Is this mmorpg worth playing?

[Wattly :3]

Is this mmorpg still active etc?

[Lixire]

I would suggest giving the free trial a go and see if you do like the game. But personally I will say yes and the community is still very much active.

[Sunny]

It's active enough that people hang out on the Steam forum for literal years after they have quit complaining about it and advising everyone that it's dead/dying/terrible, as well as the concern trolls of 'I want to play, but I heard X, can we please fite about it?' that pop in regularly. So, pretty normal and healthy for an MMO. When the complaints/stupid troll questions disappear, then you have to be worried about activity. If nobody played, they wouldn't have anyone to pick fights with. We still have very dedicated trolls; the game is fine, LOL.

As Lixire says, make sure the one you get says FREE TRIAL all over it, the trial version and the regular version are separate games on Steam.

HOWEVER. Unless you have a particular reason for Steam or genuinely prefer having the extra layer of security, I'd recommend regular retail version. Same servers for everybody, but playing on Steam adds a layer of complexity to the login/signup process that seems to throw people through a loop if they don't read and try and just click through.

[Ryu852VT]

this mmo is stil very active if people say its dead they just 1 are just trolls 2 are on a bad server with not much players on newer ones . but give the free trail a go before you gonna pay sub

[MOSLEY]

Currently still relatively active although player numbers have declined to the lowest that they've been in the last 5 years. It's future really hinges on the success of 8.0 in a few years time.

I'd say it's worth checking out, regardless. The free trial is generous and the new player experience is good. It's once you get caught up and have to deal with the slowest drip feed known to man that you'll start to see the cracks.

[Stormy Dawn]

Originally posted by Sunny:

HOWEVER. Unless you have a particular reason for Steam or genuinely prefer having the extra layer of security, I'd recommend regular retail version. Same servers for everybody, but playing on Steam adds a layer of complexity to the login/signup process that seems to throw people through a loop if they don't read and try and just click through.

It's also worth noting you usually get better deals getting the Windows license over Steam. We have a few Steam sales, but overall you're more likely to get the game and it's expansions cheaper over on the Square Enix store than here.

However, if you are a security nut at all, the Steam version is the most secure. If you end up setting up a One Time Password then someone would need that, your Square Enix account login, as well as your Steam information in order to login to the game. So I suppose it has that little extra layer of protection.

That is a downside to some as you now have to have Steam running in the background to play the game, but I never understood why that was a big deal to some people. If you have such limited resources that you can't run Steam in the background as well as FFXIV then your computer probably shouldn't be running FFXIV to begin with.

[MOSLEY]

There are a roughly equal number of sales between SE's website and Steam. If someone is actively playing the game, they tend to buy expansions on release (at which point there are literally never sales) anyway. So sales become irrelevant after your initial purchase anyway.

It really just comes down to whether you prefer to manage your game downloads through Steam or not.

[Aldroen]

As a MMO, no.

As a game with focus on story with online actives, sure go ahead it should keep you busy for few hundreds hours anyway.

Simply dont expect any depth that you find in a proper MMO. This game is heavily instanced focus (4-72 players areas) with it lacking any actual MMO activities.

In short do the story, do some bits of content that you enjoy and that is it. Don't hold your breath for more after that, as outside of purely hunting for cosmetics there is nothing to work towards in end game unless you are into that.

[Angel]

Originally posted by Aldroen:

As a MMO, no.

As a game with focus on story with online actives, sure go ahead it should keep you busy for few hundreds hours anyway.

Simply dont expect any depth that you find in a proper MMO. This game is heavily instanced focus (4-72 players areas) with it lacking any actual MMO activities.

In short do the story, do some bits of content that you enjoy and that is it. Don't hold your breath for more after that, as outside of purely hunting for cosmetics there is nothing to work towards in end game unless you are into that.

Out of curiosity, which MMO would you recommend playing?

[causality]

Originally posted by MOSLEY:

Currently still relatively active although player numbers have declined to the lowest that they've been in the last 5 years. It's future really hinges on the success of 8.0 in a few years time.

I'd say it's worth checking out, regardless. The free trial is generous and the new player experience is good. It's once you get caught up and have to deal with the slowest drip feed known to man that you'll start to see the cracks.

It's a non issue really. The game is always going to turn a profit for SE irrespective of player numbers. The game did fine pre tourist popularity ShB where we saw a huge spike in player numbers and the game continues to be their cashcow now that all the tourists left my game.

[Aldroen]

Originally posted by Angel:

Out of curiosity, which MMO would you recommend playing?

To be honest none of them are spectacular at the moment so hard to recommend anything to truly invest your time into if you have not already, but if I had to say probably WoW or Runescape (OSRS or RS3) as they are overall well balance these days when it comes to casual and hardcore crowd (Or at least as good as MMO can get), with relatively meaningful progression paths and they have stood the test of time when it comes to its player base.

GW2 is decent as well, but I have not played in like 5 years and I am not following it to well so not sure what is its current situation, but doing world events with tons of players was always fun and it always felt like there is something new to discover in its world. Even PVP was meaningful and rewarding.

One more recommendation that is more difficult to give, but if you have the cash and dont mind spending BDO has plenty to offer and its probably the closest things to a modern MMO that we have today. Its player base is a mix bag though with having highs and downs through the years.

As for upcoming I am awaiting Dune Awakening to see how that plays out, but that could also potentially fall in the same spectrum like FF14 being somehow instanced based, than trying to push as many players together at once (aka MMO lite), but that does not mean its a bad thing depending how its implemented.

Overall its hard to recommend a MMO as they all focus on different aspects, since MMO simply implies ability to play with huge amount of players. :D

[MOSLEY]

Originally posted by causality:

Originally posted by MOSLEY:

Currently still relatively active although player numbers have declined to the lowest that they've been in the last 5 years. It's future really hinges on the success of 8.0 in a few years time.

I'd say it's worth checking out, regardless. The free trial is generous and the new player experience is good. It's once you get caught up and have to deal with the slowest drip feed known to man that you'll start to see the cracks.

It's a non issue really. The game is always going to turn a profit for SE irrespective of player numbers. The game did fine pre tourist popularity ShB where we saw a huge spike in player numbers and the game continues to be their cashcow now that all the tourists left my game. :oink:

How is it a non-issue?

Almost all of the friends that I've made over the years have stopped playing. Finding a decent static for this tier was a nightmare. PFs take forever to fill. DF queues are longer than ever.

If you're the kind of player who does anything other than AFKing in Limsa or botting achievements, you can definitely feel the impact of the lower player count and it isn't good.

I don't care about SE's bottom line. I care about the quality of the game that I'm paying for and it's definitely been degrading

[Tervuren]

It's shrinking, but still active.

Most of the players I'm interacting with have only played for one year or less.

I've been playing since 2017 and never seen the game this scarce of veterans.

Only one of my friends that did Dawn Trail I'm still actively playing with.

I did not buy and ultimately will be skipping Dawn Trail.

Currently playing from trial account.

Until things change, not subscribing again.

It's worth playing, but they are steadily removing the reasons.

[Sel Und Irae]

Originally posted by Wattly :3:

Is this mmorpg still active etc?

Just play Free Trial, If you don't exceed level limit you can play for free up to Shadowbringer which is all you really need to get the best parts of the game minus Stormblood.

Soon as you pay a subscription even once you've basically sold your soul to SE and must pay a subscription whenever you want to play.

Dawntrail aside from the most recent stuff ain't active

I would say play and get all your stuff to 80 then wait for next expansion and see if SE smartens up, Or if it's more Dawntrail slop.

[Orinna]

Originally posted by Sel Und Irae:

Originally posted by Wattly :3:

Is this mmorpg still active etc?

Just play Free Trial, If you don't exceed level limit you can play for free up to Shadowbringer which is all you really need to get the best parts of the game minus Stormblood.

[...]

I would say play and get all your stuff to 80

The free trial only goes up to Stormblood, btw. You can level up to 70 and not 80, then that’s it. Shadowbringers isn't included yet.

[Sel Und Irae]

Originally posted by Orinna:

Originally posted by Sel Und Irae:

Just play Free Trial, If you don't exceed level limit you can play for free up to Shadowbringer which is all you really need to get the best parts of the game minus Stormblood.

[...]

I would say play and get all your stuff to 80

The free trial only goes up to Stormblood, btw. You can level up to 70 and not 80, then that’s it. Shadowbringers isn't included yet.

I thought they added ShB when Dawntrail was released?

Eitherway, He's better off to play through the first three expansions then and see if it's something he wants to invest money into.

The stuff that's locked behind sub before you progress in recent content is not worth it in my experience, FC's are just drama hubs / resource beggars, Nothing in this game is worth the gil being asked you're better off to self farm or self craft. Nowdays people can just buy lv 70 gear from vendors and even if they can't they can get them from the chests MSQ drops like candy.

Most of the stuff in-game is done through Discords, Especially hunts so another thing they don't need subscription for

ARR -> Stormblood is easily 300+ hours if you're a completionist, Not to mention the Deepdungeons.