FF14 vs Wow

Hey guys! So personally, I've played WoW since 2004 when it originally released and I was just a little kid. Funny enough, the entire reason I got into WoW was because you could play a Druid, and Druids could turn into cheetahs. At the time I was absolutely obsessed with cheetahs as a kiddo, so apparently that was all it took LOL.

Since then, I can easily say I've put well over 20,000 hours into WoW.

I've played retail from the original days through basically every expansion and all the way into the newest content. I've played Classic, Classic+, SoD, etc. I also got into private servers at a pretty young age—WoWScape, Arena Tournament, WoWBeez, and a ton of others that I probably couldn't even remember the names of anymore.

Basically, for most of my life I've bounced between retail WoW, different versions of Classic, and private servers. WoW has always been the MMO for me.

FFXIV, on the other hand, was a game I would constantly look at but never actually give a fair chance. One of the biggest things that always drove me away was honestly the graphics/art style. I'd look at gameplay and immediately think, "Yeah, this probably isn't for me."

Well, this past weekend I was sitting there debating whether I wanted to put game time back onto WoW and do what I normally do—spam dungeons, run M+, maybe raid here and there, and of course do some PvP—or finally try something different and give FFXIV an actual chance.

I decided on FFXIV.

Before jumping in, I watched some videos and talked with ChatGPT to figure out some of the basics because I really didn't know what the hell I was doing lol.

I made a completely fresh character and started leveling. I made it to around level 15 and eventually hit 18 before realizing, "Wait…why the hell can't I queue for dungeons?"

Turns out I had been leveling without keeping up with my MSQ and needed to progress it far enough to unlock the Duty Finder. 😂

So I backtracked, caught my MSQ up to level 15, finally unlocked the Duty Finder, and queued for my first dungeon.

And I genuinely enjoyed it.

Now regarding the MSQ, I understand that the majority of you LOVE the story and how epic it can get. I actually made a post asking whether I should buy an MSQ skip because, personally, I just don't care much for stories or questing in general.

I proceeded to get my asshole reamed by a good portion of the FFXIV subreddit for even considering it. 😂

Welp…I bought one.

I didn't skip absolutely everything, though. I decided to skip up to a certain point rather than completely jumping past the entire game.

From there I kept spamming dungeons, unlocked PvP, watched more videos to understand different parts of the game, and focused on my job quests. I eventually hit level 30 and started working toward White Mage.

And somewhere along the way, something clicked.

I'm genuinely starting to get that same feeling of being in love with an MMO that I remember having when I originally started WoW.

That's something I REALLY wasn't expecting.

Even the graphics that kept me away from FFXIV for years? I'm okay with them now. I've learned to accept the art style and honestly some parts of the game look pretty damn good.

Probably my biggest personal con is the anime-ish stuff because I've just never been into anime whatsoever. But even that I've learned to overlook. Then I'll see somebody running around in some funny-ass glamour outfit, followed by someone else wearing something that looks sick AF, and I'm starting to understand the appeal of the whole glamour system too.

Overall, I really just wanted to say that I'm slowly but surely starting to understand why so many people genuinely love this game.

I know the story is a HUGE part of FFXIV, and I completely understand that some people will die on the hill of, "If you're not going through the story, what's even the point of playing?"

But realistically…who cares? We all play MMOs differently.

I'm sure some of the same people who reamed my ass for skipping the MSQ have spent hours AFKing in Limsa or ERPing somewhere. LMAO. We're all wasting our time in our own preferred ways. 😂

Either way, love y'all. I'm glad I finally stopped judging the game from the outside and actually gave it a legitimate chance, because I'm starting to dig into what seems like a sick-ass game.

And just to put into perspective how hard it grabbed me:

I went from 5.5 hours played to 29.6 hours between Saturday and this morning.

LOL.

I think I might be cooked.