WoW is adding multiplayer Trusts....

[Jojoya]

Not only WoW but ESO also has this feature where your AI companions can fill spots in dungeons.

Also WoW's upcoming Delve feature looks more like both Guild Wars 2's Fractals and our Variant dungeons but better. Especially since unlike Variant/Criterion, the partner NPC contributes in combat and you can outfit them with gear alongside earning endgame rewards. Only major difference is I think Delves are solo content only, but I really hope CBU3 arent just sitting in their laurels and are actually looking at their competition.

Theres a lot of improved ideas sitting at the table and they need to start putting a lot of FFXIV's content features to make bank for them

I'm sure they're watching. But hopefully they don't jump the gun and go all in just because a competitor is doing something. Not everything a competitor does ends up resonating with their player base in the long run (Torghast comes to mind).

The FFXIV player base also has different expectations from the WoW player base. Even if something works well for WoW, it may not work well here.

yeah, they hit big 20 years ago with, and coasted off the IP that had existed for years and their player base, but somewhere along the way the people who cared left, or stopped caring. i coasted through 3 expansion of "we heard the complaints and learned" only for them to make those exact same mistakes each time.

i feel a majority of whats left of their player base is suffering from sunk cost fallacies or stockholme. maybe things have changed since their acquisition, but i personally have lost faith in them, they used to be "games for gamers by gamers" but that was a long time ago.

Many of them are loyal to the Warcraft franchise more than WoW itself, or they are very into the WoW style of raiding.

FFXIV is no different because it also has its players that are loyal to the Final Fantasy franchise or the way content is made.

But Microsoft is evidently cutting the remaining lingering ties between Activision and Blizzard so Blizzard will be completely independent again when it comes to creative vision. Great if that happened again, some of my best gaming memories come from WoW between when I started mid-BC and Mists of Pandaria. I'm going to keep an open mind but I won't go back until I've seen enough to convince that things have changed.

[TaleraRistain]

I'm sure they're watching. But hopefully they don't jump the gun and go all in just because a competitor is doing something. Not everything a competitor does ends up resonating with their player base in the long run (Torghast comes to mind).

The FFXIV player base also has different expectations from the WoW player base. Even if something works well for WoW, it may not work well here.

This is true for new features but being able to have Trusts fill in for missing roles is something that has been asked for here in XIV since the whole system was first implemented.

[Jojoya]

This is true for new features but being able to have Trusts fill in for missing roles is something that has been asked for here in XIV since the whole system was first implemented.

I know it has. But I also have a basic wariness when it comes to NPC AI functioning well. It's come a long ways over time but there's still a lot of improvement needed. NPCs can sometimes make things bad enough you wish they weren't even there.

In the past, WoW dungeons on Normal mode tended to be less punishing that some of the more recent FFXIV dungeons when it came to mechanics. I don't know if that's changed in recent years but if it hasn't, it creates quite a bit of leeway for using less than reliable NPC AI. Personally I'd still like to see tester feedback before going the "WoW did this, you have to do also FFXIV" route. Will WoW players feel that their dungeons are also getting "dumbed down" for the sake of NPC AI?