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.

[Vickii]

I don't know how it is in FFXIV in raids, but as a casual player, i feel much more relaxed !

Well firstly as a casual player you should definetly do alliance raids and probably normal raids too. They are all cleared pretty much first time (some of the brand new ones wipe from time to time) but it’s casual and fun, like LFR was on WoW.

In more serious raiding, WoW back around TBC/Wotlk was generally more ‘hardcore’ than extreme and savage content. Ultimates are more on par with what WoW used to have.

Also what we have as alliance raids is more the set up of WoW, it’s like a long instance with multiple bosses. The FF14 raids are single instanced bosses.

Raiding in FF is more accessible than WoW used to be, but I haven’t played for a long time and I do remember they were starting to make it so more people raided in WoW when I stopped playing.

[Puremallace]

Raiding in FF is more accessible than WoW used to be, but I haven’t played for a long time and I do remember they were starting to make it so more people raided in WoW when I stopped playing.

WoW is now in Shadowlands a pure raid or die MMO
- Crafting is useless. FF14 you can craft a full gear set to go jump right into Savage tier raiding on day 1
- World quest in Shadowlands compared to Legion or BFA reward literally nothing
- Mythic drop rates have been completely gutted effectively killing their most popular feature in 4 years
- Even in actual raiding drops have been gutted

RMT and gold buying is at an all time high because bind of equip items are hyper expensive and people buying spots in guild runs. Pvp is a slaughter fest if you are not geared right now and some classes are utterly broken. Only thing saving that expansion right now are pvp vendors rewarding loot on par with raids BUT EVEN that is causing massive RMT issues as people buy carries to get arena rating.

The casual community over there right now is basically rioting and unsubbing as the issues cascade week over week with no fixes in sight.

[Ayuhra]

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.

Battle of Dazar'alor will go down as one of the all time best raids. I think the other raids were all great too, though. The stories were not, I'll grant you that (Ny'alotha being a raid instead of an entire expansion of content is something I'll never not be bitter about) but the encounters were good.

I really hope someday Ion sees the game through a non-raider's eyes and recognizes how many of us want to like...play a roleplaying game. Shadowlands shows hints he sees that a bit but it still ended up drowned in systems despite the community asking for it NOT to be at....basically every step of development.

I will go back too, of course. I always bounce between WoW and FFXIV.

FFXIV: Fewer endgame systems makes it more casual friendly. Side content is there for fun. Great story, pretty aesthetic.

WoW: Less rigid than FFXIV in playstyle. Also very pretty. Decent but still comic book story as of Shadowlands. Much more intuitive than FFXIV.

.........................My ideal MMO would be a mix of the two with Elder Scrolls Online's overworld. Please, nerd deities, I want it...

In more serious raiding, WoW back around TBC/Wotlk was generally more ‘hardcore’ than extreme and savage content. Ultimates are more on par with what WoW used to have.

Also what we have as alliance raids is more the set up of WoW, it’s like a long instance with multiple bosses. The FF14 raids are single instanced bosses.

Raiding in FF is more accessible than WoW used to be, but I haven’t played for a long time and I do remember they were starting to make it so more people raided in WoW when I stopped playing.

WoW tries to filter people towards raiding and has more settings of difficulty than before but as a note WoW's raids have only gotten harder in time. There were fights in Burning Crusade that were legit actually broken at a mathematical level, sure, but in terms of complexity they are NOTHING compared to what the current game throws at people.

[Vickii]

WoW tries to filter people towards raiding and has more settings of difficulty than before but as a note WoW's raids have only gotten harder in time. There were fights in Burning Crusade that were legit actually broken at a mathematical level, sure, but in terms of complexity they are NOTHING compared to what the current game throws at people.

Yeah I can only really comment on the past WoW stuff. When I played seriously it was black temple and sunwell isle and vashjir and Kael etc and they literally took weeks and weeks of learning and gearing. Think Kael used to take people months.

But wrath and cata got easier and I remember MoP pretty much having an option which was pretty much on par with our alliance raids (LFR?) so I assumed it had become more casual accessible nowadays. I guess FF did too though, Bahamut and Alexander appear to have been harder on release than something like Eden normal.

[ItMe]

My thoughts on the matter can be summed up by retitling the thread:
FFXIV and SqEnix vs WoW and Activision - My Perspective

I'm hard in the camp that what Blizzard was effectively "died" after it was bought out.

[SturmChurro]

Why are you guys even complaining about WoW? Has anyone stopped to think, maybe that game just isn't for them? Just as FFXIV is for us, we can't expect WoW to change their design philosophy for a tiny minority.

[Ayuhra]

Why are you guys even complaining about WoW? Has anyone stopped to think, maybe that game just isn't for them? Just as FFXIV is for us, we can't expect WoW to change their design philosophy for a tiny minority.

I complain about both because I love both and want to see both improve.

Final Fantasy XIV needs to be more flexible.

World of Warcraft needs to be less of an esport and more of a roleplaying game.

...Unfortunately my biggest gripes with FFXIV seem to all stem from the same issue: A pretty awful engine. I would LOVE to see what this team could pull off with a more robust and future proofed game engine.

[Jojoya]

Why are you guys even complaining about WoW? Has anyone stopped to think, maybe that game just isn't for them? Just as FFXIV is for us, we can't expect WoW to change their design philosophy for a tiny minority.

Except they did change their design philosophy to please a minority. Players asked them to reconsider. They chose to stick with their changes.

WoW was no longer the right game for the majority so the majority left.

[SturmChurro]

Except they did change their design philosophy to please a minority. Players asked them to reconsider. They chose to stick with their changes.

WoW was no longer the right game for the majority so the majority left.

They seem to be doing fine. The number one MMORPG out there. WoW just isn't for them. Simple as that.

Perhaps the number of players who stay for the raids greatly outweighs the number of players who might leave? Perhaps the company has metrics that some cannot see beyond a wild guess based on gut feelings? Perhaps the core audience for the game enjoys going through each raid, and grinding for gear?