I just want an mmo to be multiplayer outside of instances

[Zolvolt]

Hello, this is kind of just a rant off my chest, but I'm struggling with playing mmo's lately because they're all so solo-oriented or instance oriented. All the group activities are going to result in me never seeing people again and our conversation limited to a "hi", a joke here or there and a "gg" never to be seen again.

Why is RP or statics the only mmo part of the game right now?

[Boblawblah]

It sounds like you need to find a group of friends to play with.

[Asari5]

a group to travel through those elite areas full with overworld enemies?

[RitsukoSonoda]

A large part of the issue is the design direction of the game essentially being built like a single player with optional player slots for friends in most content. It also resulted in a heavy story driven focus with your character as the unstoppable hero that hardly ever acknowledges the existence of other players outside of a handful of cutscenes where they told you to find allies before a trial or something. Also the actual overworld is severely lacking in staying power for players as the zones mostly end up as ghost towns once the story moves away from them and players have bought all the things they want from the crystal vendors or gotten their drops from the super fates. There are also convenience features like duty finder which eliminated the need to travel to duty entrances after unlocking them the first time so people can just lounge around all day in a town, FC house, private house, etc and queue duties.

[KageTokage]

I do think we could use more in the way of large-scale multiplayer content...which exploratory zones provided the most of.

When it comes to the overworld hunts, special FATEs, and treasure maps are the only things that drag people out in large quantities.

[Jeeqbit]

I do see people again on my world, quite a lot actually. Often the same hardcore players are at whatever the latest grind is, such as a beast tribe, custom delivery, the gold saucer, hunts or where ever else. I see the same people at hunts especially. The idea of a Free Company is you all become friends and hang out at the FC house. As you mentioned, roleplaying or venues is a common way people see eachother regularly as well. The gold saucer is a place people interact sometimes as well.

The problem with open world content is they can't control how many people are there. Sometimes it can be too much, the enemies melt in an unintended way and everything lags. Sometimes it can be too little and everyone struggles with the open world content. Instances allow this to be properly controlled and balanced so that the content only happens when there is the right amount of players.

[Zolvolt]

I guess I don't see [doing content by myself in the vicinity of other people doing content by themself] as a multiplayer experience.

[chaotix69]

Start a FC. Or use the party finder and advertise what you're looking for. You will meet people over time that you can play with regularly. I personally like the way the game is right now, but video games also don't consume my life, so that might be why I find it appealing.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Start a FC. Or use the party finder and advertise what you're looking for. You will meet people over time that you can play with regularly. I personally like the way the game is right now, but video games also don't consume my life, so that might be why I find it appealing.

Off their initial post it felt to me like the OP was actually looking for either an experience more like older MMO's like FFXI during it's prime where the majority of the game's content was in the overworld as opposed to locked instances with a handful of people that dissolved the moment the boss or task was completed, or the lively and social MMO worlds depicted in various anime/manga centered around an MMORPG.

[LilFlowers]

No one is gonna hit up a random they just did content with and ask to be friends, you have to go out of your way to make those connections even within an FC and even then those connections might not be the strongest if it's all based around one game and your mutual enjoyment of it. It can be tough but I think a lot of people assume you wanna be left alone to do your own thing. I'd also encourage you to try Guild Wars 2 and either level boost or push through its initial (even more single-player feeling than FF if you can believe it) personal story quests, and go out into it's open world to try that out for a bit.

It has a focus on open world group content that anyone can easily join in on, imagine if every map in FF was like Bozja/Eureka with farmable world bosses popping off constantly. Even with a game like that you can still feel like you're alone and doing content "beside" people though which brings me back to my original point, in order to do content WITH people you kinda have to step back and stop doing content for a second and just talk to people. I've found myself hanging out with people who don't even do dailies or keep up with the weekly tome cap which no offense isn't my style of play, so I find myself more often than not doing my own thing and reaching different goals in the game now days.

Also, linkshells, discord, and PF use those tools to find like minded people or even maybe recommend the game to an IRL friend. It sucks but the days of a social MMO on the level of old school Runescape or Everquest is kinda done which has negative and positive consequences that we gotta adapt and deal with as online game enjoyers.