A lot of people are talking about ‘how good FFXIV is!’ and ‘everyone should go play FFXIV instead!!’
But whenever I talk to people about -why-, they do stuff like.
‘TORGHAST? Pff-pff-pf, that was RUBBISH! LOL! By the way there is a thing called Cathedral of the Dead where you can just keep playing!’
“Oh, what do you get?”
‘Cool looking gear!’
“So… Just like Torghast?”
‘Well there’s lots and lots and lots of old dungeons and raids!!’
“… What for?”
‘… COOL LOOKING GEAR!’
“… So… Just like farming old content for Transmog?”
‘Yeah, and it’ll take you HOURS AND WEEKS TO DO!’
“… Just for transmog, no other reason?”
‘YEAH!! And then it’ll take you HOURS to level up to max level on your chosen Class!!!’
“Oh… okay… and?”
‘You can collect, get this… Minions!’
“So… pets?”
‘YEAH! And there is exclusive holiday events as well, like a Santa-Dog!!’
“… So like the WoW events…?”
Nothing anyone has said is any different to WoW and, being honest, FFXIV is starting to sound like a game that you just log in and play and ‘collect outfits’… There’s no… ACTUAL reason for Playing? And yet everyone has somehow got sucked into this idea on how great that is?
What am I missing?
Why pay monthly for a game with no real purpose; just log in, play old content for transmog, farm old reps for transmog, collect transmog, and MAYBE do the end-game raid (Even though WoW also has… end game raid? Except the gear ‘means’ something?)
So you don’t have an answer basically. Please only reply with helpful comments.
You’ve basically just walked into a Pizza Place with someone asking ‘Why do you keep saying Papa’s Pizzas is better than Jojo’s Pizza?’ and said “Foods food isn’t it? You’re trying to quantify food as inherently objective experience…?”
Instead of saying “Because their bread is baked like this and their prices are better for the size, plus the cheese is-”.
Frankly, and this is assuming this thread is conceived of anything but idle boredom, there is a veritable ocean of comparisons right there for you to Google.
If that doesn’t scratch the itch, consider having a go yourself and make your own impressions. As would be my advice with any other game that is free to pick up and play.
Both games have their strengths and weaknesses. I’m level 51 in FFXIV. It’s very clear that WoW was an inspiration for the game in many aspects, and for many things it does them just better enough that the game is more popular at the moment.
WoW has a better interface, better collection/transmog system, it’s easier to navigate, and the playable races are much more diverse and interesting in their designs. Its stylised art style and level design is superior (in my opinion), for example, I’m yet to come across somewhere as stunning as Ardenweald in FF yet. WoW is still strong when it comes to encounter design and raids.
In FF - the story is better. Vastly so. The characters have fully realised arcs that find completion. Generally it’s a far more satisfying experience in that regard. The dungeons and raids have also been really good so far and I’ve heard things only get better. Classes are more or less balanced (there never seems to be a FOTM class), and the job system is really handy in that you’re never restricted to one class per character. As the game doesn’t allow addons, there is no DPS meter which has been better for me personally and there is nothing yelling mechanics at you (more incentive to work together). There is highly customisable player housing but the housing market is a huge problem atm as it’s nearly impossible to get a plot.
Right now the FF community feels better, more positive and welcoming. Something skewing people’s opinions somewhat is that they have a whole new massive game to explore and level through compared to WoW which they’ve been playing already for 10+ years.
Both have their strengths - right now FF is certainly the better game when it comes to, well … being a game. Being fun. It feels like WoW did back in the day. That isn’t to say it’s better in every aspect, because it isn’t. People should just play what they enjoy and call it a day.
I would, but it costs a fair bit of money to get set up just to ‘try it out’
But then people are like “Oh don’t worry it gets good after 200 hours!” which I don’t want to pay for, to see if I like it haha.
I want people to actually explain what makes it ‘better’, as people are quite literally, screaming how it’s ‘better’, but no one so far has explained WHY it’s better. Just “IT IS!”
The main thing FFXIV has over WoW is that FFXIV is just there, and all of it.
It’s not trying to push you around and do your chores like a good little boy. I spent my 2 first months playing that game grinding out torghast till I got the final floor and my title and that felt good, really good, 3 expansion old content I could do in it’s entirety at the same difficulty level it was back then and without the weird guilt of not having done my daily 0.002% power gain grind. Still not max level and it doesn’t matter.
That is literally how most people play WoW, except FF embraced that and added a bunch of content for those players too. FF has plenty of “end game” and end game goals and if none of them interest you then they don’t guilt you for not playing.
It’s a great game, though I hate the 5 hour long GCD and weird ps3 world limitations so I could never commit to it fully.
having played both i can tell you what the differences are from my prospective ( 15 years in wow and 2 weeks into FF14)
leveling story experience:
in FF14 you feel like you are actually playing a game with a story, in WOW you are bounced from obsolete content to obsolete content without reason and the whole story is jarring and discontinued.
leveling game mechanic experience:
almost all the mobs in the open world have explicitly avoidable mechanics, that make you actually react to them rather than facetank them with your brain off.
and the mob density/aggro range is much lower allowing you to actually wander around without getting continuosly dismounted ( at least in the zones for the first 50 lvls).
you actually feel like you are playing a valid portion of the game as you level instead of legacy content to finish asap to get to the real game ( endgame) like in wow.
storytelling: complicit the first point, you get much more invested in FF14 npc characters, and in their relationship with your character wich emotes and reacts to the things that happen in the cinematics, as they appear in the actual cinematics.
visual style: i like FF14 style better for the characters, but i actually like the zone style better with WOW, the stylized aestetic feels more unique and fantasy, but again im in the original zones in FF14 so later this may change.
interface systems: in wow it’s easier to manage gear and mogs, in FF14 the whole thing is a bit overcomplicated imho, but that is to keep into account that you can play all the jobs ( classes) on a single toon, and that i still need to get used to the systems probably.
Not true, it’s just like Timewalking. Scaled shenanigans and plenty of things that break it, and from whatever nerfs that came later on. Same thing for older raid content.
Plus that means you have to put together groups for a lot of the older content instead of being able to run it on your own too, despite most of it only adding ‘cosmetics’ for you. I can tell you getting groups for a lot of stuff there definitely still feels awful.
FF14 story being better? Not really. Sometimes it is, but most of the time it’s tropes. I feel like WoWs original story was better than FF’s original story. I feel like WoW’s story Cata and onward along with general quest design and everything being in your face pop-culture, jokes, and memes and basing entire zone questlines off it was bad. FF does that some but it’s whatever.
Really one thing FF does better is mentor programs, Commendations, and actioning people for abusing vote kick/griefing. Can’t tell you the last time WoW has regularly enforced their rules in game and on forums both.
This was specifically for palace of the dead, sure class changes will change it a little but that goes both ways.
Whether or not you have to manually get a group isn’t really relevant to the fact that you can more or less do all content at the intended difficulty. Granted I haven’t played for long enough to see how often sweeping class changes to the point of losing key abilities for a particular fight happens in FF so I’ll concede that point.
Eh, most mentors are only in it for the mount and far too many of them aren’t particularly good at mentoring either. Commendations are cool but they aren’t really working as intended, on the odd occassion you’ll get one as a dps or if you’re friendly in chat but the default is tank/healer almost regardless of how they perform. They’ve managed to make a really non-toxic game though for the most part so they’re doing something right on that front.
Because its more userfriendly.
It gives you X thing after X tries due to pieces dropping so you can assemble it after X tries if it does not drop.
The tactics are more of a dance and VERY visually obvious how to handle, aka easier - just more straining in terms of repetition.
Nothing is on a weekly lockout when it comes to farming cool stuff.
Every event item seems to be put in store after event is gone so everyone has a shot at getting things eventually.
Basically; it is just friendlier to majority of people, and not appealing to the very 1% niche type who has aggression and self-image problems.