Gimme some of that personal space..

[Sated]

I like what they do in WoW where theres an aura around major NPCs that dismount anyone nearby, but also I think keeps people from merging into their character model.

I liked their solution too, but every time I wish they'd use it in FFXIV I'm reminded of how difficult it would be because SE often moves quest NPCs between quests, even if they're in the same room they were before they might now be standing in a different group of players. Do you then only block people from overlapping their version of the NPC? Would they then be displaced onto someone else's? Would we need to phase players between quests to accommodate that instead?

There are a lot of half-solutions... though for dialog-heavy quest chains I prefer just having it closed off from the public entirely, like the Ocular is great for that. Eden is the worst for it.

Alternatively - hiding players is nice. I found myself going into gpose in Eden so I could hide other players just to see where Thancred was so I could dig through people to talk to him.

[Tsukino]

Isn't there a button to hide player names or am I thinking of another MMO?

It's being used in the OP's very screenshots.

[Enla]

It's being used in the OP's very screenshots.

Derp on my part. Thanks for clarifying. xD

[Macleod]

Yeah, I don't like waiting too long to do the new MSQ, because I don't want to run into spoilers or anything, but damn...I waited a couple days and started last night hoping that was good enough, and it's still a major crowd around every quest NPC I come across. I think I'm to the point now where I should just keep powering through though.

What really irks me though is all the AFK icons by some of these people's names, like do you want to play the game or not?

If not, then get out of the way before you AFK. "...Huh, I'm a poet, and didn't even know I was rhyming those words, but it happened anyway." - Captain Holt (Brooklyn 99)

[Gemina]

I asked Gaia is she was ok if all 4'9" of her could sit on Urianger's shoulders. She told me to STFU.

[Vaer]

The stealthing function that is applied while fishing could be reused here just around the NPC I suppose. Sometimes I wonder if I'm disconnecting because the NPCs are doing their little RP walk away and I can't see them doing it due to the mass of people so it just feels like an awkward pause.

[Packetdancer]

Isn't there a button to hide player names or am I thinking of another MMO?

Not just an overall option, but a temporary toggle, too. If you press and hold 'X' (by default), all the nameplates for anyone but NPCs vanish, and other players become unclickable (so you're guaranteed to be able to click the appropriate NPC). Which is another of those quality-of-life features that I wish was better advertised to players, because a lot of people don't know about it.

(Another being Numpad 0, which will select the nearest interactive object when nothing's selected. Hit it when an interactive object is selected, and it will use that object. Hit it when a dialog box is up, and it will select the default choice. So if you hit Numpad 0 three times quickly near a magitek transporter or aetherial flow or whatever else in a dungeon—or, say, Praetorium—you just rocket through it. The first press selects it, second uses it, third picks 'yes' on the dialog that pops up.)

[Anienai]

When I see this image, I think of something ever so slightly different.

Yeppers...

[Sakei]

There's plenty of personal space to be had. You just need to move in a bit closer... wait

[Iscah]

At least part of the problem is that player-characters remain in place while the player watches a cutscene, so they pile up.

There's a targeting filter (on PS4 at least) that lets you select which types of objects you can target, so I've got a filter set up that skips over PCs and lets me find the NPCs in the crowd - as well as finding the actual quest target, it means I can find the others and talk to them for extra dialogue before progressing. (It still targets chocobos, though. I guess they're programmed as NPCs.)

I generally try to stand back from the characters before talking to them. It would be a lot easier if people thought to give them some space.