What Got You Interested In Playing FFXIV?

[ViolaLance]

Like many here before... FFXI
Really though nothing beats when Dyna was released and you and your entire LS rush in unprepared for it for the first time ever.

[Gabadabs]

I initially got into XIV because I quit playing WoW since I wasn't happy with Activision/Blizzard's behavior at the time.
I was searching for another MMO to play to scratch that itch, and among a few other games I tried, FFXIV was one of them - and it kept me hooked far longer than any others that I tried.
The quality of the game kept me around, what can I say?

[Tsiron]

So I've actually never been an MMO person, it's only been in the last 2 years that I've played any myself (first Dragon's Dogma Online for like half a year before it shut down permanently, then FFXIV). But going back before that, people kept praising Shadowbringers' story in online spaces, so I watched some streams with minimal knowledge of the greater narrative lol (it was still pretty good)

Took them expanding the Free Trial to really convince me to try it out in no small part because I wanted to play an Au Ra but it didn't take long after that for me to cave and buy the rest of the game just because I really wanted to experience the rest of the story for myself. I'd been skeptical of the gameplay because I prefer more action-oriented games (not to say I play many) but it's actually not bad at all, if I had to make one complaint it's there's a lot of skills to keep track of, I wish they'd implement PVP-style combos to free up some keys...

What keeps me interested is story, the characters, the music which is stellar. Sadly can't say the same about most of the design work, but you can't win 'em all...

[VelKallor]

Daylight, sunshine, flight that doesnt take a year, better story, better graphics, better music, better gameplay, better classes and devs that listen to their playerbase.

[Tarryme]

Watching someone play later seasons. It was then that it dawned on me that there was life after ARR.

[Alien_Gamer]

I heard Answers.

[Izar_Chillen]

This is what got me into ff14

[VictorTheed]

A few of my IRL friends who were big FF fans ask me to join them, I guess they thought it would be interesting to have their friend who hasn't played anything RPG related since Zelda A Link To The Past in the early 90s who for years played fighting games and wrestling games come to a game were he didn't even know what a tank or DPS was.

Of those IRL people I joined back in 2013 in the ARR beta, only me and my cousin still play FFXIV today, the same cousin who taught me how RPG/MMO games work by training me in FFXIV and his name in game is Rubber Hammer and mine is the same as it is here.

[Liam_Harper]

I got into FF14 back in late MoP in WoW if I remember correctly, but I never actually quit WoW to play it. I just dabbled in it for something to fill in a content drought, really enjoyed the crafting and never actually got past 50 despite a considerable amount of playtime because professions were so fun. ARR however was simply inferior to MoP. I missed the toybox, flex raids, smooth combat, immortal DK's, pet battles and the clunky system design, like having to dismount to talk to NPC's and not being able to do anything with almost any window, menu, shop or npc chat open grated a bit. But it was fun to fill time.

I stuck with WoW through MoP and WoD, the only reason being that I took over my guild in WoD and managed to drag it through an awful expansion and keep things fun. I stuck with it through most of Legion, but finally got sick to death of Titanforge and the endless grinding Artifact power and left. I tried BFA and lasted a week and never went back again.

It's sad, because WoW is still the superior game, just torn apart and ruined by a disgusting, incompetent, arrogant dev team. While this game has lukewarm gameplay in many areas but the dev best team of any game I've played to date. FF14 respects your time, WoW aims to waste it. FF14 creates games for their fans. WoW hates their fans. And that really matters.

[CaptainFishSticks]

When FFXIV first released in 2010, and I saw that it was receiving a bunch of negative press, I looked at it as the proof that Square-Enix lost its way--focusing more on the graphical capability of their games over any substance. I maintained this outlook even when it was announced that the developers were going to be remaking the game into A Realm Reborn.

I was out delivering pizza and one of my stops was a fellow living alone in an apartment complex. He had his computer positioned in a way that allowed me to see what was on his screen. It would have been extremely awkward if it were anything other than A Realm Reborn's main menu. I asked him out of curiosity how it was and he replied, "I'd tell you if I could log in."

I didn't think much of it at that time, but then a week later I saw the community I play games with had a bunch of members playing A Realm Reborn. So I bought the game and paid for a second month's subscription. I didn't get very far, but I was enjoying what I was seeing. I dropped it for a short time, focusing on other things, and came back properly in the run-up to Heavensward so I could get caught up. Starting fresh on a brand new character gave me an entirely new perspective on the game, and I was hooked.