Do you prefer your FFXIV solo or MMO style?

I like the flexibility of being able to play it depending on my mood. Sometimes I'd rather spend 30 minutes in a dungeon with trusts than deal with other people. Sometimes I just want to chillax in a corner crafting or whatevs. Other times I want to chat it up and hang out.

MMO as this is an MMO. I think story content outside of duties/raids being a solo experience is fine as I think most people prefer to move at their own pace, but I prefer my end game stuff to be group content.

Both! I enjoy chilling and doing the MSQ solo or other things solo and on my own time. And then reaching out and dipping into things with others on my own schedule. I played EverQuest for over 10 years and if you weren't one of a specific handful of classes, there was virtually nothing you could do at your own pace and on your own terms. I'm very social in this game but it's because the game lets me choose to be social and that makes all the difference.

I'm a little worried that they say cosmic exploration will involve others somehow. I'm hoping it gives the option to be done both solo and with others. Because I don't want my progress determined by the whims of other people.

On the flip side, they added Duty Support to MSQ because they said they wanted players to be able to do MSQ solo or with friends. But one nice change to the "and friends" part would be allowing the duty instances to be done with others instead of just relegating that to dungeons or trials. It would be fun to do some of these duties with my hubby when I take him through MSQ and we wouldn't have to drop group.

Oh and I love relic grinds and vastly prefer the ARR and HW style. I dislike exploratory zones because they take you away from the rest of the game and it's mostly just FATE farms. If they add some daily and weekly missions to give another way to progress besides FATE farming so it was something I could do on my own terms, then I would probably enjoy them more. I was hoping Bozja was going to do that.

While I enjoy group content, the experience in this game often leaves me feeling like I'm playing solo regardless.

I like both!
It's a lot of fun to follow a long line of people and embrace the chaos of battle. That is, not PvP but PvE chaos (PvP is great for those who like it). It is also fun to be waiting on something like a very hard fate that you can't usually solo and then a lot of people join in and the fight commences.
I have yet to sink my teeth into Eureka and Bozja. I do plan to eventually, though. I joined ffxiv because of the decent community (*even if it has flaws).
I like solo content too. Things like crafting and gathering for glams, custom deliveries, tribal quests, and certain goals I have set out for myself. msq is nice to do solo imo. Though, solo content feel livelier when I see other players doing the same thing or once in a while it overlaps in a way to where we can interact (we both nuke a couple of mobs together because the game lets us in that quest- some quests don't). There is more that I cannot think of off the top of my head because I only recently got to play again.

I like fishing because it has both. Ocean fishing can be quite social. Heck, solo fishing can be social if other people are at the same fishing hole. We get to groan about a rare fish or celebrate a catch. If I do not feel like being around other people I can always go for the lonelier locations.

In terms of balance in this game, we can always use more social content.

I like engaging with other people purely on my own terms. FFXIV offers a pretty good balance of multiplayer options and solo-friendly content.

In fact, part of the reason I personally have stuck with it is because careful attention is being paid to the solo experience.

There are options here for everyone, and I'm confident Dawntrail will continue giving us robust options to accommodate as many player styles as possible. I realize it's impossible to make everyone happy, but the devs seem genuinely interested in player feedback and they're trying.

Mao prefers to play with friends. Without friends, game becomes borings.

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Originally Posted by IslingrHashslinger

a lot of people really do prefer this MMO to be a solo experience

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That's actually true of all MMORPGs unless they are completely about PvP, tbh. A lot of people have a degree of anxiety and are reluctant to interact with others until forced to, especially on the internet (why do you think many people use the internet a lot?) You will easily find that among the biggest reasons for not doing high-end raid content, beside time and having a job/family or playing other games, is anxiety. So they just continue playing solo, or with an FC that they are comfortable with. It's just easier to do it alone. No anxiety, no worries, no scheduling, no dealing with other people's mistakes and wipes.

An MMORPG can work by being a solo experience that has social elements alongside it (for example, showing off gear and titles in Limsa Lominsa, houses/venues), so this should at least be the case if it's going to describe itself as something other than a single player game.

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It also feels like the game heavily favours the solo players experience.

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Their intention is obviously to solve the problem I described above, by giving people with anxiety the solo experience they desire, knowing that the social elements outside of it (Free Companies, linkshells, /shout, Limsa, eureka, bozja, side content, discord) will have a fair chance of pulling them into a social environment that leads to them doing multiplayer content.

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I've met some really cool people in boz because it forces interaction, something which I think this game SORELY lacks, considering its an MMO.

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I really enjoyed Eureka and Bozja for this reason as well and it's why we're getting another Field Operation in Dawntrail.

I disagree with you that the game lacks social interaction though. FCs, housing, venues, RP, /shout chat at city states, alliance raid chats, relic FATE farms when they were current in ARR/HW, Eureka/Bozja when they were current, the Firmament when it was current, novice networks, map parties, mount farms, PFs, statics, gold saucer /shout chats, FATE shout chats like Chi and hunt shout chats/spawning/conducting communities. It's really just Endwalker that has had less social interaction than other expansions.

When people don't find social interaction it's just not knowing about these things or not knowing how to find them.

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Stepping into the southern front instance and seeing people milling about and actually talking about the game has been so, so refreshing.

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You're just experiencing what it was like in previous expansions prior to Endwalker. This is why people have been unhappy with Endwalker, and why a number of things will involve social interaction again in Dawntrail.

Overall, I love this part of the game where we can do relatively easy or medium-difficulty content, whether they are FATEs, CEs or Extreme trials, with other players. And it was features like Island Sanctuary being solo and relics being a solo grind that made a big hit on Endwalker's level of social interaction.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

You're just experiencing what it was like in previous expansions prior to Endwalker. This is why people have been unhappy with Endwalker, and why a number of things will involve social interaction again in Dawntrail.

Overall, I love this part of the game where we can do relatively easy or medium-difficulty content, whether they are FATEs, CEs or Extreme trials, with other players. And it was features like Island Sanctuary being solo and relics being a solo grind that made a big hit on Endwalker's level of social interaction.

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Well thought out response, thank you! That's the piece that I was missing. EW is the first expansion I've played as current content, so this is the first time I've really gotten to have the social aspect tied to actual gameplay/grind. When referring to social aspect I did mean gameplay integrated social aspect, cos I do recognise that a large portion of players essentially use FFXIV as a fun fantasy chatroom/RP server.

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Originally Posted by IslingrHashslinger

That's the piece that I was missing. EW is the first expansion I've played as current content, so this is the first time I've really gotten to have the social aspect tied to actual gameplay/grind.

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I see. I'm glad you've got a sense of what it's normally like when the game isn't designed like Endwalker.

Since you like this stuff, I do suggest trying to do all the content you can in Dawntrail: MSQ on release, Cosmic Exploration with each update it gets, Field Operations, relics, Blue Mage update on release, Beastmaster on release. These will be uniquely social elements to Dawntrail and the social interaction will wane if you don't do them on release!

The amount of people unlocking Blue Mage in Stormblood, for example, was so great that every square inch of the area around the NPC met the render cap. When you are there, you are unlocking Blue Mage and learning spells with everyone. If you do it 5 months later, you're unlocking it alone.

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When referring to social aspect I did mean gameplay integrated social aspect

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I think it's good that we've established exactly what you mean. The game has a lot of social aspects but without the ones directly integrated with gameplay like Field Operations it still feels lacking. I do hunts, FATEs, alliance raids, join PFs and discuss raid strategies, help people clear things, do map parties. All these things are social but they are standard things that I've done since the start of the game or that remain for the entire expansion (like hunts and FATEs). Having social interaction integrated with the new patch content is just a different feeling altogether. You are learning and experiencing this new content together rather than alone like Island Sanctuary or relics.