FFXIV shows what's wrong with MMOs (Not what you think)

[Vahlnir]

No, wow had no story early on
It thrived with the concept of exploring the warcraft world and had very simplistic story to them.
They started going bonkers when they wanted to focus more on story and ppl got the mess that they are giving them now.

It has had a pretty large focus on the story since at least Wrath. I don't recall people ever complaining about that. They didn't go far enough in Cata, and I genuinely think that the story through Cata was an abomination. They went a little crazy in MoP with the dailies (which had some story behind it) but people weren't upset about the story. The journey from 85-90 was a wonderful experience...also full of story. They were upset about endgame crafting patterns and gear being locked behind daily quests. In WoD...the story was great, there was a large focus on it...but when the story ended at max level, that was basically it. They failed to save the expansion due to many problems (and suffered some pretty major cash loss) and pushed out Legion instead in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Legion has been largely story driven, and again...have heard no complaints about that. How they've handled a few things has been questionable, namely the time gating. But no one has complained that there was too much focus on the story. The story is a large part of the game. Has been for awhile now. They also encourage exploration, which XIV doesn't go far enough with.

FF XIV's focus on story is a bit more intense because it's an FF title. For better or worse. Only difference between WoW and XIV in this case is one game needs cut scenes to do it. WoW uses them sparingly yet delivers a story all the same, whether it's through quests, dungeons or raids. The game's just a bit more action oriented. The most intense moments of the story are usually played out in cut scenes though.

[Remedi]

It has had a pretty large focus on the story since at least Wrath. I don't recall people ever complaining about that. They didn't go far enough in Cata, and I genuinely think that the story through Cata was an abomination. They went a little crazy in MoP with the dailies (which had some story behind it) but people weren't upset about the story. The journey from 85-90 was a wonderful experience...also full of story. They were upset about endgame crafting patterns and gear being locked behind daily quests. In WoD...the story was great, there was a large focus on it...but when the story ended at max level, that was basically it. They failed to save the expansion due to many problems (and suffered some pretty major cash loss) and pushed out Legion instead in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Legion has been largely story driven, and again...have heard no complaints about that. How they've handled a few things has been questionable, namely the time gating. But no one has complained that there was too much focus on the story. The story is a large part of the game. Has been for awhile now. They also encourage exploration, which XIV doesn't go far enough with.

FF XIV's focus on story is a bit more intense because it's an FF title. For better or worse. Only difference between WoW and XIV in this case is one game needs cut scenes to do it. WoW uses them sparingly yet delivers a story all the same, whether it's through quests, dungeons or raids. The game's just a bit more action oriented. The most intense moments of the story are usually played out in cut scenes though..

I don't share your vision on legion and wod story, frankly they are for me all missed chances or just downright terrible with the only execption frostfire ridge.
That said I was talking about vanilla and tbc, where the game had really no story because the focus of the game was more on exploration.
Frankly ppl didn't care about beign the hero or w/e they simply wanted to see the places and heroes of the warcraft games and it continued with wotlk where they started lenieng towards a better storytelling, however they started what I call him the drama soap opera of the faction war no matter the cost, which frankly some ppl are starting to feel tired about, but MUH WARCRAFT is always their response since they have actually no courage about writing anything different, though they created an interesting character like lei-shen so go figure