FFXIV has some serious competition with WoW: Legion

[-Teria-]

As someone who's played WoW avidly since Burning Crusade, Legion was a massive breath of fresh air after the steaming turd that was Warlords of Draenor.
That said, it was a breath of fresh air. I'm already finding it incredibly stale.

I still log into WoW, don't get me wrong.
I still begrudgingly do my world quests in hopes that maybe, one day, a legendary will drop for me, while that guy that just hit 110 three days ago already has two of them. I
I just find it worrisome that after what...A month? I'm already feeling burned out on Legion. Warlords of Draenor didn't even do me in that quick.
Blizzard still has time to turn it around, and I hope they do. Competition is honestly healthy. If WoW does better, SE will be forced to step up their game. If FFXIV does better, Blizzard will be forced to up their game. It's a win-win for all parties involved. Having a monopoly on the MMO market leads to complacency, which leads to the product stagnating.

But holy crap, I am already sick to death of world quests.
Imagine if everything you did in FFXIV revolved around you spamming FATEs all day long when you're not doing something else, as that's the only effective way to progress your character. That's what Legion feels like right now. Spamming FATEs all day long. 3.4 was so well timed over here, because I really just needed to escape those flippin' world quests.

[Lewtskie]

In every other major MMORPG ever released, crafting and gathering have never been considered core content in the game and have always been secondary. Arguing crafting and gathering is like my mother telling my child self "If you're bored why don't you go clean your room". Its something to do yes, but I don't find it fun. I play games to do enjoyable things.

FFXIV does indeed hit into the niche market of people with that level of interest in crafting/gathering. So much so they modeled it to a career unto itself just as much as a combat class. I have respect for offering that since very few games, especially MMOs would ever think to, but like you I personally have zero interest, lol. XIV is that game of offering vast variety of options, its become one of its key elements of success (and stagnation).

[Balipu]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Blizzard finally did something that isn't utter garbage. Hurray. Let us wait first for their patch cycle before we begin discussing who should copy whom.

[Kaurie]

But holy crap, I am already sick to death of world quests.
Imagine if everything you did in FFXIV revolved around you spamming FATEs all day long when you're not doing something else, as that's the only effective way to progress your character. That's what Legion feels like right now. Spamming FATEs all day long. 3.4 was so well timed over here, because I really just needed to escape those flippin' world quests.

Conversely, I love World Quests - best thing I've seen in an MMO in awhile, and I hate FATEs, worst implementation of basically the same system across many games.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Blizzard finally did something that isn't utter garbage. Hurray. Let us wait first for their patch cycle before we begin discussing who should copy whom.

LOL, love the Hyperbole. Finally? Utter Garbage? You realize that Blizzard has the most successful MMO (and probably video game) of all time? That on top of their other list of highly rated games.

That aside, FFXIV is already copying WoW in patch 3.4. As we can see they took the most successful and widely liked feature of Warlords of Draenor - Garrison Missions - and implemented it in FFXIV!

[KeluBehemoth]

I play both. WoW I reactivate every now and then with the gold for subscriptions thing. After a month I am bored of Legion. It's very alt unfriendly with all the gating and artifacts. The story is laughably bad. The few new zones they created are super tiny and cramped. The world quests are neat, although they are just recycled leveling content. WoW does dunegeons nice with the multiple difficulties.

OP is comparing a game he has played regularly to a game he is playing again for the first time in 8 years. Of course everything is going to feel fresh in WoW.

Nothing about being fresh.

I can visit the 12 year old areas in WoW and its still more open and vast than in XIV. Theres still some feeling of going from point A to B. I could make the same comparrison with FFXI (but thats just way too extreme).

This isnt a WoW vs XIV thread.

This is a "Holy shit I just played another MMORPG besides XIV" and it has vast open landscapes that I can explore and actually have reason to explore.

I want to go and clean up Ice Crown citadel and make the Lich King my bitch? I get to enjoy a nice flight from Wyrmrest Temple for about 5 minutes while I physically fly to ICC to enter it or any other old content I wish to explore. Unlike... pop duty finder, undersized party. BAM.

I've actually spent more time running through old raids (and trying to solo some not quite as old ones also) than I actually even have in legion.

[Balipu]

Conversely, I love World Quests - best thing I've seen in an MMO in awhile, and I hate FATEs, worst implementation of basically the same system across many games.

So it's a good thing you can go quests, guildhests, guildleves, potd, dungeons, trials, and raids instead of FATEs.

[-Teria-]

Conversely, I love World Quests - best thing I've seen in an MMO in awhile, and I hate FATEs, worst implementation of basically the same system across many games.

Oh, I loved them at first too.
I think it was around the 300 completed mark that I started having second thoughts.

[Anyan]

The Japanese VA is pretty good here I think, and the dragon language is exquisite!

However, one thing that has bothered the heck out of me for a long time is the constant reuse of the same music through every single cutscene. Or the damn battle and fates music. There is good music in many of the boss battles and a few around the world in FF14 but when compared to WoW --> https://youtu.be/EvWH1KKOsoY
or Blade and Soul --> https://youtu.be/FY5KxKAfyCY (this even made me cry when I heard it the first time, and second, and third...), the music in FF14 is pathetic.

The character creation in WoW is poor but in Blade and Soul it's absolutely amazing! If the game wasn't PvP focused and honestly the community quite toxic, I wouldn't be here talking to y'all now.
Here the zones look too similar and are too small for my taste. The ones that are big seems like they are just for the sake of being big.
Blizzard really learned what they did wrong with Warlords of Garrisons and went beyond expectations with Legion.

That being said, I do love this game so very much and I've made some wonderful friends and memories. I won't be stopping any time soon I think. Though I'll most likely continue taking breaks. I've taken longer and more frequent breaks from this game while playing for a little over a year, than I did over six years in WoW. I hope that Squenix will evolve this game into something amazing. It sure has the potential to.

[KeluBehemoth]

The Japanese VA is pretty good here I think, and the dragon language is exquisite!

I'm over the fact that the VA's are bad.

I'm talking about the fact that the actual recordings themselves are bad recordings. Like SE's XIV sound tech was hired straight out of college (if they even have one).

"In filmmaking, ambience (also known as atmosphere, atmos, or background) consists of the sounds of a given location or space.[1] It is the opposite of "silence." This term is often confused with presence.
Every location has distinct and subtle sounds created by its environment. These sound sources can include wildlife, wind, music, rain, running water, thunder, rustling leaves, distant traffic, aircraft and machinery noise, the sound of distant human movement and speech, creaks from thermal contraction, air conditioning and plumbing noises, fan and motor noises, and harmonics of mains power.
Reverberation will further distort these already faint sounds, often beyond recognition, by introducing complex patterns of peaks and nulls in their frequency spectrum, and blurring their temporal characteristics. Finally, sound absorption can cause high frequencies to be rolled off, dulling the sound further.
Ambience is normally recorded in stereo by the sound department during the production stage of filmmaking. It is used to provide a movie location with sonic space and normally occupies a separate track in the sound edit"

[Reynhart]

I can explore and actually have reason to explore.

What reason do you have to visit 12-year old zones ? Didn't you already finish everything you can have there ?

I want to go and clean up Ice Crown citadel and make the Lich King my bitch?

Yes, you can, but why ? You already killed him dozens of time, I guess, so what makes you still want to go there and do that besides "I just want to do it" ?

In XIV, each time you change job, you can roam past zones to do FATEs, to do levequest, to complete you bestiary, or do some quests that you may have left especially for alt jobs. Gathering is also a full system, with its proper endgame especially if you craft upon that. A craft system so complete you could actually only play crafters and still spend months into the game.

You can't purposely skip every reason to travel around the zones then saying there's no reason to do so.