A good number of us have long abandoned EVE to instead move over to FFXIV. It's a very theme park MMO, sure, but is easily the best of its kind out there. While the 2.0 "A Realm Reborn" Main Story Quest is average at best (attributed to limited time and budget rebuilding the game from disastrous 1.0), the 2.1 to 2.55 patch series demonstrates increasing improvement in the quality of writing and worldbuilding, while 3.0 "Heavensward" (the game's first expansion) is absolutely exceptional in its quality. The Main Story Quest of 3.0 rivals and exceeds many single player games in its drama and impact; by far, Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward has the best story of any MMO on the market.
While the overall theme of the game is Good vs Evil, it does this in the backdrop of a very grey and well-realized world of nation-states trying to work together for the common good while simultaneously attempting to overcome their differences and disagreements; they often don't like each other. You have the Sultanate of Ul'dah, a constitutional monarchy de facto run by a group of six of that country's richest citizens, who are accused of trodding down on the numerous refugees who flock to the nation thinking they can build a better life. The thalassocracy of Limsa Lominsa is a pirate city administered by a military dictator who hopes to introduce a proper concept of statehood for the city's long history of piracy and barbarism. Finally, Gridania is a sylvan city-state existing at the whims of the Elementals in the Black Shroud, a great forest. Their blue-and-orange morality sours the opinion of outsiders. There is also the Holy See of Ishgard, a highly xenophobic theocracy run by an Archbishop and four High Houses, who are zealously waging a millenium-long war against the dragons. All of these states must face down the Garlean Empire, a technologically advanced state determined to conquer Eorzea and defeat the primals, who are powerful beings summoned to existence by the will of mortals...funnily enough, you too are seeking to defeat these primals.
The game is very attractive and offers a lot of tools for roleplaying. The game proscribes lore for the existence of player-characters (rather than not address it at all) and just about every other game activity you might do. Given this is a Final Fantasy game, lore and consistency is central to their game design alongside making a functional and enjoyable MMO. The wardrobe and costume selection is vast, and you are very much able to purchase plain city clothing to play as a regular citizen or some sort of artisan. You can even join one of the three standing armies of the main city-states and spin yourself as a soldier or officer of that army (a lot of the clothing that NPCs wear you can acquire yourself). With lip-syncing, click-looking, an idle pose and emote library, the tools for everyday roleplay are there. The music is great, too; composed by Nobuo Uematsu of course.
For those interested, Balmung is the main roleplay server (There's also Gilgamesh, but...realistically, Balmung is what you want). It can be a bitch to get onto, but if you're interested in playing, do look out for me in-game. My name is 'Kale Aideron', and I have been playing since September 2013 (you can also add me on Skype as 'seriphyn'). It is certainly nice to play an MMO with a big budget, administered by developers who care about lore. New content is added roughly every 3 months, as is the progression of the Main Story Quest...which can definitely a lot of ambience and narrative to your everyday roleplaying. Now, I understand it won't be everyone's cup of tea, since EVE really is a different beast, and FFXIV is quite far apart from it. Nonetheless, it's definitely worth a shot if you fancy something different, but I will say, due to the nature of what kind of MMO it is, it will take some time to properly invest yourself into it. Perhaps the same could be said of EVE!
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Topic: Come join us in FFXIV (Read 4876 times)