I'm rooting for WoW

[raelgun]

I agree with what you said, but for me, the far bigger problem was the long-running trend of incorporating more and more elitism into the system. This game actually rewards you for running content with first-time players while farming your endgame gear currency. WoW actively penalizes you for it. They've gone above and beyond this past year, going so far as to incorporate a rating system for your character into the game to make it even easier for players in the game to exclude each other from their runs. As long as WoW continues to double down on that trend, they're going to continue to decline, and FFXIV will continue to ascend simply by having the same type of end game gearing system that WoW had at the peak of its success.

For me, it all boils down to the vast discrepancy between the two game directors' philosophies.

You are a fool if you don't think FF14 players in raiding don't do this as well.

The biggest difference is how different the TOS is and how its enforced, the FF14 playerbase is known to be trigger happy with reports for even minor things.

[Ronduwil]

You are a fool if you don't think FF14 players in raiding don't do this as well.

The biggest difference is how different the TOS is and how its enforced, the FF14 playerbase is known to be trigger happy with reports for even minor things.

The difference is that you have many more ways to get a set of good end game gear in FFXIV without having to set foot in one of those raids that you're talking about. There is no incentive to exclude people from alliance raids or even leveling dungeons in the roulette. Imagine being stuck in the gear that you got from finishing the MSQ unless you're willing to repeatedly run high end content (10 runs per week to unlock three chances at loot) that you're not even allowed to queue for. I know some players in all games will always be elitist, and those are the players who tend to gravitate towards the extreme raids. However, in FFXIV, the rewards for behaving that way don't go beyond exclusive mounts, glamours, and titles. WoW, on the other hand, has built their entire endgame around the elitist culture.

[Alxyzntlct]

The difference is that you have many more ways to get a set of good end game gear in FFXIV without having to set foot in one of those raids that you're talking about. There is no incentive to exclude people from alliance raids or even leveling dungeons in the roulette. Imagine being stuck in the gear that you got from finishing the MSQ unless you're willing to repeatedly run high end content (10 runs per week to unlock three chances at loot) that you're not even allowed to queue for. I know some players in all games will always be elitist, and those are the players who tend to gravitate towards the extreme raids. However, in FFXIV, the rewards for behaving that way don't go beyond exclusive mounts, glamours, and titles. WoW, on the other hand, has built their entire endgame around the elitist culture.

And this is exactly why I dropped WoW even before all of the scandals hit the news; the endgame culture, in both raids and dungeons, was toxically insane and not even remotely worth putting up with. Most of everything about FFXIV has been a complete breath of fresh air (the only exception at this point being actually getting into the game, lol)