FF14 devs just keep doing your thing because my god

[KaijinRhada]

A lot of the WoW hate is just resentment. For many people, WoW used to be a brilliant game. I personally enjoyed it and spend countless hours there which I don't regret. However over time they removed or ruined a significant number of things that people liked, to the point that millions who enjoyed the game finally had enough and had to move elsewhere.

People are just angry at the devs for wrecking something they loved. That's why they take satisfaction at seeing Blizzard struggle, wish for them to do badly or ramble on about how FF14 is superior. Secretly I imagine a good number of players would actually prefer to be playing WoW right now, just a version where all the old things they enjoyed and praised the game for still existed and were built on. Classic barely scratched that itch, as good as it might be, it's outdated content that's been seen and done and new story, zones, classes, ect keep things exciting. I love FF14 but in all honesty if WoW was as good as it has been in the past, I wouldn't be here.

The anger mindset is very unhealthy though. It's that abusive relationship syndrome, where even after you've moved past it, you cling to that resentment. WoW isn't going to die or the devs "learn their lesson" anytime soon, nor is it likely to improve when the old team is long gone. They'll probably have millions of subscribers for years to come. It's just how it is. Best to just look back at the good times and memories and look forward to more to come in FF14 or other MMO's.

This is generally my feeling, and it's true. People will sour to things that they feel have wronged them and I have seen and experienced a level of schadenfreude directed at Blizzard (particularly when it comes to quality assurance, which sometimes >>feels<< completely absent from WoW). Overtime though, I let it go. I understand that devs aren't static, people retire or move on, and from there an enduring franchise will continue and evolve. But just as it changes, a player's interest will change with it. For me, personally, my interests no longer align enough with what WoW is continuing with to keep being subbed.

I still keep up with WoW news to see if there's anything to look forward to enough for me to return. Since BfA there hasn't been. I had in the past unsubbed between expansions from burnout, but the big tipping point for me was the continuation of Titanforging and the return of ham-fisted faction conflict as the main plot driver. On the side of gearing, I was generally pretty lucky, but I still didn't like Titanforging as a concept. For story, the cold war style faction conflict in vanilla and it being an undercurrent in WotLK was fine, but I didn't fancy it in MoP and BfA seemed forced. The way it got narratively pushed in BfA with weird characterizations of different notable NPCs, and a strange plot retread that made it feel like MoP 2 Electric Boogaloo, on top of the recurring burnout on the established systems made it an easy pass for me.

SL seemed like things have since improved, but it didn't spark any interest in me. Continued issues regarding class balance and responses to reported bugs/concerns on PTR and beta are relatively the same as I have experienced before, which is to say not fantastic. Story beats were, well, WoW was never going to win accolades on narrative anyway. Ironically, my mainspec was doing quite well (though my off-spec appears to be doing mediocre at best), but raiding itself isn't enough justification for me to return. For now, I'll continue to reminisce about the bygone days of my WoW career, and keep being entertained by the likes of Rextroy.

[MintnHoney]

Sounds like to me that people who like FFXIV more are people who want the easier game.

Not quite.
They're actually here for the (e)RP and social scenes.

[linayar]

To each their own I guess. 12 million active subs at its peak says otherwise though!

Keep in mind that it's a peak that was achieved with not much competition, and I don't just mean other MMOs. Classic in modern time, for example, only managed to double (or more than double depending on what you read) subscriber count during BfA. That means that Classic is only a little bit more if not as popular as BfA.

With that said, they've finally announced TBC Classic. So I'm waiting for WotLK Classic and specifically the phase where dungeon finder is available since I have no interest in playing WoW without dungeon finder.

As for retail WoW in general, I think playing both WoW and FFXIV as a casual is really great. A lot of problems that some people seem to have with either or both games just don't affect me, though I do have my own problems with both games, but certainly not as big as some others seem to have.

[gumas]

i dont like the current wow and has been stop playing after legion.

their principle just make me shake my head, ever since legion expansion they have this almost endless grind when you reach max level, they said its a new feature so people can enjoy the game and so on. then they introduce so many kind of "tokens", this token for this reward that token for that reward this token to get THAT token and so on

the wow now is basically demand you to pour your time and commitment if you want to stay "relevant" to the game. the whole "system" is just the game way to tell you to keep subbing

[AutumnsHollow]

Wow during burning crusade and early wrath before duty finder was it's finest it's ever been imo. But retail wow is fun too in it's own way. Not as fun but still fun.

14 and current wow both have their own issues and they're both good in their own ways. They could both use less pride from development side though. I do think 14's issues are less obvious though to players unless you're a current player who plays patches as they're released.

[Kinazu]

I've always had mixed feelings for WoW. I've tried getting into the game 3 times by now, but it never really worked out.
The first time that I actually booted up the game was at the start of TBC, but I was young, got to around level 10ish and was just bored and lost (and my English wasn't great either back then), so I don't count that one but it is where I started.

The first time I gave it an honest try was during Legion. I started mid-expansion with some friends, decided to boost a character as I couldn't get through the level grind to save my own life. I did enjoy the Legion storyline even though I only understood about 25% of it. But all the dailies and grinds didn't really hook me so I noped out after a month.

Then the next try would be BfA, which I've done in two phases: The first part as a Dwarven Shaman, and the last part as a Vulpera Shaman when they got released. I again, enjoyed the first story bit but I hated the Horde story in the later arcs of the expansion. Despite surviving the grind for Vulpera I was pretty burned out afterwards, but I decided to stick around for a bit and try some more high-end content. So I managed to do a few Mythic+ dungeons and I actually enjoyed doing them. But it wasn't enough to keep me hooked and so I bailed out again.

My most recent attempt would be SL, where I was actually there on day 1 of the expansion. I again, enjoyed the overall story. Some zones were really hit-or-miss for me and others I really, really loved. And despite the grind not feeling that forced in SL it just didn't keep me hooked either. Played it for 2 weeks and I just didn't feel... Rewarded? My biggest concern was actually getting gear. It was really tedious to get gear (for me) to even try and attempt Heroic dungeons, let alone Mythics. Oh, and being yelled at for not knowing a new dungeon's mechanics day 1 was also a thing and didn't sit well with me. All in all, I loved the "single-player" time of SL, not so much what came afterwards.

I'd say that my biggest gripe with WoW is the community/mentallity. Not saying they're all bad, not at all! But as a whole I felt like no matter what you did, unless you brought x spec with y traits and z gear you'd get laughed at, yelled at or just get scolded. I've had to endure multiple people berating me for playing Arcane Mage throughout multiple expansions. I love it because it kinda reminds me of XIV's Black Mage, and it fills that niche for me. Another thing that always bugged me was that you needed (example) ilvl 100 to enter a party for a certain type of content. Said content dropped ilvl 90 gear. How was I supposed to get to ilvl 100 if it was locked by the community to 10 ilvls above it? Joined mutiple guilds where I would be rejected from doing x content with them for not having high enough ilvl (even though on average I would have been fine for said content), but their friends having an even lower ilvl than I had were more than welcome to tag along. Sadly this was not an one-and-done kinda deal, it happened in multiple guilds.

All in all, I just felt I wasn't welcome and that drove me away in the end. I do believe there are plenty of people willing to help new players in WoW, but I feel (and I hope I am wrong) the majority doesn't care. I have a lot of friends who play WoW and tried getting me back in the game, but when it gets to it even they'd drop me in a heartbeat to do their end-game raids.

I don't think WoW is a bad game. I think it can be fun and there is an appeal if you like what content they bring. I for one know that I love their Mythic+ dungeons. However I feel it's the overall community not really helping the newer players and/or pushing them away even, that hurts the game the most. In XIV it's the total opposite. If you need help, you can shout in the City States, put up a PF for it or just ask a few random people and more likely than not you'll find someone willing to help you, and most of the time just because they can or want to help newer people.

So, no I don't think either game is better than the other. I am just biased because one community has helped me out and the other let me drop off a cliff. That doesn't mean that I won't try WoW again when their new expansion will eventually hit. I'll probably give it a shot and see what the new story is. But I just don't think I will even get hooked to the game because... The lure is being eaten by other people rapidly.

Anyway, that's my two cents and a bit of a rant.

[Garet]

I just returned to FFXIV since I really love the FF world here. I still love shadowlands though. Both game have pros and cons

For me the biggest cons of FFXIV is its website, forums and account management service UI. It is so archaic that it can turn new players off by being frustrated in navigating it just to create an account etc. Overall though FFXIV in the game is awesome, except for pvp and again certain UI, it has awesome characters visuals stories and animations.

[Puremallace]

Very true but it would depend on what kind of people one surrounds themselves with.

Coming from WoW where many player's egos depend on clearing high end content as soon and as fast as possible for prestige that kind of attitude is sadly the accepted norm. (No matter how much they might trivialize the challenge by stacking the most broken combs and specs)

That is why that community is so terrible over there, a huge % of them have forgotten it is a VIDEO GAME and not their main source of self worth.

This is a design decision that the game director actively makes to have professions be next to useless, content outside of raiding be useless and have incredibly strange ways of allowing casuals to progress. You do not see this in FF14 because on day 1 of the new patch you could get 510 ilvl penta melded crafted gear, on day 1 tokens for 510 gear, in a few weeks of not going near a raid get 520 gear doing dailies and if you wanted to push 530 gear then do the Savage tier.

The main difference between the two games is you can take a day off and go at a casual pace to get geared without some huge grind. The elites still get gear capped on MULTIPLE characters before the casual gets a full 520 set but where is the forum rage that you see on WoW vs FF14 on this issue?

My main fascination with the FF14 dev team is they have not done what every single other dev has done and follow Blizzard blindly into the abyss. The thread is really not hating on WoW but pointing out to the forum mods and whatever dev reads this that I agree with your design philosophy.

There was NEVER a single day playing WoW where I thought of buying a 6 month bundle but in FF14 it is common practice for me to do just that. I don't even think about it because I do not have to fear the FF14 devs going off their meds and radically changing the game from 1 patch to the next much less what they do with an expansion.

What is truly sad about WoW is if you listen to J. Allen Brak it sounds like he truly wants to make an enjoyable experience but continues to let Ion HazExcuses tell him everything is fine and the players are just complaining for the sake of complaining.

[Jeeqbit]

I buy the 6 month subscriptions too. There is not even a question about it. Everything is highly consistent and you know exactly how basic things like patch cycles and gearing will work as far into the future as you need to know.

[Xeronia]

I think for me as I did watch Blizzcon and the WoW Q&A with a friend, we both were rather unimpressed all around about anything related to WoW. Their big announcements had been the first major patch of Shadowlands with an in game cinematic for 9.1 and the most predictable Burning Crusade Classic.

Moving onto their Q&A they really needed to figure out what the heck a push to talk button was because man without it would could just see how...unhappy the Shadowlands team seemed to be and how nonsensical their answers to easy questions were when you hear the BC team laugh a ton at failed answers. After that Q&A I don't think anyone working on Shadowlands is excited about it and that really hurts the product when the people representing it aren't excited. Say what you will about Yoshi P. but the man clearly loves 14 and is almost always happy to share information about it, I do not get the same feeling form Ion Hazzikostas who always seems exhausted talking about the game.