Started playing another MMO: what I feel FF14 lacks in regards to uniting a community

[Dzian]

In GW2, your loot is your own. You actually get rewarded more if you join together as a party. Everyone gets the same loot chance based on their personal stat called luck which you get from salvaging gear. The larger your party is, the more creatures you kill, the more you are rewarded in EXP and loot. Everyone gets a piece of the pie they helped earn based on their effort; if you participate equal or more to everyone, you get the things you need. It also means people aren’t rewarded for being carried through. If you participate less, you get less, based on your participation level. There’s less frustration for all.
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I haven't played much GW2 myself but as I understand it one of its problems is that it actually gives players "too much loot".
the problem is that when everything you do gives you loot. then most of that loot is actually going to be junk, and the probability of getting something actually good is actually really really low.

In many ways XIV has similar problems. the accursed horde sacks in palace of the dead for example. theoretically a great idea that guarantees loot rewards when you collect them and encourages exploration. but the reality is generally speaking those sacks are completely ignored by the players because all of the rewards from the sacks are generally rubbish and not worth the effort of getting. better to just go straight to the portal and go to the next floor..

chances are the next deep dungeon thing they want to do will have a similar problem. the rewards from those sacks and things will be junk and simply ignored by players.

treasure maps and aquopolis / canals are much the same most of the rewards from them are worthless junk and thus many players just don't bother.

Retainer ventures are much the same. and have killed the market for so many things within the game. especially when your retainer can bring back an entire mansion glamour or something such...

this is also the problem players have with games like Diablo 3 and the division. both of which typically make loot rain from the skys and reward players with absolute bucket loads of it some of these you can literally get 50-100 items over the course of a few hours. but the likelihood of players actually getting an upgrade or something they can actually use is incredibly low.

when games throw so much loot at you it creates a problem of value or lack there of. so much of what you get given holds so little value that's it's basically worthless. and then are you really being rewarded for participating in that content when the loot you got was worthless trash....

In a way it's like running sirensong sea in a levelling roulette at level 70. you're guaranteed to get a piece of loot at the end but it's useless to you.
the same would be true if expert roulette guaranteed loot at the end. it would be one of those useless greens that is absolutely worthless to most players and just gets turned in for a few seals.
it's also why you quite often run an entire roulette and don't even bother opening the chests. the loot is worthless.

those games typically throw too much loot at players and loot has no value as a result of its sheer abundance. you can be getting hundreds of pieces of loot but still feel like you are not progressing at all...

Seems to be quite a common opinion among people i know that have played it and why many stopped. because the loot you get is worthless. so you never really feel rewarded at all.
that's partly why i never really stuck with it myself even though i didn't get as far as many of them.

[Kazrah]

If an MMO could do the leveling and exploration right like GW2 and then have a solid end-game...-sigh-

I'm not sure any MMORPG can do that because that's all GW2 really is. There is no real destination, only the journey. That's why it's one of my "palate cleanser" games; something to get my mind off of a primary MMORPG like WoW or FFXIV until I'm able to adequately transition myself to another primary game.

I think the other major reason why the community there might seem better is because any sort of competitive areas of gameplay (i.e. PvP, endgame) seem incredibly downplayed compared to that of other games on the market. I know there is some stuff like WvW, but there doesn't appear to be as much press for it as, say, the Feast here or arena seasons in WoW. From what I've seen of all the MMORPGs I've played, the level of focus directed at competitive gameplay (PvP or PvE) determines the level of typical playerbase toxicity, which would explain GW2 being near the rosier side of the spectrum.

As for FFXIV, the overall community is also on the more positive side of the spectrum as well. No forum held for any game is truly indicative of the behavior of its playerbase at large, and thank god, because there are some truly despicable people here (and I can say that because I know I'm one among them).

[AriaFairchild]

As much as I love this game and its visuals, its story, its dungeons/raids/primals, when I think about its PvP I just wanna nope right back to GW2. I'm torn really.

This game is a side dish for me when I need to take a break from WvW/sPvP in GW2.

Don't get me wrong, PvP in this game has its moments...back in 3.x

[odintius]

Not even sure I can call this a mmo it feels more like a single campaign story mode and after done with that use the multiplayer feature for instance fights after you get burnt out then go play something else until couple of patches. Which I doing currently I'm going to just wait till eureka see what it's about./Shrugs

[Kisagami]

Another thing GW2 gets right, in my opinion, is this statement when it comes to PvE content that I read on the Reddit:

GW2 is great because it fosters cooperation instead of competition. CS:GO, LoL, GTA:O, Rocket League, Dota2, Starcraft, etc, etc, etc. all are built around some level of competition. Even cooperative games will encourage competition through leaderboards or by giving better rewards to higher-scoring players. Everyone is fighting to be the best and you end up with a game where even your friends are your enemies and rather than pulling you up they just climb right over you in an endless struggle to reach the top.

GW2 is different, though. In GW2, your success never comes at the expense of someone else or vise-versa. It's almost never a bad thing to have someone else there fighting with you, and it's almost always better to help someone up than to push them down. Why spend your time trying to be better than your teammates? When you beat a boss there's no magical scoreboard that divvies up loot based on how much each player contributed; if you win, you win, and if you lose, you lose. Instead, if there's someone who's struggling or holding back the team, help them out. Their success is your success.

Like I said, I wish we had more sense of community and more encouragmenent to work together. But too much of your success rides on being on top of others rather than working with them. And yes, their fates are much more alive and theres even consequences if you fail, leading to having to take back areas.

[Tiraelina]

Another thing GW2 gets right, in my opinion, is this statement when it comes to PvE content that I read on the Reddit:



Like I said, I wish we had more sense of community and more encouragmenent to work together. But too much of your success rides on being on top of others rather than working with them. And yes, their fates are much more alive and theres even consequences if you fail, leading to having to take back areas.

Last time I was on GW2 you were either following the strict route of the zerg or got yelled at. WvW was largely degraded to base trading. There very much is a "magical scoreboard".

[AnimaAnimus]

GW2 and ESO are better in so many ways. And upcoming MMOs like Ashes of Creation may shake things up too. Esp since they don't seem to walk on eggshells as to not to offend or alienate anyone. You can also believe the devs more, here you need to take anything they say worth a grain of salt until you actually see it implemented in game. They never just say "hey we are doing this" then never mention it ever again no matter how many times they are asked.

Not to mention non gameplay stuff like housing is amazing. ESO housing makes FFXIV housing look as amateur as they come. They also give credits in the cash shop for every dollar you spend on a sub. $12 in sub equals $12 in cash shop credit. Lets also point out, there is a lot less kawaii, which is always always always a good thing. AoC creator specifically said "there will be no kawaii in AoC" and the reaction to that statement was amazing positive.

FFXIV is good for mindless play or as an easy intro mmo but if you wanna be social and have a good time instead of facerolling your way through for rewards that are dead in 6 weeks, GW2 and ESO are definitely better.

[Kisagami]

Last time I was on GW2 you were either following the strict route of the zerg or got yelled at. WvW was largely degraded to base trading. There very much is a "magical scoreboard".

I haven’t experienced that at all. Hell, WvW is really engaging as a team.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I have said this since Stormblood was announced. Eureka will make or break this expansion for a lot of people. It needs to succeed because, frankly, the devs need some form of encouragement to branch out from the same tired formulas. If it flops... well, can't say I don't expect people to unsub.

[Akor]

This what i think they need to do for getting more ppl in to open world: Lever/item restrict, remove the skill lock, gain X% amount of XP of your next lvl (for example your lvl 60 and u need 1mill for lvl 61 you gain 100k xp for xp from the fate) and give rank S they item/lvl restrict on that pecific zone (ARR 50, HW 60, SB 70 etc.). Or maybe give rewards for completing x amount of fates as archivments or smthing. With this you can go back to lvl in central thanalan, or any other places you like.