The only MMO I've played is WoW, how different is this?

[Pike]

I'll be jumping in for the first time very shortly and seeing as I never played FFXI or anything I have no idea what I'm in for. What should I know? Any major differences between this and WoW?

[Loony BoB]

One character can do pretty much everything, you just switch weapons. I'm told this game is a lot more WoW-styled than FFXI & FFXIV 1.x. I haven't played too much WoW myself, though, so it's hard for me to judge... but going by what I hear from other players, the community of FFXIV tends to be a little more, uh... educated? Friendly? Dunno, as I say, it's all hearsay for me.

[theundeadhero]

The word you're looking for is casual. The players and environment are far more casual.

Took me a bit adjusting to using a controller instead of a keyboard, but after that I was fine. It did remind me a lot of my FFXI days though.

[Carl the Llama]

I sincerely hope that XIV doesn't turn casual, thats one of the things that ruined wow in my opinion.

As for how much like WoW XIV is I can say the gameplay is reasonably similar but its the final fantasy elements that make it that much better, the scenery is just simply gorgeous (obviously) the character creation is very detailed (though a customisation for Miqo'te ears would be nice) and on the whole since the community is all about testing the game we have yet to pick up the irritating morons who are completely selfish and generally ruin the gaming experience for others trolls, so The Game (hehe) as soon as it goes live will be the best it will ever be so I feel now is the best time to play.

[Pike]

I actually want something casual.

After months of nonstop raiding in TBC and WotLK I got myself all hardcore'd out and years later I still am. Eff that. I don't ever want to do MMO endgame again.

[Loony BoB]

I dunno about this casual/hardcore nonsense. Fat Chocobos are a bunch of happy chatty people who do what we want to do when we want to do it. We do endgame, but we're not hardcore at all. Some of us have a load of special weapons, some of us have none (hi). So long as we enjoy partying up and doing whatever, we're happy. Number one rule: Have Fun.

[Aulayna]

It's, on a basic level, WoW in Final Fantasy.

The combat is the WoW affair of using abilities, moving out of circles on the ground and standing still and pressing buttons based on your buffs/debuffs.

The main difference between this and WoW is that one character can do everything. So you don't need to make an alt when you want to try out a different class - you'll still start over from level 1 but it means you don't lose precious things like titles, cheevos, soulbound vanity items like you would in WoW if you made an alt.

There's also a few side-quest style ways of levelling such as the Hunting Log (go kill X of certain kinds of mobs), LeveQuests (basically daily quests, but more fun), GuildHeists (group dailies), dungeons - and you also can chain kills together of mobs your own level and get increasing XP until the timer runs out.

The only major difference is that there aren't Graveyards. So if you die you go to your Return point (which basically is your Hearthstone location) - that can be a major kick in the teeth sometimes. Oh and it's not a seamless world either. Every zone is effectively "instanced" so there's no big continents like Kalimdor that you can spend 20 minutes flying from one end to the other of without a loading screen as each zone has a mini-loading screen.

The crafting system is a little bit more indepth too.

But for the most part, mechanics wise, it's pretty much WoW, sans-LFG, in a prettier world. As I said in my BETA impressions thing, not much about it is particularly revolutionary but what's there is generally polished enough that it's enjoyable.

Honestly I think you'd enjoy it, it's like WoW but without the massive focus on endgame at the expense of everything else.

[Pike]

Honestly I think you'd enjoy it, it's like WoW but without the massive focus on endgame at the expense of everything else.

Good.

And yes I've been playing it and enjoying it

[Loony BoB]

The only major difference is that there aren't Graveyards. So if you die you go to your Return point (which basically is your Hearthstone location) - that can be a major kick in the teeth sometimes. Oh and it's not a seamless world either.

It should be noted that it was pretty rare in 1.x that I had to wait that long for a raise. Also, when in dungeons, you return to the start of the dungeon, not your home point.

As for how much focus there will be on endgame, it's entirely down to the person. Some people will be very endgame focused while others will just enjoy doing pretty much anything else. I know people of both kinds, but we all get along so it's all good.

[Madame Adequate]

>people claim FFXIV is a more casual experience
>at level 20 Ifrit will smurfing murder you

[Bierhumpen_Kukki]

>people claim FFXIV is a more casual experience
>at level 20 Ifrit will smurfing murder you

ifrit only did that once per party from what i experienced and after that he usually gets his ass kicked.^^

[MontyPython]

I don't know about this casual mumbo jumbo but this game is pretty sexy.

[comma]

We do endgame

Can you explain what this means? I know there is an ending, apparently, but I don't get what you mean.

This is the first MMORPG I'm playing aside from Guild Wars 1 and Ragnarok Online (which were a long time ago), so I don't really know the MMO slang.

[Pike]

"Endgame" is a term for the types of things you do once you reach max level. It usually refers to things like raiding or PvP.

[comma]

Thanks.

I remember PvP in Guild Wars. Was scary. How do you think PvP will fare in ARR? Are we talking parties vs. parties?