Why do you guys like this game more than WoW (assuming you do)? Just curious...thanx

[Mayrissa]

As someone who's been playing WoW since Vanilla and FFXIV since beta of ARR. I still play both games (yes shockingly this is posisble, even with a 40 hour week job, I may unsubscribe from one to focus on another at some points). FFXIV is pretty much The Burning Crusade of WoW in an FF skin. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it baffles me that some people seem to think XIV is a fundamentally different game.

Things I like about FFXIV:

- one character can eventually do everything
- the story
- the 3 month cadence on content drops
- class and job specific quests and storylines

Things I dislike about FFXIV:

- Silly quality of life restrictions (i.e. can't queue while you have your chocobo out, no auto-dismount, can't interact with things while mounted, can't interact with something if you jump, can't accept TPs etc while a Duty is Ready window is open, can't enter dungeons while in a cutscene)
- SMN Pet AI (it's so bad, having to either macro or remember to put it on Steady when mounting up to stop it attacking anything I aggro, also having to micromanage where it's standing)
- Extra Inventory space (well Retainers) being sold at a premium
- So much non-raid progression content requiring daily quests, FATE grinds or FATEs of some sort
- Accuracy caps
- Loading screen everytime you switch areas
- Worrying level of ability bloat considering the first expansion isn't even out yet. Seriously I have 4 full action bars now, not including the 2 for quickly switching jobs or the 1 I have for PvP actions.

Things I like about WoW:

- The gameplay and having more off GCD abilities to interweave with
- 10 years worth of items to choose from when transmogrifying (glamour)
- 10 years worth of content to go back and do
- Not all new content involving Daily Quests
- You can play with friends on any server in your region, making pre-made groups is far easier
- No more hit caps
- Few loading screens

Things I dislike about WoW:

- barrier of entry for new players
- story can be hit and miss
- frequency between content drops is inconsistent
- that they stopped doing class specific questlines for the most part

Things I like about both games:

- The graphics
- The music
- The way they both play

Things I dislike about both games:

- Certain aspects of the community. FFXIV's community is just as bad as WoW's. There are just as many ragers (see Hunts, ragequitters in dungeons or people who AFK if you won't vote kick them) and whiners on the forums. There is just as much casual elitism in the community in both games. Sure it's a lot more immediately obvious in WoW, but that's the virtue of it having a significantly larger playerbase than XIVs. XIVs community is in no way better though, both are just as bad as each other.
- Reliance on very dated MMO game design.
- PvP

[CGMidlander]

WoW's art style never really appealed to me. The music was not quite as good as this game either, IMO.

Also, I have a soft spot for Final Fantasy themed games, as I have played plenty of Final Fantasy games when I was younger. I particularly enjoyed FF3 and FF5 for the job system, which this game has elements of. (i.e. Job crystals)

Oh, and Hildibrand. WoW does not have Hildibrand.

[Teryaani]

There are a lot of reasons I prefer this to WoW. For the record, I played WoW from cataclysm (Firelands(4.2)) through the Timeless Isle patch in Mists. I have (sub lapsed, but they still exist) four 90s (warlock, paladin, death knight, and mage) and a handful of others at lower levels. All geared well for when I was playing.

With that out of the way, here are mine in no particular order:

* Final Fantasy allows me to play all of the classes without having to log into an alt.

When dealing with gear drops that aren't tradeable this is awesome. I hated getting a drop on my paladin that my lock needed and just having to suck up not being able to do anything about it.

* Final Fantasy has no-grief gathering.

Some people like fighting for resources but I don't. Being able to go out and gather without having someone else swoop in and take a node out from under you is a huge plus.

* The graphics of FFXIV are so much nicer.

* There is no open world pvp.

I know some people want it, but the way WoW did it it was a grief fest.

* Duty locked mobs.

Much like gathering nodes, having a quest mob that someone can't hijack (and thus make the quest take longer) is a nice feature.

* Assisting in killing open world mobs counts in quests and for the hunting log.

WoW has a tag system that makes the mob belong to the first person to hit it. Meaning that players in some zones (Looking at you outlands) have to sit around and hope that they're faster on the trigger finger. Here, if they tag it, that's no big deal. As long as I participate, I get credit.

* More animated emotes

Small thing but nice.

* The community is nicer

No. Really.

EDIT: Also this:

Oh, and Hildibrand. WoW does not have Hildibrand.

All isn't sunshine and roses though. There are a few things I wish we had from WoW.

* Less onerous crafting system.

I know that ARR's crafting system is an improvement over previous incarnations of the game (or so I've been told at least), but it's a pain in the rear overall.

* More toys!

WoW has had ten years to build up a collection of nonsense/vanity items and I miss that huge pool. I know the game will get there in time.

* Pet battles.

- Not all new content involving Daily Quests

I'm going to cry foul on this. A huge amount of Mists was gated behind faction dailies. You had to grind tillers dailies to unlock your farm, which was necessary to increase faction rep elsewhere. You had to grind golden lotus to get access to certain gear and enchants and I think to open up access to yet another faction grind. Mists was mad with daily locked content, even more than FF is.

[Mayrissa]

I'm going to cry foul on this. A huge amount of Mists was gated behind faction dailies. You had to grind tillers dailies to unlock your farm, which was necessary to increase faction rep elsewhere. You had to grind golden lotus to get access to certain gear and enchants and I think to open up access to yet another faction grind. Mists was mad with daily locked content, even more than FF is.

Yep, it was actually why I quit not long after MoP came out because I was burned out on dailies from Argent Tournament > Cataclysm. But then the vast majority of that gating got removed in 5.4 (or simply made redundant by virtue of better gear coming from Throne of Thunder LFR in 5.2). From playing the beta of Warlords of Draenor there is very little in the way of daily quest/time-locked content etc. Which on that note, I probably will be dropping XIV for WoD when it comes out, and likewise dropping WoW for Heavensward when it comes out.

[Teryaani]

Yep, it was actually why I quit not long after MoP came out because I was burned out on dailies from Argent Tournament > Cataclysm. But then the vast majority of that gating got removed in 5.4 (or simply made redundant by virtue of better gear coming from Throne of Thunder LFR in 5.2). From playing the beta of Warlords of Draenor there is very little in the way of daily quest/time-locked content etc. Which on that note, I probably will be dropping XIV for WoD when it comes out, and likewise dropping WoW for Heavensward when it comes out.

Argent dailies...<shudder> so....many....seals.

Where FF has it's FATE-fixation ("Want a relic? How about a FATE?! Want to upgrade that relic? can I interest you in FATE?"), WoW's way of doing dang near everything was faction rep and dailies. Same grind, different packaging.

The game hopping is what a lot of people seem to be planning but I can't do it. I'm almost definitely giving WoD a miss. Not because it's a bad thing, it's not. They actually fixed one of my biggest issues (the pvp flagging system). But just because there is so much content that I want to do and still haven't touched.

[Sheele]

There is no clean cut reason why XIV > WoW. But if I had to pick some.
XIV story flows, like reading a book... WoW story is choppy like reading a paragraph in one book, then another, then another.
In XIV gives a feeling of the little things you do add up to something great.
In WoW they tried to make every task so epic, that it feels pointless.
XIV has my 3 wife's Shiva, Garuda, Siren.