FF14 is doing what WoW did 16 years ago and that is appeal to a more casual, normal userbase while WoW appeals more to raiders. Raiders don’t make up the majority of MMO players though.
FFXIV has player housing and an amazing decoration system, a far wider variety of clothes to transmog, an amazing crafting system and a city restoration project for crafters to take part in this expansion. It provides mechanics which are easy to see and not hidden which helps eliminate the need for addons which also helps make it casual. The casino and jumping puzzles are fun, there’s a chocobo racing and breeding activity to get involved in. If you want to play different classes you aren’t punished with months of grind, you can easily switch between classes to play again helping casual playerbases. It has a more engaging rotation for DPS which makes normal gameplay more involved as opposed to WoW’s extremely limited DPS rotation and instead relying on hidden mechanics.
WoW doesn’t really appeal to casual players as much anymore. Getting into the game involves a steep learning curve with almost nothing explained to you, especially once you hit level 120 and you have 6 different systems thrown in your face. Also everything WoW does is combat related, there is crafting but it’s been so devalued it’s of very limited worth.
Why do people like FFXIV? Because the atmosphere and game is much more relaxed, friendly and casual with a wider variety of content to engage in I guess. WoW appeals to people who want to grind gear and raid
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It’s not more liked … WoW dwarfs the sub nos of FF14
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Before Classic was released it was heavily speculated that it wasn’t the case. Remember Classic has doubled the number of subsciptions for WoW.
WoW’s population has also been declining every expansion whereas FFXIV’s has climbed every expansion.
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Deadly Premo 2 is coming out and there will be no tbf playthrough
I knooooow T^T
At least Woolie and Pat played DMC 5 ( Seriously Woolie’s reaction to a certain motivated individual was amazing )
I like the combat and ability rotations much more in FF14 than in WoW. But as an overall game, I still think WoW is better. This is all purely subjective though because people play what they find fun, and what they find fun might not be what someone else enjoys to do.
I found myself quickly leaving FF14 because the PvP system is extremely lackluster and receives next to no attention. I still have a few friends who play and they still said nothing has changed in regards to the PvP attention. Very little, if any balance changes, no new maps, etc. It was fun to play a new game, but I just enjoy WoW more because I think it’s a better overall experience.
It’s like saying that the amount of shoppers at Walmart has decreased while the mom and pop store has an increase .
They are playing in two different universes .
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When you take WoW as a whole then the number of subs dwarfs FFXIV. When you take retail by itself all indications point to that it doesn’t.
Classic saved WoW last year.
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And what indications are those ?
The sheer number of dead realms, population approximations putting Retail and FFXIV very close together.
What indications do you have that Retail dwarfs FFXIV?
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I find it funny that the two of you are debating something that will never be able to be proven because we don’t the numbers or stats to draw a conclusion from. Yet you guys keep on going 
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The style looks pretty anime to me
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I quit playing FF14 because I couldn’t stand the non stop cut scenes. They even had cutscenes in the middle of raids and dungeons that were unskippable.
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Reminds me of that one cutscene we all had to see a billion times in Kingdom Hearts that was unskippable
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Mmm tasty tasty speculation. With a healthy seasoning of confirmation bias on both sides.
This is why I come to these forums. xD
I’ve been trying FFXIV on the free trial myself. It’s interesting. The graphics take getting used to coming from WoW for so many years but it has a very nice quality about it. The gameplay feels a bit slower but not bad.
My lancer is like level 18 I think right now. I’m not focusing on playing it though just kind of seeing what’s up. I can’t speak to the community though since I think I can’t talk to other people being on a trial or something.
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Mostly because “anime” is just short for “Japanese cartoon”. So almost every art form from Japan is described as “anime” because it’s animated and from Japan.
But anime is a medium and not a genre. There’s such a wide variety of anime out there, from slow slice of life, to mature dramas about work. The problem is most of the stuff that’s popularized or shown on tv is shounen stuff, which is basically “cartoons aimed at young boys”. Most of these shows are pretty bland but it’s also the type of show usually circulated.
It’s highly likely most people here could find an anime they enjoy. That being said if you don’t like “young boy” cartoons you’d have to dig for them and that just takes too much time usually 
Ouch, harsh
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It’s basically a cult. thats why it seems like its so loved. Community is ofc nicer if you belong to said cult. and “Fan service”
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Without making it unnecessarily messy, personal preference.
It does quite a few things differently than WoW, deliberately so… and as such, it has a VERY strong appeal to those who dislike WoW’s current design philosophy but enjoyed the past expansions.
That and it has one of the best plots that an FF game in ages, not to mention it is easily the largest (each expansion adds the equivalent of a main series entry for the main story alone).
Just look at it this way – Do you dislike Looney Tunes? Disney? Any other form of western animation? If so, that’s fair enough. If not… well, why would it be considered any different?
Just look at it as animation like any other and judge it on its own merits.
One of the reason FFXIV is so loved in particular is its history… and that it was the game which caused the developer to learn its lesson about relying too much on brand recognition and the loyalty of fans.
FFXIV 1.0 was an unmitigated disaster. If you think the reception to WoD and BfA was bad, they were polished gems compared to FFXIV’s initial launch. So much so that they had to burn the game to the ground.
… and they rebuilt it from the ground up, prioritizing it being a good game. It was a necessary step to improve Square’s own reputation, and a colossal risk; but it paid off and they’re reaping the benefits.
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