A question to all WoW players coming to XIV

[van_arn]

I don't see the problem. WoW is more of a (western) comic booky style in character design, XIV is more of an anime style in character design. People are more than welcome to express preferences between the two.

In the open world, XIV tends to favor somewhat grounded background design, and WOW likes to splatter paint everywhere. Normally I'd say I'm fine with either, but Stormblood was a step back in just way too much brown. WoW is too much for me, though.

[Shurrikhan]

One of FF's main strengths is it's great community.

That's ok. They can stay away as that type of toxicity is not needed here.

I've run into great communities on both MMOs. I've run into extremely not-great communities on both MMOs. Honestly, I've probably run into more toxicity on XIV, on the whole, but that could just be because I've played it less casually. In either case, the decidedly casual-midcore (competent people who enjoy a challenge, but prefer quality of activity over speed of progression alone) scene, especially among people who still enjoy leveling and/or helping out, has tended to have high portions of great people with much lower portions of officious jerks, entitled jerks, or invasive drama.

[Reimmi]

The friends i've gotten into ff14 were skeptical of the "weeby" feel the game had
but then the gameplay had them hooked because this is literally better wow in terms of gameplay, which is what they care about above all else.

[Xatsh]

With alot of players the whole anime style of FFXIV is a 100% turn off, just as to many the main reason not to play wow was/is the graphics are lower and cartoony. (Why the phrase "Toon" for a characters/avatar became popular in the mmo world)

It personal preference really. I would take FFXIV's or FFXI's art style any day over say WoW, SWToR, or ESO, but then again I love Anime.

The whole Eastern Aesthetic VS Western Aesthetic it is very very much there. I mean lets face it what 2/3 to 3/4th the population are catgirls, lizard girls, and potatoes. That alone is a turn off to many.

As for Asmon he speaks his mind, He loves WoW, and is frustrated with how Blizzard is literally butchering that game with each passing expansion. He is being honest in his critiques of FFXIV. For him I do not see FFXIV ever being a fit, I expect him to go to ESO for good if he plays another mmo full time.

FFXIV's hurdles for many WoW players and western mmo players in general is the aesthetic and the start of the game being really really slow combat wise and having way too many main storyline quest.

Example I ran into.. I played on archeage for a year when I took a break from ffxiv had a guild of 80 ppl core of about 28. I could not get more then 7 to even try ffxiv due to it being "Weeb/Anime", the majority said they would rather play ESO, D&D, or go back to WoW. out of those 7, 6 have quit due to the game being slow to start not making it past 35-50. 1 is enjoying it atm and I expect to stick with it.

Honestly I think if people in WoW tried FFXIV to endgame, many would enjoy it. It is just getting over the aesthetic which they are not accustom to and getting to endgame.

[van_arn]

With alot of players the whole anime style of FFXIV is a 100% turn off, just as to many the main reason not to play wow was/is the graphics are lower and cartoony. (Why the phrase "Toon" for a characters/avatar became popular in the mmo world)

It personal preference really. I would take FFXIV's or FFXI's art style any day over say WoW, SWToR, or ESO, but then again I love Anime.

The whole Eastern Aesthetic VS Western Aesthetic it is very very much there. I mean lets face it what 2/3 to 3/4th the population are catgirls, lizard girls, and potatoes. That alone is a turn off to many.

As for Asmon he speaks his mind, He loves WoW, and is frustrated with how Blizzard is literally butchering that game with each passing expansion. He is being honest in his critiques of FFXIV. For him I do not see FFXIV ever being a fit, I expect him to go to ESO for good if he plays another mmo full time.

FFXIV's hurdles for many WoW players and western mmo players in general is the aesthetic and the start of the game being really really slow combat wise and having way too many main storyline quest.

Example I ran into.. I played on archeage for a year when I took a break from ffxiv had a guild of 80 ppl core of about 28. I could not get more then 7 to even try ffxiv due to it being "Weeb/Anime", the majority said they would rather play ESO, D&D, or go back to WoW. out of those 7, 6 have quit due to the game being slow to start not making it past 35-50. 1 is enjoying it atm and I expect to stick with it.

Honestly I think if people in WoW tried FFXIV to endgame, many would enjoy it. It is just getting over the aesthetic which they are not accustom to and getting to endgame.

That's what I keep seeing as well, the questing slog ruins it for a lot of people familiar with the genre.

[FoxyAreku]

Perhaps the fact that half of the community is cat people and potatoes has something to do with it.

Half of WoW is pretty elves and pandas so doubt that has anything to do with it.

If anything, I'd say FFXIV's lack of racial diversity hurts it more than anything for people coming from WoW.

[Reimmi]

Half of WoW is pretty elves and pandas so doubt that has anything to do with it.

If anything, I'd say FFXIV's lack of racial diversity hurts it more than anything for people coming from WoW.

While true, my friends and iwere surprised at how much customization there is in this game
compared to wow, where 1 in 5 people of the same race are gonna look identical
I'll take less race options for more ways to express yourself in a character's appearance anyday.

[FoxyAreku]

While true, my friends and iwere surprised at how much customization there is in this game
compared to wow, where 1 in 5 people of the same race are gonna look identical
I'll take less race options for more ways to express yourself in a character's appearance anyday.

The wide array of hairstyles and facial markings is nice if that's your thing yeah

[Alestrae]

To be honest, I can kind of see the viewpoint of "Cute" from the general feel of the early storyline. A lot of it is (currently) feel good. You do bad things to worse people in order to make better people's lives happier. But I may see a shift in that as I progress through the game.

The three "factions" in the game are generally good friends, unlike the permanent war setting of WoW. Recently, the Alliance and Horde co-operate most of the times the players interact, Blue is constantly trying to force that tension. To be honest, every time Blue brings up the faction hostilities it is over themes that have caused such tensions in the real world. eg. New lands/resources (Pandaria and BFA) so the overall theme of WoW is more "mature" even though, imo, it's packaging is more cartoon.

Cute and real didn't really come into it for me but then I was probably used to the style from my many years watching anime myself and that my first game mmo was ff11.

Easier... hmmm. Comparing ff14 to early days wow is unfair because early days wow should be compared to ff11. The solo experience of wow was smoother and easier, but the dungeon experience was about the same (broadly, party dynamics to overcome party problems) but in my opinion, not having played any other early mmo's the ff11 party dynamic was absolutely unique and the loss of the uniqueness is a big part of why I no longer play.

FF14 should be compared to current day wow, and again the similarities are there, and it is a question of choosing which you prefer. Dungeons in both cases are, imo, broadly boring aoe fests with little strategy (Quarn may change this because it's my next level appropriate instance). If you try to control a mob with effects, the avatar next to you will break them, but in ff effects are more like short term interrupts in any case.

The biggest engagement for me is discovering that FF14 has an official Blog system in the lodestone which means I can create my own characters story and share it with others, even if I tend not to rp heavily in game.

I also switched because the lore (and story) in WoW was coming apart at the seams to the degree that it was starting to be "just another game", among many reasons, but this was a big one for me and reaching level cap in a zone and a half.

My biggest fear, that niggling doubt, is that I have joined FF14 just as it's story starts to come apart at the seams.

[Floortank]

I've been watching youtubers like Sccotzone and Asmongold and the one thing I've noticed is both of their chats mention XIV is too cute for them. I get the anime thing as it is anime being all Final Fantasys are pretty much animes. But I didn't know people thought XIV was too cute to play. I also remember both of them saying ( their chats and SZ himself to Momo on a podcast ) That XIV is harder then wow mostly cause their bosses don't mix things up like a burn phase alone with the dance we have.

We talked about that last part tho but I just wanted to point out where I heard those thoughts, the main thing I wanna talk about is do people think XIV is too cute? And why they think so.. this is mainly for people who mainly played WoW. I'm only asking this as with how BFA is alot of WoW vets are coming to XIV and they are talking. Just wanna see if what they think aabout everything comparaing both games in terms of skill, art direction and stuff.

The WOW forums are that way.