Honestly, I’m really not sure. I haven’t played much of FFXIV, but what I did play, I really truly did enjoy that the game was story-centric with good pacing and compelling story and good PvE content that reinforced that. I think WoW had that for a while, but slippery sloped into something grotesque that made story and the metastory second to gameplay. But really- can you name a game that is genuinely GOOD that you fiercely enjoyed that didn’t have a good story? (Where applicable- I mean hey, even in Super Mario you had the clear goal of rescuing Peach…) The story should be the steering wheel with content being the gas pedal to back it up.