Being that FFXIV will have NO PvP, and probably not even any Ballista style PvP events at launch in my opinion bodes pretty well for a much much different community than Aion or any of the other new games has.

Not a stab at all PvP players, but a large segment of the MMO audience will not be interested in FFXIV for this reason (and will have SW:ToR and a multitude of other games to keep them away), and I honestly couldn't be happier about that.  Add that in with grouping, and the original FFXI community which will return en mass to FFXIV I think the chances for it having a similar quality community are pretty strong.

Add to that if they continue to nurture that community with grouping, and something like the missions of FFXI which encourage pick up groups and cooperation with the larger community outside of your small group of friends I think it could surpass the original FFXI NA population that many people brag on which we had for a good couple years at least after the launch.

edit:  Noticed some people commented about whether or not the original FFXI community will play FFXIV, I think that is a complete no brainer.  Sure some people won't, some people have stopped playing MMO's all together, and a lot of people are threatening not to if it does not cater to them personally but the vast majority of people who played FFXI and thoroughly enjoyed it, and made up most of this community we talk about from FFXI will have a hard time not at least trying FFXIV I believe.

hahah all the wow noobs can complain all they want in-game of ffxiv.  harrassment reports arent enforced in FF11 anyway so im sure FFXIV is the SAME. I think all the GM's are japanese so dont be afraid to talk non-sense against people who compare FF's to everything else.... i would definitely be one of those who will talk back at spammers and shit talkers; guaranteed i can be the the asshole/dick and hero at the same time.

unlike wow i get reported for DUMB shit, that goes against my FREEDOM OF SPEECH especially a game made in AMERICA (USA).. and because of that it makes wow players a bunch of crack headed dull players, while being enslaved by the GM and their gang of friends they know personally, while at the same time people kiss ass and bow down to have a ingame friend(GM) with authority! <--- pardon my language, but i got some major beef issues with WOW community and its communist GM's. it piss's me off so much because i know people would never be like that in real life but instead think they could take advantage of it through a video game.  pardon my language again but GM's and their followers are pussy cats in real life, i wonder if you carry  that same attitude in real life from a videogame, you definitely not level 80 in RL so keep your egos in the virtual world before you get urself hurt.

as a matter of fact, the GM's in FFXI who i assume are japanese, respects america's freedom and rights. if not, they just dont understand us which is still awesome because we dont understand them either!  but anyways, the FFXIV community is gona be as good as FFXI, everyone is friendly and people who argue will argue like settled adults.  thats why i cameback to FFXI every now and then for a GOOD TIME of an MMORPG. i wasted money equally on both wow and FFXI, but FFXI is worth the waste...

Originally posted by diluviumtech

hahah all the wow noobs can complain all they want in-game of ffxiv.  harrassment reports arent enforced in FF11 anyway so im sure FFXIV is the SAME. I think all the GM's are japanese so dont be afraid to talk non-sense against people who compare FF's to everything else.... i would definitely be one of those who will talk back at spammers and shit talkers; guaranteed i can be the the asshole/dick and hero at the same time.

unlike wow i get reported for DUMB shit, that goes against my FREEDOM OF SPEECH especially a game made in AMERICA (USA).. and because of that it makes wow players a bunch of crack headed dull players, while being enslaved by the GM and their gang of friends they know personally, while at the same time people kiss ass and bow down to have a ingame friend(GM) with authority! <--- pardon my language, but i got some major beef issues with WOW community and its communist GM's. it piss's me off so much because i know people would never be like that in real life but instead think they could take advantage of it through a video game.  pardon my language again but GM's and their followers are pussy cats in real life, i wonder if you carry  that same attitude in real life from a videogame, you definitely not level 80 in RL so keep your egos in the virtual world before you get urself hurt.

 

as a matter of fact, the GM's in FFXI who i assume are japanese, respects america's freedom and rights. if not, they just dont understand us which is still awesome because we dont understand them either!  but anyways, the FFXIV community is gona be as good as FFXI, everyone is friendly and people who argue will argue like settled adults.  thats why i cameback to FFXI every now and then for a GOOD TIME of an MMORPG. i wasted money equally on both wow and FFXI, but FFXI is worth the waste...

Please, please tell me you're being ironic.

Edited out an unneeded comment.

I for one think the community will be a very strong one. Sure you will have the occasional jerk or selfish person that comes along but here is why I think there are going to be fewer then in some of the games out there. In FFXIV like in FFXI you will be able to changee jobs and I'm sure there will be benefits for using one character instead of multiples in FFXIV like FFXI. This in return makes it so everyone knows you or pretty close and if everyone knows you, you'll want them to like you for many reasons. Think of it as a small town, which normally has about the same amount of people as a server does. In a small town you might not know every single person but you know a lot of them and odds are if you don't know someone, someone you know does know that person. This smalll town type of community "encourages" people to act with a little bit more sense and be a little bit more courtious then they might in other games because having a bad reputation can make your gaming experience in games like that miserable.

For instance there were people in FFXI on my server that were renouned for being huge jerks. I was actually friends with 2 of them. For a while it was a ok because only a small amount of people thought they were jerks but both of them ended up quitting not because they didn't enjoy the game but because no one ever wanted anything to do with them because of their reputation. This rarely happens in other games and in all honesty I'm sure those guys that are jerks in other games will just make an alt and play that character if they want to continue playing. Well looks like I rambled on enough but there is my 2 cents.

Originally posted by diluviumtech

hahah all the wow noobs can complain all they want in-game of ffxiv.  harrassment reports arent enforced in FF11 anyway so im sure FFXIV is the SAME. I think all the GM's are japanese so dont be afraid to talk non-sense against people who compare FF's to everything else.... i would definitely be one of those who will talk back at spammers and shit talkers; guaranteed i can be the the asshole/dick and hero at the same time.

unlike wow i get reported for DUMB shit, that goes against my FREEDOM OF SPEECH especially a game made in AMERICA (USA).. and because of that it makes wow players a bunch of crack headed dull players, while being enslaved by the GM and their gang of friends they know personally, while at the same time people kiss ass and bow down to have a ingame friend(GM) with authority! <--- pardon my language, but i got some major beef issues with WOW community and its communist GM's. it piss's me off so much because i know people would never be like that in real life but instead think they could take advantage of it through a video game.  pardon my language again but GM's and their followers are pussy cats in real life, i wonder if you carry  that same attitude in real life from a videogame, you definitely not level 80 in RL so keep your egos in the virtual world before you get urself hurt.

 

as a matter of fact, the GM's in FFXI who i assume are japanese, respects america's freedom and rights. if not, they just dont understand us which is still awesome because we dont understand them either!  but anyways, the FFXIV community is gona be as good as FFXI, everyone is friendly and people who argue will argue like settled adults.  thats why i cameback to FFXI every now and then for a GOOD TIME of an MMORPG. i wasted money equally on both wow and FFXI, but FFXI is worth the waste...

You are exactly the kind of person (and I think I speak for all of us here) that we don't want to see in XIV. As you can see I started marking parts of your post that highlight exactly why you're the type of player we don't want, but gave up because quite frankly I could just simply highlight the whole post. Do me a favor and never post here again.

 Well after finding out some in game friends I knew for years will be playing I think I will just stick with the people I know and know me till the whole drama phase is over and I'm sure a lot of people who are coming to this game with friends will be doing the same thing. Yes there will be drama for maybe the first year or so then it should die down after people find out this wont be a WoW clone and hopefully the community will end up being like the FFXI community where people help each other answer questions without a smartass remark.

So my prediction is the community will be very very shifty at first but will settle into something people don't have to worry about immature spammers.

Originally posted by toddze

Originally posted by Jackio81

Not to long ago I quit playing Aion, a bunch of my friends tried getting me into the game but once we reached our 30s the grinding took over and most of us turned towards botting. As for me, like I said I decided to leave the game, not just because of the grinding but the whole experience felt like a Final Fantasy game without a soul, plus the community didn't help much considering it seemed it  was comprised 40% of WoW players trying to turn the entire game into a barrens chat board, another 40% of botters and gold farmers, and a final 20% that actually liked the game but were willing to delusionally defend the game even when the faults were true.

 

If you go take a look at the Aion forums right now it's just an endless stream of one group of players complaining about the grind, another group defending the game going so far as to suggest there is none, and a final group of trolls that are just riding them all.

 

So now that I looked towards the FF14 community, I'm wondering if it'll be different. You might suggest that it's the game that makes the community, but my belief is that it's the community that makes the game.

.....

I guess in the end I'm just hoping the FF14 community doesn't turn out like Aion, I spent years enjoying this series and I'd hate to see another MMO attempt to turn soar considering today's MMO gamer.

 

I think your wrong here. The text in the red. The game makes the community. When FFXIV launches I can promise you that the community will be rotten from the start. Everybody flocks to the new game.  If ffxiv makes people put effort into it for them to advance it will begin to weed people out.

FFXIV already has a devoted following from the old and and current ffxi fans. So as long as SE doesnt alienate their loyal fans the game will be here to stay for a long time, and IMO thats the a secret to a great community.  When an MMO is designed for 3-4 months of playing a community never has time to form properly anyways. When I started FFXI I was seeing the same people for years. Another thing that made the community was the ability to change jobs. Some peoples name were well known because they never had to level an alt. There was people I never said 2 words too but I would see these people all over the places.

The game by far makes the community an in turn the community makes the game better.

I agree. The thing is that a game can create what community is ultimately there via the gameplay. For instance, if they make this more solo based ala wow.. you are going to have people that want to rush to the endgame just so they can get thier phat loots, if they make this more group based... (which i have no doubt that they are) then that tends to filter out the "me me me" players to an extent and usher a more mature community. One like ffxi has.

So yes, in a way a game can make a community.

Though the OP is right as well.... the community can make a worlds difference to a game as well... as in.. i know a few mmos that would be dead right now if it didnt have a nice caring community of friends keeping it alive. No one wants to leave it becuase all thier friends are playing. Though usually in this case its a game that used to be good, derailed due to sweeping changes.. and people dont want to leave friends.

So it could go either way, its just the way you look at it. Heres to hoping this game has a solid backing of mature players. :)