What are your favourite games, and what can FFXIV learn from them?

I can't really say it's my favourite game, but Guild Wars 2 did inventory management so much better than FF14 does. GW2 also has snappier feeling motion and action oriented combat.
Lord of the Rings Online did cosmetics way better than FF14 does, though I actually prefer the system in Secret World better. In Secret World stats are completely separate from visible gear such that a cosmetic system isn't really even needed at all.

Game: Any game that isn't FFXIV.

What XIV can learn: How to make meaningful stats.

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Originally Posted by MomomiMomi

Game: Any game that isn't FFXIV.

What XIV can learn: How to make meaningful stats.

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Any game other than FFXIV is your favourite game of all time? 0.o

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Originally Posted by Yasuhiro

Can FFXIV learn from them? Not really? But they are better than XIV, even simple games like SMT3 have better characters than XIV and it's cast of "literally who?" characters
Will Y'shtola ever be as remembered as say someone like Cloud or Terra? Hell no.

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Which is sad to me, given that I really love her basic characteristics. I just don't feel like we've really progressed/seen much beyond that. If anything, I felt like I saw more of her in the 1.0 La Noscean story, and that scarcely gave a glimpse either.

On topic:

Not a favorite through and through, but:
(Parts of) Wrath-era WoW
---> Rotation-affecting meaningful stats, with some optionality therein (I went "subpar" stat/talent routes that were often outdone in dummy fights but consistently outperformed in more varied scenarios). I honestly feel like a few tweaks here and there could go a long way for XIV as well, especially given our very window-ed gameplay. We just need a few more dependencies enough to make us feel our secondary stats, without scaling out of control as certain "late-game" jobs did in Wrath.
---> Some decent "hybrid" classes, at least for dungeoning purposes. Single-player FF games are certainly a better example of this, but Feral Druids, Ret Paladins, and most Warrior, Death Knight, and Shaman specs remain some of the most cross-role fun I've had in an MMO. And I've tanked most dungeons on DPS jobs by now, favoring DRG if I have another melee with me, or Ninja, Monk, or an overgeared Bard otherwise...
---> Not everything needs to be tank and spanked. People seemed a bit more willing to CC, kite, trap, and threat-pong back then, and the non-tanks still seemed to have a pretty clear idea of what it means to tank, and the tanks of what it means to dps or heal (at least we have that first part down)... probably because we still had decent cross-role abilities at that time.
---> Did enough to create these rose-tinted glasses, at least.

Heroes of the Storm: (The moba I play most often lately, largely for its quicker matches)
---> How to make each class feel pretty damn to utterly overpowered, and yet, in the larger view of things, not actually be overpowered at all, nor even exactly niched or especially composition-dependent.

Hmm hard to say, a lot of my favorite games are single player and their mechanics don't necessarily apply to an MMO, but I can think of a few.

From FFXI: How to do pet classes.

From SWTOR: A story with branching dialogue trees that actually have consequences. Now granted, in the SWTOR storylines the endings are basically always the same but a few of them do drastically change the path to get there and the dialogue that happens at the end along with the possibility of killing off certain NPC's. I'd have loved the option to punch the Fortemps son instead of letting Thancred do it.

From Bravely Default: How to do a Samurai class as a tank.

From The Division: A personal instance of some kind that grows based on our actions and accomplishments.

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Originally Posted by Khalithar

From FFXI: How to do pet classes.

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Erm...pet classes were horribly gimped in FFXI. SMN had next to no actual damage scaling for years before the devs remembered to make Avatars scale with summoning magic skill (not to mention the terrible Blood Pact timers and the fact they only became relevant after Alexander + Perfect Defense entered the game). Beastmasters were screwed from day 1 because of asinine penalties and lack of scaling/utility. Let's also not forget that Puppetmasters were largely a joke and needed an exploit to do even half-decent damage, even after the numerous buffs that job received.

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From SWTOR: A story with branching dialogue trees that actually have consequences. Now granted, in the SWTOR storylines the endings are basically always the same but a few of them do drastically change the path to get there and the dialogue that happens at the end along with the possibility of killing off certain NPC's. I'd have loved the option to punch the Fortemps son instead of letting Thancred do it.

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I can agree on a little more weight behind choices

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Originally Posted by Duelle

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Allow me to clarify as I did in another thread. My point for pet classes was making the pet actually matter rather than being a glorified DoT, I think summoner should be be about the summons, I think if they ever add beastmaster, it should focus on the beast's you tame, etc.

Edit: I know MMO design moved away from that in recent years, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with it!

Xenoblade X: A recent example that any MMO developer could learn things from; both good and bad. I wish FFXIV adopted XbX's design ethos when setting out to make new zones; areas that are not just large, but genuinely fun to explore with something new to always discover, and should take a very lengthy amount of time to see everything along with having a real element of danger added to that exploration. The game also handled it's version of hunts called tyrants significantly better and tied it into the exploration element. tl:dr; a diadem that works :/

Also seamless connected areas something people have always wanted to see. The Wii U only allows 1 gig of ram for use by games but XbX did it so well. The sooner we ditch the PS3 so they can start really making use of the ram in both the PS4 and a modern PC the better.

Phantasy Star (any version): Elemental and enemy type weaknesses/attributes. Someone already touched on this but it would add a nice amount of depth to this game.

Aion - pretty summons. Well - aside from the high level water pet that looks like an alien. Give me my seahorse back.

final Fantasy IV- Rydia was the first Summoner I've seen in any game. Impressive summons - were my favorite spells. I wish the summons in this game rocked.

Also summoner can use a whip - yes please. And Rosa the White Mage using a bow. I'd love to have a healer class / archer hybrid.

Final Fantasy Vi - Characters with personal issues I could relate to (or could when I was 12 lol). The cast in 14 feels too hokey and seems to have no lives outside of the plot

Every other FF games and FFXIV should learn how to make good looking gears from them.