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I played for story, RP experience, housing & glamour but the lacking glamours, terrible housing, trolling RP community & bland character creator has recently left more to be desired. When I 1st played FFXIV during the release of HW, there was an aesthetic to it but now it feels gone so I log in to keep my house but that's it.
As a member of the Crystal server. I tend to purposefully offer the RP component of it a wide berth, as they're heavily prejudiced in a multitude of ways. I did quit roleplaying completely in FFXIV after realizing that the community is less-than-friendly.
Other than that, I find the raiding, hunting and fashion community to be quite pleasant. Most of my experiences when it comes to PUG groups have been nice as well.
The writing of FFXIV is a 'your mileage may vary' kind of experience. I find it to be overall solid, but I do take issue with their difficulty to permanently remove a character from the narrative. I wish they took a page out of fictional works like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and relinquish a character when it's technically their time to go.
They also need to work on giving races more lore. They really only gave Dwarves - Lalafell - a decent amount of story and depth when it came to their racial identity and social structure. Then again, as a Lalafell, I appreciated what I got and ate it up.
I suppose they also gave Viera a spotlight while shoving Hrothgar to the wayside when it came to Shadowbringers. But I suppose I'm slightly biased against Viera because they're my least favorite race aesthetic-wise. I'm fine with their lore and their ties to Dalmasca.
Overall my view on the game is favorable. I just purposefully isolate myself from certain aspects of the community.
I view it as "I log in for my weekly savage clears and TEA prog". With hopes of that being done soon so I can say to myself "I've done it, I cleared an ultimate" so I can cancel my sub and play games that don't bore me because they treat their healers like trash.
I view it as a very bad lag game with lots of down time with no new big content added for months.
For me it's largely a game that I log in to actually do stuff in. I enjoy the story for the most part and find both the combat and crafting systems to be fun.
But I don't know that I find it interesting or exciting enough to just log in to for no real reason. I wouldn't, for example, log in just to go out and fight mobs or do combat content if there wasn't some sort of reward in it or if there wasn't a combat class I was actively working on.
And I definitely don't log in just to hang out with others either in character or out of character. My FC is full of cool people, sure, but I'm not going to log in to the game to to chat with them.
I don't need CONTENT but I do need some sort of meaningful goal or activity. If it's not there at the time then I'll just play or do something else. I don't feel like the game needs to magically satisfy all of my needs or really owes me anything.
See it sort of as my game of choice. Can play it if I'm bored, and I play it a lot. It was where I moved onto after bad break-up in FFXI, and losing out on some friends due to it. It took a few months to grow on me, and I've plunged myself into it pretty hardcore at times, particularly during Gordias Savage, but nowadays I'm pretty casual. RL taking precedence more often than not, though I still play so much that it would be considered unhealthy, imo.
I like it so much that I started a Let's Play of the MSQ, with some choice sidequests/job quests going into the recordings as well. The game itself has been largely positive in my eyes, helping me break out of my obsessive MMO grind shell, that I was full bore into when I was still playing FFXI quite actively. It's worlds easier to put down.
I do also view it with sorrowful eyes though. I feel like social interactions really suffer in FFXIV. The far more active combat, as compared to FFXI, means that there's no conversation really in the duties, battles, and you don't really ever go questing together. That's something I miss the most. Teaming up for Zilart, COP, TOAU, and WOTG missions. Talking things out, gathering up for teleports, lining up for D2s. Don't get any interactions like that in FFXIV. I think the closest was Eureka with a 4 seater mount, but that's optional.
All in all, I dote on this game. But somehow I won't be very sad when I put it down either.
the game had a huge impact on my RL, I met my fiance in this game and moved to another country because of it. I always loved the game before that, now tough I got a bit bored and my fiance doesnt play anymore, but the game is still important to me even tough I barely do anything. I know it sounds cringy and dumb but somehow this game is part of my life, its hard to explain.
Login for 2 days of raid then log off
i play this game for the story and for some friends but thats really about it, i feel the same is too homogenize with jobs and the battle system is very weak with scripts boss fights, very linear duegons especially ones that make me fall asleep when qued at lower level ones. The music, the story is great and if FFXIV was a single player game, i would still play it. FFXIV is a theme park MMO, i log in when expansion or new job hits, i log out.
FFXI has been my MMO and ive been having so much fun in Vanadiel, granted i started a year and a half ago but it feels like an adventure than my time in xiv, plus jobs really stand out from each other, i will say that it can be fustrating ( especially fight with Siren) but it fixes all the issues i have with xiv. hopefully xiv battle system can change next expansion( especially for healers) but my faith is slim.