This is not an mmo...

[Mishakai]

Odd... unless I have very little time to play, or just don't feel "social" after a long day at work, I'm always in a group... I must be doing something wrong...

[ErBear]

You do realize MMO's aren't all RPG's right? There are MMORPG as well as MMOFPS. And if the shooter you are playing is considered massively multiplayer then yes it is an MMO. Kind of like planetside.

I can play a game of COD and play WITH more people than this game. Keyword with, not alongside.

[Rivienne]

You know, I actually have met some people from my own world in DF, and run stuff with them again later. So.. Even though I do play this largely solo in that I don't have a static group, I disagree.

I mean I have even found myself in the duty finder with the same people more than once. The other day I ran Copperbell, with one person, then ran Sastasha with a different person, then ran Haltali and found myself with both all in a matter of 2 hours, which was kinda fun, it was like "wait, didn't I just run a dungeon with you?" Deja Vu.

Even when you play solo there are many places and ways you can find yourself suddenly working together with other people. That is what makes it so much fun.. And also at times so harrowing. So I agree. And I disagree. It very much is a multiplayer game in some places, and not in others. How people choose to play can make it feel very isolated, but that is in a sense, as much on them as on the game. I do think the game could and should probably do more to encourage party dynamics in world outside of dungeons earlier on in the game (Sastasha time frame I think given the guildhests being unlocked then). But I don't see that happening right now.

Further, when I am running around as CNJ or WHM, I love the feeling of being in this giant community. I heal random strangers as I pass them by, I get requests for raises. One time as I was rushing to a story instance I ran through a FATE with KO'ed characters everywhere and stopped to raise them with a SCH who was also passing by. We raised about 15 between us. And everybody was great, and offered thanks, waved, bowed. It was just an all around friendly sociable experience.

So really, if you think there aren't enough personal connections in game to call this an MMO by your own standards, perhaps it is in a sense incumbent on you to try and socialize more, independently of game mechanics, to change that at least for your own experience, and maybe those you interact with.

[Luvbunny]

I actually like the fact that you have a lot of options in this game. It is not perfect but you can choose to go leisurely or go crazy grind level at end game. You can do minimal interaction with people or heavily grouping with your LS + FC people. It is however you want to make of it and the game is giving you that options. People who are very social can easily make new friends since most of the later level contents are much bearable to do with friends. The antisocial can do their crafting and gathering without dealing with others ;P

[Kewhi]

Multiplayer? Well there are other players besides me so . . Check!
Online? Yes, the game is played online . . Check!

I'm sorry but after careful analysis, I must disagree. This does indeed appear to be an MMO.

There is a reason they aren't referred to as Massively Multiplayer Online and Always Delightfully Sociable & Wanting to Chat Roleplaying Games

[davidbowie]

This is a single player game with multiplayer aspects. Everyone that isn't you might as well be an npc. There is 0 comradery in this game.

uh oh somebody mad, lol umadbro

[Blacklore]

Levels 1-15 of your first class are the only levels required to be solo content by the nature of the game. Even then you still have FATEs, which give better reward to those who group up. After you reach 15 on your first class, there is dungeon content you can do with three other players at a time. Yes, there are still story/class quests that you can only do solo but having a little solo content mixed in with party content is not a bad thing. Then, at top level you really need to either have a decent free company or linkshell to finish the main story quest or do any of the end game content thereafter. Sure, you could just pick-up-group your way through it using Duty Finder, but here's the beauty in XIV's system: You're not being forced to do it one way or another. You can choose to find a free company to play through content with or you could find a party through Player Search or shouting in zone or you could even just use Duty Finder.

[Yoko_Kurama]

The mechanics of the game content 1-50 are highly anti social. Anyone who doesn't agree hasn't played a game that was a true mmo. Currently the mechanics are in a way that you have to go out of your way to find people and make a party if you wanted to grind exp for levels and it isn't even necessary when you can just do fates which are scattered everywhere, by the way does anyone actually have friendly conversations with those they do fates with? If i'm level 30 and i need to go kill 30 whatever i can not only do that on my own, i can do it just as fast or faster by myself than taking the time to get a party. If the mechanics were such that getting from 1-50 with a group of friends or players was X amount of weeks, and the time to get 1-50 by yourself solo was 3-4x amount weeks because solo should always be more inconvenient than group play, then THAT would be a real mmo.

Instead it's flipped backwards and you can get through the content in a week or two alone occasionally using duty finder and the solo quests themselves can't even be done as a group...the mass amount of content is completely solo until end game. I agree with the OP, this isn't an mmo it's like SWTOR but at least swtor the solo quests were super entertaining...

[ashikenshin]

true MMO? really? FFXIV isn't a true MMO? weird! I thought it was being critiziced because it was too much like old MMOs. I didn't read the rest of your post because I can't care enough.

[Conkers]

This is a single player game with multiplayer aspects. Everyone that isn't you might as well be an npc. There is 0 comradery in this game.

This game isn't really any different to most other "MMOs" these days, they have largely gone from a genre where they were far more "massively multiplayer" to one that is largely solo/segmented multiplayer, for a couple of reasons:

1 - They have largely removed things that "encouraged" meaningful grouping, in particular they removed things that "encouraged" grouping with people other than your little huddle of friends, e.g - difficult open world content, public dungeons that you had to travel to, separating PvP & PvE into their own servers, large raids, etc.

2 - The playerbase has deteriorated so now what is left of the MMO playerbase is less about MMO or RPG and more about a thinly disguised skinner box, and games are designed accordingly to fit that.

There are exceptions, EVE Online for instance.