For the most part, S-E makes it easy for people to get along. The fact that there's a shared-tap system for mobs in this game goes a long way towards that. Groups are easy to find and are rewarding to participate in, even if you say nothing but just play your role. Mechanics in higher-end content are somewhat punishing but, critically, they're easy to explain and help people with. This game has some shortcomings in this area still -- the Hunt mechanics come to mind -- but altogether, seeing other players in the world is generally a very good thing.

When World of Warcraft's newest expansion released late last year, I couldn't stomach it for more than a month. No matter how much polish they put on it, there are some things that are fundamentally broken on the social level. There's a deeply-ingrained antipathy in it's very systems, from the way it still has an exclusive-tap system for mobs, to the artificial and narratively insipid "faction war" that deliberately sets the playerbase against itself, in a way that fuels full-on harassment at real-world community events.

Simply put, a massively multiplayer game should never, absolutely never lead one to feel that the existence of other people in the game world serves only as a nuisance.

World of Warcraft does that.

Final Fantasy XIV does not.