Would it be possible to play the game off a USB Flash Drive?

[Soukyuu]

FFXIV doesn't use any registry entries, the game files are saved in the directory you installed it to, the updater files are in your documents/my games directory. I've been copying my patched installation between different computers since alpha, all you have to do is to run the config application on any new computer before starting the game.

An USB2.0 flash drive will be most likely too slow for ffxiv which will result in microstutters while running around maps because the drive is too slow providing data to your GPU. Another problem is that FFXIV has all it's files unpacked, thousands of small files is very bad because cheap flash drives and most hdds are very bad with small files.

An USB3.0/eSATA flash drive should have enough bandwidth to perform as good as a hdd, but only if the chips of the drive are fast enough.

I am also surprised about how many people don't know you can move the dynamic links to the my xxx folders by simply going to your user folder, right clicking them and going to the location tab. Just partition your drive into C:\ around 100GB and give the rest to D:\ and you shouldn't run out of space for programs and games on C:\ unless you have too much crap installed.

Running something from a flash drive will eat your flash drive's read write lifespam. Flash drives are meant for storage

The only time the flash drive is getting worn out is when you write something onto it - reading does not wear it out, just like SSDs.

[Bahn]

I am also surprised about how many people don't know you can move the dynamic links to the my xxx folders by simply going to your user folder, right clicking them and going to the location tab. Just partition your drive into C:\ around 100GB and give the rest to D:\ and you shouldn't run out of space for programs and games on C:\ unless you have too much crap installed.

I completely forgot about this. I used to do this all the time when I was setting up default user profiles for users on a small Win 2k3 network.

In general though, the My xxxx folder doesn't really have much stored in it. I personally try to store the stuff elsewhere because of my conscious awareness of my 60 GB's (lack of) size.