Quote Originally Posted by Melorie View Post
I feel like this is more about how FFXIV truly tailors towards second-lifeesque characteristics and brings communities that are more inclined to enjoy games such as The Sims and other simulations games. The amount of fashion customization and the high quality of animations make this possible. Thus, you get more people interested in these aspects of the game instead of other MMOs.
I think it also is a major influence that the "venue RP" style is arguably about the only really enjoyable social option left for the working adult, particularly one of medium gameplay skill whose RL is not amenable to a static group.

As I suggested in another thread, pickup group gaming really does seem like it only functions well when the situation is either very easy (i.e., where you don't really have to worry about skill at all, like roulette level content or unsync farms) or where you have an exclusive player pool of high skill players (in order to help overcome the natural disadvantages that come of not having a team that's well familiar with each other - also because many high echelon PUG players actually do know each other so some of the benefits of staticing are realized anyway).

In the middle (such as a working adult attempting to push higher tier content without the benefit of consistent group mates), it's usually a mess, which is why you get 40 bazillion threads hither and yon grumping about the pain in the rear that attempting to PF (or really PUG in any game) non trivial stuff so often is.

If this is true, then eventually, all that reasonably leaves most of us to do is roulettes, simple content like maps, hunts, and past xpac mount/glam farms, and ... yep, Second Life style social clubs - which in turn FFXIV does tend to unusually foster (the housing system here benefits heavily, as most other MMOs don't lend themselves nearly so well to customized meeting locations due to either not having enough housing customization, or it being too clunky to travel to a housing area as a group unless everyone is part of the same guild).