FOMO in FFXIV: How pervasive is it?

[Antrix]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently considering giving FFXIV a proper shot after a brief experience with it before. However, there's one aspect of MMOs that I'm quite sensitive to and that's FOMO.

From my experience in ESO, the Crown Store and limited availability items created a strong FOMO effect which was quite off-putting, towards which ZoS is strongly inclining us, almost insisting on in-game purchases. I'm now playing GW2 and find its system much better - the Gem Store has regular rotations and older items are often available again, and I don't have to purchase Gems for real money.

What initially discouraged me from FFXIV was the introduction of the limited-time PvP seasons, which seemed to lean towards inducing FOMO. I might have misunderstood or prematurely made a judgement on this, and would love to have more insights on this topic.

How strong is FOMO in FFXIV? How much does the game rely on limited-time events or exclusives outside of seasonal events like Christmas, etc.? I don't mind missing out on seasonal festivities, but being constantly worried about missing out on certain items or activities can be quite stress-inducing and detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game.

After WoW, both games (FFXIV and GW2) feel like a breath of fresh air to me, where the developers aren't forcing me into anything. I don't want to compare these games literally, but as I mentioned above - just this specific "problem" that is inherent to many games. Nevertheless, the unexplained and inexplicable draw to Final Fantasy does not leave me alone, and the only thing stopping me from plunging headlong into that world is indeed this cursed FOMO.

I'd appreciate any insights you can provide to help me make a more informed decision about investing my time in FFXIV.

Thank you in advance!

[SeiyaSoiya]

so it's not as bad as other games, in fact, it is one of the best in terms of lack of fomo
I can list in one post all the forever missable stuff
1. legacy titles and the legacy tattoo: small coametic things you could only get during an event in 2012 assuming you played in the 1.0 version
2. the regalia mount and noctis lucis caelum outfit: will probably come back in a few years
3. pvp the feast outfits and mounts: will eventually become purchasable using pvp currency
4. pvp series 1, 2 and 3 rewards: also will eventually be purchasable with pvp currency
5. promotional mounts and emotes, merchandise only items such as matoya's hat: eventually purchasable via the square enix merch store but will cost you a pretty penny

I think that's it
every single other mount, minion, cosmetic outfit and emote is acquirable ingame or via the cash shop

[Antrix]

so it's not as bad as other games, in fact, it is one of the best in terms of lack of fomo
I can list in one post all the forever missable stuff
1. legacy titles and the legacy tattoo: small coametic things you could only get during an event in 2012 assuming you played in the 1.0 version
2. the regalia mount and noctis lucis caelum outfit: will probably come back in a few years
3. pvp the feast outfits and mounts: will eventually become purchasable using pvp currency
4. pvp series 1, 2 and 3 rewards: also will eventually be purchasable with pvp currency
5. promotional mounts and emotes, merchandise only items such as matoya's hat: eventually purchasable via the square enix merch store but will cost you a pretty penny

I think that's it
every single other mount, minion, cosmetic outfit and emote is acquirable ingame or via the cash shop

Then it seems I've misunderstood the whole situation. I'll hope that indeed all that was available in the early PvP series will become accessible. Perhaps those were the points that concerned me the most. Thank you so much for clarifying the situation, I hope I'll stay in Eorzea for a long time, it's just so unusual here. I don't know what feelings I experience when I play FFXIV, but it seems to me that it's not a game at all. That is, it's not a game in the traditional sense of the word for me. This happened for the first time when I discovered Dark Souls. And here it's not about the genre, but about some not quite clear feeling, I don't even know how to describe it. FFXIV has a unique atmosphere, and that's what attracts me the most. And the only thing that initially repelled me from all this was fomo.

[Malakii]

Eh i wouldn't necessarily disagree with seiya because it's not as bad as other games but there are a lot of other things like time-limited exclusive emotes that they add to 180$+ statues. Like the statues, they added other things like cookbooks/CDs and hide minions behind them. Not necessarily fomo but, but some of the things are not on the square enix store anymore so gl getting them. TBF tho they have been better about this recently. Seasonal events items that sure you can buy most of on the mog station, but they literally could be added back to the next year's event and be given for free, but instead, the company uses FOMO to generate profit. Old pvp rewards like before CC started as far as I know have not been confirmed to come back and we have yet to see prior season rewards since CC introduction come back. So I will wait and see. They do promotions fairly often and they sometimes use niche companies in these promotions, so some players don't even have a chance to participate let alone it being FOMO.

[Ransu]

FOMO isn't real. Stop getting so hung up on digital items.

[Antrix]

FOMO isn't real. Stop getting so hung up on digital items.

I don't mean to offend you, but given the contradictory nature of your previous posts about FOMO - I'm not very interested in your opinion. No offense, and let's end our conversation here.

[Jeeqbit]

This is the FOMO that exists in the game.

1. Seasonal events. The quests and rewards are no longer available after the event is over, although often the rewards get put on the mog station a year later, so you can pretend you didn't miss the event if you are willing to pay. The rewards sometimes include mounts though.
2. PvP has always had FOMO rewards in the form of top 100 rewards, but this recently changed to be series rewards. This is still FOMO, but you have a whole 4 months to get them.
3. Housing, because if you own a house (which you don't need to), then you have to keep logging in or it's destroyed so that other people can build one.
4. To a lesser extent, raiding is FOMO because hardly anyone will do it in its challenging form after the raid tier is over (after 8 months). It is technically possible to do it with the minimum item level setting if you can get 7 people to help you though.

The last two are a stretch. The seasonal event stuff barely matters. PvP is the worst one. So it's not really that bad in this game.

Seasonal events take literally 30 minutes of your time, out of months between events. It's the most casual content in the game that even people who don't have time for any other content do. You don't need to bother with a house. You can build a static of 7 friends to do old raids with if you put them off for 8 months and miss out.

So it's really just PvP and you can ignore PvP if you want. You may miss out on mounts, minions and glamours from it but you already do, because some rewards like this are exclusive contest rewards for gear/weapon design contests, buying limited-edition music albums, or participating in region-locked events involving retailers such as Amazon or food companies, where the retailer gives you a code to unlock a mount after buying something, or for watching a twitch stream. These events are rare but it means you have to accept there are some rewards you just can't get.

If you are trying to collect all the items in the game, collect websites filter out these time-limited rewards anyway so that you don't have to focus on them.

[Ransu]

I don't mean to offend you, but given the contradictory nature of your previous posts about FOMO - I'm not very interested in your opinion. No offense, and let's end our conversation here.

Or, you could stop getting bent out of shape over digital items. There's no such thing as FOMO, no matter how much people want to pretend something so ridiculous is real.

[Shurrikhan]

Or, you could stop getting bent out of shape over digital items. There's no such thing as FOMO, no matter how much people want to pretend something so ridiculous is real.

"There's no such thing as (a) fear (of missing out)."

I mean, you could say there's no rational basis for said fear. But objectively, it exists. And different designs tend to provoke it more than others.


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As the second post already mentioned, though, XIV's design does not particularly provoke a fear of missing out beyond the ability to find decent parties for initial clears of Savage, since they rapidly fork into only either trap parties or farm/speedbarse parties. Though, admittedly, that can be pretty significant.

[keeper_of_moon]

To a lesser extent, raiding is FOMO because hardly anyone will do it in its challenging form after the raid tier is over (after 8 months). It is technically possible to do it with the minimum item level setting if you can get 7 people to help you though.

I would say this is applicable to anything on-content vs post expac. Eureka and Bozja are much different now compared to then for example.