I find it completely sad. (Questing)

[Nektulos-Tuor]

That I know little to nothing about anything about the areas, the cities, how people live and are, or anything about the very race I play.

However, I can get a quest with a mediocre story I will forget in 5 minutes after doing it.

I would love to know more about how the world works, about the races, about the dungeons, about what is happening in it.

[RyuRoots]

Funny how its a valid complaint. Most of the "quests" are about as informative as the randomly generated missions in SWG.

If you honestly have gotten no information about how the people of the 4 main city-states live, the politics of them, or any of the races out of doing a combination of MSQ and sidequests, the problem is you, not the game. You have to actively work to not pay attention to not take in the problems and virtues of every city on a personal level, and since you mention the race you play as, moogle mail and the archer's guild both have some good Keeper of the Moon material, and there's quite a bit of dialogue with the U tribe for Seekers. Quality of writing is subjective, and you're free to not like it. Though if you're trying to say there's none OF it for those topics then I seriously don't even know what to say to you.

[StrejdaTom]

I have exactly the opposite problem.
I have so much lore information about every thing in the game that I constantly fear that I will forget something.

[Vespar]

I kinda have to side with Strejda on this one. I have done several play thrus on multiple characters and I still forget whats going on because there is sometimes a lot to keep track of

I've made the mistake of rushing through quests my first go around and not reading. Everyone else was raving about the story. So I made a second (and now third and fourth) character to re-experience the story making certain to READ all of it. Even now I rewatch the cutscenes because some of the story in this game is just too damn amazing

[dinnertime]

RyuRoots is right.
Also, information like that isn't just available from quests, you have to talk to NPCs around the area or involved NPCs that don't have the quest progress mark during quests if you want a better picture, reading the dungeon, trial or other duty description, etc.
There's also levequests, guildhests descriptions etc. that give a bit of neat info about practices in Eorzea.
The information from 1.0 also exists, it might be good to search about that, too.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

If you honestly have gotten no information about how the people of the 4 main city-states live, the politics of them, or any of the races out of doing a combination of MSQ and sidequests, the problem is you, not the game. You have to actively work to not pay attention to not take in the problems and virtues of every city on a personal level, and since you mention the race you play as, moogle mail and the archer's guild both have some good Keeper of the Moon material, and there's quite a bit of dialogue with the U tribe for Seekers. Quality of writing is subjective, and you're free to not like it. Though if you're trying to say there's none OF it for those topics then I seriously don't even know what to say to you.

I never said there was none of it. Also, a lot of quests are a total joke and don't say much of anything, they just have problems you have to solve, like "Find My Ball.", "Kill 10 poachers.", "Mine me 3 stones.", "Kneel and then use emotes on me!". Not very informative quests. Then there are people in towns that actually tell you about them, but they usually point out very obvious things, like so obvious there is no reason for them to be there in the first place.

However, I can't say there isn't anything. I said there was a great lack of things. You barely even see any children in the game, you don't really see how they live, the NPCs are very uninteractive and don't really move around or do anything.

I've made the mistake of rushing through quests my first go around and not reading. Everyone else was raving about the story. So I made a second (and now third and fourth) character to re-experience the story making certain to READ all of it. Even now I rewatch the cutscenes because some of the story in this game is just too damn amazing

You didn't really miss much, the main story is mostly how incompetent, stupid, and arrogant some of the characters are, and how they really cause their own problems. You are mostly trying to "prove yourself" through 75% of the entire story, and at some parts the "story" takes control of your character making him look like a total and utter complete moron, even though you have literally killed gods.

For a JRPG, its 'ok'. However, as far as MMOs go its one of the better stories, but as a story overall compared to a lot of games its not very good. Like compared to SWTORs for example, one of the stories out of the many of them are better quality. Just as an example of the same genre of game. The quests also show you how the areas and story and world are.

Overall, its alright... ? Probably the best and most immersive story of the MSQ was the ... whatever that Dragon Bridge was, I already forgot.

[Vespar]

Also, if you want MORE information on the world. I highly recommend the Lore forums for other quirky insights the developers have mentioned either for clarification or that they just didnt have the space (or time before the content was due) to implement or state in game.

[Nektulos-Tuor]

Also, if you want MORE information on the world. I highly recommend the Lore forums for other quirky insights the developers have mentioned either for clarification or that they just didnt have the space (or time before the content was due) to implement or state in game.

So, your pretty much saying. The "best" way to learn about the game, is not playing the game?

[Vespar]

You didn't really miss much, the main story is mostly how incompetent, stupid, and arrogant some of the characters are, and how they really cause their own problems. You are mostly trying to "prove yourself" through 75% of the entire story, and at some parts the "story" takes control of your character making him look like a total and utter complete moron, even though you have literally killed gods.

I actually dont feel that way at all. Because I missed a good chunk of the story the first go around I went back and redid it on another character. After I actually took my time and READ the entire story and all of the quest dialogue as I went, I enjoyed it immensely. The story is amazing. I'm sorry you don't feel the same way, but I guess to each their own. But to derail your point here. I DID MISS A LOT. and I am so very glad I went back and replayed it again.

[StrejdaTom]

I kinda have to side with Strejda on this one. I have done several play thrus on multiple characters and I still forget whats going on because there is sometimes a lot to keep track of

I've made the mistake of rushing through quests my first go around and not reading. Everyone else was raving about the story. So I made a second (and now third and fourth) character to re-experience the story making certain to READ all of it. Even now I rewatch the cutscenes because some of the story in this game is just too damn amazing

Fortunately there is a huge summary of FFXIV story on Gamer Escape called Lore Train, they also do some more Lore tracking even about random stuff, so it isn't that hard to keep yourself updated on the main story.
http://gamerescape.com/2013/08/21/th...e-white-raven/
http://gamerescape.com/2015/01/19/th...reborn-part-1/
http://gamerescape.com/2015/05/12/th...reborn-part-2/
http://gamerescape.com/2015/11/10/th...nsward-part-1/

But what is actually killing me, is the fact, that every tree, bridge or ruin in this game (now I am obviously exaggerating a bit) has its name and story, which is sometimes part of side-quest, NPC chat bubble or only a name of that place (and the reason for such name is sometimes revealed years later by lore team and you find out how deeply they sometimes think about completely trivial stuff).

BTW: 80 sins of Sasamo, Sil'dih etc. only prove my point, mihihi.

EDIT:

So, your pretty much saying. The "best" way to learn about the game, is not playing the game?

I don't think that this has to be a bad thing. You can find loads of lore in the game, but if you are really into that, you can get more on forums, artbooks etc.
Not that I play WoW, but people who read Warcraft books have much larger knowledge of the lore too, same goes for Guild Wars books and so on..