To those that say FF14 is not a big dog in MMO's

[EtherRose]

I can't bring myself to hate WoW, personally. I'm terribly disappointed with the direction it chose to go in, don't get me wrong - but I still have very fond memories of the Vanilla/TBC/WOTLK era. I was even lured into trying out the Classic experience once more and although I fell in love with that side of the game all over again - in large part due to nostalgia - it just wasn't the same without my childhood friends at my side. It's also no longer as viable to spend hours just sitting back with no care for the passage of time, chatting away about all manner of different things. Perhaps because a lot of players these days are much more shy compared to back then.

With that said, I'm on the fence with FFXIV at the moment. WoW, for all its flaws, managed to push out a character customisation overhaul. Something which has been heavily requested for FFXIV. As it stands, I'm not 100% happy with the current batch of options - I'm currently playing a Midlander, which I like...but I wish he could be taller and more muscular to suit my exact tastes.

I'm also disappointed with the lack of racial lore relevance in FFXIV. There's no starter zones unique to each playable race and some race/gender combinations have very little weight or presence within the game world itself. I think Raen men look incredible but how often do you see them as NPC's? Not very often at all!

I'm hoping that Endwalker is to my liking on various fronts. I'm cautiously optimistic at the moment. On the other hand, I'm somewhat intrigued by what Blue Protocol and Pantheon are set to offer, albeit both are a decent amount of time away from releasing.

"On the fence" with FFXIV because you can't make your character more muscular and racial lore is a little lacking in terms of starter zones. Yea, i won't take you seriously.

[Theodric]

"On the fence" with FFXIV because you can't make your character more muscular and racial lore is a little lacking in terms of starter zones. Yea, i won't take you seriously.

Why?

Everybody plays MMO's for various reasons and FFXIV puts a heavy amount of emphasis on glamour and story. I just so happen to find both elements to be lacking. Especially the racial lore, since fantasy games are meant to be pretty immersive in that regard.

There's other improvements that I'd like to see to the game - such as longer lasting, mid core content - but it's mostly those two elements that I'd like to see improved.

[Lauront]

"On the fence" with FFXIV because you can't make your character more muscular and racial lore is a little lacking in terms of starter zones. Yea, i won't take you seriously.

Not really sure what your problem is but different people have different priorities. If you yourself want to be taken seriously, perhaps show some maturity and acknowledge that.

[KizuyaKatogami]

"On the fence" with FFXIV because you can't make your character more muscular and racial lore is a little lacking in terms of starter zones. Yea, i won't take you seriously.

Character customization hasn’t been updated in how many years? I’d expect people to have some gripes about that considering how much emphasis players put on their own character. He’s giving examples. Obviously there’s a lot more that would be added with a customization overhaul besides muscles, but the fact we haven’t gotten an overhaul this long and a lot of content being lacking this expansion is a bit concerning.

[WoW]

WoW continues to live rent-free in every FFXIV players head.

WoW still has 3-4x the total active population of this game. Must be a better game amirite.

I can't help that they keep thinking of me.

[Liam_Harper]

It's no secret WoW is in a terrible state right now and shed a huge amount of their playerbase, along with a nasty content drought before their next patch. Personally I draw no satisfaction from it. I don't look over to WoW and feel "hah, they got what they deserved", I just feel disappointed that there's one less MMO as an alternative option. I love FF14, but there are things I miss from WoW and it would have made me happier to see them turn Shadowlands around and make a good expansion. It might even give ff14 some competition, which is healthy because there's definitely some complacency here with the amount of content dropped, rampant bot issue, death of crafting, no healer designer, lack of primal DNC/GNB weapons and so on. BFA was a huge disappointment though and as a result I didn't even try Shadowlands. I kept an eye on it in hopes it would show potential, but it never did. There's very little risk we'll run off to other games anymore because other games are in a slump.

[Haruka_R]

This competitive thing between MMO player bases is weird.

I used to play WoW—the game is a lot of fun. I currently play FF14—the game is a lot of fun. I don't (and never have) worked on either game, so I don't take any pride in them. I'm not a shareholder in either company (so far as I know), so I don't particularly care which game has more subs.

These threads are weird.

It's just another 'This vs That' thing. Perfectly normal.

[Psytic]

Well go tell Blizzard. I keep track of this stuff because why not...

Anyways at the recent Blizzcon they announced their 9.1 patch but the problem is details were super sparse and very up in the air so obviously people got concerned about a MASSIVE content drought that lined up this patch in August or September for some mysterious reason... FF14 players know why.

Now MAGICALLY out of thin air they announce their PTR for patch 9.1 exactly 2 weeks from today. Can anyone name something else that comes out exactly 2 weeks from today?

Square Enix keep doing exactly what you are doing and make the game about content and not endless systems. Blizzard has consistently tried to line up patch cycles to drown out FF14 news because they are scared and the feedback on the unsub surveys must be brutal.

I mean I personally keep both subs going neither game has me covered for what I like to do unfortunately. Casual pvp is 100x more fun in WoW to just putter around in battle grounds. Healing to me is more fun in WoW they have melee healers like Fistweave Mistweaver and Glimmer Paladin. When Im working from home I sometimes like to putter around and do world quests and battle pets in WoW. In FFXIV the open world is super bland to look at outside of ARR which for whatever reason they seemed to have more unique areas and detail. Many expansion zones in SHB and Storm are just endless badlands and the fates usually are just kill quests no interesting ones like snowboarding or flappy bird or what ever like WoW. The Pikimin clone in Gold Saucer doesnt have the depth of actual pet battling in WoW.

FFXIV for me is less toxic and I dont need to submit a job application to get into dungeaons like with mythic+ although FFXIV also doesnt have a mythic plus and the dps queues are longer for most content than WoW. It has its charm though and the community for me has been nicer and you can own property. So I sub to run dungeons and r

[Psytic]

Now MAGICALLY out of thin air they announce their PTR for patch 9.1 exactly 2 weeks from today. Can anyone name something else that comes out exactly 2 weeks from today?

Square Enix keep doing exactly what you are doing and make the game about content and not endless systems. Blizzard has consistently tried to line up patch cycles to drown out FF14 news because they are scared and the feedback on the unsub surveys must be brutal.

I mean I personally keep both subs going neither game has me covered for what I like to do unfortunately. Casual pvp is 100x more fun in WoW to just putter around in battle grounds. Healing to me is way way more fun in WoW they have melee healers like Fistweave Mistweaver and Glimmer Paladin, Druids with Catweaveing in FFXIV its like they keep making them more similar by the patch. When Im working from home I sometimes like to putter around and do world quests and battle pets in WoW but cant really jump into a dungeon queue. In FFXIV the open world is super bland to look at in many zones (ARR for whatever reason they seemed to have more unique areas and detail). Many expansion zones in SHB and Storm are just endless red rock badlands and the fates usually are just kill quests. No interesting ones like snowboarding or flappy bird or what ever like WoW.

The Pikmin clone in Gold Saucer doesnt have the depth of actual pet battling in WoW which is more like pokemon and you can travel the world battling masters (I guess Triple Triad is more close to this). FFXIV for me is less toxic and I dont need to submit a job application to get into dungeons like with Mythic+ although FFXIV also doesnt have a Mythic+ at all and there is alot less to do at end game in general if your not a Savage Raider. The dps queues are longer for most content than WoW. FFXIV has its charm though and the community for me has been nicer and you can own property. So I sub to run casual dungeons and raids but for me the open world content is also lacking in FFXIV and usually boils down to "here is some mobs go kill them". Or /Beckon them, they dont even have follow AI for escort quests.

The one thing it does well is it doesnt fuu people with range loot like WoW does or layer systems designed to slow you down and thats a huge plus. However imo FFXIV could do with a few more interesting power systems such as set bonuses that change the way the class plays etc. it almost plays it a little too safe to the point it can get a tad boring the class design (especially healers as mentioned). Where as WoW re-invents the wheel every expac and if you liked something too bad its gone the next expac. Both need to be better imo in finding a balance between taking risks and going whole hog with new systems every expac.

[Puremallace]

This thread ended up far more constructive then I thought it would after being up for about a day. For those curious I am more interested in analytical details of these types of moves by big companies to try and time their releases to coincide with other competition.

It is a common strategy of American companies. I do find it interesting to know that when the Endwalker date is announced in May (guess) that it will almost give you the exact release date for WoW's next patch. If it is too far out they will supplement the gap with a TBC release.

What I wish is that Square Enix would realize that Blizzard might act friendly but they are bloodthirsty and would crush FF14 if they could. There is no reason that FF14 should not have already adapted a Mythic plus type system in FF14 with in game leader boards and more of a focus on cosmetics vs gear progression.