How do you view this game? :O

[StriderShinryu]

For me it's largely a game that I log in to actually do stuff in. I enjoy the story for the most part and find both the combat and crafting systems to be fun.

But I don't know that I find it interesting or exciting enough to just log in to for no real reason. I wouldn't, for example, log in just to go out and fight mobs or do combat content if there wasn't some sort of reward in it or if there wasn't a combat class I was actively working on.

And I definitely don't log in just to hang out with others either in character or out of character. My FC is full of cool people, sure, but I'm not going to log in to the game to to chat with them.

I don't need CONTENT but I do need some sort of meaningful goal or activity. If it's not there at the time then I'll just play or do something else. I don't feel like the game needs to magically satisfy all of my needs or really owes me anything.

[Raltar]

I mostly play this game for the storyline, so I log in, do my expert roulette, change to whatever class I'm leveling and finish the rest of the roulettes and log off. I've thought about doing savage, but the community in this game is so very different than other MMOs I've played where you join a guild and raid with them. I mean, yeah, you have FCs, but I've never seen a raiding FC. People always talk about "static groups." Just like, I don't have any interaction with a static outside of raid times. I'm used to being in a guild and doing stuff with them and then raiding a couple of nights a week and, you know, being a part of a group. Most static groups I see want to raid every god damn night and want zero interaction outside of that raiding time and that just isn't something I am interested in anymore at this stage of my life.

[Rymm]

I started playing for the story and the gameplay. I stayed for the community.

I was falling out of love with WoW around the time that my husband introduced me to FFXIV; I love story-driven games so he thought I'd like this one. He was right! On top of that, I found the gameplay to be fun and it had enough "side content" to keep my ADHD brain engaged.

Right around the same time I started playing, I moved abroad. The fact that I was thousands of miles from my family and friends, coupled with the language barrier (I could communicate effectively, but it was always a chore), and the fact that I was now a housewife with no job to go to every day meant that I suddenly had a lot of free time on my hands and no real social circle to speak of. FFXIV help to fill that void. I made a lot of friends in the game and got pretty active in the community. It was a nice way to feel at home even when I was in a different hemisphere.

Even now that we've moved back to the States and I'm working again, I think the community is a large part of while I'm still playing (even now with way less time on my hands.) I don't log in and play nearly as much as I used to, but thanks to the way the community has built up around and outside the game, I'm still pretty active in it. I write for Aetherflow Media, I participate in and ENTM, I've submitted glamours to Eorzea Collection, I'm in more than a half dozen FFXIV-centered Discord groups that do events and contests and just hang out to chat.

The great thing about the social aspect of this game is that it isn't just confined to the game itself.

[VictorTheed]

I read the Bible everyday and almost everyday I play this game, when I log in I do anything from hunts to dungeons to glam to hanging out with others, I do almost everything except raiding, I even made my house in game into a fantasy style church, putting my love of Jesus into the game, wish I could get some kind of cross design for my house, that'd be cool.

[Rasikko]

A place to feel alive.

[Theodric]

I enjoy the game for the most part, though I do wish it had a more pleasant community and that more content had staying power on a long term basis. I've mostly been playing other games lately.

[TheMightyMollusk]

With everything going on in the world right now, it's nice to have a place where I can just find bad guys and beat them up.

Not that I've actually re-subbed yet, the forums just haven't locked me out after the free login campaign ended. Strongly thinking about it, though (and also going back to Viera, since fantasias are on sale....).

[ForteNightshade]

As a game with incredible highs and far too frequent lulls. When it lands on a good piece of content, it can really keep you investment but when it misses, oh boy does it feel like nothing's going on for a while. I really wish content had more longevity to it since I'm basically logging in to cap right now and not much else.

[Anienai]

How do you view this game? :O

Looking down on every non ROE in the game.

[SugarPuff]

I guess my view of the game is more like a social network that offers an entire world to play in, than vice versa. I normally spend my solo time crafting, fishing, at the gold saucer, or engaged in another low-key activity that allows me to "lurk" and watch who's online.My favorite thing to do is a weekly group event with the FC....so much so that I organized it myself despite my abhorrence of leadership roles.