How does FFXIV fare against other modern MMORPGs?

[Clover_Blake]

As far as I'm concerned it's the best MMO on the market right now. It has something for everybody and is perfect for a player such as myself who likes to dabble in different activities.

Basically this.

In my case, since WoW and ESO don't have art styles I like, I've never given any of them a honest chance. I must say I did love GW2, but only the part about exploring the world; other than that, there aren't any social or creative activities you can do in that game, that I know of (you can't even sit on a sad chair and feel like you're a part of the world).

The main reason why I still play FFXIV, even at times when I'm done with main content, is that this is a world I can live in. I can create scenes thanks to the most awesome screenshot system, play with house decorations, play with fashion for my different alts... If the game was merely about beating dungeons like every other game, I'd enjoy it for a month at max, then I'd have nothing interesting to do. I'm not the kind of gamer who merely takes pleasure in upgrading numbers in my character's equip; I need creative things to do or I get bored fast, and FFXIV delivers.

WoW has the great idea of making each expansion its own storyline

Umm, while I think that might be interesting, I don't think FFXIV's current story system is bad. In fact, the current story system is what made many players emotionally engaged, for the story feels more personal. You feel more involved with the characters after all the things you've lived together; if you removed those things and would merely stay on the surface of what's happening, it wouldn't be the same.

[Voltyblast]

Umm, while I think that might be interesting, I don't think FFXIV's current story system is bad. In fact, the current story system is what made many players emotionally engaged, for the story feels more personal. You feel more involved with the characters after all the things you've lived together; if you removed those things and would merely stay on the surface of what's happening, it wouldn't be the same.

Well...that's the problem, story is subjective so you might like it, love even, but I honestly fail to see what makes it good. It's not uncommon for me as I dislike some of the most famous games of all time (I found Nier incredibly boring and pretentious, Life is Strange was a chore, Undertale was hilariously bad and so on). Still, wow has also characters that you have some kind of involvement....I mean look at Jaina: in Pandaria she had her place demolished by Garrosh which made her go rampage and started KILLING blood elves in Dalaran because of their alignment to the horde, and she is now regretting her choice of the past, all culminating with her returning in Kul'Tiras and facing her own people ((I forgot the details so bear with me, it's been a while)).
And yet the expansions have their own story...sure you would have to read and watch everything done before to fully understand, but seeing Jaina doing all that made me actually want to go back and revisit everything, including books and videos.
I sure won't bother returning here and watch hundreds of voiceless scenes with corny lines such as "mayhap" every 2 seconds.

But again, it's subjective: you might like a story that I hate, or hate a story that I like, and that's completely and perfectly fine in my book.
What's not fine when people start calling you names for disliking stuff that you don't like, which happened quite often during the years I played in this game and the main reason of drama in the past.
And in the 12-13 years I played wow, this never happened...or heck even other games.