(I'm doing a much longer blog post about this already but I kinda wanted to give a smaller and less edited posted about this since I saw someone talking about their experiences with WoW and stuff and I'm in a writing mood!)
This isn't quite comparing MMO's or deciding which is the better of the two (in short, both mmo's are fine on their own give or take different issues that exist in both games. Also anyone that believes playing one over the other is somehow better is silly bc it's two large games made by companies who both make dubious decisions wrt workplace practices and business decisions.)
Anyways, I had been thinking about my time with both games lately and how I feel about them now that I'm playing both simultaneously (for now anyways)
World of Warcraft
I've definitely have had a much longer history with WoW than i've had with FFXIV. I can't say i'm someone who's been playing since vanilla or played any of the previous warcraft games, but i've been playing since around bc? maybe wotlk (via my brother's accnt) and later managed to get my own account by the time cata swung around.
It's a game I hold near and dear to my heart because it was a way for me to be part of a group where we got to meet almost every day and just, do something, anything, together (and it's also where I made some long-time friends as well!)
I started to learn how to raid and do high end content during Mists of Pandaria and began to enjoy the challenges of raiding every week. Legion was probably when I was most in-love with WoW because I was invested in the story and, at that time, I finally started to be more comfortable with who I was as a person and solidifying my friend group.
However, when Battle for Azeroth was announced I decided I wouldn't play the expansion. A mix of starting to burn out, being uninterested in the premise of the expansion, and just, working a lot. In the end i'm glad I didn't play at the time. Story aside, it ended up being a long and drawn out expansion plagued by poorly done gearing systems, something WoW has struggled with in the past.
Fast forward and Shadowlands has similar issues coupled with a story that is somehow less interesting than the story from BfA (this is my own opinion on the story btw.)
And of course, all the shit regarding Activision-Blizzard. Needless to say I was left completely unimpressed, frustrated, and incredibly sad. I had been so glad that I stopped playing any of their games (not that I played that many to begin with but, you know.) and playing something different to fill in the void: FFXIV.
FFXIV
This wasn't my first time playing FFXIV, I had tried it out a bit during Heavensward, but didn't continue bc i was still playing WoW a lot. After realizing I didn't want to play WoW again for a while, I picked up FFXIV again in 2019 (a few months before Shadowbringers launched I think.)
To keep things short, getting used to the game at first took some time (It's slower paced than WoW and has the global cooldown system in it as well) but after getting used to it I was HOOKED. The story really captured me (Honestly, I think i joined at the right time, because I still love Shadowbringers,) and I started reaching out to other social circles.
At the time, it felt like it had a significantly more welcoming community and brought a completely different experience from WoW that I appreciated (and still do!) It probably felt even more intense considering we were all stuck inside for all of 2020 and FFXIV was one of the few ways I could reach out and feel better when I was starting to struggle with some depression and anxiety being made worse by covid. Despite the issues around this time, I still treasure these memories.
As things started opening up again later (It shouldn't have btw. Please keep wearing masks ;;) I started playing a little less but started feeling less enthusiastic a bout the game for a number of reasons but I won't go into those here (gonna save that for the big blog post in the future) But one of the tipping points was the community treatment of people of color (hi i'm brown) , later made worse by comments Naoki Yoshida made about FF16 the upcoming game he's been made producer of.
It just kind of began the cycle I felt about the Activision-Blizzard stuff from the previous year. It's very different things, but they're both equally just as bad. (If you come in and tell me that Yoshida's comments aren't as bad bc they didn't actively hurt people just know that I hate you and think you're a fucking idiot.)
Thinking, Thinking, Thinking
Honestly, after the stuff with FFXIV and Yoshi P's comments, It ended up pushing me back into dipping my toes back into WoW. The newest expansion, Dragonflight caught my attention and felt very fresh compared to the previous two expansions.
For a time I felt like I should just stop playing both games but I also realize that it's going to matter very little in the grand scheme of things other than just make me sadder and separate me from my friends. I won't knock on people for refusing to play the games again or continuing to play the games (honestly it's not my place to judge nor is it my place to hold myself morally above others.) but i'm going to keep playing WoW and FFXIV, for now at least.
My time with both games is definitely a lot more casual now. To be honest, a future where I stop playing these games altogether seems a lot more likely than I ever imagined in the past. Putting less time into both of these games and more into trying out new games (I don't think i'll try out other mmos unless they REALLY catch my attention) and improving on my art.
Idk how else to end this tbh LOL I just wanted to write things down.
side note but: I noticed while i was writing this Naoki Yoshida put out a statement about cheating in the latest Ultimate fight and I cannot help but feel a little salty that he addressed this so quickly but hasn't like, acknowledged his fucked up comment about poc in ff16. Ugh loll