Started playing another MMO: what I feel FF14 lacks in regards to uniting a community

[Kisagami]

Edit: I want SE to know, I am not bashing their game. I love their storyline. I love the character relationships, the depth of the story you can investigate. You get the story telling 100% right. But there are just things that make my playtime here less engaging and more frustrating, and I hope perhaps you can add some of what makes this competing MMO so great.

I wanted to guve some feedback to SE in regards as to why I have chosen to move the majority of my time to a competing MMO (Guild Wars 2). I feel like this game lacks mechanics for working together in the open world and building more of a community. There’s just so much reason for people to be divided and overly competitive towards each other in FF14, even in community, non-competitive combat like PVE dungeons and fates (see: the debate on parsers.)

I’m amazed at how friendly Guild Wars 2 is towards new player experiences. PVE truly feels like community combat. People command parties and guide others out of pure good will, not because of some crown or title, and they are super generous when it comes to advice to those just starting out for the story or seeking just to play casually. That’s because Guild Wars 2 actively manipulates you to be kind to fellow players and strangers in the open world.

The first thing that I think causes people to be so frustrated with one another in FF14 is the loot system. If you join in a party, typically only one or two people gets a drop based on rolls. This means you have to repeat the content a lot, and even if the item you need/want drops, there’s no guarantee you’ll get it. This makes people go for the META, the fastest way towards getting through content, because not everyone gets rewarded for participating. Thus the fighting and the squabbling over parsers and the worry about elitism. You’re rewarded more for getting the content done on a speed run rather than just playing the content for what it is. (And queues are ridiculous, meaning people wait long periods of time just to get a CHANCE at getting their item.) This leads to frustration.

In GW2, your loot is your own. You actually get rewarded more if you join together as a party. Everyone gets the same loot chance based on their personal stat called luck which you get from salvaging gear. The larger your party is, the more creatures you kill, the more you are rewarded in EXP and loot. Everyone gets a piece of the pie they helped earn based on their effort; if you participate equal or more to everyone, you get the things you need. It also means people aren’t rewarded for being carried through. If you participate less, you get less, based on your participation level. There’s less frustration for all.

On top of that, there is content and space for everyone competitive or not. There are a multitude of PVP modes that cater to each competitive person’s needs, away from the casual more PVE-related content, and all of them are built in a way that they can coexist without feeling like one’s getting more attention than the other.

One of the issues I have with FF14’s mentor system is the fact that, while it does attract people who actively want to help, but there are actual selfish reasons to wear the tag. Rather than being a selfless system with hopes of helping sprouts, there are mounts and status symbols connected with the system. GW2’s system is an act of good will and the hopes more people will participate in your activity. I’ve been in tons of things called hero point trains, which often don’t benefit the commanders at all. Its just an act of good will people get recognition for.

One last thing I want to touch on is their guild system; you have the option to join up to 5 guilds, meaning you don’t have to choose between one friends’ guild or the other. It means people are less competitive when it comes to recruiting, and many guilds work together or partner. There’s encouragment to branch out, rather than lock yourself into one community. I often wish I can have an extra guild slot so I can hang out with my friends’ guilds too. But I have to choose one.

These are just a few of the examples that have made players feel more disive, and that’s not even touching on the have and have nots when it comes to housing and a variety of issues currently encouraging players to be spiteful towards one another. I just wish SE would add more systems in place to make people want to group together. I feel more community in GW2. I feel rewarded for just playing and existing with my fellow player ther, as a game, and notiing feels like a chore. I get rezzed and encouraged by strangers constantly, where as in FF14 people are shouting at each other because they didn’t get a chance to hit that S Rank.

Hopefully, maybe, SE could take a look at some of what makes GW2’s community so tight knit.

I’m hoping 4.2 can gather more interest for me. I’m still paying my sub and logging in, but I just don’t spend as much time having actively having fun, and more time grinding and waiting for queues in FF14.

I know I’m probably gonna get a lot of “well go there, bye” or “but parsers and numbers, you don’t understand the meta.” I do. I just... wish it wasn’t being more and more invasive and in my face. People are so in a rush these days it ruins the new player experience for content I haven’t touched yet, and I just returned to F14 this year.

Edit:
I want to follow up on the shortcomings that come from 4.2 that made GW2 the focus of my freetime:

1. The Transmog/Glamour system is so much simpler.
Their transmog system has a huge wardobe - anything you’ve worn or unlocked (with a right click: add to wardrobe) is placed in a library of items you’ve worn in the past. If you don’t have the item on hand to wear, (as the glamour system only account bounds the item), you can earn the transmog crystals from clearing maps or buy a bulk of them rather inexpensively from their cash shop.

2. RMT-Seller Spam was eliminated by allowing their Gem Store/Mogstation currency to be exchanged for gold. Players, not RMT-Sellers, can sell their excess gold or gems to other players WITHIN the game, thus near eliminating the urge for people to buy gold, and, or currency from third parties/

3. Updates in Guild Wars 2 do not take down the servers. You have 1-3 hours from the time a new build is released to exit out and update your your client.

4. NO MACRO SOUND EFFECTS - people can’t harass me into obeying their commands by blaring annoying sounds into my client. I am very irritated 4.2 did not come up with options to turn off this feature on my client.

[Gumbercules]

I play GW2 also, it is definitely the "best" cooperative open world game in an "arcade" sort of way. That said I mostly spend most of my time around it under maintenance mode (ie log in for dailies log out, which admittedly is an MMO thing FF 14 included) It does have very nice alterations to its open world though and I wish the FATE system would follow some of it (or even some of its own examples that it uses less like highbridge fates branching and changing based on outcomes)

the Tyria events are very similar imo to ff 14 fates bar the boss ones, but once you hit the meguuna wastes their style is considerably better since it has that zone wide "progress" thing going for it. Issue is that it also has a considerable difficulty ramp up. Wish FF 14 did something like it, but with better "small numbers" tuning for when the population is lower. (this is also a matter of how gameplay works on both ff 14 could just get away with less cuz of holy trinity design, GW2 you can have 20 mediocre geared/skilled players and be less effective than 5 skilled/geared. Works nice for gw2, but wouldn't for ff 14)

Alot also depends on how you like to play it, GW2 is my strictly solo game atm, hence i don't do fractals etc (don't have the gear for it anyways) So for me personally the two combines make up my MMO cycle and i find both time friendly which lets me toss in stuff in between. Play wise I am one of those people that overall enjoys w/e is closest to old school rpgs so FF 14 is something i find overall better feeling (2.5 base gcd etc reminds me of a sped up active time system) In gw2 I keep leveling classes but i find one or 2 enjoyable and the rest it can be hit or miss and i also experience play fatigue alot more easily with GW2. (scourge and soulbeast are the ones i enjoy, spellbreaker is nice too but if im feeling "grumpy" it pisses me the !@#off easily)

Overall i do see what you are saying and when it comes to open world GW2 blatantly does it better than most other MMOs ive tried, and a big part is that it flows through out the zones and its meaningful as a "story" too. FATES and "wow fates" on the other hand ar just zone "pop ups". (the "reward" thing btw is going to be very bland fast, idk how long you have been playing but there is a literal "stop" to gearing in GW2. i would suggest not rushing for the bis, cuz it is literally the end)

[Derio]

Really wish in FFXIV you could be apart of 5 FCs at the same time.

[Kazgrel]

GW2 has its own meta group comps and has had such comps for years now, and it’s the subject of similar cries of “elitism”, among other descriptors.

Haven’t played that game since it’s first xpac was a couple weeks old; solid non-sub MMO, and something worthy of play during maintenance downtime.

[Gumbercules]

GW2 has its own meta group comps and has had such comps for years now, and it’s the subject of similar cries of “elitism”, among other descriptors.

Haven’t played that game since it’s first xpac was a couple weeks old; solid non-sub MMO, and something worthy of play during maintenance downtime.

yeah its a perfect side dish, as a main course i think it would be tedious though. FF 14 is the wife at home gw2 is the strip joint :P (occationally joined by other strip joints like blade and soul, path of exile etc :P)

[Lelila38]

I don't know if we played the same gw2, but on the server I chose, which is fairly populated, the chat is always dead silent. Not that it's any different in ffxiv, but I don't find it particularly welcoming to new players.
Not to mention the grindy nature of gw2 without any quests will get me bored very quickly.

[Laerune]

Active open-world would improve the community feeling alot, this is sadly something that FFXIV is lacking alot. I mean, aside from FATES (which people skipped doing since they added Deep Dungeon) and hunts, what else are the players doing toghter in the open-world?

FFXIV needs to step away from the duty finder and add long lasting group oriented content for the open-world. Sadly, I fear this wont happen, untill SE fixed the whole server memory data blablablabla issue.

[DamianFatale]

I played guild wars one, and lost my email. What should of been a simple process to verify my identity didn’t go anywhere. Instead they ran me around in circles on their help forum, but it did absolutely nothing. I went from buying all the extra content to being locked out of a game I payed for.

I will never purchase another guild wars game EVER, Final Fantasy XIV would never do this. Every interaction with a moderator has been quick, and as informative as I would hope it to be. Sometimes they even go beyond to satisfy me as a customer. That can’t be said for Guild Wars.

[Gumbercules]

GW2 "times" are really weird. During the week it is ok populated then weekends it picks up ALOT. Also people tend to be quiet unless you are in a zone for the daily events or a zone with a boss and a push like dragon stand (basically zone wide lane push "raid") Haven't pvp ed much or done "dungeons" though so those might be more social. Like i said i like it as an aside thing, but doesn't get my attention past that for now (still 3 more classes to cap).

[BunnyChain]

Being able to join multiple FCs wouldn't be a bad idea, iirc, FC alliances are planned for the future.
Rewards based on participation sound nice but could backfire since, afaik, GW2 doesn't have the trinity system and everyone is responsible for their own survival more or less? Another thing is if people get their loot easily, they are less likely to re-run the dungeon, further increasing queues.
The rewards for mentors, either crown or mounts was really not a good idea.

I haven't tried PVP there yet, neither housing.