I just want an mmo to be multiplayer outside of instances

[AnnRam]

If you aren't a degen who visit mare lamentorum every day or don't (e)RP It's going to be really hard to make """""""""""Friends""""""""".

[Boblawblah]

If you aren't a degen who visit mare lamentorum every day or don't (e)RP It's going to be really hard to make """""""""""Friends""""""""".

Why do you put friends in a bunch of quotes like that?

[Raraka]

I actually started playing Wakfu on a fresh-start server that they have now and I can see perfectly what you mean

While I know most people playing XIV would preffer duty finder to stay as is, in Wakfu, as there is no duty finder, I have been going out of my way to meet people, just so we can make parties to do dailies or farm gear later. Parking myself outside of a dungeon for the same 5-10 mins I would queue in XIV, asking for party or making one with strangers doing their quest or leveling...

It became soul crushing realizing I talked more with people in Wakfu in a couple days than I did in XIV for the last 2 or 3 months, people REALLY dont have a reason or need to talk with others in XIV and, that really shows me why Bozja and Savage were the most fun content I could think of... because you speak with others

[TaleraRistain]

I think in regards to MMOs in general, developers realized that when they didn't bake forced grouping into the design of their game that a lot of players chose to do things more on their own and interact with others on their own terms and as they wanted to. So you started seeing more options for solo progression than you had back in EQ1's day. There are still ways we can choose to be social in modern MMOs. It's just not something that the game is going to force on players.

[Aldath]

Honestly, this can create a whole set of issues if not implemented correctly. Let me give you three examples, one of which is from our very own game.

Guild Wars 2: This game, for the most part, focuses on open world instances full of activities designed to be completed by groups, much like our exploratory zones. Now, although there are some very cool things, like raiding a huge dragon tree on falling platforms or assaulting an ancient city overtaken by horrors, it creates the issue that when this content is no longer relevant, it becomes almost impossible to complete. Players always move on, that's right, but it's easier to ignore the existanse of instances than something that actively happens on a map; not to mention, you also have to adjust your playtime schedule to the spawn timers of said events. GW2 has twice as much dead content as us in a relatively big MMO, it makes its state look worse than what it really is because it's a bunch of abandoned public events you can't complete.

Lost Ark: Pretty much further proves how the above could be a bad idea. Lost Ark has a horizontal progression system that involves exploring zones and islands which in turn give you rewards that ease your vertical progression. Some of the islands and events are designed to be completed as a community, from organizing a Dwarven ale factory tour to breaking a wall with millions of HP to access an area with collectibles. Same thing happens though: people are done with it, move on, and God help you if you needed to do it because there's no one willing to do it anymore. At least GW2 has tried to make group content an optional part of progress.

FF XIV: No need to look much further, we have Bozja and Eureka. Just like in GW2, they are group effort oriented maps that require a large amount of invested players. Although it presents a way of scaling to a lower amount of players, it doesn't change the fact that people who aren't part of a Discord group or FC will find it incredibly hard to progress thorough each zone, pretty much killing any feeling of spontaneous group play and discovery; also, PF groups for some of the Eureka/Bozja content exist, but are harder to find than what some people would have you believe.

So, yeah, without proper future proofing and incentives, said content can become a waste. I mean, CBU3 can't even properly fix/scale older stuff, I wouldn't trust them to figure out something other MMOs also seem to miss.

[caffe_macchiato]

If you aren't a degen who visit mare lamentorum every day or don't (e)RP It's going to be really hard to make """""""""""Friends""""""""".

Nah, you totally could make friends without gooning. But they’re gonna be playing other games most of the time. To get the most out of FFXIV, you have to be proficient in FFXIV and another game. Because FFXIV is never enough for people anymore. People barely stick around for half the year. And the ones that do mod their clients so much that it’s not even the same game.

[Boblawblah]

People barely stick around for half the year. And the ones that do mod their clients so much that it’s not even the same game.

Which group are you in?

[caffe_macchiato]

Which group are you in?

Have you not seen people's search info? Twitter/Twitch? Discord? You can't escape it unless you're intentionally ignoring it.
https://twitter.com/hashtag/FFXIVScreenshots
https://twitter.com/hashtag/gpose
https://twitter.com/hashtag/ffxivcommunity
https://ffxivvenues.com/
https://www.twitch.tv/directory/cate...asy-xiv-online
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme..._have_this_in/

Or, those with better scruples are likely to take his advice: