FFXIV challenging the inner Introvert in me. Forced grouping.

[Avatre]

That being said, I have to wonder what the appeal of an MMO is to someone who doesn't want to interact with people at all?

As an introvert myself, I find it harder to meet and make friends offline considering how much I keep to myself(always watching, rarely interacting with people in my surroundings). It's nice to meet people online who can coax me out of my shell, and actually take the time to get to know me. I've met some of my best friends online, some who we are actually planning on getting together(we all live in different cities across North America) at some point when we can all afford it. To me, that's the appeal of a MMO, the possibility of meeting new and interesting people(though sometimes they turn out to be negatively interesting....).

It also helps that everyone has been so friendly in game.

For the majority, I found people to be nice while playing the game. There are definitely the rude/elitist people out there, and you will eventually run into some of them, but don't let them scare you. It is rare that you will ever encounter them again after the first meeting. If it gets to be too much when you do originally run into them, the worst that happens is you leave a dungeon before it finishes and need to wait out the 30min lockout timer.