Why do you like this game?

[Yshtola]

Watching the money pile up.

[Enla]

Because the other MMO's I'm interested in are actively sabotaged or have been in the past by their creators.

The damage Ben Irving did to SWTOR is something the game is still grappling with even years later - and hilariously he's part of why Anthem was so bad imagine that - and while he's long since left the project and Bioware I can't bring myself to fully enjoy that game due to the design decisions he forced upon it. It also isn't helped by the fact that SWTOR at it's core still deals with EA's full on temper tantrum over being forced to go free to play barely a year into it's life cycle and while I don't mind paying a sub for a game, the sheer mount of stuff withheld from you if you don't sub always left a bad taste in my mouth. The game did have a new expansion drop recently however so I'll eventually look back into it once the patch lulls for FF settle in.

On the other hand LoTRO has one of the best stories in any MMO I've played and I loved how they integrated the world of Tolkien into their own personal writings on the characters and the supporting cast you never get to see in the original novels. Yet WB killed that game before selling it off and when I went back recently, happy to try it after the new developer had settled in, what I found was a grind that just completely turned me off from the story. The once non-intrusive cash shop felt way more pushed than before and even though my character was at the climax of the story from when I last left off I just couldn't bring myself to continue. Mind I fully acknowledge a lot of this is likely due to changing tastes - as WB's slow death of the game via the immensely long content droughts pushed me to other games. But it just isn't enjoyable for me anymore.

Of the two I likely will go back to SWTOR at some point but I'd likely drop my sub the second I finished the expansion. Nothing has really hooked me for as long as FF14 did, or inspired me to stick around when RP wasn't of interest. I've tried a lot of other games, WoW included, and I'm just not a fan either.

[Thestias]

Honestly?

I don't like MMOs; I've never been one for playing in games with other people, I get anxiety when I've had to run dungeons and things in games like ESO or WoW, and I never found the story of either that engaging. That said, I love the story of FFXIV; the graphics are amazing, I've made a lot of friends due to the very welcoming (for the most part) community, and the skills are simple enough that I can learn them competently, but not so much that it loses the fun. Even dungeons are a good time in this game, compared to the others I've dabbled in! When I don't know the mechanics, most people don't mind spending a few minutes explaining them to me, which is really nice and helpful--especially as a healer main.

I'm also really into the roleplay community, which is just huge in this game, and was a definite draw for me!

[DumdogsWorld]

Because I have to pay a sub.

Buy-to-play games are really obnoxious with their in-game advertising. I'd much rather fork over $15 a month and be done with it.

[AnimaAnimus]

I used to like this game, it was fun and different from what I was used to in FFXI.

Each expansion also has some fairly decent story to it. 5.0 msq esp, even if they dropped the ball hard in 5.1. I know you get super trashed if you dare speak ill of ffxiv...

But...

I don't think this game is going to be able to hold me much longer, not even sure if I will finish the 5.x series out tbh. The story is good, yes. But nothing else ever changes. Its the same thing with a different veneer and 5.x got leaps and bounds easier in the dungeons, the 24 man, the extremes...which doesn't bode well imo. Tomes, primals, maps, 24-man, extreme, repeat. Same thing, different patch. Not to mention the Nier raid being a huge disappointment in both gameplay and esp in story. There is no danger, the housing is still a complete and total disaster, jobs have been tinkered into oblivion esp healers, everything from stats to rotations have been dumbed down to the point of being pointless, among many other things. And SE has all but abandoned the NA playerbase. When was the last time they actually acknowledged us outside of the Vegas events? Not a single word has been uttered to us on here in years, outside of translations which are always woefully late.

I have already abandoned my alts and only log into this char every few weeks to keep my house. But not sure how much longer that will go.

Let me also mention that this is only an mmo in title and server size. It's far more a coop game, there is no need to even talk to ppl, make friends or do anything social. May as well be a single player title.

Game just feels empty at this point.

I just rerolled in ffxi a few weeks ago and that is where I am spending my time. Game is 20 years old and xiv still can't hold a candle to it in many or the more important areas. Not to mention the abundance of amazing single player titles, there just really isn't anything in Eorzea for me anymore. If you are new or like to RP and play dress up, or just like getting big rewards for little effort, or are just a complete JP or SE fanboy this is likely the game for you.

[Shougun]

The vibe and that I feel the team both cares and listens (given time I feel I've seen a lot of changes that have been asked for), albeit they don't really talk back that much lol. Among some other FF specific touches and relationships, like I think the concept of jobs is perfect for an mmorpg and I don't really want to play one that doesn't do that to be honest. Love the art style, including the environment designs, and music is great. Noting that art style isn't talking about the resolution of the game (which some objects have readily visible pixels unfortunately), but the style itself.

So probably in a blurb it's the FF vibe in it's presentation (music, art, environments, items, names, mechanics), has a lot of varied content with a very consistent and reliable schedule, that and is fairly welcoming when it comes to content and is not hardcore / doesn't sell itself that way even if it may have some clearly designed for the 1%er content like ultimate.

Of course it's fine to have that ultimate content for those people, variation(s) of style and type is helpful especially to keep things from feeling same same "no point". Though perhaps in an addendum I feel housing was moved that "ultimate" direction and I've many not so loving words for how housing was made lol, but I at least imagine there were reasons it ended up that way (beyond philosophy but just circumstances of the moment) and in a general sense I think the philosophy of everything is very well placed. Like how we've very impressive crafting systems for an mmorpg not specifically focused on crafting- allowing those who like that to enjoy it.

Say even if WoW had all the exact same systems/mechanics/jobs as FF but it's own presentation/vibe I'd still play FFXIV. If FFXVII had that wonderful FF vibe but also updated systems (like more creative/no memory issue housing or a more complete/in-depth item/glamour log) then I'd probably move on to that, though perhaps coming back occasionally for story and fiddling with new jobs.

FF to me is journey through wonderful media, in that sense that I adore the environments, job concepts, monsters, music, moogles, airships and chocobos - wandering around the environments and hearing things. When I think FF I usually think of areas before I think of characters, not that I dislike the characters in FF games but that's my thing I enjoy on FF games. Love me them environments in their wholeness (all the media that goes into them, music, story, art, monsters, etc). Not to confuse it with being a MSQ addict, which I do quite like the story (minus those fetch quests especially in ARR lol).. but just like if you play a Dark Souls / Bloodborne sort of game where you don't really get too much story fed to you but the environment feeds you the experience and story- just having that feeling is wonderful and I feel like the people who work on FF games do well with that.

In that sense it's probably why I've always wondered if SE would be capable of making a Elderscrolls / Fallout like game (low to no invisible walls, high freedom, etc) but in their own vibe (with mod support of course! )... I think that'd be quite fun (to be fair FFXV went this direction, but I mean even further that way like Witcher 3 / TES (Morrowind, Obvlivion, Skyrim) / FO / etc, though that's kind of scary for SE to do since it's not something they've done before). Especially interesting because SE's combat would actually look and probably feel epic lol, imagine leveling up spells and weapon skills (not to be too mean to Bethesda but I've never played their games for their combat which has always been a bit ... airy.. like swinging a wiffle bat at a soap bubble XD).

[Barraind]

Crafting.

Theres no MMO I've played that handles it better, and while theres a LOT of room for improvement (I have "many" notebooks worth of ideas on tradeskill system design), theres no other MMO that comes close.


I also enjoy being able to sit down and spam dungeons all day if I feel like it. Similar issues as the above, really.


If there was a game that did tradeskills and dungeon exploration/running better, I'd play that in a heartbeat, but right now, there isnt. 14 isnt at all close to perfect, but there are a LOT of awful games out there, and theres no reason for anyone to try and innovate, so we're likely never going to see a genre re-definer again.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Remember when we were the commanders of the expedition into Draenor? Yeah, nobody else does, either.

[linay]

Remember when we were the commanders of the expedition into Draenor? Yeah, nobody else does, either.

I don't have to remember. I'm doing that content now on my newest character, but got sidetracked with FFXIV's newest patch and SWTOR's newest expansion. I should be back in Draenor maybe next year if not next month.

Either way, it just makes me appreciate FFXIV more, regardless of whatever issue I may have with the game, as no game is perfect for me.

[Gemina]

Just a genuine question, I want to understand what it is that keeps such a large number of people interested in this game, because while I'm currently playing it and "enjoying" it for what it is, for the most part for me it just feels like a very average MMO at best.

When I look at the game from a combat stand point, it ranks one of the worst I've ever seen for complexity and overall thought required to get the best out of your character, the global cooldown is bad enough, but the overall lack of skills to use sometimes amazes me and this is the number 1 thing that makes me question how this game has such a large playerbase.

Then I wonder, is it the end game content? I mean, it can't be, surely? there's pvp which I sometimes question why it exists at all, for the casuals there's the run once a week nier raid, and get 450 tokens a week from the same 4 boring dungeons, then for the more active pre-made people theres the ext/savage content in addition, my gripe with the entirety of the PvE in this game is that for the most part, once you've experienced it once, it's virtually the same thing on repeat without fail.
Boss mechanics work off patterns that go on repeat, so once you remember that there's not much challenge even in the hardest content (providing you can find a group to pre-made with that doesn't have the memory of a goldfish), there's no real reaction mechanics and stuff that really tests a players skill, not unless you count "remembering" as skill....

...I can only assume the case that this game isn't my cup of tea

Took the words right out of my mouth before I could even reply.