FFXIV and SqEnix vs WoW and Blizzard - My Perspective

[Reyketi]

FFXIV has been such a wonderful thing in my life this year, it is a love I have found, and a bond I have forged.

Eorzea is a place I yearn to return to, it is inviting, and homely. I love my character, and am attached to her.

I WANT to be involved with this game.

However, this desire to be involved did not arise in a vacuum, I believe.

It is allowed to flourish by a welcoming, and lively community.

The quality of this community is the key to my love of FFXIV.

The FFXIV community exists, as it does, in my opinion, only because of the extent of the involvement of one Naoki Yoshida.

Much like OSRS, and its devs, Yoshi-P is active, and proactive in his role, and works WITH the community.



This is complete opposite of WoW, and Blizzard, in my experience, lately.

WoW is helmed by devs who only seem to interact with the community, out of an assumed necessity, instead of listening to the complaints of the community, the devs dig in, and defend.

The playerbase does not seem to like, or love Wow, but only play it because that's what they do.

The forums there are overwhelmingly negative, offputting, and uninviting, it is a place where everyone appears to be not only miserable, but hopelessly so.



General thoughts for now, might add on, later.

Please take good care of this community, Square Enix, it is the key to this game's success, in my opinion.



Best Wishes

-Reyketi

[Reap00]

I agree with everything you said. I have watched just about every live letter and interview with Yoshi P. The vast majority of the content is in a language I unfortunately do not understand. Regardless of this limitation it is very apparent the passion Yoshi and his developers have for the project. I love that. Its nice to know how plugged into things they are and how much they care about the direction of the game.

[Xatsh]

I get the vibe that the Activision mentality of profits above all took over blizzard. The only people really calling shots are the big wigs that care more about maximizing profits and raising stock values then they do the enjoyment of the games. It is not just WoW expansions that has been mediocre it is almost their whole lineup. Although I will say shadowlands is better then alot of the crap that came out before it. Back in the day Blizzard was all about making the best games possible, I do not feel that is still the case.

I do have to give Yoshida and his team credit. While I disagree with alot of the decisions they made with ffxiv's core design, I must admit they do really seem to care about the product and the players of it.

[Kewitt]

Wow is still a juggernaut ffxiv had done great things both just do things differently.

[Kes13a]

you missed the point that WoW/Blizz under Ion is more of a "my way or the highway" approach.

feedback from testers/community is to be encouraged and subsequently ignored completely if it interferes with the dev "vision"

no one is ever happy in that game, npc's, players, likely even teh coders. the story is lackluster at best, and while they have copied systems from many other games, they have missed getting or being interested in anything resembling a real story that will grab you and make you feel...anything...except frustration and irritation

[Kyrj]

you missed the point that WoW/Blizz under Ion is more of a "my way or the highway" approach.

feedback from testers/community is to be encouraged and subsequently ignored completely if it interferes with the dev "vision"

no one is ever happy in that game, npc's, players, likely even teh coders. the story is lackluster at best, and while they have copied systems from many other games, they have missed getting or being interested in anything resembling a real story that will grab you and make you feel...anything...except frustration and irritation

That's kind of the thing about WoW though. It's not about the story. Never has been, the people that play it generally don't care about a one and done thing like story. That's why they rush to get level cap so they can start playing the real game. And lol no one is frustrated or irritated by it. It's a joke to the people that play WoW.

[Ayuhra]

I disagree that WoW is creatively bankrupt.

Shadowlands is actually quite good and has a pretty decent story, though I still feel more invested in the Warrior of Light than the Maw Walker since WoW tends to lean on plot threads that belong more to NPCs than to you.

The biggest issue WoW has, and it's one we've been complaining about, is too many systems that result in "forced" content. At level cap there are a bunch of things to stay consistently on top of and it makes it feel like you're doing chores.

Dan Olson pretty much nails it here: https://youtu.be/0RxQRswLAmI?t=1983

I enjoy FFXIV because it's more casual friendly in the ways that matter... There's lots of stuff to do but I never feel like I HAVE to do it to keep up.

[Vahlnir]

I disagree that WoW is creatively bankrupt.

Shadowlands is actually quite good and has a pretty decent story, though I still feel more invested in the Warrior of Light than the Maw Walker since WoW tends to lean on plot threads that belong more to NPCs than to you.

The biggest issue WoW has, and it's one we've been complaining about, is too many systems that result in "forced" content. At level cap there are a bunch of things to stay consistently on top of and it makes it feel like you're doing chores.

Dan Olson pretty much nails it here: https://youtu.be/0RxQRswLAmI?t=1983

I enjoy FFXIV because it's more casual friendly in the ways that matter... There's lots of stuff to do but I never feel like I HAVE to do it to keep up.

It is because of these chores that I decided to bow out of Shadowlands not even 2 weeks into the expansion. That has never happened before. I'd rather spend time playing other things though that don't feel created purely out of spite. I'd say yes, they are creatively bankrupt, and can only really get people to play their game if they are willing to force themselves to log in every day to do busywork. Not even on the player's terms, but Blizzard's.

[Ayuhra]

It is because of these chores that I decided to bow out of Shadowlands not even 2 weeks into the expansion. I'd rather spend time playing other things that don't feel created purely out of spite.

I'll be honest I got to level cap then stopped playing.

I did genuinely enjoy what I played of Shadowlands and do believe it is on the road to be quite a bit better than BfA but the piles of systems and to-do-lists makes my old lady brain very tired. I'll go back to it at some point.

[Kes13a]

the real problem I found with WoW was it felt like a job that I was paying other people to "enjoy"

I felt little investment and with lowering teh cap to 50, really felt like I had lost 15 years of investment. yes, they have better expansions sometimes than other releases, but focusing on end game "content" was a miss for me, snd I dont get nostalgic about being capped at the same level as when the game released. just too many dev choices that didnt sit right with me.