Why do you play Final Fantasy XIV?

[Dzian]

There's no longevity in it at all though really. Everything is outdated so fast it can't possibly have any form of longevity. It's part of why they often try and pad things out to push players back into old long dead content. Crystal towers for example. No one ever queued. Bam let's put the relic oils in there, try and push ppl back into dead content. it worked for a few weeks.

There's also the fact that nothing you do holds any lasting value or benefit to your character. For example I cleared coil in ARR but that provides no benefit at all if I decide to do savage. It's the same with savage. If I cleared.midas savage in 3.2 it would provide benefit at all to my character in 3.4. This is why mmos are dying because they are becoming more and more short term and full of instant gratification.

Virtually everything you do guarantees a reward almost instantly. It's not a lasting reward though it's just a cheap thing to carry you to the next cheap thing and so on. instead of working for something valuable that takes effort / time / dedication its just a bunch of instant items that are gone almost as quick as they are gotten. It's the reason the tombstones system exists. Instant gratification.

I play for the story mostly and the social aspect with a few good friends some of which I've known since XI and EVE. But even the social aspect of mmos is dying because of things like duty finders. Most fcs or guilds or whatever are nothing more than glorified chat rooms. Gone are the days of actually working as a team to get stuff done together. Now it's just jump in the duty finder and off you go. maybe ask in your fc/ls if anyone wants to queue with you but no need to wait for them or others or work together...

It's the social element that helps keep mmos alive and it's lacking heavily in modern games. Sure you queue up in the duty finder and run that content with 3-7 other people. But you don't often build connections with them or even talk to them, chances are you might never see those people again anyway. They may as well just be npcs helping you through.

there was a thing about mmos dying a while back. and they looked at it from the other side of the fence. rather than asking people why they play. they were more focussed on asking former players why they stopped playing. the average time gamers stick with mmos is dropping a lot. almost to the point where players pick em up and put them down almost as frequently as single player games because the long tem aspect of mmos doesn't really exist anymore.

I could stop playing today. pick it back up in 4.3 or 4.4 and wouldn't matter at all. within a week I could be "caught up" skip massive amounts of stuff because doing it offers no benefits to my character at all. and that's exactly why the player base is up and down so much here. because players drop the game for months at a time.

few in my friendlist subbed up to 3.4 caught up on story cleared soph ex. got some weapons, smashed a12s and now unsubbed again. till the next patch. theres no reason for them to play any more than that. no longevity. no real social aspect. or anything. need to bring these things back if mmos want to survive long tem I think. otherwise they'll just turn even more into single player games pick em up for a couple of weeks and put em back down.

and its the amount of time players typically spend playing mmos dropping so much that developers aren't really making new ones anymore because players don't stick around long enough...

[Jim_Berry]

Why do you prefer the long term playstyle of MMOG to other kind of games like single player's instant gratification?

I used to be very competitive in gaming. Not MLG or anything, but I was into everything hardcore. Over time, I think it happened as I got older, but I began to only want to play co-op games. My preferred genre is RPGs (mostly turn-based followed by anything that grants experience points and loot), so MMORPGs are a plus since they have co-op.

I also feel like when I play MMORPGs, I am calm and relaxed. There's fights, there's crafting, there's chat, etc.

[Shurrikhan]

- The combat, especially when attempting and succeeding to parse well for my gear level, and/or to perform my role and mechanics well for my level of experience in a fight.
- A few remaining friends
- The hope that things will improve
- Access enough to check my facts before suggesting something

[BubblyBoar]

The loaded question in the OP aside, I mostly play for friends and fun trials. I like the side content in game much more than raiding.

[Sigmar_Heldenhammer]

Game I can play with my wife.
She doesn't have a PC, so no WoW, and she likes cute stuff, so FFXIV wins because cat people, chocobos, and potatoes.

[SigmaOZ]

Why do you prefer the long term playstyle of MMOG to other kind of games like single player's instant gratification?

Because I played the free trial and got caught with it relatively quick, this game is also my first MMO experience by the way!...

MMOs seem to be never ending games and although I've gotten bored many days since I started playing I have yet to see the end of this story, the game is by far the best Final Fantasy I have ever played and I doubt I'll drop it anytime soon, I'll keep subbed from start to finish and the only thing that can change that is if SE releases the next FF Online while XIV is still alive, like it happened with XI vs XIV!...

I just wish the next Final Fantasy MMO will let us import our characters from this one and of course that it will also have at the very least Miqo'te amongst its races!...

[Meillquei]

I was a former WOW player and I felt that WOW reached a point where it wasn't growing anymore. Despite all the new bells and whistles it had every expansion, it felt very stale. I reached a point where nothing I did in WOW felt fun anymore. So I quit. This was around a year and a half ago.

Discovered FF14 in September of this year. I really love everything about it. I feel like everything WOW lacked is present in FF14. What I love most about this game is that it isn't all about raiding. I can go at my own pace. It's a nice feeling.

[AlphaFox]

I play mainly because its just here. Already invested time and money into it, playing anything else kinda feels like I am wasting money. Granted once I do get to that point I will play other stuff for awhile but mainly the only thing keeping me here at the moment is my raid group. We are making progress on A11S (50%) but overall I think the lack of info of the expansion and wanting something new to do. A new job to level and learn, new maps to explore. The current stuff is stale or uninteresting to me so I am kinda just beating whatever bush i can find to keep interest. At the moment trying to gear up BLM and try to master that.

[Lilseph]

I've played lots of MMOs and I think XIV is a pretty solid game in the market right now. The dev team is constantly putting lots of efforts into this game, I feel I'm being listened by them. I also feel the community here is really good, despite the few exceptions you'll find around.

[DamianFatale]

Because it's the best series of all time.