The Business: Final Fantasy XIV Making The Move

Of course the top rival to the top MMO would be ready to capitalize on the discontent Blizzard willfully exploits. Last night (in the US) Final Fantasy Fan Festival 2021 began online, and it is all-digital using the Wu Flu as the excuse. I'll point to their YouTube channel here if you want the entire stream from last night, or to get in for tonight's stream, but below I'm just going to put in the most pertinent stuff and give my take.

Yes, there's more; hit up that YouTube channel for the many new areas they're adding with the game.

As for what this entails:

• The next expansion released on November 23rd this year. This is going to be when both Retail and Classic WOW hits a low point, so expect this to be a good window for jumping on; pre-order players get four days of early access.
• The expansion is, again, a love letter to the fans of the franchise- this time leaning heavy on Final Fantasy IV (II for the SNES). The narrative begun with A Realm Reborn concludes here, making head dev Yoshi P's initial passion project complete- and yes, unlike the WOW devs, he's one of the top players in his own game (and he plays Black Mage).
• They added Male Vierra out of overwhelming player demand as demonstrated by behavior (i.e. revealed preference). Another addition comes later. This demonstrates that the devs value their customers and seek to satisfy their demonstrated demands.
• There is another new Job--Sage--in addition to Reaper; Sage was previously announced. Both have a play style not yet in the game, but wanted. Again, listening to customers.
• All of the new areas are directly tied not only to the narrative of Endwalker, but includes callbacks to past content and NPCs and connects past to present. This demonstrates an attention to detail that demonstrates the value of continuity across time and thus respecting the time of players spent in-game rather than the wild illogic of WOW's narrative shifts and last-minute post-hoc justifications thereof.

TLDR: WOW feels increasingly like its devs hate its players, while FF14's devs respect their players and value them.

I see no reason to recommend World of Warcraft anymore. I would rather recommend MMORPG prospects to Final Fantasy XIV because the devs respect their customers and show it in how they go about making the game and expanding upon it. My paid time in WOW ticks down; I have no motivation to buy more, so I haven't.

And I don't think that people playing MMOs are necessarily served by them either, as I think a lot are there when they ought to be using non-MMO alternatives that actually scratch the itch they need scratched like Monster Hunter Rise.

I fully expect this entire scene to shake up again when a critical mass of people not only become aware of what virtual tabletops and other alternatives offer, but those others are sufficiently refined to be Normie Friendly: something that is plug-in, play, go and win.

But until then, FF14 stands poised to finally overtake WOW and the industry will shudder when it happens.