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.

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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.

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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.