Wow refugees, what are you enjoying about the game?

[Kyriani]

While XIV isn't as crazy as some WoW expansions have been, to claim that you can just "do anything you want" and not be behind in some way is still not accurate.

I suppose there's some subjectivity to my claim. Maybe it's not accurate all the time, or in every possible way, but it is accurate much of the time for me. At least it is in any way that's player power related as far my main job is concerned.

There are often significant periods where I have the best gear I can get for my main job and there's nothing for me to pursue as far as player power goes (without considering alt jobs). That leaves me feeling free to pursue just about anything without fear of falling behind. If I don't need tomestones I don't have to run my daily roulettes. If I have my main job at max level and max geared for a particular patch, I can go futz with alt jobs, collect Blue Mage spells, or decorate my house, and never "fall behind" from my perspective.

I guess a better way to say it would be that FFXIV gives me a break from the treadmill periodically and let's me enjoy the fruits of my labors for a bit before the next content patch comes and adds a new tier of player power to pursue. During that "down time" I can engage in any frivolity I like without fear of falling behind.

[neocount]

Too. Many. Buttons.

[TheRevenantHero]

I suppose there's some subjectivity to my claim. Maybe it's not accurate all the time, or in every possible way, but it is accurate much of the time for me. At least it is in any way that's player power related as far my main job is concerned.

There are often significant periods where I have the best gear I can get for my main job and there's nothing for me to pursue as far as player power goes (without considering alt jobs). That leaves me feeling free to pursue just about anything without fear of falling behind. If I don't need tomestones I don't have to run my daily roulettes. If I have my main job at max level and max geared for a particular patch, I can go futz with alt jobs, collect Blue Mage spells, or decorate my house, and never "fall behind" from my perspective.

I guess a better way to say it would be that FFXIV gives me a break from the treadmill periodically and let's me enjoy the fruits of my labors for a bit before the next content patch comes and adds a new tier of player power to pursue. During that "down time" I can engage in an frivolity I like without fear of falling behind.

I definitely feel like I can just fuck around more in FFXIV than I did in woW. Simply because there's so many things to do that are actually fun and rewarding. Like Palace of the Dead or Golden Saucer.

[Tenjen]

Too. Many. Buttons.

This is the "what do you enjoy thread" there are other threads for whining already.

[ippollite]

I think that the main point of that advice is that you'll get too much xp if you do all the quests and that the side quests are really valuable when you're levelling your second and third job.

Most of the stuff I've heard is do the MSQ and all the Blue Plus quests. The only thing people say to skip are the actual side quests that are the yellow exclamation points. I would definitely agree with skipping those and coming back to do them on another job. The MSQ is super long as it is and doing all the quests in the game will probably burn you out.

You're both correct, so i'll assume i was a bit too literal when i read the advice back when i started out.

Who would even ONLY play through the MSQ? You'd have to be the turboiest (and brokest) nerd!

So, yeah, sorry. I have a terrible habit of thinking my personal experience is everyone elses reality.

And with that, the point: I have lived in terror of the final steps of faith since i first heard about it. ONE akh morn (one???!) and 2 dead dps later, its over. And then i got a super sweet cut scene... and well...

Ive spent the last 100 or so hours in a state of growing panic. Ive earned this Hildibrand respite.

Actually: Now i think about it... did that dragon 'dumbo' me?

[Katchii]

Who would even ONLY play through the MSQ? You'd have to be the turboiest (and brokest) nerd!

Speaking as an avid FFXIV fan, I will play only the MSQ if I could. It's the main reason I play this game to begin with, so if I can get what I want out of it without having to do anything else, that's great.

Granted, I don't ONLY play the MSQ, I just don't touch anything else until I'm done with it. I have every job maxed out and have done almost every quest in the game (I'm not a crafter, so haven't done all of the quests that require crafters).

So, yeah, sorry. I have a terrible habit of thinking my personal experience is everyone elses reality.

This is not uncommon.

And with that, the point: I have lived in terror of the final steps of faith since i first heard about it. ONE akh morn (one???!) and 2 dead dps later, its over. And then i got a super sweet cut scene... and well...

Both Steps of Faith instances were show stoppers for a long time for some people when they were current. Felt great once you actually completed them though. But Final Steps of Faith was a relatively huge hurdle because of the mechanics involved and just how many of them were brutally unforgiving.

Ive spent the last 100 or so hours in a state of growing panic. Ive earned this Hildibrand respite.

I personally love the Hildibrand quest lines.

The ones from ARR and HW had me literally laughing out loud with their frivolity and whimsy, reminding me of the Saturday morning cartoons I used to watch. They're a great distraction and break from the stuff you normally see in game.

I do understand why some people just think they're stupid though and don't fit in thematically with the rest of the game, but to me, that's exactly the whole point.

Actually: Now i think about it... did that dragon 'dumbo' me?

I have no idea what you mean by getting "dumbo'd" can you elaborate?

[Katsutomai]

Customization. Facial expressions. Character and NPC interactions. Feeling like I'm actually truly building up relations with NPCs. That you can do all the Jobs on a single character. Same for Professions. I like that Reputations, mostly, aren't annoying and actually amusing quite often. The huge amount of actual Emotes that there are. From /shiver to /eatapple that actually has your character doing both. Estinien and Y'shtola.

I could keep going, but.. Yeah.

Edit: Whoops! Forgot the most important part. The Story and side Stories are amazing.

[ippollite]

eep! What i mean is... um... i mean... well... what i mean is... um... i mean, er...: Play the game how you want?!? But if you're a new player, enjoy the smorgasbord, dont JUST go for the meat and potatoes when theres all these delicious side dishes available to you. Hang on. I live in Korea.

So whats gonna happen if you ever come here is that someone is probably going to invite you out to galbi (korean bbq place). Your korean mate is going to pick a main dish for about 20,000 won. SOOOOOOO CHEAP!!! Its going to be a plate of raw meat and some veggies (mushrooms, peppers and onions probably). But then you're gonna be hit with the side dishes. And korea does not screw around with the side dishes. You're gonna struggle to find space to fit them on your table. You're gonna have all the side dishes you could ever dream of. And you can call for a refill on them at any point in your meal. Think of it like olive garden 'bread sticks' (ive never visited the US, so ive no idea if im just reinforcing a stereotype). But basically, theres this meal... this meal comes with so much other (unmentioned) shit that you'll come away super happy even if you just want some bread sticks. Is that the point?

I love wow (1 million (i assume) hours of playtime). I love ff14 (250 hours of play time). I also love eso (600 hours according to steam). And destiny 2 (230). All i think thats happened is theres a fourth game on my core rotation outside games like cyberpunk, mass effect, gta, rdr2, etc. I love them all.

As for the dumbo comment. A dragon told me: "you justified my granting you my power.. but it was thanks to your skill you succeeded, not my power". She dumbo'd me.

PS: I loved the arr hildibrand quest. Because i spoil the game for myself, i learned that it got repetitive and formulaic. So i avoided it in heavensward... until now (3.4) when i think, after THAT cutscene (pre final steps of faith), its time for some genuine fun. If i was a crafter, id probably do it with my beast tribe moogle quest (level up your crafting, folks, the other two mounts are meh), but im not, so i suppose i have to live through the mandervilles.

[jellmoo]

I'm still super new to the game, so take with a grain of salt, but the two things I'm loving most are:

1) The visuals. The game is fucking beautiful. I was worried that the anime stylings of a JRPG style MMO would turn me off (and I don't really love the character designs) but the scenery and overall landscapes are just gorgeous. Each zone type has a beauty that is unique to that zone, and it really works and letting you marvel at the world around you.

2) The immersion of the game world. The world feels more alive than WoW does. The cities feel more populated and more full, their layouts tend to be more interesting, and the NPCs you encounter are more varied and the simple act of having so many of them named is a great touch. Where WoW cities feel sterile and purely utilitarian from a gameplay perspective, FF14 cities feel like an actual place where things happen.

[ippollite]

I'm still super new to the game, so take with a grain of salt, but the two things I'm loving most are:

1) The visuals. The game is fucking beautiful. I was worried that the anime stylings of a JRPG style MMO would turn me off (and I don't really love the character designs) but the scenery and overall landscapes are just gorgeous. Each zone type has a beauty that is unique to that zone, and it really works and letting you marvel at the world around you.

2) The immersion of the game world. The world feels more alive than WoW does. The cities feel more populated and more full, their layouts tend to be more interesting, and the NPCs you encounter are more varied and the simple act of having so many of them named is a great touch. Where WoW cities feel sterile and purely utilitarian from a gameplay perspective, FF14 cities feel like an actual place where things happen.

Can i point out something? Limsa Lominsa theme. Then Limsa Lominsa theme (nighttime). I know it sounds dumb... but for some reason this is why i love this game. Its that 60 bps of the night theme that sucked me in.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Think of it like olive garden 'bread sticks' (ive never visited the US, so ive no idea if im just reinforcing a stereotype).

Yes, it is common at dine in restaurants like Oliver Garden or Claim Jumper for you to get a side dish like chips or breadsticks that can be refilled for free on demand. Said dish is usually placed on the table early on (along with the drinks you ordered) to keep you occupied early on until your actual orders arrive about 10-20 minutes later.

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PS: I loved the arr hildibrand quest. Because i spoil the game for myself, i learned that it got repetitive and formulaic. So i avoided it in heavensward... until now (3.4) when i think, after THAT cutscene (pre final steps of faith), its time for some genuine fun. If i was a crafter, id probably do it with my beast tribe moogle quest (level up your crafting, folks, the other two mounts are meh), but im not, so i suppose i have to live through the mandervilles.

Still has some funny jokes. The Stormblood Hildibrand questline unlocks another trial so it's worth doing that if you want extra content you can queue for.

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2) The immersion of the game world. The world feels more alive than WoW does. The cities feel more populated and more full, their layouts tend to be more interesting, and the NPCs you encounter are more varied and the simple act of having so many of them named is a great touch. Where WoW cities feel sterile and purely utilitarian from a gameplay perspective, FF14 cities feel like an actual place where things happen.

Eh, I'd say that only Kugane (Stormblood city) really feels like a real city (due to there being a lot of houses onscreen at once, and higher number of NPCs walking around onscreen). Ul'dah and Ishgard (Heavensward city) still sorta suffer from Dalaran toy set syndrome, where it feels like you are running around through a compressed lego city or a doll playhouse, rather than a fully realized city. The Crystarium is poorly designed, with a huge plaza but it is very empty (and even more jarring in cutscenes when the plaza is filled with... barely 20 NPCs, when there should be thousands).

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Can i point out something? Limsa Lominsa theme. Then Limsa Lominsa theme (nighttime). I know it sounds dumb... but for some reason this is why i love this game. Its that 60 bps of the night theme that sucked me in.

Yeah I love the Limsa night theme. Very relaxing. Love both Gridania day and night. I also love both Ul'dah day and night; the day theme sounding majestic and the night theme sounding contemplative. Not too fond of any of the Ishgard themes; the Pillars day theme is too bombastic. I do quite like the Firmament music, though. Kugane day and night is good. Crystarium day is good.

[cparle87]

I think it's just the fact that there are other players around.

High level players doing low level dungeons, etc. I think one of the biggest mistakes WoW has made was to make easy content useless. I used to love doing quick dungeon runs, blasting out 75%+ of the overall damage for Valor points, etc. Now, it's just "Run raids and M+".

Ran quite a few dungeons and nobody has told me to kill myself for being bad, so there's that.

And if Blizzard made incentives for running lower content the wannabe tryhards would complain about being "forced" to do it, like they were "forced" to do MoS and IE runs ad nauseum for a fraction of a percent of power from an artifact level.

[TheRevenantHero]

One of my favorite things is how a lot of mounts have their own music that plays only while mounted on that specific one. It's just a really neat touch that makes it feel more unique even if it's a super small thing. Like....the FF6 overworld theme playing while in magitek mounts makes me so fucking happy.

[Cthulhu 2020]

And if Blizzard made incentives for running lower content the wannabe tryhards would complain about being "forced" to do it, like they were "forced" to do MoS and IE runs ad nauseum for a fraction of a percent of power from an artifact level.

When you tie ANYTHING at all to player power, people are going to feel forced/compelled to do it even if they don't have to. You can make fun of people for feeling that way all you want, it's an extremely common sentiment and is one of the many reasons people are citing for quitting. Want to create a fun side activity that's optional? Don't incentivize it with direct power upgrades, no matter how minor they are. Give cosmetic rewards. Mounts, pets, glamours, toys. Anything but artifact power or whatever else is like it.

[Martymark]

The story is great.

[threads]

the story. the devs. there's not convoluted systems bloat every xpac.

[draugril]

While XIV isn't as crazy as some WoW expansions have been, to claim that you can just "do anything you want" and not be behind in some way is still not accurate.

Define “behind,” though.

There’s differing philosophies at play here.

WoW focuses solely on the endgame loot treadmill, often adding in catch up mechanisms that make content as recent as the last patch obsolete.

FFXIV strives to keep all content relevant. Outside of Coils, you’re still being reward for completing old content with rewards for the current endgame, ensuring that players trying to down that content while relevant actually find that completion. And that’s just one example.

Again, WoW does WoW best in terms of that loot treadmill. But all current content exists to service it, and you won’t be able to experience the content as intended if you don’t complete it while it’s current.

Being “behind” in FFXIV is a very different thing than being “behind” in WoW.

[Swnem]

Ok, so i don't like classifying myself as a "refugee". I play more than one mmo and it's my choice to do so.

The devs aren't super arrogant and listen to the community.
The story.
The fantasy.
The world.
The classes. I like that they are not 3 button classes. I like that they have lots of depth and the challenge it is to execute it while avoid the many deadly raid mechanics.
There is more to do than just raids/dungeons/pvp.
Rewards have deterministic failsafes so you never feel like you are wasting your time.
They are still adding new classes.

[Mojo03]

Too. Many. Buttons.

Once you organize them, it's actually really simplistic.

[Kallisto]

I honestly don't get the listening to the community thing. If anything I feel the power of ffxiv is that they don't. At least not too much.

Compared to wow where the development seems to be "go to mmo champion and official forums. See what's getting bitched about the most then change it in the next expansion." if that's not listening then I don't know what is.