Final Fantasy 14 keeps staying in the news as the new king of the MMOs as World of Warcraft enthusiasm wanes. But what is it about FFXIV that is so attractive to MMO players? Garrett and Kyle dive into this from the perspective of a recently and not-so-recently retired WoW players.
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Totally fine not to like a game. Your points are valid. As people gets older, your perspective and tolerant over a system in a game changes. I feel your frustration in ARR cause I'm having it too. If you stick though, the payoff is real good.
It's kinda of weird you say you don't like telegraph attacks, but harder bosses have those? You have to pay attention on what they do cause there won't be a big red circle to show you which area to avoid.
I always think about MMO's in terms of being a "Third Place." Basically, if you think of home and work as being the two places you spend the most time, then your "Third Place" is wherever you go to spend time outside of those responsibilities. For some people, that's a bar they regularly hang out at, for others it might be the bowling alley where they play league games several times a week, and for a lot of gamers virtual worlds like Azeroth are that "Third Place" where they meet up with friends, socialize, and just enjoy fun/leisurely activities together.
The biggest change in recent years is that the doors for what games can be a "Third Place" has blown wide open. Even if a game doesn't have built-in social features, as long as there is an active Discord server or popular streamers that are regularly online, there is a community you can spend as much time in as you please. Games like Hades, which have massive communities despite being entirely single-player, can now fill the same role in people's lives that were almost exclusively held by MMO's.
I used to get so annoyed at loading screens between zone. It killed the immersion. Like in WoW I loved looking down while flying from FPs and seeing people running around and seeing the terrain gradually change.
But for some reason it's not bothering me in FF14. Started playing about a month ago. I think maybe it has something to do with there being so many systems in the game. It's like "click a button and now I'm a Carpenter, click a button now I'm an Archer, now a Dragoon, now I'm teleporting to another zone"
FFXIV has been wonderful for me. I get to experience a JRPG + an MMO in one package. My experience has mostly been, "How can it get better than this?" and it just keeps getting better and better. I only started last September and I feel like it's been a huge positive change in my life that I played this game. Also, seeing lore guys like Pyromancer and Bellular get mindblown and impressed with the story is such a refreshing sight from the constant disappointments they've had in the past years.
It seems that Kyle is playing? Where are you in the story now? I hope you're enjoying your time in the game.
The expand on your point about how FFXIV and WoW both try to paint you has a pivotal hero, there's one place that FF definitely excels over WoW. Think about this. Who actually defeated Ilidan? Who got a statue for defeating Arthas? Who struck the mortal blow to Deathwing? Time and again, it's never "you." I think the only time it really was us taking out the big bad was N'zoth. So far in FFXIV (I'm in the first section of Stormblood) that hasn't been the case. I am very much the main hero. There are other characters, to be sure, but it's never about them defeating the ultimate evil. It's actually me doing everything. That has made a huge difference in my perception of the story and world.
Great episode guys, it feels really odd not defaulting on WoW as a main game, but yes a lot more times to play other games. As a note ive had ff14 as the game i cheat wow with, game is great with story, content, and everything else. That being said, ive been playing wow since 2004 and im in the state of wtf with the game, as I too have taken a break from it. Im glad for gamepass lol
i think i figured out why new game plus exists XD its for players that skipped through the story and regretted it later.
Appreciate production value, I hope this podcast is here to stay
5:53 is HUGE spoilers for anyone playing through A Realm Reborn.
Don't be pressured to play FFXIV if you don't like it. It's definitely not for everyone but I enjoy the dungeons and raids more than WoW to the point I became a main healer, which I will never do when I played WoW.
What WoW only gamer don't realize is that WoW does teaches you to play an RPG the wrong way. When you feel frustration, confusion, pretentiousness, or boredom, that's a sign of your old habits you picked up from WoW being challenged. Consider FF14 a detox. This is also true to Final Fantasy fans who has not tried FF14. FF14 is considered as return to the former classic. The story is exceptional even for Final Fantasy. So don't quickly assume that you won't like Final Fantast story because FF14 isn't like the modern Final Fantasy you are referring to.
I come long line of MMORPG mostly from a grindfest Korean MMORPG. It took me 6 years of FF14 to come to the conclusion and to admit that I was brainwashed by bad MMORPG. I treated FF14 like Korean MMORPG. One day, I decided to give FF14 a try the way it was intended. I do confess, there was slow parts where I wanted quit but there is a point where it does pick up. Then the whole notion about having to read a text wasn't an issue anymore because I started to become invested in the story. Before I knew it, I couldn't get enough of it. I was fully immersed. And from that day, I learned that I can be immersed in a new way. It's like seeing new colors.