I tried but its not the game for me

[TeraRamis]

The older FF games weren't MMOs (other than FFXI and I've heard very mixed reactions to its story). You can't tell a story the same way in a MMO as you would in a normal single player game.

To a point, yes. However, 99 percent of the time, FFXIV's plot delivery vehicle of choice is the "conversation." The conversation - by its very nature (at least how its handled in FFXIV) - pauses any action. The characters sit down or stand, typically in a rough circle, and chat. And chat. And chat.

While this may be at least in part reflective of the real world (I'm not sure that most people rattle on in quite the same way that the key players in this arc seem to), it's a methodology that's pretty much absent in just about every other form of entertainment. Oh, yes, characters in books, movies, TV, etc. all talk to one another, but they generally do it while on the move - shooting at bad guys; getting ready to jump out of a plane; sneaking through sewers; walking to their next magic class, etc. This is not only more interesting for the reader/viewer/consumer, it also allows scenes and settings to contribute to the narrative, and the plot to progress at a far faster clip than simply sitting down for a 10+ minute pow-wow every time some little detail floats to the surface. It's showing and not telling.

FFXIV tells. There are action scenes, yes, but even when they occur, we have to have a good little chit chat afterwards just to make sure everyone absorbed things properly. I understand that this game is - at times - telling a very heavy and complicated story. But there's absolutely no justification for unfolding events in this manner. When we're in a cutscene, we might as well be playing one of those single-player games. And, given that, we don't require these ludicrous breaks every so often to 'talk shop' with the class. People aren't accustomed to that approach, and, what's more, it's dull; it is unambiguously lazy delivery. And it's hard to blame people for decoupling from it.