How does FFXIV fare against other modern MMORPGs?

[Theodric]

As far as I'm concerned it's the best MMO on the market right now. It has something for everybody and is perfect for a player such as myself who likes to dabble in different activities.

[RuleofThree]

For me, XIV is just middle of the road. I resbub now and then out of habit/familiarity, but it's not one I'd miss tremendously if it went away completely.

I'm not a fan of how they just rehash the same dungeons/8 man raid / 24 main raid, trial each patch. When they do try to branch out, it falls flat (diadem, Eureka, etc.). There is no real way to play at your pace when it comes to gearing. So many weekly caps in place, which only highlights a lack of relevant end-game content. Very little overworld content. The game feels like a rather fancy waiting room at times.

I do love the fact that you can level all things on one character (but this is ruined a bit due to how gearing/caps work). For the most part it's a very stable game, very minimal in-game glitches, etc. Looks nice (IMO).

There's a lot more to both sides for me, but the overall feeling is just sort of 'meh'.

This. A thousand times this. I used to be a FF fan, but after 11 (And before people bitch about how I'm trying to compare 11 to 14, I'm not. I mean after 11 in terms of FF games. Really, for me, FF died after 9, was ressurected at 11, then died again at 12), things went pear shaped, badly. This game makes me sad. Same thing different day, nothing you do matters, because in a month or two's time, your gear will be outdated, and the grind begins again. It takes 2 and a half months just to get full tomestone gear because of the stupid low cap of 450 of <insert relavent tomestone here>, unless you have millions of gil to spend on crafted gear to get in to savages the day it comes out. Overworld is a joke, just a means to get from point A to Point B, and after you finish all main story quests and any side dungeons to unlock, you never go in to them again...because retainers can get you stuff your gathering classes normally would, albiet it slower, but still, pay for enough retainers, and you have enough to get by.

I play this game literally because there is no other game to play. So I wouldn't say FFXIV is the best, I would say it's the lesser of all the available evils.

[Areic]

I don't think it compares to WoW in a lot of regards. But it definitely beats almost any other mmo in like 99% of things

It's content is dated and gets stale very quickly. Combat can feel kind of slow and clunky sometimes, and the entry with MSQ being forced down your throat can turn off a lot of new players. Their architecture also feels very dated, like only so much glamour appearance space, no bag changes, etc all being locked off due to how it's built

What it does have over WoW and definitely most other MMOS. Housing is very nicely done as a system aside from the way servers for it are handled. The graphics and zones are just beautiful and do a nice blend of realism and fantasy. Music is top notch for most boss fights. And crafting is handled very uniquely. Some may even like the slower paced combat over other games, it's definitely nice to relax to while playing.

Overall it's an 8/10 from me, definitely shines and I still play it just not crazy often.

In the MMO market you essentially have WoW and FF14 as the top dogs anyway, with ESO down there a bit further, GW trailing that, and then a spread of niche games a particular crowd would enjoy

[Nici]

I have played or at least given a chance to most of the MMOs out there save for a few Korean MMOs recently released, I just don't have the time or in some cases patience for grinding in mmo's anymore which most korean mmos are very good at having you put an enormous time sink into, i go between ESO and FFXIV, WoW i gave 10+ years of hardcore raiding and finally kicked that addiction...and to the point where i don't even get excited for anything new from that game...including its recently released expansion, FFXIV on the other hand piques my interest every time...every new patch theres something interesting, whether it's continuing story or the new dungeons or raids.

As for ESO...it has THE best Housing i have seen in an MMO...and so much wish FFXIV had housing like ESO does, and i do like how there are multitude of ways to play and build your character and play style, and at least for me i like the questing and storyline DLCs, and theres not much else to say about ESO other than it's greatly changed from it's Beta and Release iteration, a great MMO to play while waiting for the next patch update or expansion for FFXIV.

[Stanelis]

I get the impression that A LOT of people think FFXIV is the best.

What are your thoughts?

Don't forget to add Warframe to the mix because, as far as MMORPG goes, it is the current rising star.

FFXIV is amazing on an artistic standpoint but has been stale since heavensward on a gameplay one. It's a shame because it could have been much more if SE would actually have cared and developed/improved it over the years (and I'm not just talking about just adding content following the same old formula since 2013). TESO and warframe are great examples of games that have been vastly improved and expanded over the years.

[Rymm]

Don't forget to add Warframe to the mix because, as far as MMORPG goes, it is the current rising star.

I really don't think Warframe qualifies as an MMORPG. It has one open world zone that is a fairly new feature to the game. For the vast majority of it's life/gameplay it's a co-op game along the lines of Borderlands or Destiny.

[Stanelis]

I really don't think Warframe qualifies as an MMORPG. It has one open world zone that is a fairly new feature to the game. For the vast majority of it's life/gameplay it's a coop game along the lines of Borderlands or Destiny.

It sure didn't when it was released, now it is debatable. Actually you don't interact less with people in that game than you typically do in FFXIV. As FFXIV has an open world but isn't really exploited for group content, and could be a lobby game like warframe. That goes to show how flawed FFXIV's current design is on some aspects.

[Berethos]

if SE would actually have cared

It's a mistake to think the only way a company can show they "care" is to try and frequently change things up. It may not set them up to be market leaders, or the best MMO, but the idea that they don't care because they don't change things as often as other developers do (which often necessitates long wait times between patches or overhauls that disrupt the game, and that's assuming they get the change right...or don't keep changing and end up messing the game up because they thought they had to keep changing *cough Blizzard*) is a tad on the silly side.

[Kasmiya]

It's a mistake to think the only way a company can show they "care" is to try and frequently change things up. It may not set them up to be market leaders, or the best MMO, but the idea that they don't care because they don't change things as often as other developers do (which often necessitates long wait times between patches or overhauls that disrupt the game, and that's assuming they get the change right...or don't keep changing and end up messing the game up because they thought they had to keep changing *cough Blizzard*) is a tad on the silly side.

10000% this lol. Not only that you can go into the WoW community and see just how much they think blizzard actually cares about them even with all the new systems (that are broken or just not fun btw) that have been added. I play a shadow priest in WoW and it's a dumpster fire of a spec yet blizzard still has yet to say a single word on the spec since like early beta regardless of all the community feedback. And that's just one spec.

To say SE doesn't care is laughable. If we're saying that then no game developer cares about their playerbase just because a handful of people didn't get what they wanted or some crazy new system isn't added every new patch.

ETA: Most of this was in response to the "if SE actually cared" comment btw.

[Maeka]

Pretty sure if people were spitting on me in real life, there would be problems. Just saying.

That kind of behavior is just not acceptable, whether it is in-game or in real life. Just because "it's the internet" and "everybody is anonymous" doesn't suddenly make it something we should accept and just brush off, because that just enables more of the same. It isn't about thin skin or anything like that, it's about refusing to just hand-wave that kind of jerkish behavior.

That, and it's ludicrous to go "oh, that's just trade chat" (it wasn't trade chat, it was /yell) is also stupid. So it's okay to break one of the most basic rules in society (racism) just because it's in a game, in a public chat channel?

Wut?

When did Racism ever become OK?

You trying to say that someone standing in a public place yelling the N-word IRL is OK because he's not offending you directly if you happen to not be black?