Playing FFXIV Was the Best Thing I Could've Done

Community General Discussion
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Hold up, this isn’t a “WoW is dead, FFXIV is so much better, later nerds!” post. I’m actually gonna play both games. But a neat thing happened I was not expecting when I tried out this new game.

Firstly, it gave me that excitement that comes along with any fresh game. I’d never played another MMO before, so this was an amazing experience. It was refreshing - everything was new and interesting. It almost (keyword: almost) recaptured that feeling I had when I first saw Ironforge all those years ago.

The nostalgic feels are real. And, ya know, I got to enjoy being new with friends again. It’s exciting to learn stuff together and figure out what you want to play, etc. It almost felt like renewing my vows; the love of MMOs was back!

But, secondly, it also made me appreciate WoW. Yes, it gets old and stale from time to time. But my god there are some features that are greatly missed in FFXIV.

Somewhat subjective opinion list time:

  • WoW’s transmog system is better.
  • WoW’s map is 100x better.
  • WoW is much, much more alt-friendly.
  • WoW’s UI and menus are far superior. (Seriously, everything is just listed in text on a gray background in the shops - no pictures or distinct icons. Like wut?)
  • WoW has more comprehensive gear information.
  • WoW allows you to use AddOns for convenience (healing without Clique is … ;_; )
  • WoW allows you to access most features without locking them behind long questlines.

And etc. etc. Overall, I find WoW much, MUCH more intuitive than FFXIV, and it’s made me really appreciate the features I’ve been taking for granted.

WoW is polished. It really is a good game. I know it’s old and we’ve all grown kind of jaded at this point. But there are so many things WoW does right that you don’t value until they’re not there.

Meanwhile, FFXIV is scratching that itch of having a friendly community, great story, player housing, a new combat system to learn, and just a new world to explore in general. At this point, I don’t think one game is better than the other overall, but they are better at certain things than the other.

So anyway, if you’re feeling like WoW is dull, I’d suggest you take a break and look at other games once in awhile. It’s likely to help give you a new look on things. And you don’t have to divorce WoW to do so - it’s quite happy to be in an open relationship. :stuck_out_tongue:

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Ok.

/chars

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i much prefer WoW’s graphics as well. Individual elements in FF are higher res, but they don’t blend together well. You become very aware that you are looking at a bunch of individual features. WoW’s graphics on the other hand, flow together seamlessly from your position, all the way to the horizon.

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I’ve played FF14 a few times over the years but always end up coming back to WoW. Their lack of a techno-fantasy race and horrible facial hair options make it an easy choice.

But yeah, I play other games all the time. I really think everybody should to reduce the burn out. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Valheim…and there is no forgetting the first time a sea beast starts chasing you on your raft in Valheim.

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Ff14 3d armor is nice along with the dye system
Also 2B boots and outfit

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ff14 is the greatest mmo of all time

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Agree with this post 100%. Only subbed to 14 for the continuing story, but I stopped after the first Endwalker patch. It totally climaxed for me.

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That’s how I feel with Palia. Which has also given me some good feedback for WoW.

I think a lot of people need to learn that WoW isn’t a marriage. It’s good to play other MMOs for good feedback and perspective.

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I’ve played both FF14 and WoW for a while now. They each have different things I enjoy with some overlap as well. It’s good to have some variety.

Wow became more enjoyable when I took a step back and stopped feeling the need to always stay caught up for end game content without taking any breaks. That gave me more time to try different things and FF14 was one of them. I’m glad I gave other games, including FF14, a chance.

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Why would you really need an alt in FF14? You can be every class with one character.

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I agree with some of what you said, but holy moly at some others:

When you can literally do everything on a single toon, you don’t need alts.

I found the opposite true once I got used to FF14’s. I think it’s more of a “this thing is different, I don’t like it…until I do” thing, at least for me.

Well, about that…

Mmm, yes and no. I hate how portals are locked behind questlines or level caps in WoW. I hate how there’s no fast teleport system (unless you’re a mage, but even then the points are much more limited), unlike the Aethernet system which is amazing x 100. It of course only unlocks as you explore the different areas.

Gold Saucer is locked behind a questline too, but that place is so bad and doesn’t remotely compare to the superior Darkmoon Faire.

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Because my friends are in Australia and play on the OCE realms. So I obviously want to level and do stuff with them. But… if I have any shot at successful PVP or raiding, I’ll have to play on NA where the ping isn’t murder. :frowning:

Also I want a high level Lalafell for the RP parades. lol Even though I don’t want to main that, if that makes sense.

But other than that, yes, fair point. I kinda like having a ton of characters, though. XD

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Play FF14 for the single player JRPG story, play WoW for the actual tab target MMORPG gameplay.

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Agreed

Had to think about that for a second. I guess I can agree with this.

Because FFXIV is designed where you can play everything on one character. But god I do wish there were more alt friendly stuff in the game, sometimes I wanna play a dragon-girl without having to spend real life money to race change because all my stuff is one the one character.

I’m fine with it honest, besides. FFXIV has massive amounts of flavor text for me to gobble up.

About even to me.

Never used Addons so I’m not really missing much.

Honestly I prefer it that way. Yes stuff is locked behind a questline but it gives that sense of earning it rather then it being thrown at you and told to go away. Besides, it’s not like the Questlines are terribly difficult.

Short of it, there are systems I wish FFXIV had that WoW enjoys and I wish there was some stuff from FFXIV that could be put into WoW.

But regardless you might want to not poke the hornet’s nest. Folk over here hate FFXIV with a passion like bite your head off and piss on the remains kind of passion. Even suggesting the addition of something from FFXIV is tantamount to a cardinal sin. At least that’s been my general experience.

Best to keep our mouths shut and let the game go as it will.

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Yeah, that’s pretty much how I see it. I think it’s awesome that the games are unique enough that one doesn’t immediately stand out as “superior” to the other. They’re just different experiences that stemmed from the same root concept.

Uh oh, is it Playstation vs. XBox levels of rivalry? XD

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That or Nintendo vs. Sega… actually they were probably more cordial to one another then Playstation vs. Xbox. Eh, either way that’s been my experience with it.

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So looking at your list, yeah, a lot is either subjective or straight up true. Like, many would probably agree not having any loading screens between zones makes WoWs map better, and even FF14 players who have never touched WoW agrees that the Transmog system is way better than the Glamour system (even if FF14 hear looks much better and can be dyed - soon with two dye slots).

But I’m just kinda looking at these two points as an interesting point of discussion.

I’m curious as to what you mean by more alt friendly, seeing as FF14 lets you level up every job in one character, you can generally BiS out two or three roles a patch, and even just tomestone and crafted gear lets your alt jobs be viable for everything but the latest savages. Conversely in WoW you have to individually level up and gear up every alt class you want to play.

Or did you mean an entirely new character in FF14? Because in that case I’d have to agree with you, since making a new character in FF14 starts you from scratch, and you’d have to do all the MSQ, all the content unlocks, get all your mounts and collectables etc all over again, as opposed to WoW, which lets you keep a lot of account wide stuff, and lets you skip large chunks of story quests you already did on another character.

Interesting topic of conversation to me, as there’s two sides of the coin. On the one hand, being able ti do everything on one character is technically the ultimate alt-friendliness, but on the other hand, making a new character retains nothing. Yet that kinda sounds like a good thing to me, as it’s an optional way of challenging yourself to do everything again? I don’t know.

Ads for addons, just a quick note in that FF14 addons is “allowed” in a don’t ask, don’t tell kind of way. The devs won’t go looking for people with addons to ban, as long as those people keep the addons to themselves. I haven’t really dug into addons myself, and even without addons I find FF14 healing much much more enjoyable than WoW healing (also subjective but only mentioned since you brought up healing). I dunno if FF14 has its own form of Clique, but yeah, there are addons, just don’t advertise the fact that you use em, and you’re gold.

Glad that you got a new appreciation of WoW out of it, though. Unfortunately I’m at the point where I’m super jaded at WoW in general myself, but I acknowledge it does still have its good points. Too many people treat these things as “WoW vs FF14” as if it’s one or the other, but it’s definitely very possible to play and enjoy both. I do. Or, well, did, but as I said, WoW is starting to die out for me personally again. But yeah, unless you’re super limited on time or money, it’s very possible to enjoy both games at the same time for different reasons.

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“friendly community”
FFXIV is a cesspool of weirdos, worst community i have ever seen in a game.
The best thing about ff is the housing, its fun making your crib, but the item limit is cringy as HELL.

Also, you can use addons in there, i literally use the elvui clone (delvui), i also use multiple boss mods and splatoon (i dont care lol, yoshiP and the whiny community can cry about it)

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One thing we can all agree on:

The FF7 remake was a huge letdown.

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Three Things suck about FF14.

One you can’t change your Account ID in the Manage specially with Steam.

Two is Sub Fee.

Three You can’t Create any New Characters on a Popular Servers and only have to move the new ones into the Higher Servers with Money.

But other than that FF14 is still fun. Just haven’t had the time to play it alot yet.

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