What keeps you playing?

[Kolsykol]

Savage, EX, PvP, Aglaia, mount farm, glam etc.

I run Savage multiple times a week too, I like to help others out and play different roles.
And I just enjoy the fights.
Yes, actually playing the game is fun it's not just about loot and then forgetting about it.
Crazy right :P?

Honestly, just friends, this game isn't an MMO and is more a social media platform. At least with games like WoW, Gw2 and Lost Ark, I can play the game and immerse myself in dynamic zones, which is something FF14 fails at immensely.

The story was good until Elpis in Endwalker. The story fell apart with logical inconsistencies and ethics that I disagreed with, such as making me a key component in 9 genocides, and the mutilation/devolution of an entire species.

When you put all your eggs in one basket and the basket breaks, it turns out that it's not good.

I can unironically say I enjoyed BFA and shadowlands more than Endwalker because the gameplay was fun, even if it was logically inconsistent. (I played FF14 first since BETA 2.0).

Endwalker has homogenised and ruined multiple classes. Healers and tanks are boring. Classes are linear and uninteresting except for visuals.

Glamour is reused from prior points.

PVP is a worse version of the league of legends, and that's free.

Raiding is meh and doesn't really change and Alliance raids are cool but not that challenging.

Dungeons are linear and boring after 4 runs and the older dungeons had their character removed. Hauke manner is just grey now for some reason.

In all other words, FF14 gets a lot of excessive praise, and if the developer has to tell you to leave the game, then it probably means they aren't going to change.

Like normal JRPGs, it's just an overly stupid and linear story with no real choice except this one is online. Calling FF14 an MMO is an insult to MMOs.

Funnily enough I actually find the zones in FFXIV better and to have more visual interest.
Lets be real here, the open world in WoW is dead.
People just AFK in Orgrimmar or whatever, just like how people AFK in Limsa.
I enjoy my time in the FFXIV zones more tho, they feel more real to me and have more visually impressive set pieces.

I dunno what you're talking about the dev telling people to leave...
Yoshida has said that if you feel burnt out that you can just go and play a different game, FFXIV will still be there later and you can come back when there's new content.
You're framing it in a very strange way that wasn't the intended message at all..
The intended message was that FFXIV isn't a second job and they don't want people to feel forced to play.

I dunno why you'd expect choice in a MMO story either especially choices that actually matters.
Even moreso in such a grand scale and connected story as FFXIV there's no away in hell they could do that.
I also see significantly more social activities being done in FFXIV than I've ever seen in other MMO's, I dunno what you think that MMO's are exactly they're not just about killing monsters they're about the social experience too.

I mean I'd be pretty upset too if FFXIV gave me fake choices like in WoW with joining Sylvanas or whatever I'd rather not have that.
And the whole Elpis thing was going to happen regardless, sooner or later Meteion would've returned. Your characters presence lead to Venat being aware of what happened and being able to take action and lay the ground works for a permanent solution to the problem.
I dunno what you even mean with being responsible for it our presence wasn't what started it and the Ancients were a lost cause they were just delaying their own doom.

I definitely agree with some of the criticism and I do have issues with what they're doing with Job designs too but I still think they have grown significantly more and are much more varied than in WoW.
Stuff like talent trees have honestly not aged well imo, it's essentially fake choices too everyone just googles what the best talents are and that's what they use.
Usually talents are just ridiculously imbalanced too and at least in FFXIV I can play any Job and it won't be insanely underpowered compared to others.

[Vryn]

Savage, EX, PvP, Aglaia, mount farm, glam.

One class in wow and Gw2 has more variation with their talents and gear tier sets than any job in FF14, the Zones in wow, gw2 and lost ark feel like places, and FF14 feels like zones. If you are on Rp servers, there are plenty of people in WoW zones, and you can see the people RP throughout the world. Same with Guild Wars 2. Choice in MMO stories happens all the time, and even the Sylvanus questline offered more choice than anything in FF14. The Elpis storyline did not need to happen, and Metion was a pointless villain.

If you have to tell your players to leave because the company can't provide compelling long-term content, it means the company's capabilities are poor. The team has pushed further away from an MMO into a linear narrative RPG that focuses more on the single-player experience, which is incredibly disappointing and alienates MMO players who want the MMO experience. People have to wait ten years for basic revamps and 2+ yrs for basic customisation.

Content is geared to the worst players in the game with the homogenisation of healers and tanks. Furthermore, the content has been simplified massively under the guise of jank when it was basic positional, debuffs, resistance and environmental to the difference between damage types.