What keeps you playing FFXIV?

[Garotte14]

Anyone who frequents these forums has come across the, “I’m quitting this game and I want everyone to know about it” threads. There are dozens of them, and every time one seems to get buried in the feed, a new one pops up. I get it. It’s normally the people who are unhappy with a product that feel the need to voice their opinions. While the ones who are having fun, usually carry on, well…having fun.

My goal instead is to inject some positivity into these threads. Let’s discuss why we play Final Fantasy XIV, what keeps us playing and the great parts about this game. Feel free to share what it is that intrigues you about FFXIV, and what it is that keeps you coming back.

Battle System
FFXIV isn’t breaking ground with its battle system. It doesn’t do anything particularly innovative, but it’s a great formula and bottom line is, it’s fun. Personally, I love the ability to change roles at the push of a button. I have a tank, melee and caster all above i236, and a healer currently at i230. I love to play them all. I enjoy striving to be proficient in each role and keep them all geared enough within current content. This allows me the flexibility to plug into any spot whenever/wherever I’m needed. Whether it’s to fill in to help a static get their weekly clears, or to help a newbie run their first dungeon. I also think it makes me better at my main job, because I can always see the big picture. Plus, it’s a ton of fun being a part of a static that decides to have some fun and switch roles for the week. This is a fantastic part of FFXIV. All jobs on one character.

The battle system can also be whatever you want it to be. You can play casually and get through most content or you can learn to optimize your play, which can become incredibly complex. I’ve heard many complaints about the pacing of the battle and the “longer” GCD. While this may be true at early levels, it is most definitely not slow when you have all of your abilities. It takes extreme focus and concentration to be able to do some difficult mechanics while maintaining a high level of performance in your role. Which brings me to my next topic.

Raiding
Now I understand that raiding isn’t for everyone. Maybe you don’t have the time to commit to a group and the schedule, maybe you can’t find seven other people who share your skill level, goals, and attitude, or maybe you just don’t have the skill to do the more difficult content. All of this is completely fine. The goal is to have fun. If you don’t find raiding fun, then you don’t need to feel pressured to do it. With the exception of a few tiers *Cough…Gordias* the raiding in FFXIV is fun. There are some tiers better than others, but for the most part, I always enjoy raid. It’s my favorite part of the game and is the main thing that keeps me playing. I look forward to reset to see what my group can accomplish by pushing a little harder. It’s the competitive side of me that really enjoys seeing if we can do better than our previous week. This leads directly into the most important part of FFXIV.

The People
Now I get that some people are shy and prefer to do their own thing. I won’t say that there is something wrong with that, but I will say you aren’t getting the most out of your experience with this game by being closed off. For the most part, the FF community is really great. This is an MMO and you can really meet some great people and develop real friendships if you just allow yourself to. After all, if you play this game enough, the people you surround yourself with can become a second family.

The NOT so “lack of content”
I really don’t care what people say about there being nothing to do. This is just plain false. Maybe there are aspects of the game you don’t enjoy, or maybe you just prefer only a handful of things the game has to offer. But this is your problem and not the game’s problem. I can log on every day and find something to do. If you are the type that loves to binge all the content the week its released, then you have no right to complain that there is nothing to do. There is nothing wrong with rushing through the content, but that’s on you. Own it. If you don’t prefer the side quests, crafting, gathering, glamour, mount/minion farming, raiding, housing, mini games, story, primal fights, 24-man raids, sightseeing, beast tribes, dungeons, seasonal events, leveling multiple classes, mentoring, making gil, well then, I don’t really know what to tell you. But you can’t say there is a lack of content. There may be a lack of content you enjoy, but believe me when I tell you that there are thousands that do enjoy something you may dislike.

SE has had some misses. Diadem for example was a failure in my opinion. But they are trying new things. Yes, each patch follows a similar formula, but this is a good thing. We know what we’re getting and regardless if you like the formula or not, we are getting content much more frequently than most other MMOs. Palace of the Dead isn’t perfect, but I think it’s a great start in adding something intriguing into the mix. With some minor tweaks, I think this could really be a great addition to the game. It’s something they can build on, and could potentially become a staple of this game if handled properly.

In conclusion, this game seems to get so much hate on these forums, but I feel it is unwarranted. You don’t have to enjoy the game, but if you’re going to speak about what it is you don’t like, at least offer some solutions. Coming to the forums to say, “I’m quitting because this game is bad,” isn’t going to do anything but spread more hate and it will solve nothing.

What is it about FFXIV that you enjoy?

[FinaSel]

Friends and talking to people.

I work at home in a rural area. It's tough to find time to meet my friends. We talk a lot on the phone, but they have their own jobs too.

But FFXIV let's me talk to people during the daytime. On my days off or during breaks. I like it for the community. Not just my FC and LSs, but everyone on the sever.

Not only that, but I like the graphics and there is always something for me to do.

[Khalithar]

My friends and FC mates mostly, they're the reason I keep playing when we hit the content droughts.

[sevvv]

My friends and FC mates mostly, they're the reason I keep playing when we hit the content droughts.

basically this. I was in a friendly and fun FC but just recently transfer to other server..now that I'm pretty much alone I don't log in as often as I used to xD

[Eldevern]

Mainly killing time

and addiction to female Miqo'tes

And because I'm not satisfied by other MMOs.

In FFXIV, animation of characters, for examples, is one of the bests (if not the best) in all games I have tested (we can see the experience gained from the FF movies).

[Reinha]

Let’s discuss why we play Final Fantasy XIV, what keeps us playing and the great parts about this game. Feel free to share what it is that intrigues you about FFXIV, and what it is that keeps you coming back.

There are lots of core aspects I like about this game but I'll focus on the activities I enjoy to do every patch.

As a collector I'm always busy. I'll grind away during seasonal events if the reward is worth the effort. I have also done hunts, Diadem, Gold Saucer, Gordias as a tank, ARR primals, friend recruiting, gardening, Aquapolis, PotD and beast tribe quests for mounts and minions. One of my long term goals used to be getting gil for a house, then another house and now furniture. I'm at the stage where making gil is starting to pay off because I can buy most minions and bardings on the MB. (When I say "making gil" I mean quick synth during breaks.) I also collect glamours and currently one of my retainers is tasked to carry all that crap. It never ends... The level 60 relic is probably the hardest glamour to get at the moment. The worst part is that we don't know the final forms yet and I can't spend any relic items before I know what it will look like in the end. On top of the aforementioned it's always fun to get a new TTT card or Orchestrion roll.

This is somewhat related but still a bit different to collecting. I'm a completionist. I try to get as many achievements, log entries, quests, reputations, maxed classes, chocobo ranks and Aetherytes. Everything that is permanent to a character is worth getting to me. Whenever I get tired of collecting things I level crafting class, a battle job or my chocobo, do some sightseeing or continue an ARR relic quest (I need that Z).

All of those activities supplement the daily and weekly battle activities I do on my main jobs. I have no real reason to gear up at the moment so I do battle content out of the sheer enjoyment of playing a certain job.

Sometimes when I'm up for a change of routine I make alts or play on one of my alts on EU and NA servers to relive the story. It's strange to see the differences in server cultures and data center cultures. An example: on the Aether data center it's very common that dps go full ham on everything that moves in low level dungeons regardless of whether they exceed the tank's aggro, whereas on Chaos people are more considerate towards the tank's role. Neither is wrong, but these two communities just place different value on dps/speed and traditional MMO party etiquette. As for server culture, I like how on the NA server people people talk all the time. Chit chat everywhere.

[DarkSlayerGrimm]

came to ffxiv cause swtor was starting to go down the single player route eg=swtor still hasnt gotten a new raid after almost 2 years now. FFXIV is just a mmo to kill time and its enjoyable too plus there arent many decent MMOs out at the moment so Im just sticking with ffxiv for now

[Eul]

Male Highlander's body, male Roegadyn's body, glamour, crafting, friends, frontline, killing time, good community than f2p game I've play till now.

[AreciaRhi]

Glamour. That is all.

[Yona87]

Unemployment.