Wow refugees, what are you enjoying about the game?

[Necromantic]

Alright, again - padding the meter, to see how one can improve oneself. E.g.: I ran about 10 times P8 yesterday. I don't care what others do. I play - upload my log - put it into analysis and try to learn where i can get better. So if someone is purposefully trolling (e.g. pulling before the pulltimer - lol (now if there is none, who cares, but if the tank sets it, then everyone waits 7 second just for one guy to pull 3 seconds early because of "lol")) it's not something i'd talk about, because its a best a mild annoyance. Still for me the log is somewhat less valueable, and there is no actual reason for it.

And yeah, everyones playstyle is valid, no argument there. Still its a group game, and i can be an asshole and waive around papa SEs rules, or i can try to be a sensible part of the community. What i despise is entitlement, in EACH direction. I hat entitled tanks, that have some ego problem (we had this discussion), but i also despise some tryhard dps who think they need to involve random people in their log shennanigans. It's all annoying entitlement.

I can slow down and explain and be patient to players that have anxiety, so i'd at least expect to not troll in endgame content in exchange. It's mutual consideration. Or i can waive the TOS around and be a dick about it

Metering yourself and keeping it to yourself in random groups is always fine. Nobody would know. I should have clarified about being vocal about it or being "that guy" who insists on telling randoms they're not "parsing high enough" when it's not their job or place to do so.

Being a sensible part of the community is a subjective stance. What you and I feel is sensible could be polar opposites (likely not that extreme...). I've seen posts even on here where people feel you need to go well out of your way to be sensible while forgetting that this is a hugely casual game and not understanding that their stance is rather extreme.

I do agree about entitlement. I try to ignore it the best I can. Yeah, I do personally feel tanks lead the groups in the sense that they set the pace... not "You do what I say!" If there are tanks like that, they've got issues. I know you don't have the same stance and I can respect that. We're all "entitled" to our own opinions on the matter. And I've seen more DPS who flex the parses than I see problematic tanks. It's usually always some DPS with a glowing weapon trying to prove he's better than all these randoms without a glowing weapon.

Now trolling, that falls under harassment and is against the rules. That, you can kick for... and rightfully so.

[Grinning Serpent]

Having very simple jobs is important because, again, not everyone is amazing at games. Some people don't have the quick snap thought to handle complicated jobs on-the-fly or they don't like it.

Pretty animations have only gotten prettier. Reaper and Dancer both have very flashy animations. With the graphical update next expansion, it could get even fancier. I'm all for it. If they can keep gameplay fun and aesthetically appealing at the same time, it's a win/win.

There are 21 classes in the game. Why does every class have to be designed for dumbdumbs? Why can't there be one class per role that's designed with training wheels, and all the other classes have more moving parts? The training wheels classes would be tuned to be at the bottom of performance - easiest class, lowest performance.

- - - Updated - - -

I’m enjoying that I finally left my FC with the super controlling and passive aggressive leader!
Decided to head to one of the new servers and I’m pretty excited to play the game again.

Yeah, there's really zero reason to put up with guild drama in any game. It's not 20 years ago, no one has time for petty bullshit like that anymore. Especially when guilds mean so little these days. Even a pretty much brand new guild will have access to all the meaningful benefits and buffs within a few days.

[Necromantic]

There are 21 classes in the game. Why does every class have to be designed for dumbdumbs? Why can't there be one class per role that's designed with training wheels, and all the other classes have more moving parts? The training wheels classes would be tuned to be at the bottom of performance - easiest class, lowest performance.

That’d be great! I don’t mean make a class so easy that you could half AFK but some classes are just too busy to be fun in my eyes. Monk used to be with so many positionals. I don’t mind some but it was too much before and wasn’t fun.

[ippollite]

There are 21 classes in the game. Why does every class have to be designed for dumbdumbs? Why can't there be one class per role that's designed with training wheels, and all the other classes have more moving parts? The training wheels classes would be tuned to be at the bottom of performance - easiest class, lowest performance.

- - - Updated - - -



Yeah, there's really zero reason to put up with guild drama in any game. It's not 20 years ago, no one has time for petty bullshit like that anymore. Especially when guilds mean so little these days. Even a pretty much brand new guild will have access to all the meaningful benefits and buffs within a few days.

Just because a class can get moderate performance out of 'dumbdumbs', it doesnt follow that it has to thereby be trash (and a complete non option) for hardcore players, right? Take hunters in wow. They were designed to be a very easy class to pick up and play, but that didnt mean they had to be garbage if put in the hands of a skilled player. In fact, wasnt that literally one of the core philosophies of blizzard: "Easy to pick up, hard to master"? Just because a class has a decent skill floor, doesnt mean it shouldnt also have a comparative skill ceiling with other classes in its sphere. Making one class 'the dumbdumb class' just means no one will play it. Experienced players will know to shy away from it at the outset because it is less effective at more challenging content. Whilst newer players will have no idea what they want to do 400 or so hours from starting the game, and will have no idea if they have aspirations to do more difficult content later in the game... so why waste time on a dumbdumb class?

Anyways... that all in mind, i'd also like to stress that how i play has (and should have) no effect on actual challenging content. I want the freedom to press the wrong button, get confused, run around like a headless chicken when a wall of shit goes off, forget to keep my dots up, die now and again to a mechanic i completely forgot about or just didnt know about etc etc... This DOESNT mean that i want to be a drain to my party or annoy everyone in group. I'll try my level best to not do all of those things in any party im in. I just want to not stress over much when it does happen. Now, were i to be more hardcore focused, id probably take more time to prepare myself. Id probably spend a lot more time at training dummies, maybe watch a few more guides, maybe read those 100 page documents on savage/ultimate fights, and generally raise my game a bit. But i just wanna enjoy the story mode version of the game. I dont want to remotely comment on, or argue for a dumbing down of any content above my level of commitment to make it more accessible. I just want chill content, where flawless execution isnt expected and even with a bunch of mistakes (from anyone in the group), the boss still has a decent chance of going down. And for the most part, i get that. So, i'd genuinely dislike the idea of bard being even further dumbed down to accommodate my personal skill ceiling.

As for pannonian's point on why i dont want to heal though... eh... its too stressful. I finished the entire msq story for 6.2, watched a guide (i can never go into a fight blind because i feel so much responsibility for the groups success), and... worried. It took me about 2 months from having the 6.2 trial on my quest log for me to actually get round to completing it. Then a week later 6.2.5 came out. I was so confused why i couldnt do the new tribal quests. Eventually i realised i had to finish an optional dungeon. By now im super discouraged. So i did hildy instead... and went to collect my new weapon reward only to realise i needed a bunch of tomestones from dungeon running. All i could think was how much my genuine trepidation of stepping into dungeons as a whm was negatively impacting my experience and joy in the game. I knew the only path was to find a class i enjoyed running dungeons on. So that's why i dont want to play healer. At all. Its weird it took me 400+ hours of exclusively playing a healer to come to that conclusion, particularly since id complained vocally (on these forums) about how much i dont want to run dungeons or do trials as a healer and the pressure i felt playing it, but here we are...

[Iheartnathanos]

I enjoy a story with a core cast of characters I care about and, you know, actual character development.

[Grinning Serpent]

Just because a class can get moderate performance out of 'dumbdumbs', it doesnt follow that it has to thereby be trash (and a complete non option) for hardcore players, right? Take hunters in wow. They were designed to be a very easy class to pick up and play, but that didnt mean they had to be garbage if put in the hands of a skilled player. In fact, wasnt that literally one of the core philosophies of blizzard: "Easy to pick up, hard to master"? Just because a class has a decent skill floor, doesnt mean it shouldnt also have a comparative skill ceiling with other classes in its sphere. Making one class 'the dumbdumb class' just means no one will play it. Experienced players will know to shy away from it at the outset because it is less effective at more challenging content. Whilst newer players will have no idea what they want to do 400 or so hours from starting the game, and will have no idea if they have aspirations to do more difficult content later in the game... so why waste time on a dumbdumb class?

Anyways... that all in mind, i'd also like to stress that how i play has (and should have) no effect on actual challenging content. I want the freedom to press the wrong button, get confused, run around like a headless chicken when a wall of shit goes off, forget to keep my dots up, die now and again to a mechanic i completely forgot about or just didnt know about etc etc... This DOESNT mean that i want to be a drain to my party or annoy everyone in group. I'll try my level best to not do all of those things in any party im in. I just want to not stress over much when it does happen. Now, were i to be more hardcore focused, id probably take more time to prepare myself. Id probably spend a lot more time at training dummies, maybe watch a few more guides, maybe read those 100 page documents on savage/ultimate fights, and generally raise my game a bit. But i just wanna enjoy the story mode version of the game. I dont want to remotely comment on, or argue for a dumbing down of any content above my level of commitment to make it more accessible. I just want chill content, where flawless execution isnt expected and even with a bunch of mistakes (from anyone in the group), the boss still has a decent chance of going down. And for the most part, i get that. So, i'd genuinely dislike the idea of bard being even further dumbed down to accommodate my personal skill ceiling.

As for pannonian's point on why i dont want to heal though... eh... its too stressful. I finished the entire msq story for 6.2, watched a guide (i can never go into a fight blind because i feel so much responsibility for the groups success), and... worried. It took me about 2 months from having the 6.2 trial on my quest log for me to actually get round to completing it. Then a week later 6.2.5 came out. I was so confused why i couldnt do the new tribal quests. Eventually i realised i had to finish an optional dungeon. By now im super discouraged. So i did hildy instead... and went to collect my new weapon reward only to realise i needed a bunch of tomestones from dungeon running. All i could think was how much my genuine trepidation of stepping into dungeons as a whm was negatively impacting my experience and joy in the game. I knew the only path was to find a class i enjoyed running dungeons on. So that's why i dont want to play healer. At all. Its weird it took me 400+ hours of exclusively playing a healer to come to that conclusion, particularly since id complained vocally (on these forums) about how much i dont want to run dungeons or do trials as a healer and the pressure i felt playing it, but here we are...

I mean, they *already had* a setup wherein rock bottom class performance (you press your 1-2-3 and you hit your cooldown abilities at some point so they aren't being completely unused, but they are not likely being used at the right times or kept on cooldown) was enough for casual content, but harder content required you to not drift, land positionals on a boss that didn't have a room-wide hitbox and which required tanks to position effectively to maximize uptime, know which buttons to press when, etc.

And then they took it away from every class, even the absolute dumbest class (Warrior) got dumbed down going into Endwalker and then they dumbed it down *EVEN MORE* with patches afterwards. Square-Enix has no fucking clue what the fuck they're doing at this point. They're chasing after some kind of player type that doesn't exist. So, par for the course for MMO development I guess.

I wouldn't worry about "healxiety" or whatever. Healing in XIV is very, very easy (as is tanking.) You will not ever use GCD actions (except for lilies as WHM) except when people are fucking up, or when you are unable to target the boss so you might as well use the GCD spells. Or in early-weeks prog for hardmode content, but that's kind of outside your concern if you're talking about just starting to play healers. At lower levels, you'll just have to spit out some Cure 2's or Adlo's to compensate for the lack of your full oGCD kit, but those lower levels also don't hit as hard so it's kind of a wash.

[ippollite]

Healxiety has been a friend of mine for a very long time. Its maybe a three part contribution. Ironically, the 'healing' part isnt the problem, which sounds weird, but i can explain.

First, there's the concern (lets not call it anxiety, yet), that if you die for a dumb reason (you missed a mechanic and got blowd up), then you've just annoyed everyone else in your group. So, you need to know the mechanics. So you need to watch a guide (or have finished much harder content where you'll be practiced and find it easier to grasp what's going on, on the fly).

Second, this feels so weird to say to anyone on these forums, but the mechanical game has gotten far more complex. The perfect era for me was probably the stormblood dungeons up to the 3.3 trial. That was where things became more tricky. From there-on-in, the trials and dungeons just kept getting more complex (mechanically). The 6.2 fight is just the perfect cherry on top. Again, if youve been running this since it dropped, you may struggle to see where im coming from. But even with the guide, i just looked at it and thought "its way too much shit!" When i entered it, it was indeed way too much shit. I genuinely struggled to not die (two deaths), we still cleared it, but instead of feeling satisfaction i just felt relief that i'd never have to run it again.

Third, combine 1 and 2. Ive ran the content, i didnt enjoy it, i was a bundle of stress and nerves during and for at least an hour afterwards. I just never want to feel that shitty playing a game im supposed to be enjoying. And i feel shitty because im clearly being a massive burden to everyone else playing it. So thats where the anxiety kicks in: It being future directed. This happened; it was a bad experience, i expect the next time will also be a bad experience as i once again screw up and force other people to carry my deadweight through this. And the thing is, that's been my reaction to almost every single trial fight since 3.3, so in a way it's been compounding anxiety. I feel too much pressure to not screw up; when i do screw up, i feel awful. Thus, i never actually learn a fight by trying again (the very obvious solution to this 'problem'), i completely avoid it and feel nothing but relief that i never have to do it again.

On the actual healing itself. Its super fun. Ive got all these tools and aoe's and heavy heals, and dots and lilies and blood lilies. Its just a fun toolkit. I feel very satisfied when its a heal check and i get to blow up my wings and cure 3 spam. I never actually have problem keeping other people alive. I just have a problem with keeping myself alive by not being a complete idiot and dragging everyone else down with me (particularly in 4 man content where i cant rely on the coheal/co-res crutch in the dungeon finder). For me, its not healing itself thats the issue. Its more the anxiety that i am going to screw up a mechanic, get blown up and take everyone else down with me.

Anyways, i dont want to drag this thread down with my healxiety, but ive been dying to vent about it since 6.2.5 and now im done, I can move on to a new experience in the life of my cute avatar

[Nasuuna]

luckily, its a healers meta atm, if people want a healer, they get to let you learn

so don't worry to much, just keep improving.

[ippollite]

Yeah, i really want to stress... healing IS fun! Its SUPER FUN. Especially if things go a bit awry (alliance raids usually). Whm is mega fun. Ive always loved the healing component in itself. If i could trust system everything in game, id be a whm without question. I love it.

[Wrecktangle]

There are 21 classes in the game. Why does every class have to be designed for dumbdumbs? Why can't there be one class per role that's designed with training wheels, and all the other classes have more moving parts? The training wheels classes would be tuned to be at the bottom of performance - easiest class, lowest performance.

I just want to comment on this mentality as something I am not a fan of. I hated when PLD was the "dumb dumb" tank class. I love the aesthetic and play it in every game I can, so when it was forced it wasn't a fun time for me.

[Grinning Serpent]

Healxiety has been a friend of mine for a very long time. Its maybe a three part contribution. Ironically, the 'healing' part isnt the problem, which sounds weird, but i can explain.

First, there's the concern (lets not call it anxiety, yet), that if you die for a dumb reason (you missed a mechanic and got blowd up), then you've just annoyed everyone else in your group. So, you need to know the mechanics. So you need to watch a guide (or have finished much harder content where you'll be practiced and find it easier to grasp what's going on, on the fly).

Second, this feels so weird to say to anyone on these forums, but the mechanical game has gotten far more complex. The perfect era for me was probably the stormblood dungeons up to the 3.3 trial. That was where things became more tricky. From there-on-in, the trials and dungeons just kept getting more complex (mechanically). The 6.2 fight is just the perfect cherry on top. Again, if youve been running this since it dropped, you may struggle to see where im coming from. But even with the guide, i just looked at it and thought "its way too much shit!" When i entered it, it was indeed way too much shit. I genuinely struggled to not die (two deaths), we still cleared it, but instead of feeling satisfaction i just felt relief that i'd never have to run it again.

You're talking about normal content? Dude, literally no one cares about normal content. People die, oh well. Group wipes? Oh well. No one cares about it. There's no reason to get anxious or, like, primed to become anxious over meaningless content. You don't need to watch or read guides or anything like that. Normal content is incredibly easy, to the point that you are supposed to learn on the fly and just eat the AOEs until you identify the pattern. Vast majority of players in normal content aren't even paying full attention to the game and are just autopiloting through it for their tomes or whatever. Trust me, no one cares if you screw up there. Don't get yourself into a twist over it.

Third, combine 1 and 2. Ive ran the content, i didnt enjoy it, i was a bundle of stress and nerves during and for at least an hour afterwards. I just never want to feel that shitty playing a game im supposed to be enjoying. And i feel shitty because im clearly being a massive burden to everyone else playing it. So thats where the anxiety kicks in: It being future directed. This happened; it was a bad experience, i expect the next time will also be a bad experience as i once again screw up and force other people to carry my deadweight through this. And the thing is, that's been my reaction to almost every single trial fight since 3.3, so in a way it's been compounding anxiety. I feel too much pressure to not screw up; when i do screw up, i feel awful. Thus, i never actually learn a fight by trying again (the very obvious solution to this 'problem'), i completely avoid it and feel nothing but relief that i never have to do it again.

On the actual healing itself. Its super fun. Ive got all these tools and aoe's and heavy heals, and dots and lilies and blood lilies. Its just a fun toolkit. I feel very satisfied when its a heal check and i get to blow up my wings and cure 3 spam. I never actually have problem keeping other people alive. I just have a problem with keeping myself alive by not being a complete idiot and dragging everyone else down with me (particularly in 4 man content where i cant rely on the coheal/co-res crutch in the dungeon finder). For me, its not healing itself thats the issue. Its more the anxiety that i am going to screw up a mechanic, get blown up and take everyone else down with me.

Anyways, i dont want to drag this thread down with my healxiety, but ive been dying to vent about it since 6.2.5 and now im done, I can move on to a new experience in the life of my cute avatar

You ain't dead weight, man. Normals are normals, you don't have to worry about adhering to some kind of expectation that people want perfect play from you. Just go in and have fun, don't worry about "letting the group down" or whatever. If you enjoy healing, just go in as a healer.

[Ghost of Cow]

You're talking about normal content? Dude, literally no one cares about normal content. People die, oh well. Group wipes? Oh well. No one cares about it. There's no reason to get anxious or, like, primed to become anxious over meaningless content. You don't need to watch or read guides or anything like that. Normal content is incredibly easy, to the point that you are supposed to learn on the fly and just eat the AOEs until you identify the pattern. Vast majority of players in normal content aren't even paying full attention to the game and are just autopiloting through it for their tomes or whatever. Trust me, no one cares if you screw up there. Don't get yourself into a twist over it.

I dunno, trivial content always seems to be the place where people get pissed off the most.

[HansOlo]

Yeah, i really want to stress... healing IS fun! Its SUPER FUN. Especially if things go a bit awry (alliance raids usually). Whm is mega fun. Ive always loved the healing component in itself. If i could trust system everything in game, id be a whm without question. I love it.

And why do you loving healing in this game more than in WoW?

I litteraly have anxiety for the FF community. People are either WoW haters who are just making a statement(and being really cringe about it)or some really, really wierd people(maybe it's the asian culture influence - that I just don't get).

[MsSideEye]

And why do you loving healing in this game more than in WoW?

I litteraly have anxiety for the FF community. People are either WoW haters who are just making a statement(and being really cringe about it)or some really, wierd people(maybe it's the asian culture influence - that I just don't get).

If you're head is so twisted on backwards about 14 that's all you think about it's players, then why are you even here outside of complaining about the game in a thread thats entire purpose is to ask about what people from WoW are ENJOYING about it?

All it does is it makes you look like you're just asking for a fight, and we get enough of that from Val's overall hatred of everything, Serpent's Elitism, and Necromantic's passive aggressive "well, you can't prove anything that you say is true" crap that we don't need another one who hates 14 just for being what it is in these threads.

If you're here for constructive discussions? Cool, awesome. I'd be interested in what you're going to say.

You here for that kind of crap you posted, though? We've got enough, thank you, now shoo.

[HansOlo]

If you're head is so twisted on backwards about 14 that's all you think about it's players, then why are you even here outside of complaining about the game in a thread thats entire purpose is to ask about what people from WoW are ENJOYING about it?

All it does is it makes you look like you're just asking for a fight, and we get enough of that from Val's overall hatred of everything, Serpent's Elitism, and Necromantic's passive aggressive "well, you can't prove anything that you say is true" crap that we don't need another one who hates 14 just for being what it is in these threads.

If you're here for constructive discussions? Cool, awesome. I'd be interested in what you're going to say.

You here for that kind of crap you posted, though? We've got enough, thank you, now shoo.

I can't see HOW some WoW player can fit in to this community. And I want to fit - if you would welcome(and believe it or not - I have no problems with WoW - so my background is very special).

I just don't see how some adult person wearing bunny ears, fits/relates to the average WoW player personality.

[MsSideEye]

I can't see HOW some WoW player can fit in to this community. And I want to fit - if you would welcome.

I don't see how some adult person wearing bunny ears, fits/relates to the average WoW player personality.

Ok, so you're either very young or bullshitting the hell out of me, but let me put it this way: There is no such thing as an average personality for players.

Just because you've played Wow doesn't make you some sweaty, male teenager who think war is great, shouting racial slurs or 'Anal Achievement' in general chat, or someone who doesn't know the first thing about human decency. My old Wow guild back in the day included a mother of three who was the guild leader, an honest to goodness furry, and a goth kid who probably smoked way more than he really should have. The game takes in ALL shapes and sizes, even if it's not broadcasted as such because people don't fit in with the norm.

I hate to break it to you, but guess what? There are adults out there who enjoy childish things... and that is 100% ok. I don't care if it's a bunch of 30 something guys who love My Little Pony, older women who enjoy watching Disney cartoons, or someone just being into anime in general. Everyone is trying to find some enjoyment in their life, especially with how the virus and stresses of life in general have made things harder for folks in the last few years.

Are there people who enjoy wearing bunny ears and being a little silly in 14? Yes. But it's also because the game allows them that freedom and so long as they're not harming you or ruining your own enjoyment? That should be perfectly allowed.

[HansOlo]

Ok, so you're either very young or bullshitting the hell out of me, but let me put it this way: There is no such thing as an average personality for players.

Just because you've played Wow doesn't make you some sweaty, male teenager who think war is great, shouting racial slurs or 'Anal Achievement' in general chat, or someone who doesn't know the first thing about human decency. My old Wow guild back in the day included a mother of three who was the guild leader, an honest to goodness furry, and a goth kid who probably smoked way more than he really should have. The game takes in ALL shapes and sizes, even if it's not broadcasted as such because people don't fit in with the norm.

I hate to break it to you, but guess what? There are adults out there who enjoy childish things... and that is 100% ok. I don't care if it's a bunch of 30 something guys who love My Little Pony, older women who enjoy watching Disney cartoons, or someone just being into anime in general. Everyone is trying to find some enjoyment in their life, especially with how the virus and stresses of life in general have made things harder for folks in the last few years.

Are there people who enjoy wearing bunny ears and being a little silly in 14? Yes. But it's also because the game allows them that freedom and so long as they're not harming you or ruining your own enjoyment? That should be perfectly allowed.

Take it easy - i'm not accusing anyone.

But I still can't see - WHY the average WoW player would pick up this game? They either pick it up because they hate WoW and they took the hypetrain - or... Because they want to see a person with bunny ears on stream? I can't see the relationship between WoW and FF - they are way too different.

My problem is actually the WoW haters. They were here yesterday, now they are back to DF.

If you been playing and supporting FF since before all this hype - good for you. If not - see you in DF.

[MsSideEye]

Take it easy - i'm not accusing anyone.

But I still can't see - WHY the average WoW player would pick up this game? They either pick it up because they hate WoW and they took the hypetrain - or... Because they want to see a person with bunnyears on stream? I can't see the relationship between WoW and FF - they are way too different.

My problem is actually the WoW haters. They were here yesterday, now they are back to DF.

If you been playing and supporting FF since before all this hype - good for you. If not - see you in DF.

It's not just because they 'hate wow and took the hypetrain'. You want to know why I left WoW and Blizzard? It was the Blitzchung incident, where a player tried to stand up for what was happening in his country, used the fact that he won in a Hearthstone tourney as a platform to express that, and got punished for it. And this was long before any of the other really bad inside stuff for WoW came on out. And just as a point of reference, I've not played or even touched ANY blizzard product since that point, so that's about Mid BFA. Even Dragonflight and the promises of a possibly better future hasn't lured me back.

But I know for other people, you know a reason why a number of WoW players stick with WoW, even to this day? Sunk cost. When you've got years, and YEARS worth of items, mounts, and transmog (Many of which aren't even obtainable anymore!), then you're extremely reluctant to go and even LOOK at another MMO, much less give it a shot.

Now mind you, that's just me and my own experieinces. I know WoW players who gave 14 a try because some of their friends went over there. I know there are some who were just burnt out on WoW in general and wanted to give something new a try. And yes, there are streamers (Like Zepla, who you clearly been referencing) that have also encouraged and exposed people to the possibility of playing games OTHER than WoW.

It's not a binary one to one. I didn't get into Final Fantasy XIV because I hated WoW. I didn't get into it because of some streamer who wears bunny ears told me to give it a shot. I started playing it because I was wanting to play an MMO and with WoW being something that I no longer had to dedicate my time to, I was able to give the game a shot. I ended up falling in love with the story, the characters, and the fact that I felt like the game respected my time a lot more than WoW ever did. It's a game that I'll always go to play when I'm in the mood and, unlike a lot of what WoW has done in the past, I know I'll always have the content there to play even after an expansion is over.

[HansOlo]

It's not just because they 'hate wow and took the hypetrain'. You want to know why I left WoW and Blizzard? It was the Blitzchung incident, where a player tried to stand up for what was happening in his country, used the fact that he won in a Hearthstone tourney as a platform to express that, and got punished for it. And this was long before any of the other really bad inside stuff for WoW came on out. And just as a point of reference, I've not played or even touched ANY blizzard product since that point, so that's about Mid BFA. Even Dragonflight and the promises of a possibly better future hasn't lured me back.

But I know for other people, you know a reason why a number of WoW players stick with WoW, even to this day? Sunk cost. When you've got years, and YEARS worth of items, mounts, and transmog (Many of which aren't even obtainable anymore!), then you're extremely reluctant to go and even LOOK at another MMO, much less give it a shot.

Now mind you, that's just me and my own experieinces. I know WoW players who gave 14 a try because some of their friends went over there. I know there are some who were just burnt out on WoW in general and wanted to give something new a try. And yes, there are streamers (Like Zepla, who you clearly been referencing) that have also encouraged and exposed people to the possibility of playing games OTHER than WoW.

It's not a binary one to one. I didn't get into Final Fantasy XIV because I hated WoW. I didn't get into it because of some streamer who wears bunny ears told me to give it a shot. I started playing it because I was wanting to play an MMO and with WoW being something that I no longer had to dedicate my time to, I was able to give the game a shot. I ended up falling in love with the story, the characters, and the fact that I felt like the game respected my time a lot more than WoW ever did. It's a game that I'll always go to play when I'm in the mood and, unlike a lot of what WoW has done in the past, I know I'll always have the content there to play even after an expansion is over.

I honestly thought that everyone is a Zepla clone or some sad WoW hater(not the same as Blizzard hater). And it makes me really uncomfy - as I have nothing in common. But that's my own bias.

Great answer - thanks for sharing.

[MsSideEye]

I honestly thought that everyone is a Zepla clone or some sad WoW hater(not the same as Blizzard hater). And it makes me really uncomfy - as I have nothing in common. But that's my own bias.

Great answer - thanks for sharing.

Everyone has their own reasons for wanting to try something. Are there people who joined because of Zepla, someone who imitates her, or someone whose become a WoW hater? Of course there is. I'll never say that isn't a possibility or even a likelihood of what's happened.

But just like how there are all types in our world, people of all shapes, sizes, colors, and creeds, the same thing comes to games, even WoW and FF14. We have to keep in mind, something hard even for me sometimes, that not everyone is going to have the same experience or even the same views about things. The best we can do is try and understand, maybe even participate if we're ok with it, and see the other side of the coin.