Why do you like this game?

[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.

[Just-Communication]

Game? Did you just call this is a game?

This is not a game, my friend. It's a second job. A second spouse. A second life in another world.

Mahjong wizards, interior home designers with personal portfolios, PVP warlords, scrupulous traders more wealthy than the Syndicate combined, agents of inquiry and inspectors extraordinaire, minion and triple triad card collectors, chocobo racers and breeders, monster hunters, eikon killers, dragon slayers, super crafters that produce weapons and gears designed for gods, green thumbs, excavation overseers, sport fishers, heart breakers, revolutionaries, enemies of the empire, sworn friends of beast tribes, roleplay dungeon masters, adorable potatoes, and of course, the Warrior of Light.

Why do I like this game? Why, indeed...

[Infindox]

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.

Why are you even on here then?
I hate MMOs like xi. That's why I probably enjoy xiv. You aren't a fanboy if you enjoy this game. Same with any game, really. I don't particularly enjoy Pokemon SwSh but some of my friends enjoy it to bits, so who am I to call them "fanboys" for it?

[Tlamila]

Best story. (TSW had the best lore imho but it's dead now and also FFXIV is the only one that makes me cry and build affection towards npcs)
Awesome graphics and with very low requirements.
Best armor visuals/fashion of any mmo.
Crafting and gathering like actual classes.
Well maintened, especially compared to most mmos nowadays. (for example, in Roft and TESO servers crash/are on maintenance almost daily)
Events are fun and unique questlines, rather than grind.
There's always something to do for every preference.
Continous substantial updates.
And so on. There are many more but I don't have time now.

[Iscah]

Story and lore - for my first time through the game, I didn't even notice a lot of the 'tediousness' of the MSQ and fetchquests (some more than others) because it was revealing the world to me bit-by-bit. I ran all the sidequests as I found them, and I liked how they filled in details of the world. The free trial segment of the MSQ is capped off with discovering the aftermath of the Garlean attack on the Waking Sands, which was a potent moment of storytelling, and I was eager to see what came next.

At this point there are so many characters I care about (my natural setting is to like them and get attached to them unless they're shown to be unpleasant people) and I like to see their stories unfold across the various plotlines. Shadowbringers was fantastic for getting into more depth with the Scions and bringing back a certain side character I liked in their original story but wasn't expecting to see back.

I spend a lot of time over on the Lore forum, and I really enjoy having an ongoing narrative to 'pick over' and figure out clues about what's going on and what it all means.


World design - it's beautiful.


Character designs - I love the design options for playable characters. People complain so much about the limitations, and sure there are some additional things that would be nice to have control over, but they're not necessary. The characters look appealing and I've made designs that I like for nearly all the playable races. (Perhaps because I start from the point of playing in the character creator and finding designs that I like, rather than having an image in mind first and being frustrated that I can't match it?) I just love playing around and seeing what combinations of features work well together, sometimes with a general concept of what the character will be like, or sometimes make the design first and then work out 'who they are'.

The side-effect of playing with character concepts is that I then want to see them all "come alive" in game so I end up with alts... which is a good and bad thing. Mostly good. And a lot of that is to do with....


Glamour - interlinked with character design, dressing them up and finding outfits that suit them is great fun! Also a fair bit of why I end up making alts rather than simply admiring them in the character creator where you can't try on anything except the relic gear. I see them as individuals with their own tastes in clothing, so figuring out how each of them would dress for the same role is interesting, and costume ideas are usually going to look good on one of them. (Also different ways to combine with a set piece, like last year's Hatchingtide jacket that you had to wear to progress the event - I spent more time at the marketboard than doing the egg hunt. And have added two more characters since then, and a third is eager to get out of my head...)


The battle system isn't a specific draw for me - it's just what you have to do to level your character. I don't mind it, but I'm not especially keen on it either - I'd prefer a lot less abilities and simpler intuitive rotations, putting more emphasis on the individual fights than having to keep pressing the right complex sequence of buttons while you do it.

I do enjoy dungeons in general though, especially ones with good music. The pace of the music makes a big difference to how the dungeon itself feels.

"Endgame content" isn't a draw at all to me. I'd rather spend my time in the game leveling other classes or playing on my alts.

[Rasikko]

I don't just like the game.

I love the game, and real love is when you don't know why.

snip

I must express regret at grilling a lot of people here in the past who used to compare this game with FFXI, as lately I find that I am slowly being surrounded by people who've played only WoW up to this point. FFXI vets are..rare, I feel alone. I don't even feel comfortable with bringing up the topic in FC chat or with anyone, even though I should because it's a Final Fantasy game. FFXI had gone through several transitions over 20 years, and each them were pretty big transitions, a lot of memories had been born from this. However the number one thing that game always had better than FFXIV is the level of communication between the players themselves. That game was real hard to play, but we all got through it because communication was rather strong and bonding was much easiest. I know in a way this is because of its horizontal nature and having to spend 8-10hrs in a group just to get one thing done, but I can't imagine that working out in FFXIV where communication is just trash at best.

[SugarPuff]

I like the variety. In ESO, which I do also enjoy, the lore and questing are great but despite a huge open world the very limited number of activities and design of the reward system make the game itself feel small in comparison to FFXIV. Housing is better in ESO, even as the owner of a medium home on a desirable/popular plot location, I'll give it that.

I like playing different jobs on the same character, something I also enjoyed about FFXI, and the in-depth configuration tools that let me set everything up "just right".

Overall, FFXIV offers more to do and a better designed interface to do it with than the (admittedly small number) of other MMOs I've played. Stand alone crafting and gathering classes, gold saucer, Eureka, GC squadrons, deep dungeons, and a multitude of other activities and little QOL bonuses.

I'm not a PVP player, never touched it and probably never will, so I like having that separate.

[YatoShishi]

I play this game since the first beta, so for quite a while now. I met my fiance through this game, ended up moving to another country because of it too. This game had a large impact on my life - in a positive way. To me it kinda became a part of my life ( I know it sounds kinda dumb, but it is what it is)

Its not just because of that ofc, I also enjoy the story and the content given, if I get bored of it I just take a break and come back.

I played and tried a few other MMOs, but FFXIV is the only one that feels "right" to me.

[Dadbod]

Obviously having a main story line being a full fledged FF title inside an MMO that is quite good, makes it appealing as that’s quite unique in the genre.

I’ve played a lot of MMO games also and I disagree about combat and getting the most out of your class being really easy.. it is very slow for a lot of jobs at lower levels but once your 70+ with a full kit the vast majority of jobs are far faster with substantially more skill bloat than most MMO classes I’ve played in other games.. There is so much to do off GC for most jobs. What MMO games have higher APM on their classes across the board?

I think the vast majority of the content doesn’t require anywhere near high efficiency use until you start savage raiding though so the game still feels incredibly easy.. I think that’s more design of the MOBs than design of the jobs though... maybe I just suck

[Lersayil]

Great story, adequate amount of side content, (mostly) long and static combat rotations, music, glamours (could be better, but still better than most), armory system.

The last one is big for me as I'm an altoholic, and I greatly appreciate that I can level everything without the usual tedium of actually making an alt.

As a sidenote though, I have to agree that we have very few good choices in the market currently, and I would probably relegate FFXIV to secondary status if we've ever got a good (eastern style) grinding MMO.