How does FF14 compare to WoW? (And other MMOs)

[Vickii]

It’s better in all areas. Although the ex WoW players do make it less friendlier and more elitist than it used to be.

[KeshLives]

Biggest problem with WoW is that the 'Everything is about Speed' crowd has taken over. It's all push push push all the time.

Do we run through some dungeons here quickly? Sure. But, what we don't have is the incessant raging I saw in WoW in the last couple expansions. Maybe at Savage and Extreme at 80 you'll see some of that here, but, that's inevitable at that particular spot.

Unlike WoW, it hasn't invaded the rest of the game, and I hope it does not. That mindset has basically ruined WoW for me. Everything is about Speed. Woe to anyone who gets in their way, and people in groups are just there to be used, taken advantage of, and otherwise ignored, because they're 'just worthless casuals anyway'. If you aren't running the 'right' class, they'll kick you. *Even in leveling content.*

Stupidity.

I'm enjoying the chill atmosphere here. We had a wipe on Midgardsormr the other night, first time, for MSQ, and it took a couple tries to work out the shield thing between us. No rage, no ragequit, we just did it again, took care of it, said GG, and went on. No muss, no fuss. Doing that in WoW would have involved people dropping/raging/ragequitting after the first wipe, unfortunately. It wasn't this way there, but, it is there a lot now.

[KeshLives]

I very recently took a break from WoW and am giving FFXIV a try.

Unless I am mistaken, one very big difference between WoW and FFXIV is that WoW is much more solo friendly.

In WoW a player can solo from level 1- 60 (current level cap) and never join a group if that is their wish. Upon reaching level cap, the solo player still has a lot of activities available to them.

In FFXIV, I will apparently be forced to group for a level 15 story quest(dungeon) and then periodically after that just to reach level cap.

I intend to give FFXIV a fair try, but forced grouping is definitely a fly in the ointment.

If grouping for a new player was the same as it is in WoW, yes, that could be an issue.

However, as a player who came back in the last six weeks, and started over with a new character, level 1, etc, it's nothing like grouping in WoW. People are pretty chill, and unless you're in extreme/savage/ultimate content, it's likely to remain so. I've run into a wipe or two or three, occasionally, and there were no ragequits, or any raging. Some comments from experienced players would be said in the party, such as to what happened, and what to do to fix it, and we went on.

WoW was once this way as well, but the Everything is about Speed crowd has taken over. Any loss of time or efficiency is castigated at length, and any slowdown causes rage and ragequits. I have not seen this here.

If that's one of your fears about 'forced grouping' in FFXIV, put that to rest.

Oh, and welcome to FFXIV. I quit Shadowlands about mid-December, played something else over Xmas, and started back here in mid to late January after being back in here two years ago. Enjoying myself. In that two months, *not one* incident of rage or ragequit has happened to me in the 'forced' MSQ dungeons or trials, and a few other 'non-forced' dungeons. I just hit 60 last night, in The Vault. We had a death in there on the last boss, but no wipe. Healer tossed a rez, and back to work we went. No big deal.

The only time you're likely to arouse comment is if someone makes the same error repeatedly w/o any effort to try to understand or fix the problem, and someone will tell them the info they need. First time I tried Leviathan, we didn't understand the wipe mechanic. Second try, we almost got it right. Third try, we had it figured out, and we finished. Again, no raging, no ragequits. Party chat gave answers to how to fix the issue. GG, and we moved on.

I'm enjoying it greatly.

[KeshLives]

The reason it doesn't strike terror in the heart of an experienced player is that queueing for a roulette matches the experienced player with someone who queues directly (which is almost always sprouts), so it's almost guaranteed there will be sprouts. They are used to sprouts and it's one of the design choices that makes FFXIV a nice community.

It's often said how easy this content is and that people frequently underperform in it, but this is so normalized that the experienced players expect everyone will underpeform so they don't bother being rude about it usually.

What makes it better is that one experienced player can probably do all of the work and get everyone through the dungeon successfully, so they aren't worrying that much.

Agreed. If you can dodge obvious bad, you're one up on a lot of people. I'm enjoying it greatly here in FFXIV. I'm not an 'experienced' FFXIV player, but I've dodged a lot of 'fire' or 'bad' in other MMOs, including WoW of course. The thing I note most is the absence of raging in FFXIV instances. In WoW, it's likely to be seen *even in low level content*, because there are too many tryhard wanna-be elite players who want to be prestigious, and think the way to do that is to run down other players. Unfortunately, they're attracting more like them, I think.

Better that they go there than here, though!

[Penthea]

It’s better in all areas. Although the ex WoW players do make it less friendlier and more elitist than it used to be.

Not all of us are that bad

[kidalutz]

Well both games honestly have their ups and downs.

Story: When it comes down to it story is by far the most enjoyable aspect of FF XIV far and away better than wow. This comes from classes, jobs, and of course main story its a trifecta getting quests for your chosen jobs and class is absolutely fun it makes it feel like you're part of the game world. WoWs weakness is the fact that your classes dont have have any of this it's just quick and dirty main story then a reliance on someone reading thier novels to fill in vast blanks of story.

Endgame: enjoyable group content is I think in FF XIV alot more enjoyable even when grinding it doesn't feel like a second job WoWs feels like a chore from begining to end. it's also had the same "endgame" experience for three expansions in a row now a bunch of generic "world Quests" and then content that you feel you Have to do endlessly. The big raids are of course enjoyable in wow but it doesnt feel as if anything else is there for enjoyment. FF XIVs raiding is interesting and fun overall and theres always something to enjoy or try your hand at.

Crafting: Crafting in FF XIV feels more intuitive and is enjoyable as well it even has story bits during the process you literally want to craft and level crafting. WoWs weakness is glaring in this department.

Group Content/community: In WoW group content can be downright toxic I love love love talking someone into playing wow with me only for them to die early on and get treated like crap by the so call community then not want to play again. (*cough* Alliance*cough*) Not saying Horde doesn't have some players like this just seems more prevalent You can ask for help for hours and be ignored. Here the community seems more helpful all in all there's still some people that are kind of jerky but in the end the community and group content is far more enjoyable here than there. Final Fantasies weakness group content wise is it has a much more often solo content moments than WoW.

so the ratings look something akin to this..

Gameplay: Wow:Good, FFXIV:Fair

Community: WoW:Poor, FFXIV: Good

Endgame Things to do: WoW:Poor, FFXIV:Good

Endgame Raids:Wow:Good but not all that accessible for higher diffculty raids, FF XIV: Average but very Accessible.

Story Wow:Good (But huge Gaps), FF XIV (Good and very Thorough)

Crafting: WoW: Very Poor, FF XIV: Great.

Classes: WoW: Average Enjoyability, Very Poor Accessibility, FF XIV:Good A bit slow Easy Accesibility.

[Wasselin]

Personally I think WOW is designed to be more addictive and it ends up being less fun as a result. Also, it's hard to put into words and I'm sure some will disagree but the game design seems more hostile. Just moving about in the world is more difficult and takes more time.

I'm also not a big fan at how goofy WOW can be. FFXIV has some whimsical and lighthearted moments, but WOW feels like a Saturday morning cartoon at times both with their story and silly quests and NPCs. The jokes and gags in WoW are more fourth-wall breaking than in FFXIV where they still feel like part of the world for the most part.

Also the community aspect is like night and day. I've been playing MMOs for a long time and let most things roll of my back, but the amount of try-harding and just bad attitudes in WoW gets really tiresome after a while. People seem to go out of their way to be mean over there even if it hurts them too.

[Alestorm]

It’s better in all areas. Although the ex WoW players do make it less friendlier and more elitist than it used to be.

The one's I've met generally start off quiet to avoid the toxic behavior they're used to, but open up more as they get used to us. Usually it's funny how shocked they are with how nice/social many of us can be.

[Ralph2449]

but WOW feels like a Saturday morning cartoon .

Oh god why did you remind me of the unironic ending of BfA where the murdehobo player character uses the power of friendship to fire off a lazer beam towards an old god who was free of its prison therefore most powerful old god the players faced, not only that this old god was the most cunning and manipulative but hey, saturday morning children's cartoons always loved their BEAM OF FRIENDSHIP beating the bad guy xD

And all that lore within one patch

[TroySoFab]

Hmm... I can't say anything about wow since I have no experience there, but in terms of combat and story I much prefer this game. I'm a fan of tab targeting, so all these action combat MMOs don't really do it for me. Where I'd say this game is lacking is in its character creator.

With all the recent notable streamers leaving wow and coming to this game, I think you may have your answer on how this game compares.