Are You Enjoying XIV For The Game? Or Are You Enjoying XIV Because Of The People.

[Nononu]

why would i play a game with such a horrible community for the community? 100% it's entirely for the game nowadays. now, when i first started, that was different. back in the day, the community WAS as nice as people are claiming it still is. but nowadays, you have the people calling completely normal RPers weirdos (rampant in this thread even), and the people who think anything involving lalafell in any thing is FBI worthy and will try to ruin your life over pixels because they can't separate fiction from reality.

but at least i enjoy the gameplay and story, so i don't really care... i hate people anyway, they hate me, so whatever.

[Thurmnmurmn]

This just reminds me of what a friend of mine mentioned about FFXIV.
Making friends in FFXIV is just like making real friends but in reverse. Learn all their fetishes before anything else about them. Maybe one day you'll learn what they do for a living.

I'm playing for the game but I'm also mainly only playing due to the time investment I have already sunk into the game.

[Kuroka]

why would i play a game with such a horrible community for the community? 100% it's entirely for the game nowadays. now, when i first started, that was different. back in the day, the community WAS as nice as people are claiming it still is. but nowadays, you have the people calling completely normal RPers weirdos (rampant in this thread even), and the people who think anything involving lalafell in any thing is FBI worthy and will try to ruin your life over pixels because they can't separate fiction from reality.

but at least i enjoy the gameplay and story, so i don't really care... i hate people anyway, they hate me, so whatever.

I woudnt call it horrible, but yeah... the decline is there... late ARR, early HW, some Eureka was fun, when shout chat was used for passing time, fate trains in norther thanalan had fun and you would sometimes actually chat in an dungeon, not just races to the finish "GG, BB" done.


Also on our FC... i miss the old days, when certain regulars were there, when there was always some chatting and enough ppl to do stuff together. But nowadays... after the latest fallout i just dont want to bother anymore, gettin attached and then heart broken...

And, nothing personal but all the players that just hate the story and the overall game and are only here for easy mods and (E)RP... i dont even mind RP unless its gettin invasive. I did some myself its just not really my thing. The other day i saw an PF for "looking for 2 shouters for my RP venue" lol

Its also kinda boring to see every other mansion or at least its basement gettin used as a club...


It used to be for both and there are still many days i just love the players, but nowadays its mostly the game for me.

[strawberrycake]

While the community has definitely declined I feel like I'm visiting my christian family members reading half of this. The pearl clutching is extra af.

[PyurBlue]

The people are most of the reason I keep playing at this point. FF14 has its moments, but it and the rest of the MMO genre have gone down the wrong path in my opinion. Many things are stripped down to the basics and feels a bit artificial. There is an open world, but it's not convincing or very meaningful. Combat is too scripted and repetitive. Dungeons and such can be fun, but they're more of a background for interactions with others and those interactions can be very fleeting since the game is built around queuing for an instance and then moving on to something else. The mentor system at least partially offsets this by facilitating interactions with new players that want to learn and explore but NN isn't consistently active. Savage and Ultimate provide longer term goals to motivate and promote close knit groups, but that only lasts until everything starts to blend together and become tedious. Outfits, housing, and screenshots are fun, but are best as shared experiences with others and require keeping people interested in the game.

[Xeronia]

I gave up trying to interact with other people after an alt of mine got hit up for ERP after I completed a FATE with someone and they messaged me about my character name, 3 lines in I get asked out ERP and if I have a boyfriend. Yeah I am staying in the housing ward my FC house is in and not responding to anyone anymore. I am here for my house/FC house, a friendhsip I hold with a few other people, and the content I enjoy in the game like Eureka/Bozja. I am certainly not here for the people if they behave like I listed above.

[Vyrerus]

I've always played it for the game. My friend Kalila lured me into playing by telling me it was a good game back in 2013. I tried it out, and it took me about a month or so to actually start liking it.

But even back then, I didn't get to party with my friends very much. I have a bunch of friends who jumped to it from FFXI and they all wound up being very progression minded. So my first month was incredibly lonely while I played catch up while working 12 hour rotating shift work.

I did eventually catch up, and impressed them all by being a bad ass Warrior in spite of 2.0 WAR's lack of mitigation. As well as a dynamite DRG. We played together the most back then and in Heavensward, with a lot of healthy play together up through Stormblood as well, especially within Eureka.

But as the years wore on, my schedule got even less friendly to play an MMO, especially after I got a significant other. I still played tons, but as the quality of the game started to falter, my friends played less and less, eventually only playing to raid. As someone who still enjoyed the game, I created alt after alt for my own entertainment. Tried breaking into friends groups across other servers. Even tried to befriend an FC that didn't like me as a person due to some personal circumstances with my ex, at first. Later not feeling very attached to me due to my personal beliefs. I don't think they booted me from the FC still, but I left their Discord a while back, mainly because I felt like everyone always talked past me, rather than with me or to me.

And none of these friends embraced XIV's degenerate lanes even as much as I have. I've been everywhere in XIV trying to make friends everywhere, in every space. I've made friends with Lore heads, friends with ERPers, friends with Trancers, friends with villain fuckers, friends with villain haters, friends with ex-WoW, friends with concurrent WoWs, friends with XI vets, and friends with small streamers.

And no one sticks, no matter how much or how often I reach out (in game, outside of the game some of the discords I'm in are the lionshare of my human interaction). My friends' list in game is a ghost town, regardless of which character I am on, except on patch day. And even on patch days in recent years maybe see half a dozen folks on my oldest character which has the biggest friends' list.

The gameplay doesn't bore me, even if it is a shell of its former self (Except for BLU which is a heavenly delight). I still derive a lot of enjoyment from it, and have always embraced solo challenges since they fit with whatever my schedule may be.

However, I feel a little sad saying I play it for the game, since the gameplay really has been on the decline since SHB. I probably wouldn't be logging in at all if it weren't for the sunk cost feelings I have in addition to the anticipation of the FFXI 24 man coming in Dawntrail. If not for being inspired by Rath Games's Runescape ironman runs, I likely wouldn't be logging in at all. Last year I got locked out of the forum for the 2 week login restriction at least 10 times. I currently am logging in on an alt to try and "breaK" the game by ignoring the MSQ as much as I can. I unlocked Cutter's Cry as my first dungeon, then Qarn, then Dzemael Darkhold, and then Aurum Vale and Wanderer's Palace. Sastasha remains gated behind The Ul'dahn Envoy, where my current objective is, "Present Raubahn's Missive at Bulwark Hall."

[Xeronia]

Really good quote, sorry I had to cut it for length!

I think the worst part for me is going "And I have to log in to save the FC house that none of my friends are online to enjoy but they will be mad if it isn't there for the expansion release that I may not even be around for if this runs up against WoW which I already have on pre-order." I am admittedly blessed in having a friend who doesn't mind logging in to keep me company on occasion. I think I would have already left if it wasn't for that one friend I mentioned earlier. It sucks to feel alone, it is why I left WoW in WoD after all my guild quit. I really must thank the one friend I have who logs in on occasion for keeping my sanity in check and doing Eureka/Bozja/Diadem/PvP with me.

[Vyrerus]

I think the worst part for me is going "And I have to log in to save the FC house that none of my friends are online to enjoy but they will be mad if it isn't there for the expansion release that I may not even be around for if this runs up against WoW which I already have on pre-order." I am admittedly blessed in having a friend who doesn't mind logging in to keep me company on occasion. I think I would have already left if it wasn't for that one friend I mentioned earlier. It sucks to feel alone, it is why I left WoW in WoD after all my guild quit. I really must thank the one friend I have who logs in on occasion for keeping my sanity in check and doing Eureka/Bozja/Diadem/PvP with me.

Good friends are the best. My best friend in game hits me up on Discord occasionally, and very occasionally we'll run an Expert roulette together, but we haven't sat and played together for hours in a few months. I miss him.

[Post]

I suck at making friends in games cuz I pretty much just play the game.

Unless the game gives me a reason to play with, and more importantly, COMMUNICATE with others, odds are I won't spend enough time with them to get to know them and vice versa.

FFXIV was always a pretty convenient game for folks to jump in on their time and leave just as quick, but it was also a game that used to be a little better at that. As time goes own, there's less and less reason to communicate in battle content every expansion. Used to be extremes and even alliance raids would benefit from some communication, heck even dungeons before even a mediocre tank could carry a boss fight. Now, it's all by wrote and it don't matter if you die, the party's hardly affected by it anymore.

Good friends'll make even the crappiest game or experience fun, though. It's pretty easy to be blinded by good friends, or even see full well but still not mind at all because you're with them.

Cherish em, but try and find other things to do with em because imagine how much more fun a fun thing would be with them. And, after all, FFXIV will simply vanish one day.