My main gripes with this game

[Fabbro]

Yeah. FFXIV is less social than WoW. People just greet at the start of an instance, maybe throw out some tips if it is a trial, then everyone says "GG" or "ty" at the end and that's it. You can join an FC, but you spend most of the game reading dialogue, travelling to the next NPC to read dialogue, watching cutscenes, or doing solo instances. Once you make it to endgame and unlock Bozja, then you will have content you need other people for. Talking to other people while doing Bozja is quite fun.

This is just too sad, I loved seeing people chat about anything and everything in all MMOs I ever played, makes the world feel alive. People need to talk more in FFXIV, a lot more. Also there is no way to get back into the novice network chat once you're "kicked" out of it for playing long enough and getting enough levels, which is just sad since there is no other general chats in game (each area should have one).

[Fabbro]

Well, it's too much of a risk to just have public conversations in this game, as players will report. Now I haven't been subject to any of that, but I'd rather not take the risk. Not that there is necessarily much to chat about with the general playerbase of FFXIV. I wouldn't suggest joining Novice Network, and do not agree with it being used as a general chat by many in there either. Usually if I actually get chatting in this game it's via some party chat (usually Bozja, or Eureka type stuff rather than DF), a linkshell, or whisper. I actually mostly chat via DM on discord over all that anyway.

Will would anyone report? And why would any GM even consider taking any such a report seriously?? It's just a public conversation, socializing, MMOs should be about that: knowing new people and socializing. Also: this game needs more HARD open world party content ASAP. Maybe some open world challenging dungeons too... all of this would make people get together and talk more, group up more... staying longer times with the same group doing open world content that constantly puts the whole party in the risk of dying for high rewards, etc., classic MMO fun stuff.

[SturmChurro]

Will would anyone report? And why would any GM even consider taking any such a report seriously?? It's just a public conversation, socializing, MMOs should be about that: knowing new people and socializing. Also: this game needs more HARD open world party content ASAP. Maybe some open world challenging dungeons too... all of this would make people get together and talk more, group up more... staying longer times with the same group doing open world content that constantly puts the whole party in the risk of dying for high rewards, etc., classic MMO fun stuff.

I don't know why people do what they do, but, according to others, GMs have acted on a lot of them. Granted, some people say a lot of things, and a lot really shouldn't be said in a game's public chat - it's just asking for a ban. People did chat a lot in Bozja, a lot of that I thought would be bannable, so who knows.

In regards to "hard open world content", I'm pretty sure they already slightly addressed this a few months ago. The question was about implementing Bozja critical engagements into the open world. Their battle team is simply stretched thin and they have limited resources, if I recall correctly. They have to pick and choose the content they add, and for harder content they also have to put in more time to test it with experienced devs. More casual content wins out as it appeals to a larger portion of players.

[VirusOnline]

3.Getting skills taken away CONSTANTLY. Now this is what really annoys me to no end. Being level-synced to something every 10 seconds and getting anywhere from one or two to ALL but baseline skills taken away in the case you’re shoved into a 15 dungeon through LFD tool.
Naturally you could say that this will get better when you near endgame, but the sheer amount of time you will spend in leveling, or better said low to mid-tier content in this game, due to more than a dozen available classes, should have brought a better solution than outright de-learning of skills.

Balancing. It's something that 'that game' doesn't have.

4.No one talks ever. Now I get that it’s a Japanese MMO (I know first-hand that no one talks ever in japan-centered MMOs) but still I’m playing on EU servers and it’s basically the same eerie silence everywhere. I don’t expect the 24/7 spam and meme talk of W*W, but this is kind of creeping me out.

You'll get used to it and may even come to respect it. As others have said it's mainly EU/JP that are quiet. Aether NA is much more chatty and interesting until you don't want it to be.
FFXIV communities tend to communicate only within private circles and platforms i.e. FC, LS, Discord, tells, etc as chat is moderated and can be reported if you start talking spicey.
After you get yourself into some of these you might come to appreciate the quietness of cities.

[Shurrikhan]

1.If the range was long, you would have the opposite problem of having to run for ages to lose aggro. The range is extremely long in Eureka and Bozja and sometimes it is convenient, but sometimes it's extremely annoying because you didn't intend to aggro it.

It's not really an either-or situation. The anchor, the extent of mob patrolling around said anchor, the visibility of its domain's boundary, and the procedure for disengaging can each be adjusted or even made conditional.

For instance, perhaps we could set the anchor only upon combat's start and at location of the first unit to engage that enemy, or add that distance from the anchor to its maximum effective range, so that it doesn't seem so damn short when engaging from the full 25 yalms.

As for the procedure, it may already be quite a QoL change to have combat end upon the player's leaving the domain, rather than the mob's, or to slowly shift the anchor towards the mob's then-present location. (That'd especially be worthwhile if the game happens to store measures of the pre-enmity-modified damage dealt to the mob and could therefore revert that progress over, say, 5 seconds from the player having crossed the boundary; such would allow players to bail out without resetting everyone's progress while still preventing exploitation.) Or, there could be a brief period of lenience and the boundary might become increasingly visible as the mob nears it and then far more so after you've crossed it, so you know to where you'd have to kite it back. Etc., etc.

2.If you think of it like that then of course it will be boring. Don't focus on that, focus on the story the way you would focus on the story of a film.

If a horror film had big, generic purple circles from which the antagonist would appear, I think it'd be difficult to just "focus on the story" there, too... It's an issue; yes, we can avert our attention from it, as with any other, to perceive the overall work more positively, but it's nothing for which to leave the onus of enjoyment on any given player.

3.Think of it as syncing down to the rotation of the previous expansion. A common problem in an MMO is that you "want to go back to a previous expansion to do the rotation how it used to be".

...The experience of someone synced down to level 30 in Shadowbringers has very little in common with the experience available to that class at level 30 back in ARR or HW. I'll agree with the rest, though, of course.

4. No one talks ever. Now I get that it’s a Japanese MMO (I know first-hand that no one talks ever in japan-centered MMOs) but still I’m playing on EU servers and it’s basically the same eerie silence everywhere. I don’t expect the 24/7 spam and meme talk of W*W, but this is kind of creeping me out.

Yeah, it's a little strange. On WoW Classic, one can walk right into simultaneous conversations on lit theory, Legend of Korra, and language-learning in Stormwind, end up in the middle of an oddly civil politics debate in Ironforge, and then fly over to Loch Modan to run into a group attempting collaborative story-telling over general chat and another group RP nostalgizing in /say in the Thelsamar inn. Here, the last time I saw active conversation was probably... in Rhalgr's Reach this one time, a couple years back? Before that, Eureka: Anemos and The Fringes around Raubahn Ex era? Public conversation's pretty sparse in XIV following each expansion's release (with each getting progressively quieter, fed into FC and LS chat instead).

But, as others have mentioned here, FC and LS chat can be decently active, so long as the players haven't left for until Endwalker.

[raelgun]

I quote you only on that third point cause with the other points i basically agree, except number 4. which is just EU/JP culture. NA is really different to that, people are just polite and talk in group chats.

But now to the third point, you get your rewards exactly for that. For getting your skills taken away. What do you think the dutyfinder is? You go in there to help potential newbies to clear old content for gil/achievements/experience. And yeah getting your level synced down and with that also your skills which are not part of the game at that given level is also part of that experience so you don't just run with the mch flamethrower through sastasha and one hit kill the poor captain with a supercharged drill. I know we overgear anyways nowdays but heck you don't have to ruin the newbies fun even more.

You don't have to use roulette, that is the simple fact. You can level with all your job skills just fine when you specifically queue for the highest dungeons you can run, that easy, right? The dutyfinder is there so that people can still clear old content, not like how it was in that other game we don't speak about.

So i think you didn't really understand what the roulette system really is, which i don't blame you for. It's not a system that is there to give you just free rewards.

Actually you are wrong with what DF is, really really wrong, it is not designed for new players in mind at all, purpose is designed to reduce queue times but the downside is its random what you get and you get rewards for doing it.

[kaynide]

I would politely suggest you give Guildwars 2 a try also. I play both, so my meaning isn’t “omg, quit FFXIV plz!”

That is, different games have different good and a bad points.

FFXIV is great for story, overall looks and general polish of most visual aspects. Some of the mechanical bits like menus or how the market works…ehhh.

Guildwars has a more simple story and a focus on tighter gameplay. It doesn’t look as good but under the hood it is very polished. (The system, gameplay etc), and there is simply a lot to just do. Seriously lots. And seriously “wtf”.

I’m working on an achievement called “chairs of the world” which just literally involves sitting in each and every kind of chair once. And there are 100s across the world.


If you want a more dangerous and active world, Guildwars is it. If you want something that feels very cinematic, FFXIV. Both have very generous free trials. Enjoy!

[Jeeqbit]

...The experience of someone synced down to level 30 in Shadowbringers has very little in common with the experience available to that class at level 30 back in ARR or HW. I'll agree with the rest, though, of course.

It does. Paladin's rotation is the same except for a few removed off globals and adjustments like reprisal and recast times for mitigation. Paladin's level 70 rotation is still intact and many others, but I noted the ones that have changed because of things becoming redundant or being poor design in practice.

Actually you are wrong with what DF is, really really wrong, it is not designed for new players in mind at all, purpose is designed to reduce queue times but the downside is its random what you get and you get rewards for doing it.

Duty Finder has roulettes which try to match you with people who queue directly for content. Who queues directly for content except when it's their first time? Almost nobody, so you almost always have a new player in the party.

[Ferra]

As a relatively new player myself, I wanted to chime in!

The solo content is what it is. A lot of my experience in ARR is being an errand gal, especially after downing the big bad in the main story. Not a fan of that. As for no one talking? Absolutely not. I chat it up in groups all the time and I am a healthy participant in Shout chat in Balmung. There's a lot of social folks out there, you just gotta speak up first! Which I understand is hard. I had a lot of social anxiety before and it's not easy pushing out of that shell.

Anyway, compared to the "other game" referenced I've been having a blast! Especially on the RP front: Lodestone provides so many tools to help with RP and it's been great!

[raelgun]

It does. Paladin's rotation is the same except for a few removed off globals and adjustments like reprisal and recast times for mitigation. Paladin's level 70 rotation is still intact and many others, but I noted the ones that have changed because of things becoming redundant or being poor design in practice.

Duty Finder has roulettes which try to match you with people who queue directly for content. Who queues directly for content except when it's their first time? Almost nobody, so you almost always have a new player in the party.

New players are among them but no, its not designed for new players as much as people think, thats just their excuse to fire shots at vets when the truth is, the DF is just there to shorten queues, as people just want to do content cos they are bored or want something to do, before the surge in new players to the game, the only players you had in DF was other experienced players to the game. The reason why you are seeing more new players per DF is just because thats how many new players are coming into the game.