Why are you still playing this game?

[Alestorm]

The community is by far one of the best I've experienced and the devs don't have this "raid or have no end game" notion Blizzard has adopted since they effectively ruined PVP. Also the holidays/rewards therein aren't rehashed every year is a plus.

[bounddreamer]

Because I still enjoy it?

I do raid. I enjoy the fights. I enjoy running dungeons with people. Even repetitive content is different when you have different teammates who interact with you and the dungeons in different ways. People constantly surprise me, both in good ways and bad.

I love walking through the housing district to pick up some fishmeal to fertilize all the plants I'm cross breeding. Shirogane is gorgeous and I'm lucky to live there.

I enjoy flying in the open world doing beast tribe quests. The world is beautiful and my mount options are glorious.

Running Shinryu EX still feels expansive and epic even when I may end up dropping out of a party that isn't so great.

Crafting and gathering in moderate amounts is relaxing, not grindy. I only do it as much as I need to, I don't let it weigh on me as an obligation unless I've taken a commission.

Patch days are still fresh and exciting to me. One of my favorite things is still running new content blind with my friends and all our reactions to it.

[TruebladeNuke]

I've got several reasons why I still play. In no particular order of importance...

1: The story. This is a rare reason for me to still be playing an MMO, but I'm actually really enjoying the story of FFXIV, even back in ARR. It's clear on the amount of effort the developers spend on the story telling alone, even in the side quests, raids, and 24 man raids. Good stories is one of the best ways to keep me around.

2: The connections I made to the people on my server. Like any other MMO, if you play it long enough, you eventually start to recognize people just by their avatar name alone, assuming you didn't hit if off the bat and are already friends. I don't speak to everyone on the Leviathan server, but I know I've seen certain names enough times on there to the point of which I'm telling myself "Hey! I've seen that forum poster in the server I'm on!". (Some of whom have even posted in this thread before me) As a result, it's harder for me to leave the game now, let alone the Leviathan server.

3: I'm a bit of a completionist. While there ARE things I won't touch, it doesn't change the fact that for the things I AM willing to do, I've gotta go the extra mile and do it all if I can. This includes, but not limited to, getting all jobs to level cap (Which I've done BTW), at least decently gear all the jobs, get all the relic weapons, (Which I did for the ARR relics. Working rather slowly on finishing the Heavensward ones for glamor reasons) etc.

And this is despite the fact that I've slowed down quite a bit on the game lately due to this month alone releasing several games I want at once. I've been playing my brains out on Fire Emblem Warriors lately while still logging into this game each week to get my weeklies finished. And I still plan to get Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Super Mario Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Orgins down the road here... and that's assuming we don't get to December first when Xenoblade Chronicles 2 comes out. And that's not even taking my "maybe" purchases into account for later too like Sonic Forces, Mario X Rabbids, and Pokken Tournament XD.

[Oscura]

My friends are the only reason I keep playing this game.

Mind you, I enjoy basically every moment.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Let's break it down:

There's absolutely no challenging content. Everything is handed out to you. Further more any challenging content is just a harder version of existing content.

I'm not interested in being "challenged", I'm interested in being entertained. My being entertained does not require me to be "challenged", only that I have activities to engage in that I find enjoyable or at least not awful but help to move me towards a goal I have. I don't agree that "everything is handed to you" because if that were true I would have everything I want... and I don't.

There's nothing to strive for. Your gearing up to clear what content exactly? The next patch cycles content where crafted gear makes previous bis irrelevant?

I have plenty of things to "strive for". You might not value those things but that doesn't mean they don't exist and/or aren't worth striving for to others. I gear up, not just to "clear content" but rather to increase my own player power, purely for the sake of it. I like making my character stronger. I like being able to steamroll the content I engage in.

I've been playing since 2.2 but now that I\\'m not raiding anymore I don't know how people are still playing. What's the motivation? What are you doing that actually matters? (In a video game sense).

I don't raid at all. I never have, outside of the queing up for the weekly stuff through the duty finder. My motivation to keep playing is that I find the activities I engage in fun. I like getting my crafting gear up to snuff to make the hardest to make items. I like leveling the jobs I haven't maxed yet. I like putting together new outfits to glam. I like decorating my house when new stuff is released. I like getting my weekly tomestones to get the best gear I can (because I don't raid). I like talking to my FC mates. I like helping people I meet with dungeons or by crafting them HQ gear. I like the story content. I like wandering around a beautiful world filled with super sexy catboys in various states of undress. My "sense of accomplishment" comes from achieving the goals I set for myself, however big or small they are. The rewards I am able to get are "meaningful" to me.

All of the above "matters" to me. It may not matter to you but ultimately I'm not you. That's pretty much the answer to your question: Everyone else isn't you. And that's ok. Everyone has different tastes and it sounds like you may just be burned out on the game.

[Archvile78]

I've often wondered that myself

The story
Well, the story is interesting enough for me to come back to it whenever a new major patch is out, it's also usually one of the first thing i do.

The community
That's a tough one, to me it feel the community has gotten worst as years went by. That said, i'm certain it's still miles above the other MMOs on that side. It also doesn't help that i play on Gilgamesh but i remember the first year or so of playing it didn't feel as bad as it is now and that was before the server got bloated to the point of closure.

Friends
Ultimately, i'll have to go with friends, most importantly my irl friends who plays it with me. Were it not for those two it's doubtful i'd still be playing it. I mean i love the fan service the game offers but the predictability of the patch cycles since 2.x (still going on to this day) and the lack of overall interesting contents (for me at least) makes it difficult to keep paying a sub for it. Honestly, imo, the best piece of new content they came up with was PoTD as it didn't need to reuse old contents for the millionth times.

But hey, here i am still playing it.

[Coratanni]

Well said nicodemus. You responded far more eloquently than I would have. As someone who doesnt raid, I still have so much to do in game. I have all animas completed but still have 9 zetas to complete and 8 classes left to get to 70, not counting doh/l classes.

Enough to keep me busy for 2018 not counting the next set of relics coming.

[ElazulHP]

Well I did quit back in 2.xx right before Heavensward came out then I came back a few months before SB dropped. I'm going to keep playing this time though. Mainly because I finally got a house and i'm having fun crafting, gathering, and learning new classes. Before I concentrated on nothing but end game content... and I completely burned out causing me to leave. This time I'm not really caring too much about the highest tier of end game. I'm just having fun playing a game now. It's a much better way to play than constantly number chasing.

[Darkobra]

The story. If I wanted challenge, I wouldn't play an MMO.

[MStowastiqVahlshdeh]

Heh if I was as unhappy with the game as OP is, I probably would not play but that is not the case with me since I tend to not play content that I dislike.

The way SE designed Au Ra's is enough to keep me playing the game in itself but there are more reasons. I love the graphics and scenery, the areas, the lore, the music, the dungeons and the community!

I tend to be a bit of a completist but I limit that to my pleasure doing the content so it takes me long to do things I dislike the most. I cannot say that I am bored or unchallenged and will not complain about having no challenge unless I finish the list below first:

A lot of things below are "achievements" log and I intend to clear all possible achievements in the game. These are not listed in order of importance.

I haven't cleared Omega Savage 2 through 4 and gotten the mount.
I need to clear and get the mounts from:
Shinryu normal & ex
Thordan ex
Sephirot ex
Lackshmi ex
Nidhogg ex
The got all the "birbs" Phoenix birb which requires me to get all the birbs first.
I also haven't gotten the old mounts from Alexander Savage, and Midas.
I haven't leveled -all- of the classes and jobs and learned to master them yet and this is tied to the mounts below that I need to get.
I haven't capped all of my DOL, DOH up to melds and crafting HQ the highest recipes in the game.
Buy & furnish Shirogane Mansion, --one of the few things I actually got upset about in this game btw!
Level my Balmung character through Stormsblood and buy a mansion plus develop his rp story.
Get my main character married to his fiance.
Get all of the possible achievements that are available.
Getting every skirt and glam in the game that appeals to me.
Get all of the mounts in Gold saucer.
Get all of the mogstation items that I like.
Play triple triad with every available npc and get all of their cards.
Get all of the minions available.
Clear main scenario and Hilde.
Level all of my alts through Stormsblood
Complete the new relics once they are out.
Cap DOL and DOH on my alts.
Cap DOL and DOW on my retainers including alts.
Get the Hunt achievement Tiger mount.
Get the tank achievement mounts.
and finally, I haven't cleared Ultimate Coil.