Could someone explain to me how FF14 has extensive player housing, has roughly the same number of players as WoW, and still manages to release more content on a more consistent basis than WoW? Is this an accurate take? I only played FF14 briefly around the time it was released, so this is just based on the numbers I’ve seen and what I’ve read in articles on the game, so correct me if I am wrong.
If this is, indeed, accurate, then why do we keep being told (or have it implied) that player housing would be an overly extensive effort that would somehow interfere with the development of the rest of the game? This is still the top/second most-played MMO. It should be given the resources and/or direction to offer the same–if not more–quality content as its top competitor.
Both games have their own objectives in what they want in their games, and why both games have different types of players. It’s an apples-to-oranges comparison.
WoW is more focused on end-game dungeons, raids, and systems tied to either one. Hence, any content that gets released, that takes priority.
FFXIV focuses more on the in-between casual stuff, hence why the game was made with housing in mind from the beginning.
It may take longer having to create content for dungeons, raids and the such.
Housing may take long for the initial implementation at first (hence the running jokes about losing a raid tier), but afterwards all you need to do is to create small assets every so often, which would also include having it offered as rewards for quests or holidays events.
The simple answer is that Square Enix is just way more competent than Blizzard is.
The long answer is that Square Enix’s endgame approach and Blizzard’s endgame approach are entirely different, with Blizzard’s approach often screwing them over due to the asinine amount of balancing that has to be put into it.
Square Enix’s endgame primarily consists of throwing a new raid, a new dungeon, some story beats, and a new alliance raid (basically LFR for FFXIV, but its own thing entirely). These things do not need extensive balancing, whereas for Blizzard, they have precariously stacked systems on top of systems on top of systemson top of content, and the end result is that instead of spending time elsewhere, everything is now diverted to balancing these systems.
FFXIV has been built on evergreen systems that do not need extensive reworks every time a new patch is released, and those that aren’t evergreen are not so rooted into the game itself that they don’t have to spend a lot of time rebalancing them. They reserve their major changes for every expansion instead. WoW is built on borrowed power that needs to be reworked every patch cycle because they consistently add new things (that we don’t really need, mind you) that don’t really lend any sort of depth to the game itself.
It’s also worth noting that Square Enix has absolutely no problem reusing assets for their game. You will routinely venture through older zones in FFXIV, whereas Blizzard has to have a brand new zone with every patch. I think this is somewhat of an unhealthy way of designing your game, especially since there is so much world in WoW that isn’t being used right now.
This is the general gist of it. Blizzard has shot themselves in the foot with their design philosophy, Square Enix has not. Dragonflight looks to be a return to form with regards to more evergreen systems, so it’s possible that Blizzard will be able to pump out content faster/more consistently.
This is why I wish that instead of putting all that development time into artifacts, azerite, and covenants, it was instead invested in player housing, which would still be around in 10.0 onward.
I definitely prefer WoW’s animations. For example, I can tell that’s a nice, crisp chaos bolt when I see one. At least they got that right. WoW’s art and animation has always been top notch… just wish they could put some of that talent into a long-term system like housing.
That’s not really accurate. The vast majority of the new content that FF14 releases is new story content. Similar to the story content we get when we first level through an expansion in kind if not in scope.
Keep in mind that as far as endgame gameplay goes, WoW blows FF14 out of the water. Relative challenge aside, every raid tier WoW gets anywhere from 10-14 new bosses in the raid. FF14 gets 4 and they cap out around what we would call Heroic difficulty. The ultimate fights that are comparable to WoW Mythics? You get one of those per expansion. And of course, dungeons in FF14 are a joke. They’re not serious endgame content the way Mythic+ is in WoW.
I play and enjoy both games. But they have very different strengths and very different focuses. FF14 puts a lot and I mean A LOT of emphasis on the sort of RP life sim kind of stuff that housing is a part of. So it’s no surprise that it does it better than WoW. But releasing more content? I’m not sure about that. Aside from the major expansion releases you can wrap up most new content patches in FF14 in an afternoon.
If you want competitive or at least engaging combat endgame, you go to WoW, not FF14.
Perhaps WoW would be able to surge back/way ahead of FF14 is they somehow managed to continue doing what WoW does better, but also offer more of the RP/flavor stuff.
That sounds a lot like ESO. It has player housing and a massive amount of single player/casual content, and raids/dungeons (although they are a lot of them) seem less well designed.
I still visit my garrison periodically, and my faithful dog is always there waiting for me. As is Lantresor of the blade, whose blighted eyes haven’t seen the sun in nearly 10 years. He’s been toiling away in that mine like the soldier he is.
I’ll let the marketing guys worry about that one. I play both games. I don’t really have a stake in who is “ahead.” What I don’t want do is for either game to sacrifice their own strength in order to emulate the focus of the other. If I have two games doing the same thing then one of my two subs is getting cancelled. Like the one of the game that changed since odds are they won’t do it better than the game that has been focusing on that aspect for years.
I think that there are definitely some lessons each game could take from the other. I don’t really subscribe to the “WoW bad FF14 good” memes that seem to pervade the forums of both games. WoW isn’t as bad as WoW players think it is, FF14 isn’t as good as FF14 players think it is.
I just installed my garrison AH on my bank alt. Got my jukebox maxed out… halloween decorations year-round of course. And I still like looking at that monument of Khadgar fighting Gul’dan when I visit.
I feel like this is sort of an inaccurate way of labeling FFXIV. FFXIV has absolutely no problem gating you off from the rest of the game if you don’t actively engage with certain multiplayer components. I’m thinking of the alliance raids, in particular, where you had to complete the crystal tower in order to advance the Shadowbringers storyline, or how you had to complete the Ivalice alliance raids in Stormblood in order to gain access to Bozja.
There’s also the fact that the dungeons are part of the main story, which are multiplayer components that you have to do in order to advance the story. I use the term multiplayer loosely here, though, because ever since Trust Mode (the mode that allows you to clear dungeons with NPCs), it has certainly felt less multiplayer-focused. However, I do believe that just because you have that option doesn’t exactly infer it being a singleplayer-driven experience. Dungeons are very much designed for player-based groups, and that is made clear considering how long it takes to clear a dungeon with Trust Mode on.
WoW has a distinct art style. I cannot figure out what FF14’s art style is. Everything is flashy and rather large in scope.
A good “test” is the UE4/5 test → if I placed all my assets in UE4/5, can I still call it WoW or FF14? The UE5 orgrimmar looked cool, but it wasnt WoW. I’d like to see a render of Limsa Lominsa or whatever the popular city is.