How has the game positively affected you?

[astercantus]

With all the negative threads going around, I thought it'd be good for us to share about how FFXIV has positively affected us - whether on a personal level or otherwise!

For me, I started on ShB in the middle of 2020, right when COVID peaked. I was at an all-time low (job offer had been rescinded, stuck at at home all day with anxiety + a toxic environment) and FFXIV was honestly just an escape. But the ShB story just drew me in and after a while I began to identify with what the WoL went through. The breaking point for me was when your character gazes up at the clear blue sky at the end and smiles. Despite having going through so much pain and suffering, the WoL still manages to overcome it all and carries on to see a better future (eternal wind playing did not help at all)...this broke me and I started sobbing uncontrollably at 2am. Since then, my situation has improved a lot, but I still vividly remember how that cutscene gave me the hope and the strength to believe that things would get better.

so yea, I'd love to hear how the game has affected you positively!

[WoW]

It increased my hatred towards casuals.

[HyperSMB]

It eats away time I would otherwise spend stewing over parts of life that annoy me.

[Equitable_Remedy]

All of the games I play affect me positively—if they didn't, I wouldn't play them. If your hobbies don't affect you positively, you need to make better choices.

Y'all are too dramatic with this stuff.

[TheMightyMollusk]

It got me away from WoW.

[MPK]

It gave me the opportunity to witness some next level degeneracy that I've never witness before.

It also proved that casuals can be infinitely more toxic than any raider can possibly be

[Vahlnir]

I was in a pretty bad place when this game came out. It helped keep me occupied during that time and I continue to enjoy it even today. It's also nice that I had FF XIV to fall back on after WoW began swirling the drain. I've made some friends and had a good time. This game is perfect for an ex WoW raider who's raiding days were over years ago. It was a personal choice, but one I don't regret making in the slightest.

[Kolsykol]

I don't have some kind of a big story.
FFXIV just makes me happy because I feel like it's one of the few games that isn't an indie game that has content I like.
FFXIV and fighting games and JRPG's or games like DMC and Bayonetta.
I am so completely jaded by the game industry nowadays particularly in the West and even moreso the AAA industry.

FFXIV has great developers that don't take themselves so ultra seriously and I actually feel good about supporting them.
Like compare the fanfest to basically any other event in the West, it's like the devs just having fun with us vs people reading scripts with a forced smile that is in reality aimed at the investors.
Can you imagine some of the stuff they pulled at Fanfest but at Blizzcon? I can't.

And FFXIV doesn't feel compromised for the sake of being '' safe '' or like it's based on trends.
Like I can't imagine races like Viera and Miqo´te from a Western studio especially a big one, not in the iteration of them we have in this game.
And the gear isn't ultra cereal and trying to be '' lore friendly '' all the time.

Maybe it has more to do with me just prefering the Japanese approach but I also think it's an industry problem I have on a whole too.
Like take the 2B costume for example, if it had been a Western studio does anyone actually believe they'd put it in and not '' alter it ''?
Or the Viera ( female ) reveal trailer and their cultural gear based on Fran.
Maybe it wouldn't '' ruin the game '' but it's like death by a thousand papercuts and I feel like it has been building up over time for a long time and really jaded me.
Just an example lol, but it's the same with Male Viera.
A lot of people are genuinely really turned off by them, but the devs aren't making compromises they just gave them to us and based them on what the fans had asked for.
They're not trying to '' appeal to everyone '', they're appealing to the fans.
And it makes it feel pure to me.

A rare thing I feel.
I just feel like gaming has forgotten what fun is but FFXIV haven't and it makes me happy to log in every day.


Also some of the story is cool in a cheesy way which I really like.
It doesn't take itself too seriously, like the end cinematic against Emet Selch was really cheesy but in a good way it actually made me smile and stand up going '' FUCK YEAH LETS GO! ''.
When I saw my character looking at him being all badass it gave me goosebumps.

[Alxyzntlct]

Fun idea, kudos to the OP for starting it. ^_^

It's funny how it's already come up a couple of times in this thread, but similarly I've recently transitioned from WoW to this game and it's already proving to be a much more positive experience all around, been coming across a lot of nice, helpful folks as I've been leveling. Although interestingly enough, it's not the part I'm enjoying the most...

I have to say, the world itself is incredible, and full to the brim of nostalgia for me! See, I grew up playing the Final Fantasy games (I -> FFXI, w/Tactics being my all time fav), but then I wound up drifting away as I started advancing my working career. It's been Years since I've played an FF game (except Tactics, got the phone version, lol). So coming back to this world has been all kinds of wonderful, from all of the amazing music to the history and the locations and the bajillion little callback items that are strewn throughout the game.

[Avatre]

One positive way was it made me realise how many people weren't a positive part of my life, so I was able to cut them out and become a happier(somewhat) person.

Also let me get some friends who actually want to run stuff together, and have fun doing things together. Not just provide lip-service such as "Let's run that new content together and work on it together"...then have it practically done before I log in after work and refuse to help.

It also gave me a way to escape from the real world and it's problems for brief periods of time to just let my mind relax and recharge...along with all the other games I play.