FF14 devs just keep doing your thing because my god

[Dzian]

Your comparing apples to oranges. Allow me to use this analogy.
WoW has a skin that I can eat and may be a little chewy. very sweet inside and satisfying. Instantly available off the shelf for enjoyment.
FFXI has a skin that must be removed as it tastes terrible. I must peel that away to see the what lies inside. Given the time and work put in I will enjoy myself.

WoW was SOOO user friendly that it didn't have to explain hardly anything. You were off to the races and everything was laid out slowly and controlled linearity at first until giving you the world. Really good game design and a detailed manual.
FFXI was the opposite of user friendly and you quite literally had to fight with it to update, talk to others for advice, learn where to grind, the enigma of crafting, the sub systems that are BARELY explained. BUTTTTT when you understood all of that you quite literally became a walking encyclopedia of knowledge for others. The community was shaped by the players in FFXI.

The thing that made FFXI great for many of its players was how alive Vanadiel was. It was a dynamic living world and that made it unique among MMOs for the longest time. Every action you took as a player had a real impact and changed the game world in some way. It's ironic really that for a game made 20 years ago Vanadiel was a living breathing world and despite newer technology advancements Eorzea is lifeless and dead.

Vanadiel had so many systems in place that shaped the game world. Every monster you killed had some impact on the balance of power in that region. Every defeat you suffered also tipped the balance.. NPCs and vendors would change stocks and prices based on that balance of power. Your travel options would also be influenced, if your naton didn't hold the outpost you couldnt teleport home from that region.

Vanadiel had dynamic zones with various puzzles to. The Sacrarium library had a maze that had a different path through every game day. The Eldieme Necroplois had its various gates you had to juggle the switches for depending on which part of it you actually wanted to get to.. You had the Toramei Canals with the 3 mage gate to open (unless you were famous in windurst and had the moon orb) You had the Quicksand Caves with its weigthed puzzles.1 galka can open a door 2 humes or 3 taru.. So many little things that made places more inteesting and bought them to life.

Vanadiel also had a much more varied set of enviroments. Open zones, underground zones, mines, castles, defkaults tower, indoor zones even inside a giant tree. Zones fellt different in comparison to 14 where every zone in eorzea is just a bland big open dead space and lifeless.

Vanadiel was also much more populated by players. Eorzea everything is locked off behind instances. So you never see people in the world unless there whacking the same gathering node as you. You dont randomly run past a group of people fighting a boss or anything like that. Unless you count fates but most of the time they're dead and completely ignored anyway and just another thing that doesnt matter..

Fates have no impact or consequence on the world at all which makes them boring and lifeless but again Vanadiel had things that did impact the world. Beseiged, Campaign battles,and I forget the other ones. Things where the outcomes did change the game world.. If you lost at besiged the candescance was stolen and you couldn't teleport. Various NPCs were kidnapped and you had to go rescue them..

The biggest thing really is that in FFXI Vanadiel was quite literally front and centre of everything, Your player was just one inhabitant amoung many. The world wouldnt give way to you. you had to give way to the world. Right down to having to wait for a ferry or airship. all of which bought the game world to life.

In Eorzea and most MMOs of late the player is front and centre and that makes the game worlds dead and lifeless.. If something hapens to eorzea it happens in an instance where it has no effect on the world or anyone else at all.. You are the warrior of light and the 3, 7 or 23 other people you play with are all nobodies...

This is one of the issues with XIV I think. its so focussed on YOU that its essetially a single player experience the people you play with don't matter. and this is where people get bored of it and drop the game because theres no meaningful interactions.. You queue up for content in the duty finder get paired up with random people. if you're lucky you might get a o/ or hi at the statt of the instance and maybe even a gg or tyfp at the end. and thats it. everyone goes there own seperate ways and you never see them again or wouldnt recognise there names if you did. then you go and queue the next duty finder thing and do the same again...

XIV as a game does a great job at pulling fresh new players in... but honestly does a terrible job at keeping them engaged or interested for long.. more and more players getting tired of the same old repetitive boring treadmill and the only thing that keeps them engaged are social connections..

I once said FFXIV is like a cheap restaurant or bar. The food is terrible, the place is a dump and the beer is warm. but if your there with a good group of friends yo ucan still have a good time. (friends being the reason I still play)

I honestly think FFXIV would have been a much better game if they did continue to do there own thing andnot just go the WOW route with everything.. including progression. stuff felt powerful and worth pursuing in XI for example but in XIV everything is just junk you'll throw away tomorrow. which is why so many people don't invest in gear because everything is junk. which makes the game feel less rewarding which when paired with the lack of social connections seems to be a big reason for players dropping it.