To Steam, or not to Steam.. that is the question

[Flaws]

I think it comes down to whether the person in question cares about having the game on Steam, with the tracked hours, screenshots on their profile and all the other Steam community stuff. I personally like it so I got it on Steam but if not then why bother I guess?

[hagare]

I don't put all my eggs in one basket.
So native I go lol

[Mapleine]

I like Steam plenty but never attach additional DRM to something you don't need to. If there's a plain version and a Steam, go plain unless there's some added incentive from Steamworks or the like.

[Kes13a]

if I could go back in time and buy the game outright and avoid Steam, I would.

not that Steam is bad or horrid, it just has some weird limitations and procedures, such as subscription payments etc.

that said, never have had any issues playing from steam, or using it in general, but it would have a few more perks just buying the "pc version".

[Doc_Seraph]

I steam my rice kupo <3 it comes out fluffy

[Syln]

As much as i like steam, i don't like the idea of going through it to play FF14 (Even warframe, path of the exile or any live service that offer the possibility to use a stand alone client). It's always better (even though less convenient) not to have everything in the same place as it has been said on a previous post.

[Larirawiel]

Never Steam if you have the choice.


Cheers

[Themarvin]

They are going to lock other variants of FFXIV as well to the account over time, it wont only just be Steam, Steam was just oneof the first instances, also would only seem fair.

[Tlachtga]

Steam is the most secure, although that can be a small headache in of itself. As of recently, you have to link your XIV account to your Steam account which means if you're not logged into your Steam account you can't play. if this is a problem for you (cos apparently Steam is the devil and eats all your RAM according to ffxiv community...) avoid Steam. get 2FA regardless of platform.

I switched to PC via steam in 2017, and since then there's been 2 instances where I couldn't log in due to Steam, lasting 20mins and 5mins respectively. people love to overblow this to ridiculous proportions but like a lot of things this community says, they're mostly full of shit.

it allows me to use Steam Wallet for paying sub which is very convenient to me for years since old SE store refused to take my debit card and would lock down purchases for 24hrs any time i tried.

probably the biggest factor, at the time i bought the pc version, it was on sale on Steam and was full price in the SE store. was able to get ARR/HW/SB for less than SEstore wanted for it, and the times i bought SHB and EW off Steam i had discounts so it was also cheaper.

[Raoabolic]

...cos apparently Steam is the devil...

I still will never forgive them for what they did to TF2/classic, DotA/Dota 2, and their handling of the HL series.