To be fair early WoW success coasted off of preestablished lore of Warcraft 3. So a lot of it's big characters came from that but it is true the stories in WoW and the development of it's characters was a strong point and wanted you to know more about the characters and the world you played in.
FFXIV would be better IMO if like WoW it did it's own stuff instead of success coast off of previous FF entries.
XIV's issue is it only really has MSQ and nothing else in terms of quests that are interesting and that matter.
I think it would do the game well if we did have someone like Arthas or Sylvanas Windrunner where you had an ally that turned to evil.
It would be interesting if Y'shtola in her pursuit of knowledge did succeed in figuring out how to travel between reflections but accidentally killed Runar and his Village in the process starting her dark path to power and insanity and she would have to stopped. As an example.
But I don't think FFXIV is that kind of game. Y'shtola is usually the face they use for their marketing and they won't kill off their Waifu.
And Urianger is the guy they use for too many fake betrayals so it's comical at this point.
The most interesting events that happen in XIV ironically is Hildibrand Quests.
