A love letter to FFXIV

I just canceled my World of Warcraft subscription.

After Fifteen years of playing one of my most beloved games, I couldn’t take it anymore. News of problems at Blizzard Activision was all over the internet. Allegations of bullying, harassment of all kinds, just horrible rumors of what really goes on behind the scenes at the video game developer. My heart was utterly shattered. Since 2006, I have explored almost the whole of Azeroth, got various characters to level 90 and above, made and lost friendships, joined guilds, etc.

It was only after a former friend suggested I try a new MMORPG that I knew it was time to move on, and broaden my horizons in the online gaming community. So after some consideration and a bit of mourning on walking away from WoW, I downloaded the Final Fantasy XIV trial. Now, I have never in my life played a Final Fantasy game at all. I had no idea what I was walking into. At first glance and after about an hour, I decided I didn’t like it and uninstalled the trial. I’m not a quitter so after about a week, I decided to try it again. It was like getting your feet wet all over again and figuring out how things work.

My first character Reya, a Miqo’te Redmage main went through so many retweaks and rerolls before I was finally satisfied with her. I would spend hours on this game and with the free trial, they give you the base game called A Realm Reborn PLUS the first expansion, Heavensward. (Everyone knows the meme at this point.) And there is literally no cap on game time. To say that the first part of the game is massive is an UNDERSTATEMENT. There are so many things to do from questing, dungeons, raids, trials, etc. You're also not tied down to just one class. In FFXIV, you can pick up other classes (also known as jobs) so you can explore what you like and your comfort level. Can we also talk about the community? Coming from WoW it was like a breath of fresh air, everyone was so nice and helpful and if you make a mistake in an instanced area (Raids, dungeons, etc) Everyone responds the same way "No biggie, we all start somewhere." That's of course not to say the game doesn't have a few bad apples but that's few and far between in my experience. I was so very impressed that I actually bought the game which included the expansions of Stormblood and Shadowbringers. I fell in love.

One of the things that separate Blizzard from Square Enix at this point is the fact that instead of just churning out games for revenue, The developers of Final Fantasy XIV actually care about their player base. I remember when Endwalker was announced, I was ecstatic. I was so excited. I would watch every live stream the developers put out just to see what they were going to come up with. The thing with the live streams though is they are in Japanese. Thankfully, however, the official FFXIV Discord channel provides translation so we can follow along. One thing that I remember is how Naoki Yoshida, the producer of the game was visibly upset on stream because Endwalker would be delayed a few weeks, and that spoke volumes to me, how he and his team wanted to make sure the game was perfect for us the players on launch.

I eventually did try WoW again and paid for a subscription to see if maybe there was some love I silently still held for my beloved Azeroth. At this point, I was a few months into FFXIV and it just. It didn’t feel the same anymore. World of Warcraft went through so many changes, many unrecognizable to me. After about an hour I silently logged off, and canceled my sub. This was in May 2021 and I haven’t even thought about nor gone back since. Many friendships were made and lost just like in WoW, some I even played with since 2019. I do wish them well of course because that’s the kind of person I am.

This damn game has made me laugh, cry, and get so frustrated by the main story that I would literally have it no other way. It’s what I’ve always wanted. What we always needed in a game. I can’t wait to see what comes next for my new favorite game, one that soothed the heartache and has literally brought me out of bad mental health days by playing with newfound friends, crafting, and even delving into the world of Roleplay. Goodbye Blizzard, it’s been real but… You’ve changed and not for the better. Maybe if you had given the same amount of compassion and understanding to those who played your game, plus if your community wasn't so toxic, making new players and those just learning a class or the game feel like crap for TRYING, maybe a quarter of your player base wouldn’t have jumped ship when your true colors came to light. I think the final nail in the coffin for me with WoW was when it was revealed they didn’t care about their players and just about profit which is true for many gaming companies but Square Enix knocks it out of the park by actually listening to their customers at least when it comes to this game. I do hope I’m around long enough to see Final Fantasy XIV achieve even greater things.