FFXIV and SqEnix vs WoW and Blizzard - My Perspective

[Vahlnir]

(To his credit though, he is a VERY GOOD raid designer. We can dunk on WoW all day but that is definitely an area it continues to be strong in)

I loathe the man with every fabric of my being, but I am not afraid to give credit where it is due. Raids are usually pretty fun. Only one of them was fun in BfA to me though, and that was the Battle of Dazar'alor. The others were rushed, along with the stories tied to them. I didn't stick around to find out whether I would enjoy Castle Nathria. I was gone about 2 weeks into Shadowlands. Ion's reliance on endgame progression systems and their associated grinds and time gates really turned me off to WoW in ways I never thought possible. I'll go back to it eventually, I always do, but it's going to be awhile. Probably the longest break I'm ever gonna take from WoW so far. I've been playing for about 11 years and have taken plenty of breaks. I think the longest I was gone from WoW before was 6 months, but that was because of FF XIV's ARR launch. lol I think I knew back then that I would be falling back on this game hard eventually, and boy was I right. I might not always agree with the decisions being made with FF XIV, but it has a heart and soul, and that is something that WoW has been lacking for a long, LONG time. I actually WANT to log in to FF XIV. I had to force myself to log into WoW more times than I'd care to admit the last few years.