How has the game positively affected you?

[BunniEclair]

It gives me an easily accessible creative outlet and a nice place to relax. When I get bored with battle content I like to decorate and make glams for fun, as well as take pictures with gpose. I get to do it while socializing too, which is nice - especially the last year or so.

[Kanehana]

My personal life isn't all that great either, but things are looking to improve, actually - and FFXIV was one thing that keeps me hoping for a better tomorrow. Not that far off from OP's, really.

It's given me some friends and a home for my heart. It's had its ups and downs, like any other thing that involves even a little socialization, but FFXIV has been a good thing for me.

[SturmChurro]

I don't know, it's a good way to kill time I guess. I like to make glamour in it, I like viera, and the story is decent. I'm mostly here to browse the forums nowadays. It's actually the only online game I play. No real deep personal story here.

[ern815]

The game itself was a miracle turnaround as well I would say.

FFXIV 1.0 was remembered as one of the worst FFs ever and Yoshida turned it around and made it into the success it is today. From Yoshida's (and his team's) devotion, passion and determination and belief to make the game one of the most successful MMORPG today, it made me believe even stronger that success would come to those who have put in their heart and soul in something they have passion for.

Also, the community in FFXIV is generally nice, most of the people I played with are rather patient and determined to work together towards a goal (more specifically, a clear) and nowadays I rarely encounter players badmouthing each other about how bad they are at this game etc. (used to be more frequent a few years ago. It shows that there's still humanity and compassion in the world after all (or in a MMO world).

Also, Yoshida seems like a genuine nice guy who treats his team equal and cares for his team. He tears for Soken who is battling cancer during his speech about his condition and still feeling determined to keep working for the game. I thought that was nice too that the dev team do care about the game and gave their best to work despite their conditions.

[Areic]

Since I love to squat in game it made me do more in real life.

Trying to keep up with my character has both made my knees incredibly powerful and killed about 20 years off of them

[CKNovel]

Alright so... There's a bit of story there, it's a bit dark, slightly. But it involves Hildibrand!

The game introduction was good, before XIV, all Final Fantasy games after X were not Final Fantasy anymore. I also had a big bias towards MMOs due to bad experience with them. So far so light. I took a break and came back in September/October, I played WoW with a friend and it simply motivate me to play XIV again.

I think November 2015 will ring a bell to many people. At this time, there was a terrorist attack in Paris. TV kept talking about it, friends and family kept talking about it, you simply couldn't escape it. For some hours, I felt obligated to watch every bit. Each minutes that passes would reveal more information, it felt like I needed to watch the news for keeping myself informed, that doing anything else would be disrepectful. It kept going on like a vicious cycle as time passes, more horrifying news, more of that feeling that I needed to be informed.

I decided to stop the TV and to play a bit, I just wanted to escape reality.
I logged in XIV, to unlock and do some casual content. No matter what I did, I could not forget about the attack and felt the need to watch the TV again.
I then learn through an FC mate that there is a Gilgamesh fight, I liked FF V and Greg is a cool character, I ask where to unlock it and they tell me to start the Hildibrand quest series.

Hildibrand was exactly what I needed, refresh, amusing, it made my night. I loved the characters, I loved the humor, Godbert was single handly carrying the whole show.
The next morning I had to go back to reality, the week was gloom, but I slept much better thanks to a 3D man getting supplex'd.

Thanks XIV, thanks Hildibrand for making a dark night much more bearable.
And love each others guys, we only have one-shot for it.

[Anienai]

Enhanced my love for large women.

[ksuyen]

People only post because they want to complain. Naturally you won't see much positive thread here but rest assured there are plenty of happy players around.

On the positive note, I log in to Ul'dah and this what I see. Positive community that gather together to pay tribute.

[Meillquei]

This game has been nothing but a positive influence on me since I started in September 2016.

After a brief stint with an FC that I didn't really click with, I joined a new FC about a month after I started. This ended up being one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Fast forward to 2017. 2017 ended up being one of the worst years of my life. I lost two family members to cancer. About seven months after I joined, my FC planned a real life meetup. I decided immediately that I had to try to go to take my mind off the stress I was feeling. I drove halfway across the country to attend. I still consider that trip one of the happiest times of my life. Right before and during that trip is when I lost my family members to cancer. That trip really helped me through it.

This might sound odd, but my character has also been a positive influence on me. I've never felt really OK being myself for most of my life, but I essentially made my character an extension of myself. Playing my character has made me realize that it is in fact OK to be myself. My character has made a lot of missing pieces click into place for me.

[Gameovers]

When I first started I was messing with my ui in the middle of Ul'dah and when I turned my character to look at the crowd there was a midlander female who looked at me and beamed at me. When I looked at the chat it said -so and so beams at you- That moment stuck with me for X amount of years. I started in HW. I dunno why but coming from Tera where people didn't emote and just spammed jumped on their mounts that beam made me lol. We meme and joke and yell about this game so much but largely people in the game are really nice and kool. We really are just a bunch of big kids who just want to have fun. And get head pats. That's mostly why I love playing this game. No matter how crazy the forums get.