How has the game positively affected you?

[Illmaeran]

FFXIV gave me an opportunity to indulge myself with activities that I enjoy & positively affecting my mental state.

Surprisingly I also save money by overall margin. Before covid strikes & during earlier months of pandemic, multiple of my hobbies are quite expensive (it adds up over time) vs. buying the game, paying the sub, sitting down and logs in to the world of Hydaelyn.

Who knows what will happen once everything goes back to normal! But I imagine I wouldn’t want to actively go back to old hobbies now that I’ve realized the cons lol. Maybe just once in a while

I hear that! I took up Warhammer 40K after giving up MMOs for a while and my wallet started punching me in the gut ever time I put it in my pocket. I'm back to XIV to save some money.