Why is FFXIV so unpopular?

[Mujen]

My own personal story:

I played FFXI for 4yrs. Switched to WoW & tried other MMOs aswell, some F2P. Had a RL friend tell me he bought FFXIV (this was months ago) & thought it was okay & how they've been working on it. So I kept tabs on it, saw some of the 2.0 proposed deadlines & started to read up on the game, finally buying it and signing up August 8, 2012.
Now it's September 22, 2012: 6 weeks 3days later, I've had enough. 4 Lv.50s AF/Melded Gear/Primal Weps,Etc.

Final straw for me was the server communication lag, I've had enough of trying to do events and communication lag kills me. Eg. Moving while casting is supposed to break ur cast.. It doesn't reliably, MANY times. Or you can LOS (line of sight) Garuda's WS as it's about to go off and still get 1-shot, meanwhile ur dead on the other side of the rocks.. Hows that even possible?? Or raven's double Iron Chariot into a Lunar Dynamo and you can be dead right next to someone who lives..
This ontop of the "spam content" 1% drop gameplay is dull & monotonous. Yes I am bitching due to not wanting to learn how to deal with the game poorly operates.. But coming from other games where I input into the game and it does what it should, I'm not forcing myself to accommodate server lag & repeated time sink gameplay.
So if anyone asks me about FFXIV I will not be inclined to say "sure try it!" For now myself, I am going to be one of those who will be looking at 2.0 & wondering if I should give it a shot. Might go play GW2 with my RL friend (same friend who got FFXIV, whom btw quit for GW2).
And I will say, the only "skill" in this game is learning to deal with server communication lag (i.e. not casting cuz boss might use TP move soon & animation lock will kill you). I'm done, might log on out of bored, which I've been bored for at least 2 weeks now, so I guess the game held my attention for 1mo. & I'll keep tabs on forum & 2.0 release info.

Economy:
For those who are Q_Qing about the recent Atomos added gil, don't forget that it's very possible for SE to make a lot more rare/ex gear. I personally find that having AH gear being best/2nd best gear is annoyingly stupid. Once that's not an issue ppl won't cry about gil as much.

Oh & I finally got my retainer into Ul'dah 2wks ago.. Fk M.Wards!

[NationOfZealots]

The way I see it, FFXIV is the first and only MMO I've played and the reason for me why this is the worst game of the Final Fantasy series despite it's verbatim technological advantage is a shift from offline self-paced play to gameplay that introduces elitism and self-pace is non-existent, you either try and get a party together or you can't actually progress in the game, of which there seems to be MANY scenarios that can't be won because no party is available for it.

The social aspect of the game needs to have better infrastructure IMO.

[Seif]

The way I see it, FFXIV is the first and only MMO I've played and the reason for me why this is the worst game of the Final Fantasy series despite it's verbatim technological advantage is a shift from offline self-paced play to gameplay that introduces elitism and self-pace is non-existent, you either try and get a party together or you can't actually progress in the game, of which there seems to be MANY scenarios that can't be won because no party is available for it.

The social aspect of the game needs to have better infrastructure IMO.

I agree to a point. It's fun to party when it's not a hassle but it sort of is in XIV.

Also the current solo quests don't have any effort put into the story presentation so playing the game solo is currently a pretty bland experience.

One thing I hope they improve is the story and story driven questlines.

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

The way I see it, FFXIV is the first and only MMO I've played and the reason for me why this is the worst game of the Final Fantasy series despite it's verbatim technological advantage is a shift from offline self-paced play to gameplay that introduces elitism and self-pace is non-existent, you either try and get a party together or you can't actually progress in the game, of which there seems to be MANY scenarios that can't be won because no party is available for it.

The social aspect of the game needs to have better infrastructure IMO.

I like this point. Also, it's an interesting one coming from someone who has only played FFXIV as their MMO. Take your opinion and place it with a person who has played all the other current MMOs out there. They more than likely won't give FFXIV a thought in this aspect.

There are parts of this game that should not be casual and require a group. The obvious content being primals and instanced dungeons. However, outside of that, you really don't get rewarded for doing solo content. Everything worthwhile requires a group and this is simply an outdated philosophy for MMOs. There should be a nice mix of the two with their own rewards to scale with the difficulty.

This will make the game that much more enjoyable for several types of players.

[RudyFails]

Everything worthwhile requires a group and this is simply an outdated philosophy for MMOs.

You have got to be kidding me.

In a game... where you play said game... with tons of other people... trying to accomplish similar goals... being in a group is outdated.

[BruceyBruceyBangBang]

You have got to be kidding me.

In a game... where you play said game... with tons of other people... trying to accomplish similar goals... being in a group is outdated.

It is when it's the only option for unique rewards. A casual player isn't expecting the same loot or progression that of a player with more free time to devote to endgame activities. As it stands right now, you have nothing to look forward to, but progression in levels if you're someone who wants to just sign in a jump into the game.

Also, that doesn't mean SE has to promote solo play and no team work. You can implement content that requires multiple people without creating a party and has rewards appropriate for the victory. This is a system GW2 has. It is going to be difficult for FFXIV to keep up with that type of login and go player without options like these because this is the direction where MMOs are heading. Whether people like it or not.

[Mujen]

It is when it's the only option for unique rewards. A casual player isn't expecting the same loot or progression that of a player with more free time to devote to endgame activities. As it stands right now, you have nothing to look forward to, but progression in levels if you're someone who wants to just sign in a jump into the game.

Also, that doesn't mean SE has to promote solo play and no team work. You can implement content that requires multiple people without creating a party and has rewards appropriate for the victory. This is a system GW2 has. It is going to be difficult for FFXIV to keep up with that type of login and go player without options like these because this is where MMOs are heading. Whether people like it or not.

I solved your problem, see Concept#1 above. (^_^)

[Smither]

It is when it's the only option for unique rewards. A casual player isn't expecting the same loot or progression that of a player with more free time to devote to endgame activities. As it stands right now, you have nothing to look forward to, but progression in levels if you're someone who wants to just sign in a jump into the game.

Also, that doesn't mean SE has to promote solo play and no team work. You can implement content that requires multiple people without creating a party and has rewards appropriate for the victory. This is a system GW2 has. It is going to be difficult for FFXIV to keep up with that type of login and go player without options like these because this is the direction where MMOs are heading. Whether people like it or not.

So true, also it's way to hard to find a party for stuff when most everyone has it completed and so this creates an annoyance for players. I've been in like 10 linkshells that will go quiet once asked for help lol.
This game honestly needs some kind of match making or npc's like the old guild wars (haven't played new one yet) had where you can choose the ones you want to form a quick party to help complete a quest that nobody will help with.

[bahley]

Well that ARR listing is new... over 4000 people are following the original FFXIV.

I didn't even know there were two pages on Gamespot for FFXIV until seeing this post.

[Starlord]

Well.. Well.. On the FFXIV Facebook page there is over 55k! That's good considering how FFXIV poorly launched! :P.

If the game is really good as Yoshi-P is making out to be, then the other people that were lost before will come back ( even if they said I'm never coming back after that crappy launch) because I'm sure they wanted this game to succeed as much as we did back in those days.

Ever seen the Movie Easy A? How the 1 Rumor turned it into everyone hating her and it took less than a school day for everyone to know.

Words travel fast, If this game is turning out good at Launch people will here it eventually and there's a high probability that they'll come back to check it out.

This is your last chance SE, but I know Yoshi-P will pull through.