What's so good about FFXIV?

[Aggressive]

It feels real awesome to have the developers listen to you in FFXIV. Also they know how to communicate with the player base. Something that is 800% lacking from Blizzard.


Edit.....The developers at Square-Enix are also focused on creating a awesome game and are NOT focused on ass grabbing employees and doing cubicle crawls.

[infinitemeridian]

I'm trying it out now, and ngl, the combat is kinda boring atm for me. (Dragoon @ 38) - It's starting to get there, but I have a 1-2-3 rotation with an extra damage ability every 30 seconds. I'm sure it'll get better in time, but for now I am just relaxing to the max with it. It's so refreshing going into something completely blind again. Enjoy the journey, don't try to rush to max level like WoW and just have a feel about whether or not it's for you.

DRG is honestly one of the worst offenders at lower levels, the class doesn't really start to feel fleshed out until 70ish.

[Byleth]

It feels real awesome to have the developers listen to you in FFXIV. Also they know how to communicate with the player base. Something that is 800% lacking from Blizzard.


Edit.....The developers at Square-Enix are also focused on creating a awesome game and are NOT focused on ass grabbing employees and doing cubicle crawls.

Aye! There is literally an in-game event where developers thank the players each year.

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DRG is honestly one of the worst offenders at lower levels, the class doesn't really start to feel fleshed out until 70ish.

True this, it doesn't even have AoE until 40ish. That said there are plenty of other classes that feel better at low levels, and DRG plays great at 80.

[Daffan]

It feels real awesome to have the developers listen to you in FFXIV. Also they know how to communicate with the player base. Something that is 800% lacking from Blizzard.


Edit.....The developers at Square-Enix are also focused on creating a awesome game and are NOT focused on ass grabbing employees and doing cubicle crawls.

How would you even know

[Byleth]

How would you even know

See literally the post above yours.

[|Dexter|]

Honestly, FFXIV just feels new. I'm currently in the Storm Blood content got 100s of hours already in the game and everything still just feels so much fun, the story still twists and turn all the time, the characters by this point in the story are so well written and I'm sure my in-game character would die to keep all of them safe if he has too...

My job and rotation are fun and feel like I'm kicking butt and taking names, I'm lVl72 now and doing lVl62 quests but it doesn't bother me, because the content is so AWESOME!

And also love that feeling of discovery and exploring this brand new world.

[Aggressive]

How would you even know

Stupid answer. I just assume cause they haven't hit the spotlight like Blizzard's dumb ass.

[minteK917]

Stupid answer. I just assume cause they haven't hit the spotlight like Blizzard's dumb ass.

Its not hard to beat blizzard devs nowday, just dont shit on your own player base on a daily basis on twitter or during convention. All you gotta do is watch a live letter or a past fanfest lol.

[Short]

besides the things like art style or how the game plays/feels, since those are mostly subjective.

the story, though slow at times, holds up really well throughout the game, and is fully contained within the game.
so no need to read comics or buy books just to understand what is going on ingame.
the characters are interesting and diverse enough, and get enough meaningful growth throughout the story to keep it interesting.
they're also not afraid to kill of characters that have gotten a lot of character growth and investment for the sake of the story.

the music is phenomenal.
where WoW nails the aesthetics and sounds of locations. FF just throws out full orchestrated ensembles to set the tone for any scenario beautifully. whether it is to convey the weight of an upcoming battle, setting the tone for a tragic event or getting you hyped up for a mayor encounter.
every big boss has it's own theme song which does a great job at conveying it's place in the world.

they're not afraid of silly, sexy or frivolous stuff.
whether you want to run around in a chicken suit, a bikini, or cosplay as Mario & Luigi, it's not only allowed, it's encouraged.
an optional raid boss fight against a single Chocobo that'll kick your ass? or one that's an homage to all the oldschool giant mech/robot mergers? it's there.
optional content where you partaking in the silly shenanigans of a would be detective and his trusty, yet questionably intelligent, sidekick? got you covered.
hanging out with friends in the guild house, maybe decorating your own room to look like some well known streamers bedroom? sure, go for it.

optional, and returning, temporary event's with satisfying rewards.
whether it's a small crossover with FF15, a returning summer holiday, or a tie-in with 1 of japans biggest, most popular children's IPs, there's always something going on or something to look forward to in the near future.
and most of these events aren't 1 time throw away that if you've done them once last year there's nothing new for you this year.
they keep them fresh and add new things and rewards each time they come around.
and they don't lock them behind ridiculous requirements like being max level or having completed 80% of the game or owning specific expansions.
even free trial players can participate without restriction.

the community/developer relations and developer commitment.
the players aren't labeled as problematic by the devs and have a reasonable amount of sway over mayor and minor design decisions.
whether it's something recent and small like an icon change and allowing players to decide the official abbreviation of class names.
to requesting the return of an event/mount, ingame and not on the real money store, for the sake of those that didn't get a chance to get it at the initial event release.
they even play their own game and interact with the community directly. i know, crazy right?
and for those living under a rock this past year. here's the level of commitment some of the developers have towards this game


all this isn't to say the game has no flaws and it's amazing unconditionally.
for most people it's a slow burn/slog getting through the initial base game's required story content.
we all know at this point that the "it gets better after X hours" is a superficial argument, and although they've done some pruning and added items/shortcuts to reduce mundane travel, it is still very slow.
the voice acted cut-scene's, that are a pretty important way of conveying the story, are few and poorly voiced at the start of the game. and while i usually enjoy Sam Riegels work, he doesn't do Alphinaud justice.
the combat can feel sluggish and, much like the story, takes time to get to a level that most people find enjoyable.
as well as laying a heavy emphasis on dealing damage, regardless of if your preferred party role is Tank, Healer or DPS.
yes, even as a healer you'll be throwing out more DPS spells than heals in certain fights, which can take a little getting used to.

i personally really enjoy FFXIV. this isn't to say i hate WoW, most fond gaming memories i have are from playing WoW.
whether it's the initial sense of wonder when you leave the starting area and walk into your capitol city.
to the epic feeling of taking down raid bosses with 40/25 man, and the subsequent jubilation on teamspeak when you finally manage to do so.
just that WoW feels like a bit of a let down lately, and i don't feel like playing a game that doesn't value my time/money.
it's like a dad watching his kid throw a sporting match cause they're not feeling it. we're not getting 100%. and it feels like, in comparison, FFXIV is giving us 110%.

[Aggressive]

Its not hard to beat blizzard devs nowday, just dont shit on your own player base on a daily basis on twitter or during convention. All you gotta do is watch a live letter or a past fanfest lol.

It is just sad right now to see Blizzard in this fashion right now. But the only boat buddies that is rolling along with them is Ubisoft and Riot. Hell I am sure their are others, but Square-Enix is NOT one of them. I salute SE for even trying to please it's customer base.

[shadowmatrix]

It is just sad right now to see Blizzard in this fashion right now. But the only boat buddies that is rolling along with them is Ubisoft and Riot. Hell I am sure their are others, but Square-Enix is NOT one of them. I salute SE for even trying to please it's customer base.

Outside of the FF 14 dev team how many of the other devs do you actually keep up with? Of the FF 14 dev team how many do players actually know?

Some people seem desperate to treat devs as devils or angels even when that person is a stranger they know very little about.

[Cthulhu 2020]

FF 14 players can complain about Sylvanas once you solve your Ascian infestation.

Sylvanas is horribly written and ham fisted in the story. The ascian story is a slow build to an amazing climax. That's why people hate Sylvanas and love ascians.

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How would you even know

They frequently talk about player feedback and engage with the community. They hold community events and have implemented changes that originate from player suggestion. If players really don't like a feature, they will fix, change, or get rid of it. One of the more recent examples, is one of the new jobs had an icon that triggered a rare phobia in people. SE heard this and IMMEDIATELY changed it. And that's not an isolated incident. Those little things are happening all the time.

That and the XIV team doesn't inappropriately touch women.

Let's also not forget that Yoshi P has said "Gameplay first, profit second" and very frequently says that they do not worry about profits because they know if they make a good game, the profits will come.

There's also the fact that the devs have said if you get bored of FFXIV, quit for awhile, then come back and see if there's any new content you want to do. They ENCOURAGE you to play other games. Meanwhile Blizz is simply designing their games to maximize MAU and make people feel compelled to log in. Even if they have not directly said such a thing, the design choices they make are extremely obvious.

There's plenty more, but I don't think I need to go on.

[Makaloff]

For me its several things:

better community, people overall are very friendly,happily help you out and teach you stuff if needed/asked

Tanking: I am a actual tank, not glorified bait

Customization: despite the lack of avaible options in terms of races, theres so much customization to make yourself look unike

mogs: can color my gear and stuff isnt painted on

Telegraphed attacks: skills is rewarded over raw numbers, also makes it easier to understand mechanics instead of having to watch a guide every time a boss comes up

Uppgrades: uppgrades are actually uppgrades and you dont have to grind 24 hours for absolute nothing.

Housing: Housing, nothing more to say there really.

overall its just a better experience and while WoW have some good parts to it, FFXIV just make stuff so much better. not to mention they dont introduce player hostile system and waste their time attacking the community instead of fixing the issues with their game like wow does.

[NineSpine]

FF14 has a Paladin, Confiteor, and Chocobos. Nuff said.

That's literally exactly what I'm saying, and I fail to see how it's different. It's a player imposed goal/restriction, not a game one.

I do actually. Both are goals a player can set and be happy with, if they're rational. I know, because this is literally me.

Yeah, agreed. I'm kinda sitting here like, I have to be stupid or missing something critical?

Yeah got it, thanks man, very interesting looking through the code.

You know what else is a fixed specific item level you can shoot for? Any one you want in WoW. Which has been my entire argument.

To be fair you walked yourself right into that. That's not someone trolling, that's you being hypocritically unaware and getting called on it.

I can chime in here. East coast to San Jose (server location) is 120ms, 90ms with a VPN. For context, any other game with servers in San Jose is usually 70-90ms without a VPN.

Screaming at clouds that players shouldn't feel a certain way doesn't change that they do feel a certain way. Lots of players like being able to target a tangible, concrete BiS state. That's just a fact, and you can whine for hours and hours, days and days, years and years, that they are "wrong" for wanting that.... but they do, so it's a moot point.

[Itori]

How would you even know

During one of the fan fests someone asked the dev if they could add a feature for i think color blind people, it wasnt huge but they said yes. Two weeks later it was added. Several other instances including the aoe indicators, mechanics, and even class design has been changed based on player feedback. Even males being able to now wear previously female only items was changed becausd of feedback.

[shadowmatrix]

For me its several things:

better community, people overall are very friendly,happily help you out and teach you stuff if needed/asked

Tanking: I am a actual tank, not glorified bait

Telegraphed attacks: skills is rewarded over raw numbers, also makes it easier to understand mechanics instead of having to watch a guide every time a boss comes up

Housing: Housing, nothing more to say there really.

1. That's a player created problem.

2. All tanks are glorified bait and all the FF 14 tanks running through dungeons dragging 5-15 mobs know it.

3. Meh, preference I guess. IMO Most players are looking up guides regardless of the telegraphs.

4. Housing is great for those who can get a house, for those who can't it's back to our cramped apartment under the lalafell who keeps doing karaoke at 3 in the morning with the speakers set to 20.

[Katchii]

Screaming at clouds that players shouldn't feel a certain way doesn't change that they do feel a certain way. Lots of players like being able to target a tangible, concrete BiS state. That's just a fact, and you can whine for hours and hours, days and days, years and years, that they are "wrong" for wanting that.... but they do, so it's a moot point.

No one was arguing that they shouldn't or couldn't want that. It was the mentality behind it being something acceptable and easily achievable in one game but something unacceptable, unachievable or too difficult to do in another.

If it can be done in one game, it can be done in another.

[NineSpine]

No one was arguing that they shouldn't or couldn't want that. It was the mentality behind it being something acceptable and easily achievable in one game but something unacceptable, unachievable or too difficult to do in another.

If it can be done in one game, it can be done in another.

Not if the games work differently, which they do in this case. The endgame gearing systems are different. One provides an achievable, practical path to BiS without relying on RNG. The other does not.

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The other side of that coin is that screaming at clouds because you have unrealistic expectations of a game - expectations that the game isn't trying to put out there in the first place - is also pretty absurd.

It's not the fault of the game if you can't stop yourself from engaging in behavior that's not asked of you by the game, and is contrary to your own enjoyment of said game.

It is absolutely the fault of the game if it encourages you to engage in behavior that causes burnout and a lack of a sense of completion. You keep conflating these two things:

"The design is good"
"The bad design can theoretically be ignored"

Those aren't the same thing.

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1. That's a player created problem.

Community behavior is a function of design.

[NineSpine]

The game isn't burning you out, you're burning yourself out.

You still haven't explained why you say, "This gear is the best from the content I want to do, but isn't BiS, and I'm ok with that." in XIV but in WoW you claim you're forced to say, "I don't want to do this content, and I don't need the gear, and I have the best gear from the content I want to do...but there's slightly better stuff that might randomly drop and I can't stop myself from doing it."

"I have the best gear from the content I want to do...but there's slightly better stuff that might randomly drop and I can't stop myself from doing it."

That's a contradiction, and that is precisely why your argument doesn't make sense. If there is better gear you can get from the same content, you DON'T HAVE THE BEST GEAR FROM THE CONTENT YOU WANT TO DO.

I don't know why you are making this so terribly difficult. Nobody is demanding you have to accept any mindset for yourself, but your obstinate refusal to accept the difference between the two games is exhausting. Nobody is telling you that you have to care about the difference, but a lot of people do and that is simply a fact of reality whether you like it or not.

[NineSpine]

So...you clearly didn't read. Ok.

You can't even keep your own complaints straight, and now you won't even read what people say before replying.

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No, the only issue is that you're not even internally consistent in your complaints, you're just giving one game a pass while claiming the other game is twisting your arm into doing things you hate.

Ok, so when cornered, instead of actually presenting an argument you are just going to declare victory. Good talk. Let me know when you have an actual counterargument to what I said. I gave you the respect of addressing your statements rather than arrogantly repeating myself.