Basically what Mihok said....FFXIV is really just an alternative in the MMO world which im sure will grab a huge player base but i'd be shocked if it was anywhere near WoW's. Just think of it this way though FFXIV is more like a step in the future for MMOs.

I'm hoping that FFXIV doesn't have even a tenth of the players of WoW. Fewer players means better players and hopefully more mature ones as well.

I agree wow is full of whiners and children plus cata is lame in my opinion there completely changing the game its not even gonna feel like wow when there done.

wow of warcraft screwed itself over when they made WotLK. it is way to easy to progress in that game now.
Arena is a joke, battle grounds is fail esp. when you go up against a premade with all the same classes; with some heals.

now in cata. questing and lvln up doesnt even take much now.

I really can't tell you guys to stop talking smack about WoW because I have done my fair share since I left that game well over a year ago. But I will say this, don't be elitist hypocrites. To each his own!
As for the player base, I don't care what you say, there are stupid people everywhere and there is no escape. Regardless of title, of game, of faction, etc - there is NO escape.

As for me, I am a former WoW junkie... Don't judge all of them based on a general thought. We call that stereotyping.

You're right, Joss. Some of my RL friends play or played WoW and I can understand why. They liked its casual nature and its low system requirements. It also seems to be getting easier and easier to play. It's not intimidating and accommodates a wide range of playing styles. WoW is a good game if you don't have all day to play it. That's my impression at any rate.

I feel the main problem faced by any MMO player is other players. They can make or break your experience. That's why we form guilds and LS. So I am hoping that FFXIV can attract a more mature player on average than WoW. Perhaps a player who is looking for more immersion and more challenge. Not 10+ hour grinds like FFXI was when I was active, but a game that has more risk and time commitment for a reward than WoW.

I think that the returning FFXI players will be the majority of the players I want to associate with in FFXIV. We're all a bit older and wiser than we once were, and hopefully will make a better world of player interaction as a result. The conflict I see with us being older is that many players returning will have less time for play and thus Square may cater to the casual or 30 minute game session players. That's not my interest, so I hope that there are longer quests/events as well.

im looking forward to a new type of mmo.plus i prefer controller over key and mouse any day . and im not stereotyping,my server was full of well losers i went from guild to guild and it was all the same so i lost interest in the game because whats the point of soloing an mmo,also spending hours in a fail group everyday was just frustrating.

BINGO!! i have to agree with ya

I am not saying that there aren't stupid people. I know there are stupid people that play WoW. Sadly, there are stupid people that play every game. Hell, when I played FFXI I ran in to quite a few stupid people. But the thing is, I also ran into a lot of great people. The first person I ever met in FFXI was a little bard named Tike, and he was a great influence on my time in the game and it was sad to leave him and the other friends I made.

The same goes for WoW, Aion, Warhammer, AoC, etc. There are tons of people that I would rather have nothing to do with. You run into them from time to time. But just as in real life, you can choose who to associate with. If you don't like someone, don't play with them. I have chosen to reject party invites because there was someone I didn't like in the group. Luckily, I am usually able to find a guild or LS or whatever that has a majority of people that I enjoy spending time with. These are the people I do most things with.

It just irks me when I hear people say that they hope to God that players do not come over from WoW and other games because they are so full of fail. WoW was a great place for me and my friends at the time. Since I left I have kept in touch with a couple of them (some were RL friends to begin, while others became friends and stayed in my life after). I am trying to get many of them to come play FFXIV. The fact is, quite a few tried FFXI but stopped playing for a variety of reasons. Most prevalent were time commitments and system requirements. XI did not cater to the players that did not have a lot of time all the time. Nor did it cater to Mac users (XIV still does not, I know). Nevertheless, WoW (and many other games) have good players, and I do hope that FFXIV gets quite a few of them to come over. The Devs are creating a game that caters to the casual gamers, and I hope it brings in a much larger player base than than its predecessor. This will include a number of young, stupid, immature, <insert problem player here> type players and we all just have to deal. Hell, there are people I have already met that want to play XIV (some on this forum and even FFXIVCore.com) that I really don't want to see in game, but oh well. I just won't play with them.

Forget where the players come from. Who cares. This is FFXIV! It's a new game with new players and new experiences. Enjoy it and learn to deal...

Props to you, Joss.

That was very well said.

that was indeed well said Joss and i do agree with you on this aspect,
I stopped playing WoW for about 1 month ago, the game got repetitive and boring, and i had a big hell of a problem finding people who were worth talking to, yet back in the days when there were no expansions in WoW i was in a guild i loved being in because of such good people who you could simply connect to mentally and have fun with.
It's about communicating and sorting which people you want to spend your time on.

The reason most people come into contact with bad or not so likeable people on WoW more so than they did in FFXI has to do with the shear amount of people playing too. The more people the higher chances your gonna find people who you may not like. I found a core 15 or so people on my WoW server that I always stuck with for most of my WoW career and I also still keep in contact with them. FFXI definitely had its fair share of POS's but generally what I saw wasnt that case. WoW had a lot more so and then it even seemed overwhelmingly so when having multi server instances. Regardless I'm with Joss with what he said.

This was well said and you bring up a good point. the sheer numbers of people. Yeah it brings in alot of different types and you deal with them.

but that was never my main gripe in WoW. most of mine was where blizzard took the game. sure keep it easy, keep the involvment low. but me and my friends just got pissed cause its like blizz got lost in 25 man raid land and forgot the rest of the game. PVP takes 20min plus to get into. 10 man raiding which i personally like the best along with 5 man got pushed to the side. and no new things to do other than pvp and raiding at all.

you have more money than any other mmo out there and you could not come up with more things to do?

though i will say the new dungeon finder tool rocks when you leveling. going back through dungeons i missed cause no one did them anymore rocked. i would create new toons just to pvp until you get to DK level then start over, and new toons to level through lowbie dungeons.

I am hoping SE will do what Blizz should have done and make it easier for us with little time to play, but keep all the xtra things to do available, as well as keep them challenging involved. assault, battlefield, besieged, conflict, limbus, dynamis, campaign, salvage....the list goes on and on.

The new website looks great, but now it goes super slow on my computer DX