Is FFXIV viable as an MMORPG without doing end-game & raiding?

[Kaurie]

I don't think the combat in either one is better necessarily. You keep using that word but it ultimately comes down to preference, which is again subjective. I don't like faster combat and I don't like action-based combat, so GW2 naturally isn't going to be "better" for me.

Sorry, I feel it is implied when i say something is better in a subjective context that I mean it's my opinion. To clarify, that is all I am saying, in my opinion Guild Wars 2 is better in most ways.

(However, as an aside, if you go to the Game List ont hat site and sort by Rating/Hype, you'll see that FFXIV is at 8.52, only .05 below GW2's 8.57. I'd say that's overall pretty close for a JRPG that's also subscription-based).

Oh, I completely agree - I play FFXIV as I prefer it to Guild Wars 2 overall. I am not here to say that FFXIV is bad, I am just saying if it did not have raids (it's greatest appeal to me) there would be other games that are far better. However, it does have raids (and trinity) so it's imo better.

Jumping puzzles? Please keep those as far away from me as possible. If I wanted jumping puzzles, I'd go play a platformer (and I do sometimes). When I'm playing an RPG, I don't want a great deal of "action" elements.

While my focus in an MMO is more on raids etc, many MMOs work in side content. I've never seen anything quite as fun as side content as Jumping Puzzles. These got particularly fun at higher levels. I liked that you could use your skills as well (such as swiftness to make the jump, or portal to work in a team). Jumping puzzles were hella fun. By contrast, sightseeing log, lov, triple triad, choco racing etc are incredibly lame.

I've been a vocal critic of the FFXIV zone design since 2.0, and I wish the zones were more expansive. I'm still sad we got more expansive zones in HW and they promptly made that expansiveness meaningless with the addition of flight. It still doesn't mean the game's not viable if you don't do endgame.

I thought I made my point clear on this, but perhaps not. I am not saying all of this makes the game not viable, and that any game is 'viable'. However, it's not the best, and there are better options for cheaper if you don't want to raid. Like, let me think of an analogy that will ultimately be torn down by someone who fails to capture what I am attempting to convey, let's say you go buy a bucket of vegetables from a local farmer. There are two buckets in front of you, one bucket has tomatoes in it, which you despise with a passion, as well as things you like such as turnips, squash, lettuce. This bucket is $40, whereas there is a bucket right beside it, which has just turnips, squash, lettuce and is $10. Upon further reflection, you notice in the bucket for $40, the squash and turnips are looking rather moldy. If you don't like tomatos, the logical conclusion is to take the cheaper bucket. It's the more viable option;however, you can still buy the $40 bucket as it is a viable purchase. It just makes less sense of why you'd do that. That is how I perceive the GW2 vs FFXIV argument in regards to raiding/not raiding (raiding being tomatoes).

The map design is ultimately an aesthetic, subjective thing, again. I like the "old-style yellow maps."

Oh. I didn't realize that this could be so subjective. IMO the yellow maps were the most jarring thing for me when i first started playing. I find navigating maps to be very cumbersome (moving between zones in GW2 involves scrolling your mouse wheel, whereas in FFXIV you need to use a bunch of pulldown menus), and I find the yellow maps don't convey the imagery of the zone very well. Like in GW2 I know where mountains, water etc are from the map. I only know in FFXIV from experience.

I've also been vocally critical of the Hunt zerg. But that still, again, doesn't mean FFXIV isn't viable. I know people that frickin' love hunts for some reason. I don't understand them. But they exist.

Again same thing, it depends what you consider viable. It's just that there are better options for cheaper, which I feel makes something less viable.

As far as the leveling experience goes, eh. I enjoyed it. But I also didn't grind FATEs. I did the content I liked: dungeons.

I liked my first leveling experience, but with each job it gets worse and worse; whereas with GW2 it was still fun to level my 8th class up. Again this is subjective.


At the end of the day. The OP asked if they think it's viable, and I feel it's not due to the above. You're welcome to disagree, that's what the discussion is for