Why should I play this?

[Wolf Kanno]

I have a friend who keeps insisting that I get on and start playing this game cause he feels it will make me overcome my indifference to MMOs and I will fall in love with it. So good people of EoFF, what is so great about FFXIV? Teach me!

[NeoCracker]

Yeah, if you're not an MMO guy, really isn't much here to pull you in.

I mean it's main plot is better then most other MMO's, but we are dealing with a pretty low bar here.

And it has all the normal MMO trappings of plot quests that feel like a waste of time, and dealing with annoying and whiny people, especially when you get near end game, repetitive grinding, ect. ect.

But it does look really pretty!

[Rostum]

If you initially are against MMOs in general, then it stands to reason you probably won't like it just because they have thrown Final Fantasy elements into it. However, I don't know what it is about MMOs you don't like, so I don't know what you'd need to know about FFXIV in regards to your doubts.

[Wolf Kanno]

Man you people are terrible sales reps. :colbert:

You're suppose to ignore the facts and try to sell this game to me, even if you can't convince me, others might be interested so come on and try to to tell me why this is the most fucking awesome thing since sliced bread. :cool:

[Aulayna]

It's like $20, buy it, try it for 30 days. You'll get more out of it than most $60 games.

[Pike]

I have a friend who keeps insisting that I get on and start playing this game cause he feels it will make me overcome my indifference to MMOs and I will fall in love with it.

Have you played WoW?

Because if WoW can't do it for you then FFXIV probably won't :p I think WoW is probably the best entry-level, "gateway" game into MMOs.

[fat_moogle]

I played through the free trial, subbed for a month after, then stopped. FFXIV was my first ever MMO. I'm pleased to say that I tried it because I was looking forward to it ever since it was first announced, but ultimately it's not for me. Much prefer the single player story driven experience, and the story in FFXIV is few and far between to be honest. Plus there's the fee...I know that it's not that much a month, but still. When you're not playing it it just feels like you're wasting money.

[Aulayna]

I have a friend who keeps insisting that I get on and start playing this game cause he feels it will make me overcome my indifference to MMOs and I will fall in love with it.

Have you played WoW?

Because if WoW can't do it for you then FFXIV probably won't :p I think WoW is probably the best entry-level, "gateway" game into MMOs.


FFXIV is pretty much WoW: Final Fantasy, infact part of it are probably more n00b friendly that WoW is. The first 3 levels literally have you running around your capital city, telling you what a repair merchant is and what the auction house is etc.

[Rostum]

Man you people are terrible sales reps. :colbert:

You're suppose to ignore the facts and try to sell this game to me, even if you can't convince me, others might be interested so come on and try to to tell me why this is the most smurfing awesome thing since sliced bread. :cool:

I guess starting a thread with "I don't like MMOs, convince me to play this one" won't really get you the results you want. :p

[Wolf Kanno]

Man you people are terrible sales reps. :colbert:

You're suppose to ignore the facts and try to sell this game to me, even if you can't convince me, others might be interested so come on and try to to tell me why this is the most smurfing awesome thing since sliced bread. :cool:

I guess starting a thread with "I don't like MMOs, convince me to play this one" won't really get you the results you want. :p

My starting post said I was indifferent, not that I don't like it. I gave you hope man and you are just going to give up on me? :cry:

[Pike]

Honestly if there was no monthly fee I might still be playing it past beta (or alternatively TESO) but yeah, the monthly fee exists :p

[Madame Adequate]

FFXIV is basically the WoW-defined MMO model refined to a pure strain. It doesn't do that much that's really fundamentally new, but everything it does it does extremely well. If you're indifferent to MMOs then I would say either this or WoW are the ones to try out and see if they can convince you.

[Elpizo]

Depends on what you expect, really. If you're hoping for great social fun with a FF sauce, you're not gonna find it, the community is toxic and awful.

If you're hoping for gameplay that reinvents the wheel, you're not gonna find it, it's WoW in Final Fantasy clothes (though very fancy and expertly designed clothes). The end-game fights are uncompletable if you suffer from even half a second of latency lag, or require a static group to properly beat, which only about 5% of the playerbase manages to get into. Some of the fights, however, are unbelievably epic and are amongst my favourite boss fights in the series (Garuda HM, Ifrit HM, Ultima Weapon). Some dungeons are very fun, or would be if the community was much less toxic and got rid of this frustrating speedrun mindset. It's really a mixed bag, gameplay wise.

If you're hoping for a fantastic story that blows your mind, eh, that depends on what you consider fantastic. I, personally, like the story and the characters and think it's very much a Final Fantasy story, but there are other people who don't give a damn about it. Then there's the fact that the most interesting story bits are locked behind the hardest content in the game (the Binding Coil of Bahamut) that only the elite of the elite get into, so that's a turn-of. The localization is pretty good, though.

If you're hoping for a game with an amazing soundtrack, you ARE going to find it, as the soundtrack is one of this game's highlights and was also one of the things about the original version that was of undisputed high quality.

If you're hoping for pretty graphics to stare at and a beautiful world to walk around in, you ARE going to find it, as Eorzea is quite honestly the best looking Final Fantasy world we got since XII's Ivalice in 2006. In a way they feel quite similar.

Eh, maybe now wasn't the best time to ask me to convince anyone to play. :p I'm a bit burned out on the game at the moment, due to the toxic community, the silence in the linkshell and the lack of anyone to do the end-game stuff with. I log in and run my daily dungeons, gathering my tomestones for the current tier of gear, all the time asking myself why I bother. It's not very fun to do it with strangers and I have no real reason to gather this endgame gear either, since I have no way of doing the endgame content that requires having such gear. I guess I do it to keep myself occupied, since I'm just bored out of my butt these days, anyhow. Perhaps patch 2.28 and 2.3 will rekindle some interest in the game for me, given the new content they will bring (mark hunts like in XII, new Crystal Tower, exploration challenges and more story).

[Tavrobel]

What is he saying about it to try and get you to play it? How well do you think he knows you? Do you trust his judgment? I have friends I've known for half of my life, and if they ever suggest music or anime to me, I promptly file it in my "never bother with this" list. I doubt you're any different.

If he's saying "dude just play it" or "I need another person," then you can safely assume that he's going to stop his subscription within the next three months. You shouldn't play if he's saying that, because he's just hopping from fix to fix. If he's bothering to describe the gameplay or mentioning a goal of getting through Coils with a dedicated group, he may he in it for a slightly longer haul. You should pick it up if you like the teambuilding aspects of high level MMO dungeon raiding.

------------

FFXIV in particular has some strong points going for it compared to other themepark MMOs. The first thing is that it's very pretty and epic feeling. There might not be achievements for exploration, but just about everything is enjoyable to look at. Art direction is the most similar to FFX in this regard.

There's enough dungeons to keep people interested. They weren't the hardest when I played, but they were really fun. There are "hard mode" versions of the dungeons, so if going through the first time with only half of your skills unlocked could potentially appeal to you, the full versions will be just as interesting. The ultimate goals in the game (e.g., Coil, Tower) are played at maximum level can be rather challenging.

Very strict class roles. Think FFIX strict. While there is some level of customization and gameplay that forces you to level an off-class to advance your main, differences in individuals playing classes comes down to personal skill. Personally, I loved Scholar. It's a healer class with a healing pet that you can script to do whatever you want like in FFXII, or you can control it manually. Part of the fun for me was how much more effectively I could heal and DPS while attempting to control two characters at once. Even in public groups, I would get comments after the run saying that it was the fastest and cleanest that they had ever cleared it. This included veterans who, not less than 10 minutes beforehand, were trying to teach me the dungeon tricks.

If you like crafting systems that force you out into the playing world and to take an active role, this game may be for you. You progress through levels in almost the same way as you would your standard combat role. You can switch back and forth by switching weapons.

It's been almost a year since release. No more server screen log-in bosses. The community you're interacting with now is probably the same community you'll be interacting with in the foreseeable future.

In addition, despite it being a year since effective release (August 2013), the development staff have shown no signs of stopping with content and are releasing at a fair rate. If you want to take a break and expect to come back to new things, there is promise with FFXIV.

No major economic scandals since release.

------------

On the other hand, you should not play this game if you don't like stereotypical MMOs. This is as standard a flavor as they come when it comes to themepark MMOs.

Leveling is boring. Considerably more boring than other MMOs of this type. From what I have heard, they have fixed FATE trains since I played during release, but I found these events to be preferable to having to level without them.

Traveling is slow at the beginning. Those wide-ass, pretty landescapes? You have to walk those for the first twenty hours before you get a mount.

Questing is standard. Fetch quests and kill quests galore. At the very least, they're all in the same spot. No attempt at ingenuity or revolution here. The initial group of story/area quests is exactly enough to get one class to 50, assuming you don't supplement experience with FATEs, Leves, or hunting log bonuses. Levequests fill in that extra burst of EXP you may need from accidentally missing a quest or so.

Despite releasing content steadily over the last year, it's still sparse in comparison with other MMOs that came with dungeons at release. Other recent MMOs came with more and added just as much as FFXIV has. It would be even more unfair to compare it to recently released Wildstar, a game dedicated to back-loading content for max-level players. This could be a problem if you're capable of quickly clearing through content.

Very strict class roles. Think FFIX strict. While there is some level of customization and gameplay that forces you to level an off-class to advance your main, differences in individuals playing classes comes down to personal skill. This can be a problem if you're a theorycrafter-type person who loves breaking games and skill systems by figuring out unique combinations of skills. There will be none of that in FFXIV. For example, there's no difference between Black Mage 1's options and Black Mage 2's options. The difference will be in who more correctly pulls off his spell rotations. Either you get good or you get dead. No advantage to not picking up your tier-2 job, either, as you receive a major stat boost; think FFI's Bahamut bonus.

Non-inspiring itemization. You just find the armors with the best stat bonuses you want and you wear them (or the ones you like looking at the most). There's nothing you can find or wear that will make you perform radically differently compared to another player of your class. There exists no trade-off between utility and raw power. The only controllable form of progression is in damage output. Utility comes with levels and off-classes that you must level to progress.

PvP nearly non-existent.

Storyline not particularly outstanding.

[o_O]

Here's a quick summary of my experience with the game, bulleted for your convenience.

This is the first MMO I've really played. Previously I had tried some other ones (and really disliked them) but for negligible amounts of time; to the extent that when creating my character for FFXIV I didn't understand the concept of the tank/dps/healer and didn't understand that I was selecting a class with responsibilities other than "beat stuff up."


Nevertheless, I found people to be most helpful and friendly while I was playing through for the first time.


I've found the community to be 99% nice people. There are certainly those with egos, and they sometimes require a bit of delicate handling. Some players can't handle receiving tips from others and get aggressive when offered advice. If you're up front about any noob-ness, and more importantly be willing to take tips when offered, you won't have any problems with nasty people.


Optimising your performance in the game feels really strategy-heavy. I've made countless adjustments to the stuff I do, after initially thinking "nah, that's a stupid idea."


A lot of the endgame content is very heavily scripted fighting, so it relies a whole lot on player skill and execution skill, rather than random number generators. This is both a problem and a boon for people with lag. Playing from New Zealand, I have a nasty amount of lag but the scripted nature of the content has allowed me to learn and execute fights 300-400ms ahead of time, right up to the very last tier of content.


Joining a free company (a guild) will make your game experience infinitely more enjoyable. Our FC is full of cool people!


Audio and visuals are AMAZING.


The story is a bit more thinly spread than other FFs as you'd expect, but it's still rich and feels very "Final Fantasyish," and I'm hungering for more patches and more story.


I can't speak for other MMOs, but I love the progression of gear in this game. I'm constantly saving the various currencies to buy each tier of gear, and completing the higher-level content for more gear. We have a few options for each tier of gear and with the latest patch we've seen the number of options fan out a lot more. Additionally there are avenues for gear upgrades, with more coming in the next patch.


tl;dr - I thought I'd get bored of this within days, but I love this game and can't stop playing it and have made some great friends through it.

[Dr Unne]

I played for a few months after ARR was released, and eventually quit.

Good:
* It's Final Fantasy. If you like FF, then the crap you wouldn't care about in other games, you will like because now it's Moogles and Chocobos. FF fanservice abounds.
* The story is good for an MMO. It's not going to blow you away, but it's better than all other MMO's I've played.
* The community is nice. The game forces you into parties to do things; you pretty much can't solo this game after a certain point. Which is good if you like playing with others, and bad if you don't. Lots of EoFFers play the game and it was nice to chat with people from time to time.
* The music is awesome.
* All the cool mounts and pets are fun. I liked flying around on a giant winged eye.
* The game's interface and controls are very good. It's not a hard game to play. You can customize the GUI to an absurd degree.
* It has fun FF classes, and your character could change classes at will, preventing you from needing to start new characters from scratch to experience something new. That was cool.

If I had to pick one reason to play, it'd be the community, and the charming atmosphere of the game.

Bad:
* $$$$$$$$$$$
* I came to FFXIV from Guild Wars 2, and I think FFXIV looks bad in comparison. Purely my taste. In particular, the character textures are crappy quality and options for customizing your character's appearance are very limited. All of my clothes looked like I was wearing a tarp or a muumuu or a court jester outfit. Higher-level gear didn't look much better. The texture they used for people's skin makes everyone look like they're made of plastic. From what I remember, race options are human, bigger human, human with cat ears, human with elf ears, and dwarf-human. The environment / landscapes were OK, but I saw screenshots where people were saying "Oooh look at the pretty landscapes!" and I was like... really? I never remember being impressed. It looks like a competent game from 2013, but just competent imho.
* Quests are dull and repetitive and pointless. Either fetch something, kill something, or escort someone somewhere. Hope you enjoy those three activities because it's your life now.
* Crafting is mind-numbing. At one point, I was seconds away from passing into a coma due to crafting.
* There's a silly amount of stuff on an artificial "Do this once per day!" timer. It felt like I was playing Farmville.

* Combat is not fun. And given how much of the game is combat, that's not a good thing. There are a couple very simple reasons, namely, global cooldown on your skills, and the inability to move while you activate most of your skills. Combat involves finding a nice place, standing there and hitting a button on a regular interval. Oh no, an AOE indicator appeared underneath you; move two steps to the left and repeat. And you probably just interrupted the spell you were casting, sucks to be you. Oh no, my health is low; stand there, heal / get healed by a healer and repeat. There's more to it than that, but not a lot more.

Again, coming from Guild Wars 2, maybe I was spoiled. In GW2 you can use most skills while walking. The highest damage ones will root you in place for a second, but you can use most of them while mobile. Some of the skills even move you around, make you bum-rush the enemy, launch you backward, teleport you to a place you choose. GW2 has no global cooldowns, only per-skill cooldowns. You also have a dodge move, which has a cooldown of its own. No one tanks anything, the enemies hit too hard; dodging is an integral part of the game. You have skills that do cool things like turn you to invincible fog for a few seconds so you can escape danger, or create clones of yourself, or summon a fireball-launching sword that other players in the game can pick up and use for a minute or two. Every character has a heal skill as well, and they all suck just enough so that you can't rely on them for survival. The result is very fast-paced and skill-intensive and twitchy and exciting. Every battle demands your attention.

Don't get me wrong, GW2 is still an MMO, so even that game's combat got boring for me after a while, but I was 100% bored of FFXIV's combat almost instantly. Almost my first memory of FFXIV was seeing my first enemy, running up it, and starting to circle-strafe it while casting a spell... and weirdly, my spell kept getting interrupted. Eventually I killed it, and then I searched for "Dodge" in the keybindings list, and it wasn't even there, and I was a sad puppy. At times, I was literally completing battles in FFXIV without looking at the screen, just listening to the sound of my skills going off and hitting a key on my keyboard at the appropriate time. This reminds me of other Final Fantasy battle systems, in the worst possible way.

* Levelling is very slow and painful because of all of the above. It's the grindiest of grinds, for little payoff.
* Tiiiiiiiiiiiiime sinnnnnnnnnnk. When I realized how much FFXIV was monopolizing my free time, I quit. MMOs are great if you want to pick one game and do nothing but play it. I realized I'd rather play a bunch of different games instead. There are so many of them to experience.

If I had to pick one reason not to play, other than the monthly cost, it'd be the immense time investment to accomplish anything, and the general boringness of getting there.

FFXIV is a fine game though, probably worth a try if you're looking for an MMO.

[Loony BoB]

The biggest reason to play that I don't think people have touched upon enough (if at all?) here is that this is a high quality game that you can play with a lot of EoFFers. If there were no EoFFers playing this game I probably wouldn't have any reason to go back to it. Thankfully the people in our LS/FC tend to be pretty awesome so overall it's got to be the people for me. Would I go fight Titan with a bunch of randoms? Probably not anymore, now that I'm up to the harder stuff that is more challenging than it is fun. But it becomes fun when you play it with a bunch of friends on TeamSpeak regardless of how challenging it is. Dying becomes hilarious the moment you're all talking to one another and having a giggle. When you play purely through text, it's easy to get frustrated. When you play with voices, it's awesome fun.

[Pike]

Unne's point about timesinks is a good one. 6000 hours in WoW and my biggest regret is that 5000 of those weren't put into other games.