Does FFXIV ARR provide the best MMORPG experience?

[Zazriel]

Hello I've been playing FFXIV ARR since beta and seriously since launch. From time to time I take a break and catch up with WOW and explore other MMORPG offerings. And never ever have I felt so vital in every role I play in FFXIV ARR. Also with the edition of Heavensward the story has become incredibly immersive. The developer support is the best I've seen in any MMO save maybe WOW. The combat is engaging, the mechanics are challenging, controller game play is effective, the graphics are beautiful, the community is healthy and the cross platform availability makes the game incredibly accessible. All of this is just my opinion but what is your opinion?

[Xatsh]

Those you listed are good.

Combat gets a D from me though. It is ultra shallow button spamming. Where the only thing that matters is Damage per Second. Where are the crowd control elements, the support elements, the teamwork elements (Outside healing). It is the same thing from WoW but more dumbed down.

You have to factor in the negatives though

1) Massive lack of relevant content
2) Extremely short lived content
3) Lack of variety in gear. Everything is linear stats
4) Poor economy. Crafting has no purpose endgame outside consumables and vanity
5) No Guild related battle content at all.
6) Lack of Alliance Content Endgame
7) Lack of meaningful solo conent endgame

I could keep going honestly, but you get my point. While the game does great in some areas it is horrible in others.

Games gets a solid C-/D+ for me. The game breaking issues being lack of worthwhile economy, massive lack of meaningful content endgame wise (Stuff that is not fluff content), lack of guild focus endgame. For a mmo the lack of content and guild focus is completely counter intuitive to what made mmos special compaired to offline games, those 2 are massive massive negative to me. While the game has great things like Story that specifically is more important for an offline game honestly, story is honestly a once and done thing for a mmo the content you do day in and day out far out weighs the importance of a main story.

[Zazriel]

I think you make some good points especially with some of the negatives. I sometimes wonder what the state of FFXIV would be if it wasn't cross platform. Also I remember early 2014 before ps4 launch when I thought the subscriber base was lost. And only 2 dungeons for ex roulette?!

[Reaperking386]

In my opinion I think FF14 is currently the leading MMO. I am not saying they are the most popular like wow, but they are the ones who are currently setting the bar and examples of what a MMO should be like. They do lack in some departments, but I cannot fully agree with Xatsh on some of "her" listed reasons,however, That is her opinion and I respect that.

[Zazriel]

I also wonder if some of FFXIV ARR'S shortcomings contribute to the games popularity.

[Chiramu]

Every game will have negatives about it, but do the positives out-weigh the negatives?

I've had an active subscription from Early Access(after beta phase 4 ) and I haven't thought about cancelling it once. I in fact bought three additional retainers XD.

Even if there is a lull in content at present I still support this game because I believe in it. The developers can't make us good content if they are not being paid for it .

[Riardon]

I believe that FFXIV ARR is the best MMORPG out there. An MMORPG is the collection of the services that comes with game and not only the game itself. Game (mechanics,gameplay,story,graphics), Community (in-game and out of the game, forums, fan sites etc), Developers and their communication with the player base here this game takes an A+++. The game itself is the top game right now and ofc this doesn't mean it's perfect. It has some negatives like all the games have. The pressure on the development team must be really high right now. If you are on top you need to put extra effort to remain there. That's a difficult achievement. I love this game and that's why I will never ever be 100% satisfied no matter what. I will always find some to whine about but this doesn't mean I don't love the game. I would like some things to be improved though. Battle system is too simple, the content is really short lived, graphics can be improved even further.

[seekified]

Xatsh's points are all pretty spot on. I feel that if they made crowd control an actual useful thing as opposed to kicking people for using knockback + bind and such, it'd add a lot to the complexity of combat. The problem is, we've seen that a lot of players struggle to perform well in the battles we have now.

I also think that crafters should be able to make gear that is as good as the raiding/tome gear, but at a slow pace. Currently, it takes two weeks of tome capping to afford a chest/legs piece. Make it so that in those same two weeks, a dedicated crafter can make a chest/legs piece that is as good as the tome variant, but control the progression and speed at which this can be done so that we don't get everyone outfitted in full crafted gear ASAP each patch. You want to make the item tradeable, you lose 10 iLvls on the piece and the buyer could possibly have some way of fixing that after purchasing it, I dunno. It could be made to work.

We are getting guild content in the form of airship exploration in 3.1, but I guess we'll see how rewarding and lasting that'll be. PvP needs work as well - Seal Rock is fantastic, but the long queues due to GC lockout is severely hampering the enjoyment for a lot of players.

EDIT: I just reread my own post and it sounds a little depressing. To be clear - while there's tonnes of ways to improve FFXIV, it is still a fantastic game and one that I'll happily continue to sink hundreds of hours into.

[Ercapote]

In my opinion I think FF14 is currently the leading MMO. I am not saying they are the most popular like wow, but they are the ones who are currently setting the bar and examples of what a MMO should be like. They do lack in some departments, but I cannot fully agree with Xatsh on some of "her" listed reasons,however, t is her opinion and I respect her that.

completely agree I respect her opinion but she's talking from a burn out POV from this patch when we all know how this work.

1)massive lack of relative content? even tho it's true 3.0 is getting long but with 3.1 right on the corner and the new features coming with it, I'm expecting this specific section to go away faster than you can call a chocobo. New content always comes up in and has always come in decent times with a massive patch of new dungeons,story,mini games, raids and special features, so saying that FF14 lack relative content is like saying a new TV show lacks episode Knowing that a new season will come up.

2)extremely short live content? saying that alexander SV open up a month after Heavenward and we won't get a new raid section till 3.2 assuming it will be normal 3 month that will make 7 month of end game content and max ilvl current gear we will get...how's that short?

3) glamour wise, not even. stat wise, not also. if you follow the patch note you will see that the island exploration will drop randomize gear that will reach up to 210 gear and will have different uniques stats for everyone making it also and addition to the current 210 sets we have that btw you can combine and distribute to suit your play style, not because internet says BIS is this means you can't teak around and adjust your play style.

4) the economy of this game is one of the most engaging I've seen so far, you cannot allow crafted gear to be useable for end-game because people that abuse from gilbuyers will have extra advantage over people who normally play the game properly, the economy currently for end game sits on potions, foods and crafted accessories alongside materials, which is well implemented and works pretty well, nothing else should factor the TIME/EFFORT reward under money.

5) 6) again on patch 3.1 we are getting THE VOID ARK for alliance content and UNEXPLORED ISLAND for FC content.

7) story? no? did we forgot about this?

as you can see it's all up to anyone to make use of all this content the game gives everything IMO and yes it gives a big A+ for me, there's just about everything and I think the combat is a big A too with amazing and engaging Mechanics not only for the classes but also for the bosses this MMO is only 2 years old it has room for bigger IMPROVEMENT in the future to come.

also forgot to mention how incredibly well balance most of the classes are, with a few exceptions like my poor PLD and also AST that currently sits on a spot that just happens to come 3.1 some adjustment for them to hopefully rebalance them, every class is different and play different and that is something that is really hard to achieve yet SE managed to pull this out almost perfect, I think the only 2 classes that kinda suffers are the 2 RANGE classes BRD/MCH who plays almost the same.

[Limecat]

Not even vaguely, but it does have the best music and a full-blown storyline, which as far as I know no other MMO but XI has ever done.