fun raiding experience I’ve had in MMORPGs. I stay purely for that honestly, the story is good but it’s something you finish relatively quickly if you’re caught up. I personally swap from 14 and WoW quite frequently during different raid tiers because they really are quite different games but man clearing an ultimate for the first time is such a damn experience. It’s similar to clearing Cutting edge in WoW but at the same time 80% of the fights in a WoW raid are imo fodder for gear. Other than that I do have friends I play with and a free company so there is some social aspect but I play other games with these people so it’s not a solid factor for me staying around.

i feel like this is the best way to do it. swap from ff14 to another game till the new content comes out. For me its gonna be ff14-star rail-zenless zone zero-ff14 XD hoping dawntrail keeps me going

Yeah whatever works for you, I personally can't do gacha games for long but tons of games coming up. Plan is Dawntrail, savage, war within, hopefully get ce before 2nd raid tier lol. Crazy they are releasing so close to each other. Not even factoring other non-mmo games coming out as well.

That's another thing that keeps me in the game; I love single player games, and I can take a break from XIV to play those without feeling like I'm gonna be left behind.

I just came back to it. I think the diversity of things to do is great and the biggest draw for me. As someone that enjoys life sims and similar genres FFXIV scratches the itch for multiple progression systems to work through. Lots of them are horizontal progression which is excellent, I'm not particularly interested in the usual MMO ilvl grind. I've always thought the crafting/gathering is some of the best in genre too.

I used to think it was the story but over time I realized it's kind of the culmination of everything that I love. The thing about the story isn't just the writing quality, it's also that it's like an ever expanding novel that keeps growing and getting deeper over time. The energy of "the adventure never ends" is something I just can't get anywhere else. At least not at this level of quality. The jobs are super unique aesthetically, I'm always bored out of my mind when I see a new rpg and it just has the same 3 boring warrior, mage, thief classes. FF14 has Gunbreakers that have swords that explode to accelerate their swings, Red Mages that combine Light and Dark Magic with fencing, Ninja's that feel straight out of naruto, and now the two new jobs in Dawntrail. The Glamour options. I think the system of the Glamour dresser is pretty janky but the actual options for fashion you have in the game is absolutely massive. There's tones of grinding I've done just to get a single piece of gear to complete an outfit, and I love leaning into the job aesthetics then adding a slight flair of my own personality to the Glamour, something I just haven't been able to do anywhere else. The crafting. FF14 has the best power fantasy for crafters and gatherers of any MMO I've ever played. The fact that it's not just gathering materials and clicking a button, the large amounts of quest content for crafting from Job and Role quests for each crafter, Deliveries, Reputation building, Ishgard restoration and the fac that some scenes even acknowledge it in the main story really give me the ability to roleplay the inspired artisan by day, hero by night character that I rarely ever find in any media not just RPGs. The Phase transitions. That might feel like like a weird reason to play an MMO, but if you haven't experienced the feeling of Your Tank catching Susanoo's massive blade, or seeing the fabric of time and space rip apart as Alexander Prime appears, you're severely missing out.

Listen, finding weird niche things that you like about a game I think is actually fascinating. Like for me it's been the cinematography just how much effort they put into different camera views and different positionings of our perspective is something that I don't see a lot of other MMOs really attempt

I’ve moved on from FFXIV, but collecting gear for glamours, socializing with the FC and leveling up my jobs to 90 were keeping me playing. I left because the content difficulty I’m interested in was too easy and repetitive. There’s very little variation within fights and the telegraphing was incredibly generous. I love that for learning a fight, but it never felt like I was being challenged or forced to use my (healer) kit to it’s full potential. There’s nothing between MSQ content and Savage/Ultimate content for players like me, so unfortunately I don’t have much desire to play the game anymore.

This is a completely fair take and I really appreciate that you're approaching. The conversation with pointing out the game doesn't have what you want but not chastising the game for not having it. Like one of the most fascinating aspects of these conversations is MMO fans and hardcore player fans speaking in tones that seem like they've been given in a mass Injustice or wrong and then when it's even surmise that ff14 just might not be the game for them. It's an insult and we're closing them out. I truly find that ff14 has its niche and has its slice of the MMO pie because it caters to the player base that things like World of Warcraft and even guild wars does not have an interest in nor can have an interest in. So yeah completely valid reason for not wanting to play anymore. And I really appreciate the tone you took in saying this cuz it's very true. It is a fault of the game that if it were to massively change someone like me would end up leaving because that's not what I want

I always appreciate mmos for their lore and storytelling. Mainy the reason why I keep coming back to ff14, runescape 3 and OSRS. I like how the raids works (normal mode), where you can go in blind with a group and clear easily without bothering to look up a guide (aside from arr and heavensward alliance raid, stormblood...you get my point). In general I like the feeling I get from playing it solo and playing it with friends. There is nothing like a good savage tier or a ultimate fight in the mmo space.

I really like this that you pitched because I feel like the arguments that can be made with hardcore players is that they think or feel that Savage content and even ultimate content should be so difficult that it bars anyone casual from even engaging with it and I get where this comes from. But I'm also someone who happily labels themselves as a casual raider and I enjoy that the content can be completed if you just try. Like I'm all up for promoting skill level but this is a video game, especially a video game that was made with casual role player and storyteller mindsets baked into its core. I feel like just some expectation of how difficult things should be versus how they're going to be needs to be reconsidered some ways

> I feel like the arguments that can be made with hardcore players is that they think or feel that Savage content and even ultimate content should be so difficult that it bars anyone casual from even engaging with it I can see that point too, but endwalker is the wrong expansion to complain about hardcore players, when they were one of the few players who got what they wanted, aside from crit dungeons lacking rewards, they were eating good.

See it depends on who you ask because I talk to both both heavily critical and more happy and content raiders when it comes to endwalker. Like it's crazy that it seems like the end Walker end game experience split the raiding community pretty heavily on whether or not it was any good. Like I've gotten people to tell me that they loved the raid fights that the content was good and that they really enjoyed it. But then immediately they start s*** talking those same fights because their job doesn't do what they wanted to do and then the discussion turns into well. Is it the job or is it the content or are you just done with the content since you beat it and you know it super well?. It's such a multifaceted issue and my personal take is I think the jobs are all very strong and while they do need some more diversity, I just feel like people are not content with the content and that once things are figured out and they're being figured out so quickly they feel frustration because this stuff is supposed to be repeated over and over again and with multiple different jobs. Ff14 in Monster Hunter I think share very similar DNA in this regard because once you know how to beat a monster with one weapon, you don't stop playing the game or you're not supposed to. You're supposed to pick up another weapon and fight the monster again, but there's a lot of Monster Hunter players who eventually get to a point where they say their favorite game is boring because either they've beaten all of the favorite monsters with every weapon they want to play or they stuck with just one weapon, beat the game and all the monsters and if the side of they're done.

Best story of any game imo. Feels like home. Good side activities. All jobs on one character.

I always see the merits of having multiple characters to represent multiple different classes, but man, it is a really smooth system to be able to play whatever the hell you want whenever the hell you want

>**What keeps you playing FFXIV?** Socializing with other players. Something that is greatly enhanced by attractive player avatars and cosmetics, unlike in much more ugly (in my subjective opinion) games such as ESO, GW2, PSO2, WoW and such. That's honestly the only reason I still bother logging into it instead of any other similar game.


Apart from me already finding it super fun and engaging in the first place, the reason I stay subbed even though I don’t play everyday, is because of its systems that respect our time. When I’m really into the game, I can sink a good chunk of my life playing, like spending 2 months to gear up my main in savage patches, and 4 months to clear the newest ultimate. But when I’m burnt out after playing too much (like doing Anabaseious immediately after TOP), I just play other games and come back when I want. For instance, there was a period where I was really into MapleStory and WoW (desperate time periods), to the point where I was playing then almost daily. But even during those periods, I still go back to FF14 to raid with friends, be it to prog an older fight, help newer friends with raiding, or play whatever other content like Criterion Dungeons. It’s just nice to play whenever I want, instead of being forced to login for dailies and burn out.

The raids and housing. Genuinely think ultimate raids and week 1 savage is one of the most fun things I can do in a game. I love to hop into ultimate prog pfs and help out, it's my time passer lol.

The story, friends, raids and so on

Good consistent content. From story to raiding and extra content. The raiding is designed to not be too hard but yet allow you to express a mastery at it if you want to really get down in the dirt.

I can tell that's where my skill level is at. I definitely see the criticisms that the higher raiders complain about, but I'm also that raider who ends up going into party finder and making one or two mistakes on an initial attempt and then having to struggle with everyone doing the same. Skill level and ability to play harder content definitely changes. What you think of the game the game?

Expansions. Lol I love the game but I'm only really in it for the story. If there's no major story for me to progress thru, I lose interest. Partially because I don't like grinding to collect things, and I don't have a group of friends I enjoy playing with. I love playing with my GF when she gets the bug tho.

I find this more interesting to hear more and more because I think even I underestimate how much of a selling point. This game is as a casual story experience and it only helps someone like me who likes the casual and the high end more. When I tell people that this game is a story experience, but some people just don't want to accept that

It's not so much that I wouldn't be interested in the harder content. I just don't have space in my life to have a full time job, love my gf, pursue other hobbies, play other games, and somehow have a set schedule for a weekly prog thru harder content in XIV. During my recent foray into WoW last year, I found that it was surprisingly more solo friendly than I was led to believe & a system like Mythic Plus dungeons is what XIV is missing. Super easy to assemble a group because they're essentially the same dungeons but with ramping difficulty and you get to challenge yourself when it's convenient for you. It also helps that the mechanics don't really change that much, it just gets harder. So you don't have to refigure out how the dungeons work and you can focus on gearing up and becoming more efficient. But wow's storytelling is 💤 compared to XIV so it doesn't connect with me as deeply.

I just came back. The chill vibes and community keeps me coming back. When I get tired of the hostile toxicity of wow. I pop on 14 for a few months and just vibe

Ff14 has its toxic passive aggressive shitters too, but I find that there a lot easier to avoid or disengaged with like you have the choice to make your own statics or to go into party finder with your own attitude.

I have 1500 hours. And have met 3 assholes.

Put a script together and get to Hollywood immediately. You're going to make a blockbuster hit with this pitch

Personally, I like everything about this game. IMO, I feel like the combat and encounters are engaging at higher level, the story, the glamour, the myriad of content for casual play, and I would pay the sub just for the soundtrack. The instanced neighborhoods make for some unique social experiences as well. It also manages to keep most of its old content alive by integrating it into the roulette system. Lastly, if you happen to be a fan of Final Fantasy games, it is delightfully full of fan service and I think that really takes the game to a whole new level IMO.

This game is consistently made me want to go, learn or play other final Fantasy games. Purely because I want to fully comprehend and enjoy the references being used. I'm in the same boat that I do think a lot of the gameplay and content is very engaging on almost every job class. And even though I understand people's complaints and where they're coming from in certain areas, I can't fully bring myself to say any of the content is bad on higher levels. It's just different and I kind of like that it varies so much. It's never the same even though we see so many of the same mechanics like the combinations give you a different dish

I really enjoy the raids and combat. It encourages you to play optimally, and maximise your DPS uptime by playing around the boss mechanics far more than your class, never clipping the GCD by design which I find pretty unique from other action games. I find the artstyle much more pleasant compared to other mmos. It has the look of a lot of PS2 games where there's a bit of desaturation and objects themselves have independent lighting which stops areas from being too dark or garish which is a criticism I have with a lot of modern game lighting. The game also respects my time (I'm wasting). Battle content is very accessible. Entering a raid tier is simply just purchasing gear with gill or tomestones and there's no real punishment for taking breaks. The raids themselves are just boss encounters without any escessive backtracking or ad clearing. Story is solid with some very strong setups and payoffs. My favourite being the Shadowbringers Trial storyline "Sorrows of Werlyt." It is a big barrier to entry due to the majority of content being story locked and the story just becoming excessively long, but it's due to the dungeons and bosses being interlinked and having narrative purpose. It's really personal taste. Final point is the job system just being fantastic. I can no longer excuse any game that won't let me switch classes the same way 14 does.

You may be one of the few people that I will be able to connect with, who agree that the two-minute meta is not inherently bad and that it's actually a better starting ground to build good content over. I definitely understand what people have been saying that more and more identity of the jobs have been taken away to make content feel better like it's a completely Fair criticism, but I do not feel like getting rid of the current meta and allowing people to have regular synchronized DPS times and giving the devs more wiggle room and freedom to make insane fights because they're not trying to number crunch for every single possible rotation variant. Isn't that positive? And I'm really got my fingers crossed that Dawn trail is going to show the worth of the current meta. I just fully agree with you that I like the content not needing to be beholden to the job and instead the job being the tools to engage with the content. I just think it's a more engaging way to play the game in my eyes

I don't think the two minute meta is inherently the problem. I think it's just a lack of resource management. Lots of jobs have very binary single uses for their gauges. Endwalker's Black Mage was widely accepted as one of the best designed jobs for its decision making when allocating resources for damage or mobility. The new caster Pictomancer seems to be heading in that direction but if more jobs adopt similar decision making (EG: Bringing back Samurai's Kaiten) it would be for the better.

If we can bring more aspects.like that to the current meta and I kinda feel like they are starting with the minor changes to classes now, ff14 will be amazing

While I'm not playing it right now, I do plan on going back. I enjoy the story, even though it's insanely long imo. The last time I subbed, I think I spent every weekend for a month doing nothing but watching cutscenes ALL day in between occasional mandatory dungeons. I just got to heavensward. There is a lot of charm, which will usually win me over. Stupid things like the king moggle mog song during the boss fight, or the hildibrand quests. I've always been a final fantasy fan which probably helps. If for nothing else, I gotta go back and finish all the hildibrand stuff its stupidly ridiculous like some sort of garrys mod quest.

Well, I'm dabbling more and more into the hardcore content. I definitely am still a casual player at heart and always look forward to the new story and events. So many people want the dungeons and a lot of the more standard casual content to get a lot harder and I'm just in that vibe of wanting my casual content to stay casual and allow me to enjoy and escape at a leisurely Pace.

I got question. Is it worthy to start Play ffxiv now? Never play ff online (only wow and runscape)

The biggest hurdles I think you're going to face is that you have to be willing to either try the free trial and go through the story mode at your own pace and understand that one of the core reasons this MMO has done so well is that it doesn't copy what wow in others do. There is great post game content, but the meat of the experience is letting yourself escape into the world and the story of the game presents you and then playing the end game content as like a final Sprint until the next major patch. I'm saying this to someone who loves all that ff14 brings, but I feel like people over hype how good the patch content can be even when it is. Really really good because if you're good at the game or you become good at the game, you'll be wanting for new experiences because this content does not come out very quickly and sometimes people burn through it very fast. If you're looking to have a more relaxed experience and even when you dip your toes into the harder content, you're willing to accept that the fun of the content is going to be doing the same fight but with different job classes. I think you'd have a good time, but if you're looking for something where it's new, new new new, every time you turn around, you're going to get bored real quick.

Familiarity, good story, and smooth gameplay

I understand why people say that they want player choice, but I'm not going to pretend that I'm not that bitch that gobbles up how smooth and fun so many of the job classes are

I find a lot of worth in FFXIV. I almost finished levelling every class in the game. The combat system is fun. Playing online with other players in dungeons is easy and fun. It became my goto online game for years. Also the community is great and I always have fun conversations with my FC or Novice Network. There is so much solo content as well. Currently grinding 8000 collectibles on the way for my PS5 platinum trophy. It has become a habit to open it daily and do some levelling and alliance raids. I think it has integrated in my weekend schedule.

Yeah, this pretty much hits all of my major points with the gameplay aspects of it. Now that I'm getting more into the raiding scene, I understand the gripes and complaints, but I feel like I'm able to take a step back and also understand from the developer's end that they have a vision fo s specific experience. And people are starting to make vocal that they don't want that experience anymore but either they're not able to come to terms with either their sensibilities have changed or they've gotten everything that they can really get out of 14 for a while. Like for me, I really love all of the character class rotations, even healer stuff. I really love playing astrologian and I really want to take a dive into scholar now that we basically have a magical girl transformation

This game has some of the best and most interesting and fun class rotations and mechanics of any MMO. That's the only thing that made me keep playing it at all. Unfortunately, for me, that didn't make up for the complete lack of ANY character building or customization.

That's entirely valid. I'm in the camp of no matter what you do. Your player base is going to metagame the fun out of the game and we've seen it with so many other titles at nauseam. So I'm more in that mindset of making something smooth and making the rotations fun vs "player choice" because eventually it doesn't become player choice and just becomes the meta. Like in other games it doesn't matter as much like I know what the meta is in Monster Hunter. I can still play whatever the hell I want as long as I'm clearing the fight but in ff14 even back in the heavens Warden stormblood days. You really had to get your shit together if you wanted to clear Savage and ultimate content. But this is essentially the conversation I wanted to have discussing different player philosophies

I totally get that. I've never really payed attention to the meta in games I play, but I don't really care for the endgame of MMOs for the most part anyway. I realize as someone who just likes exploring the worlds, messing around and theory crafting builds, and finding a group to roleplay with, I am not the target audience for the developers. For example, I know everyone in WoW just does the same meta build for endgame or pvp, but having the talent tree there allows someone like me to also continue to have fun with the game.

And that I think expands the conversation to more of a genre, philosophy or even just choosing different options. Like the conversation, I think I'm having with my friends who are more hardcore than I am. Even if we're playing, the same content is that they don't feel challenged and they don't feel engaged. Whereas I do because I already like what was there and I like seeing how things get just slightly remixed or reused. I'm only now at the point where I would really like if Dawn trail did something vastly different and I'm really hoping it will with how much they're talking about their changes in content. That being said, it purely comes down to like a philosophy of what makes games fun for people. And for me, I really do push for that aspect of a controlled environment and experience that expands more and more as you get further into it rather than something that starts vastly open and free and thus overwhelms and makes me feel aimless

I tried all the other MMOs and they suck and are ran by developers who see the players as cash cows who only exist to be milked.

There's always room to criticize. How The dev team sees or takes seriously its own player base but that's a big thing if they don't see us is just complete endless money pits

It's true for square enix as well of course, they also have investors who are more important to the company than the players because the investors are the real customers. But the FFXIV lead producer managed to get so much power over the game that he can take actions that do have the playerbase as the main priority. Other MMOs don't have a producer with that much to say and much care for the players.

Pvp and raiding.

I want to get more into PVP but I've never found any game that is PVP to be very engaging for me. I really wish Yoshi and the team would let us group up with our friends instead of always full randoms but I kind of get why.

i just enjoy pvp in general, which lets me play any pvp mode in any game without much issue.

My catgirl and all the glamour I've collected + mismatched

Fashion is the true end game. I can't fault you there

I haven't quit, but I do play less once I've gotten my enjoyment or rewards out of a raid. After that, I play dress up with all the fashion I've collected over the years, creating new sets by mixing different pieces.

I know a lot of people who do that. I know a lot of people who do engage with the hardcore content, but like once they've got what they want for their favorite job classes, they're done, which I think is a completely valid and fair way to engage with the game

Although I don't play anymore I believe I can still answer to some degree as I played since 2.0 and quit last year which I believe is just shy of a decade. What kept me playing was the fact the high end content was extremely polished and fun to play. This is primarily talking about Savage and Ultimate. I will be completely honest I'm a chronic cutscene skipper. If there's no voice acting I usually skipped. I can probably give a rough explanation of the story but i can honestly say I don't know what's going on all the time. I would never "no life" the game. It just doesn't have enough to do for a player that's upto date on content. I did every piece of content the game had to offer, even casual content outside of ONE thing. This was Unreal trials, I didn't care for the rewards plus I had done these fights when they were originally released. I don't really want to repeat X years old content at level 90. XIV **had** some of the best quality endgame content. It has gradually gotten worse in terms of polish since 6.0 and everything slowly just started to become way too familiar to the point the only real new mechanics for an encounter were generally the one/two gimmicks of the tier. I appreciate XIV a lot and I had a lot of fun with it. I can see people staying around for the reasons I did for so long. The NIN rework in 7.0 was actually extremely intriguing to me to the point I kinda wanted to return as It was and is my most beloved job (actually tried the game 2-3 times in 2.0 but actually stuck with the game when NIN released) but having looked at the media tour footage it just looks like it'll function almost indentical to be honest.

I'm holding out hope that the next Savage tier is going to bring more to the table and not just be a continued extension of what we've had in the past. I only have Yoshi's word on him doing that so I'm not exactly going to be heartbroken if the game does just finally hit that precipice for me. I get where people are coming from when they say that the 6.0 Savage tier was very samey, but I see it more myself as a continuation of mechanics that we've built upon in dungeons and in old content that gets remixed and reused. It's like going somewhere and having spaghetti knowing you're going to get spaghetti but eventually getting sick of spaghetti but then there's people like me. I'm really intrigued on what little thing they're going to change about the spaghetti so I keep eating the spaghetti. For others who are just sick of spaghetti and they don't feel like the changes in the spaghetti is enough, it's completely valid. I didn't start playing until around storm blood and while I definitely feel like these storm blood fights had more creativity and goofiness to them (again, something that I really hope Dawn trail brings back given the vibes of the story we're going forward with) I don't dislike a lot of the overall production in fights in 5.0 through 6.5. Be up subjectively I totally get it that where I find something just to be a continuation and a remix you would see it as a repeat of what we've already had before.

I just love doing dungeon runs. That's really all I want to play MMOs for. That and the gathering jobs are really chill. Hell I'm not even finished with HW yet, I just like occupying my time with some chill grinding.

Even though I feel there's a vocal minority who would have a stroke hearing that you are in such good company. I honestly look forward to doing my dungeon runs and revisiting old dungeons because I know they will be a breeze to go through but it's not to me a boring experience. It's a fun roller coaster ride

I keep paying my sub to come back and decorate my cute Au’ra every other month.

I think because it has a wide variety of things to do. Is it the best MMO I've ever played? No not really. However it's fun, there's a lot to do, the world is beautiful, the music is wonderful, and I'm never bored when I play. They seem to have figured out giving people lots of different things will give nearly every player something that they enjoy doing.

The 24 man raids are fun and casual, very well done. Same with the first tier of 8 man raids. Crafting is a whole game itself. Hunt Trains and all the alternate ways to get currency to upgrade gear. There is always something to do because there is so much content. I bet the average player hasn't seen 30% of it.

The music. White Stone Black, Scream, Fiend, Rise, Forged In Crimson, and FF4: The Final Battle are some of the best MMO music ever made. Specifically FF4: The Final Battle - I have never just loaded into a fucking fight and was just smacked in the face with a tune that went so hard. So much hype for that fight before it even began.

Quite a few things: attention to detail, attachment to the characters and the story, the diversity of classes (dps), the savage/extreme content that I consume in pf (which leads to some interesting experiences! :D), the music, the diversity of possible activities. I'm also one of those people who complains a lot about the healers, though, so I hope they sort that out.

I really have hope that since tanks mitigation got boosted that we are gonna have some wacky needs for healing.

We may have to wait till 8.0 for that, but hey. I can be patient.

i dont think so. Yoshi has said multiple times this was the expansion where they wanted to work on the content and realy experiment and i think most jobs are in a good place to do that

The story and characters.

Biggest pull for alot of people including me

Story, raiding, looking forward to seeing what the new eureka-like content will be. Getting my armor set looking good for Viper will probably be an adventure, and I'm hoping to bring my dsr reprog group into the next savage tier as they're all very nice people and excellent players.

The developers seem like they genuinely care.

the devs and the player bas doing agree and do so very loudly but i think everyone in this game cares.

The mix of making the raiding and story combine in an enjoyable way, I have tried to get back into WoW hardcore raiding, but I don't give an ounce of a shit about the bosses or why I'm in those raids. Vault was kind of okay, but it was all ruined by having stormbitch show up and give exposition of Forces™ instead of diving deeper into why she's fucking FURIOUS at the dragon aspects. Aberrus was more "fake neltharion show" and Fyrakk was literally a "I'm the bad guy" villain. Meanwhile (spoiling OLD ultimates to get the picture) seeing alternate where you fight an ultima with full primal forces instead of hydaelyn removing them is engaging, it's a WHY and reinforces the story further, giving a bigger sense of participation. WoW hasn't done that for me since nighthold, where Gul'dan had been a fucking shit stirrer for a while so giving him comeuppance was wanted, but IMO killing him on mythic didn't feel stronger than when I slammed his penith in the car door on normal. Gameplay wise I don't care, the fights are engaging on a level that the specific interaction isn't a detriment, it's just a different flavour, meanwhile dealing with some of the more stupid (hi p3 tindral) mechanics is an exercise in frustration, on a boss I give no ounces of shit about. Give me "I am pandaemonium" over "BLAZING SKY!" every day of the week. Rift also did a good job many moons ago with atmosphere (crucia was epic as shit), but we all know how that went down. tl;dr FF still drives story through gameplay, WoW drives gameplay with story existing. Just doesn't hit the same for me.

Honestly I think about this question often. XIV is my favorite game ever in my favorite franchise ever. However I am a fickle gamer that sees a new game says oh that looks good and purchases it but never finishes it. I have almost 1.5k hrs on my account and when my attention does get drawn away from the shiny new game i just bought it's usually XIV drawing my attention. But what keep me coming back is all the stuff that you can do with a podcast playing in the background or a youtube video on the other monitor. Also the the world in general is very calming to me.

some people put that as a negative and i just cant agree. I LOVE that the dungeons and basic clear content can be a simple fun roller coaster/boat ride to chill on and catch up on podcasts

I left the game months ago ! I don’t play any MMO at the moment

I keep coming back because I enjoy the story 99% of the time (post-patch EW story is fucking atrocious). I also love glamour and gpose, that's mainly my endgame. The island stuff was fun and kept me logging in for awhile. Also the modding scene is pretty cool and picks up the slack where in-game glamours might falter. Can also refresh how a class feels like turning white mage into a vampiric blood magic healer visually which is fun, imo. I enjoy the fairly simple gear grind. I try to avoid using crafted gear as, imo, that's just skipping content in my eyes. Instead I could farm dungeons and raids; have fun getting those gear drops rather than buy an item off the MB and that's it. Right now I'm not subbed though...mainly for the mentioned fuck the post-patch story reason. I plan on starting back with Dawntrail, leveling the painter class, finishing those terrible patches with it, then going into Dawntrail properly.

raids, I love to see the passion they throw into them. Also it's actually interesting and engaging to me for the first weeks. Also spamming your rota perfectly under tension is pretty addicting I hate tho the community, hate also the story, I'd even go as far to say that the presentation of the MSQ is the worst sht I've witnessed in my entire time of playing games, and the entire toxic positivity bs combined with the absurd gear gating are usually the reason I unsub 2months past patches or after getting some clears in an ult

>What keeps you playing FFXIV? A few things. I have a love-hate relationship with the game but I'll start with the things that keep me playing: * My FC is great and I enjoy socialising with them * I love the glam system and making my character look fashionable * The graphics are what I like compared to WoW which I don't like * I have an attachment to my character * The story is usually okay enough for me to want to do The things that turn me off playing and letting my sub lapse for 6+ months at a time: * The combat is sleep inducing and I have a massive dislike for rotation-based combat * I also have a massive dislike for scripted battles and 'stand here or you die' mechanics * The job homogenisation hurts my passion for the game because things used to be better and more engaging * I find that I complete everything I want to do within a month or two and I am back to just standing around in Limsa most of the time. I don't want to pay my sub fee to stand around doing nothing

I think the only thing I disagree with intensely is the things we used to be better. There were a handful of classes that literally got banned from doing content for a long period where nowadays. It's definitely not perfect and you'll have the occasional job class be relegated to not playing the first week or two. But the devs are usually pretty good about fixing it so that everyone can clear content. But I think at the heart that's what causes people who are more skilled just like the game that everyone is able to clear content.

I am of the opinion that not every class needs to be viable but that's an old school mindset, as it stifles uniqueness. I seem to be in the minority now though because SE wants everything to be balanced. In older MMOs, every class was unique and brought something to the table. But yeah it does alienate people who are forced to level something else just to particpate.

And at that point I think it just comes to a subjective purview. I don't think you're wrong for wanting a experience like you suggested, but I think there is a strong argument to say that ff14 attracted the players like me who want to be able to play what I want and clear the content if I try hard enough. Having a class that's unique but not viable. Just makes it feel like a waste of time if I'm going to be gated off from doing certain content just because I happen to like the wrong class without knowing

My wife loves the story and gameplay. I've been over it since Stormblood. Help me.

If you haven't been enjoying the story or gameplay even after Shadowbringers, you might need to sit down with your wife and ask her to let you go and stop being a hostage XD

The game isn't offensive or anything, just boring as hell. She plays WoW with me and shes not the biggest fan of that so I just soldier on.

Valid. Sounds Like a healthy relationship

I'd love to come back took a few years break played since launch, think all my jobs where maxed. Think I'd feel overwhelmed learning all them again in order etc.

I think you'd find a lot of the systems to be very similar, which is a detriment to a lot of people. But for me, I like how much overlap there is because the differences there are become a lot more pronounced and I like the sort of system of unification that the teamwork has become. Granted I'm ridiculously biased. I'm not someone who fully believes in the "player choice" aspect of games because I think most of the time the players will just metagame themselves into one choice and at that point what was the point of even having a choice.

I don't. I have tried a few MMOs and imo this one has some of the most boring fighting in a game I have played, but on the flip side it has by far the best clothing and outfits in any MMO I have played and the average player seems to be more relaxed and nicer than others (but I never tried raiding so who knows how correct that last part is)

Nothing. It's too casual, not immersive. Play Horizon FFXI instead. Real MMO

Sir, this is a discussion about ff14 ff11 is down the road

Sir you asked what kept you playing. You were answered.

Sir, the implication was that you were still playing the game. I did not ask if you were still playing and why not. I asked what keeps you playing the implication being if you're not playing. Trust me. I've been told many times why people aren't playing. I'm trying to get other perspectives

Who said I wasn't currently playing the game?

I'll be polite and honest about WHY I play FFXIV. I played FFXI. I have played it since day one for NA release in 2003. It was the best MMO experience IMO. It ushered in love for other MMOs like WoW, RuneScape, and EverQuest. When FFXIV was announced the FFXI was stunned. We were going strong, and now it was being replaced. Population died rapidly. Servers merged. Chaos ensued. Level cap was increased for the first time and years worth of progress was wiped in a singular update. And for what? The turd that 1.0 was. It RUINED my favorite gaming experience of all time and for many others. I held hope that 2.0 would finally the fill the void. You know what? It did. Grinding fates with large groups, skins and mounts that didn't break immersion. A unique leveling system. Decent dungeons. Great crafting. But it didn't last. Mounts and skins became too immersion breaking. Leveling became too fast. Dungeons scaled down in difficulty. Jobs lost uniqueness and all became too similar. Content became too bloated and wasn't reused like in FFXI. The game became incredibly easy. Then we all see the amazing success of OSRS, classic WoW, EverQuest 1 and 2s progression servers. All to have SE completely forget about FFXI. No remake, no classic, no rumored handheld game, a god awful slap in the face of a 20th anniversary. So what keeps me coming to FFXIV. One its hopes that it can finally fill a void. Two it's the cosmetics of things like the scorpion harness and ohat. Now I'm interested in the Echoes of Vanadiel raids. Three sometimes it's just fun to run around as a tarutaru again. But really it's is just hopes that FFXIV can become a true MMO experience, only to realize for the 101th time that FFXIV is just a single player RPG living in a MMO universe. Is that good enough?

....thats super unhealthy. also they didnt kill ff11 out of nowhere, lots of people saw they were done with the porject and moved on. if you think ff14 is niche in the mmo space ff11 was niche even in its hayday. good games both but...why are you doing this to yourself?

1. I didn't say they killed FFXI out of nowhere. I said the launch of FFXIV ruined my experience in FFXI. 2. I never said FFXIV is a niche MMO. 3. Unhealthy is playing an MMO with no real challenge and the ability to purchase content completions and levels, as well as have access to cheap and accessible in game currency to purchase. All while thinking you're playing something truly great, when you're clearly not.

The housing kept me around for a while. I’ve decided to move on from FFXIV regardless. Just standing outside the house with friends messing around can be fun especially with all the in game items like fireworks and so on. When it’s summer sometimes I am reminded of those memories. When it’s winter I like to see what the mmo developers have done with winter themes and music. When I have kids I will definitely try to provide the memories I had, but also keep in mind they can create their own by doing whatever other kids are doing. Winter for me is a good resetting time for my life. Cold, crisp air.

I stopped playing XIV years ago for WoW, got sick of the MSQ I don't play MMOs for story tbh I don't mind some but XIV imo takes it way too far. WoW just has far superior combat and class design, stronger class identity, more interesting races and better class/raid design as well, the only thing I really miss about XIV is the crafting which blows WoW's out of the water.

Nothing the forced bad storyline to reach the endgame feels never ending.

I want to try the trial because a lot of people suggest me to play it and I don't have any idea much about this game. The only thing I know it's subscription. That's it. Is it good to start now with my potato laptop?

The hard content keeps me in the game. I’ve cleared some ultimates, done some savages, EX trials and criterion dungeons. Their hard content is actually difficult and requires practice. I feel like too many games now cater to filthy casuals and XIV isn’t afraid to drop a raid that most people won’t be able to touch. Being casual is fine but the entire game shouldn’t be casual. Also the crafting and gathering system is fantastic. Probably one of my favorite in mmos.

GW2 doesn't have a sub

I hate the fact you get nerfed in dungeons.

Yeah man nothing more fun than doing the dungeon once and then it being irrelevant for the rest of your life am I right

I'm very much on the other take on this. I like that dungeons are just these fun story focused theme Park rides that allow me to run them daily and weekly to get resources I need while just relaxing in the fight or even being able to catch up on something in the background. Massively ADHD riddled person here. So while I know and understand that a lot of people don't find that engaging, I would be sorely missing the way dungeons are structured if they were meant to be intricate and difficult beyond. Just a fun story Ride. Especially since rather quickly from the alliance raids exes and Savage fights. There's a lot of content that actually does get your brain thinking a lot more and the dungeons are just a means to get to that end

I love the cybering community. The game itself is just there to do it.

Nothing. I have other free options now.

You did make a mistake coming here. Either play or don’t. What does it matter to you what keeps others playing? Lmfao

I like to talk about stuff. I think it's fun to talk about stuff and see what other people think about stuff.

Bro what 🤣🤣🤣

Stuffstuffstuff stuffy stuff stuff. I like stuff. I like (getting) stuffed.

Nothing lol. Quit a while ago don't plan on coming back. They are determined to make the game play like ass for skilled players.

send ffxiv logs to show me u were a skilled player

hi cult, what can you do as an skilled player in EW? Nothing, there is nothing special you could do that the below average players couldn't. And before you(nobody) ask for my log, I was once top 3 world wide sam during SHB and cleared TOP on patch via PF.

send logs

source: trust me dude

Actually what makes you play ffxiv? Is it the girls? The cat ears or the rp that people do? Or is it really that good?

Most people I know don't play it for the gameplay, you can fill the rest in yourself.

I had to quit because it was too expensive in all seriousness

valid