Yep. I hate saying this, but 2004-2009 World of Warcraft was almost the perfect game. The PvP was imbalanced, but battlegrounds were usually pretty fun. Die? Just wait 30 seconds.
We also got to play WITH other people, not against them, and we all played in this really great world with a fantastic story.
It’s a shame WoW decided to go the way of tokens and a story written by a rich kid, edgy teenage theater club. Would have kept playing it to this day.
Come to FFXIV! We have decent stories, a voluntary PvP arena with multiple modes, and cat girls!
I played FF14 for a while, and it was fun. My issue is previous expansions should be allowed to be abridged or full. I have several classes at level cap and just started Shadowbringers, and it’s a thousand “kill 10 boar” quests, and then a ridiculously good story.
Just let us play the story parts.
Yeah, the side quests are rather unimaginative in their tasks. For the most part they’re not worth doing unless you want a bit more of a dive into the world lore. (A few give unique rewards, though.) Even some story quests are “player does menial chores for good karma with the locals because the devs need to pad things out a bit.”
Shadowbringers is worth it, though. It’s my personal favorite story arc. Endwalker, the one after, is my second favorite.