Has anybody actually made friends through FFXIV?

Yes! I've met some really awesome people in this game; much more than I have in any other MMO, which is part of the reason I enjoy it. As much as I love ESO, I feel like it fosters an anti-social way of playing, whereas FFXIV does the opposite. Meeting new friends in dungeons, and just in the open world is great :D.

I've made pretty good friends with people in FFXIV and hopefully we can arrange another meetup soon.

I've made some of my closest friends in 14

Not in this game (I get on with F.C. people) but once when I started a new job several of the guys were playing or had stopped playing WoW. We decided to all join one realm and made a little raid team but we were a few players short.

3 of those people who filled the spots ended up coming from Australia and USA to hang out with us irl :) One of them actually married one of the work guys.

Came to the game with a Friend, then we joined a Guild full of Dicks and People who never heard about being Friendly and Loyal, and i got Kicked because their Leader is a D Bag... and my Friend stayed. SO..
Met a couple cool people and alot idiots. but no new Friends yet.

I've made several friends, I actually met my roommate through FFXIV.

I have made a few friends that I've grown close to, in this game particularly. But most MMO's I tend to stick to people I already know. But all my friends I generally stick with stopped playing this game, so I had to branch out to find people. While it wasn't easy, I found a few people I enjoy playing the game with. :3

As well as, just talking to them on discord frequently.

I dont consider acquaintances friends. People add me to their friend list and never talk to me again and my friends are all people I know from a forum that's still alive. But yeah people that I just see in town and stuff? I wouldnt call them friends since they arent trying to be friends anyway. They probably added me cause I was doing savage or ex primals, tbh. Once they get the clear it's like oh it was nice knowing you, lol.

Totally! I met my best friend through XIV. His account was originally owned by his sister, whom me and her were kinda close for the time being, she trained me how to play Ninja. :P Then he took the account back and we've been friends ever since, always afking and just being dumb together. Hes pretty awesome

I met my ex via XIV, my current boyfriend via XIV, and a majority of my friends through XIV as well. We enjoy meeting up at Fanfest.