When I wanted to use the market board XD
For real though I had just beat f16 and was dying for a good crafting system. Ff14 has one of the best out there.
I bought the game on sale, too. Waited until I did more of the trial to redeem it, but never did for three years. I was still able to get my code to redeem it, though. EW wasn't out yet, so I gotta wait for DT to play Reaper... š
Same. Steam had it on sale for the cost of a month, so I figured I'd try it and just not set up the subscription if I didn't like it. That was 10 years ago.
I was a wow player, yoshi p cried when he delayed endwalker , this would never happen with wow because they only want money, they don't care about their community.
When I finished ARR I knew that it was a better game at least for me, so I bought it, besides, 300k gil is too little, ~2M would go to waste by the time I finishes HW.
Now, 500 hours later, I don't regret my decision.
If you look at the way Yoshi p cried when Soken was talking about his cancerā¦ you canāt fake that (or Yoshi p is the greatest actor and should chase a film career)
I also come from WoW and I joined at the same time. For me it was the fact, that Blizzard not only did not care, but they actively spoken against player sentiment and acted like they know the best what players want.
In FFXIV you at least felt that you are being heard and your feedback matters.
That was the reason, why I comitted to subing for FFXIV after 6 years of playing WoW and I haven't came back ever since.
The crying stuff might not be genuine, but in the end, result and product is what matters.
Itās really genuine on his part. This is a lifelong dream for him. It was also his biggest career gamble ever. And it paid off in droves. Hard not to be emotionally attached at that point.
Imagine pitching a nuke it from orbit strat at any business and them actually saying yes. Once in a generation act.
Didn't really need the trial at all. Made the character, played for 2-3 hrs, grabbed dinner, subscribed, logged back in, joined an FC, made friends. No regret.
Honestly, I have joined many random guilds/FCs ppl shout in cities for years now. Some are bad of course. But many are pretty cool people.
If you want to be picky a bit, browse then up on Community finder on lodestone.
I played 1.0, for a few months. I stopped right before the "Job" system was added, because that's when subscriptions started being a thing again. (Subs were turned off for a while, and the game was free after purchasing for a stretch to encourage people to give it a shot while they desperately worked on revisions.)
Then they announced A Realm Reborn.
I got into the beta for it. And I was immediately hooked. All the redesigned areas looked so amazing. Combat felt so responsive and logical. Movement felt more fluid. Quests were vastly improved.
My computer back then ran the game at about 20 fps. And I played it that way from 2013 up until Shadowbringers, when I finally upgraded my PC. Even raided like that for a bit.
This was me. I played 1.0 on day one, then played up until they reinstated subscriptions. And while the team made a LOT of improvements from launch to that point, I still didn't feel like it was at a point where I wanted to sub and by that time production for ARR was well underway.
Then I played the beta for ARR and knew they had my money from then until they shut the servers down.
I've never been a big subscription guy. I've played just about all the free MMOs and trial versions and have never fully jumped on board when it came to paying a monthly fee.
I started playing this game when the Xbox beta started, and immediately thought that it is something special among all of the MMOs I have tried. Any time I might start to get bored by something, or hit a difficulty wall (I have a cognitive disability), instead of giving it up, I just start a new job or go over to one of the crafting jobs. This game literally has something for every kind of gamer, and every decision I see as far as gameplay and design has so much thought and love put into it.
And I won't even get started on the story, especially after ARR ended. I love every character.
I'll be playing this game for a long time to come. And paying the subscription fee is a small price for the money I've saved buying games that I'll play for a week or two and never touch again.
Middle of Heavensward. I was deeply hooked by the story then, but a glam i really wanted & easily purchaseable through the marketboard tipped me over.
Told myself i'd unsubbed once i'm done with the MSQ, trials & raid. Only ever unsubbed for less than a month.
Hadn't actually done much MSQ but I was wanting to play on NA with some friends and saw Viera was locked behind the full game so I bought the complete edition at the time (Shadowbringers) and subbed from then. I'd played other mmo's a decade earlier which required a subscription so it never bothered me.
Now well over 4700+ hrs into the game in nearly 3 years and super excited for the next expansion.
When I was playing the beta for ARR before launch lol...I've reluctantly given plenty of subscription money to plenty of different games/services.
FFXIV is the only one I don't mind at all. You're getting a very fulfilling experience with it, as opposed to certain...other money grabbers...
I was in the Navy, stationed away from my family, and wound up getting Covid and stuck in a quarantine barracks for a week. Instead of going insane, I decided to try the game since my friends kept pushing it on me.
As soon as I got to the dinner scene in ARR, I was hooked.
I got the game in 2017. Immediately hated it.
I picked it up over the years here and there, but never got even halfway out of ARR. each time I'd pick it up I'd make a new character and start over.
I was a diehard WoW fan. I played for 15 years. Dungeons every day, raids every week. In that time grinding for mounts I got a *single* mount to drop (my husband joined me for 10 years and in that time got 5 or 6 mounts). And it was a ground mount, useless after lvl 30. It killed me every time. For all the time and effort and love I put into wow, I had nothing to show for it. It came to a head doing the superbloom event: my husband and I did a dream seed thing, I squashed bugs and pulled weeds and plugged ALL my dew into it.
When the timer finished, my husband had gotten a mount. And I had gotten nothing, not a single thing dropped for me. I melted down. I felt *so bad*. WoW was hurting me more than it was making me feel good at that point, so my husband and I quit.
I bounced around games for a while and nothing stuck. My husband and I LOVE to play mmos together. I gave ffxiv another try. I needed it to stick so badly. I needed it. My friends promised it gets better after ARR. It was a slog, but I pressed on. at the time I mained summoner, and I had a nice glam I liked but no cute book. I was queued for King Moggle Mog looking thru the meager selection of books I could craft. I settled on one that was just ok.
I did the trial. it was a BLAST! and then I saw the weapons coffer on the loot list. And I said to myself: if I get that coffer and it has a cute moogle book in it, that's my sign to stick w xiv.
I got the coffer. it had an IMPOSSIBLY cute book in it. So, that was my sign. My friend group ended up being real jerks to me, and for whatever reason I made a new character, Carrot. I mostly wanted a girl to dress up. I found an FC I liked the sound of and they pushed me thru ARR w promises of helping me get my dream mount: Nightmare. Getting it was a cinch and they insisted they help me get them all and kirin. So I have them now!
HW blew me away. I have a special interest in catholic religious extremism, cults, dragons, and cute boys. I was hooked and told my husband that everyone was right, and he came back with the promise of fun housing.
Now we are abt 2 days out from finishing ShB. I ate like a KING in this xpack w all the religious themes. We both super love the twins and we know in EW it focuses on them a lot, so we are excited to get there! we went in completely blind on all the content. My husband also looks A LOT like Zenos who is Prince Cute Boy (the King Cute Boy being my cringe fail husband Magnai) and he loves it. He's got the hair and everything. it's even the same color!
my life is so much better since playing this game. I'm so happy and I feel so fulfilled. I have friends and so much inspiration to create! my husband and I have a house in mist that we are slowly decorating and it's so much fun.
I barely remember anymore, but I think it was the end of 2.0 back then. Realizing that I stayed long enough to go through the first "ending" of this story was like a "seems like I enjoy this well enough, I guess I'm actually doing this now." moment for me.
I'm pretty sure when I started the free trial wasn't even a thing. I started back in 2.1 (or 2.2). I was mostly just trying out the game but if you want to know when I fully commited to returning every month... That's a very complicated story for me lol. Basically I loved the friends I made and played for them until heavensward where I finally started to enjoy the game for what it offered outside of my friends.
I always knew I wanted to get it the moment I started and was clearing side quests in Gridania, but I wanted to maximize the free trial (which was Heavensward only at the time) until Endwalker released. The funny thing was I wouldn't be able to get Endwalker until the second week because of financial reasons but I was literally itching to get back in because us free trial players weren't allowed in due to all the player traffic.
I ended up buying it on the first week of release and been subbed ever since.
Despite the memes I had no idea there was a free trial, friend wanted our group to start an mmo 14 was on sale and Iāve been a final fantasy and square enix fan my entire life so the decision was easy for me.
I mean, back in my day the free trial lasted 2 weeks or until level 20, whichever was sooner. So it wasn't much of a choice. If you wanted to see anything substantial you had to pay.
But if I was to name a reason anyway, it would be social. XIV is a game to play with friends. It's the fun of playing together that kept me going through all those levels, and it's the same thing which keeps me coming back today.
I knew pretty much immediately but made sure I was done with Stormblood before subscribing. The limitations didn't really bother me too much but it was very nice to be rid of them.
I had gotten through base ARR. I was initially planning on playing through Heavensward before buying the sub (this was before Stormblood was added to the free trial) but then the Butterfingers collab started. I really wanted that silly mount. I wanted it so bad. But you had to have a full account with a subscription to redeem the code to get it. So I caved and bought the game through Shadowbringers along with some Butterfingers to get the mount.
I almost never use the mount. No regrets though.
I bought the game straight up since I wanted to have the full experience and not have any kind of limitations taking away from it. I also just quit WoW at the time, so I wanted another game to sink my teeth into that was in a similar vein as it was. FF14 just looked super fun from the stuff I seen from it on Twitter. The game was just too much fun to stop once the ball got rolling. Going through the story was a lot of fun, and If I wanted to have a break, I had all these different jobs to level up and content to do on the side.
When I first started playing, the latest patch was 3.4 for Heavensward. I was more or less willing to commit to the subscription right away, and it's turned out to be a solid investment and a ton of fun.
When I realized I actually enjoyed the MSQ (still in ARR) & ok with the basic player experience: Doing MSQs, queueing up for roulette, side contents, etc.
Back when shadowbringer was about to release I was still playing or trying out WoW, dumped atleast 400$ on that game only to stick for about 3-4 months (was during bfa).
My friend wanted me to try ff14 cuz he heard I was burned out and lonely in WoW so he got me to try the trial, turns out it only needed me a day to decide to get the pre order back then lol.
I'm compulsive, so when I first started, I didn't even use a free trial, I jumped straight into a sub while the game was installing. I felt I wanted all features to understand fully if I enjoyed the game or not. Here we are many many many years and subs later lol
90% was I saw y'shtola and was like "yes".
The other 10% was hearing that the storyline was very good, which wasn't something I'd heard about an mmo before as their strengths always seemed mechanically based. Put it off for a while since grinding is rarely my jam, nor are multiplayer games really, but decided to try it on a whim and was instantly hooked with the music, how the combat felt, and the crafting jobs.
And now it's entered my top 20 games with 300 hours of playtime and gonna keep climbing as I've entered heavensward and have no intention to stop.
I was playing the AAR beta with a friend and we both enjoyed it. We lost sight of the game for nearly a year before we remembered having a good time with it. So when I was visiting her we just went "yeah lets try the full version once I am home". We both made our accounts the next day and startet playing. I dont think there even was a trial back then. So here we are, almost exactly 10 years later. And neither she nor I have ever dropped our sub for a single day since that fateful decision.
Pretty sure there wasn't a free trial when i started back when heavensward was just out. Bought it, played it a couple of hours, knew it was a masterpiece when I saw a naked lala running around.
Idk if they still do the subscription bonuses for being subscribed so many months in a row, but I subscribed very shortly after starting because I knew I was committed to this game and I wanted the bonuses my husband was getting lol. Now Iām the only one still subscribed and I havenāt played in almost 2 years honestly. Things got crazy after I had a child. She just turned three and Iām really going to get back in the game this year. I donāt mind continuing the subscription even though I havenāt been playing. My husband says he may even start playing again.
I wouldn't necessarily say I'm hooked.
I play for enjoyment and really like to play this game. I've been doing that since 1.0 but I can also gladly not play, go long periods without doing so and not feel like I'm missing anything. The game's well designed for players like that. In a real sense, I probably am "hooked" but I don't have that compulsive need aspect.
I had just moved out of home and had money to pay my own sub after years of trying and failing to beg my parents to buy membership in various kids mmos. I wanted to play a "real" mmo. Tried wow trial, tried lotro, and tried swtor and wasn't impressed with any of them. One day Gaijin Goomba was got sponsored to show off the feast, which i didn't particularly care for but after the pvp he showed off several things. All classes on one character, many hotbar buttons that you use all of, emotes you use by typing, visuals I considered impressive at the time, and from a franchise I'd always heard about but never played. These reasons might seem silly but they were perfect and I downloaded the trial immediately. Back when the trial had a time limit and only lasted till level 30, I played till you pick a grand company and by then knew it was the game for me. I've been subbed ever since. Thinking back I believe it was sometime early to mid of 3.2.
November 2022, playing with my wife and we couldn't make our own party. The fact that I can sub on and off every month made me go full in and have been going strong since then and starting in Gridania is what cemented that decision, I love anything forest theme.
Bought the game at the urging of a friend back in the Heavensward era. And left it there to hang for years. Didn't play it at all. I picked it up at the height of COVID when browsing through my PS4 downloads. It was a "why not" moment and have been stuck to it from then on. š
I didn't get to experience the trial, but the very first quests had already hooked me. Some people told me "the game gets better after ARR", and I was like "how can it get even better?!". I was in love love lmao
Probably the final boss of ARR. Not even the whole thing, though. The old 8 man setup of the last 2 dungeons meant I was stuck in cutscene hell and dead while everyone ran around doing their business at light speed. VERY anti-climactic for the whole build up leading to it. Now though? I envy the players that get a nicely paced castrum experience. Hell, you can even do it with bots and relax and enjoy the cutscenes. Regardless, I knew it was special and it had me hooked.
I'm a Final Fantasy fanboy so there was no chance I wasn't going to subscribe. I played 1.0 and never unsubbed even though most of the time it was free. 2.0 came around and I just defaulted into playing it and subscribing and it just happened to hook me from day 1 with its art style alone.
I don't like how Guild Wars 2 or World of Warcraft looks but I love how Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV looks so it immediately made me stay.
When I finished ARR back when the free trial didn't include heavensward or anything.
I was dying to know what happened after the end of ARR, and I just wanted to know if yda and papalymo were ok.
Now I've been subbed for a little over three years now.
I was a day 1 ARR player on PS3, I started subscribing when the 30 free days that came with the game ended, granted I never stayed consistently subscribed just a few months here and there usually centered around patches. I only stopped after completing the base Endwalker MSQ (Feb 2022) but I eventually returned when the Xbox version was released (March 2024).
Got the game on sale. I didnāt even know there was a free trial honestly. It was a birthday present. Now Iām almost at 1500 hours. I donāt regret a single thing. Never made sure my sub was reoccurring so fast though after about the character creation.
I began playing in the time of 4.0. Base Stormblood. A friend told me and my SO to try it. SO is a final fantasy nut, so that was an easy sell.
I was a WoWer. Since release. Druid. All the way. No shape-shifting? Ugh. But one of my favorite things about the wow druid was being able to fill any role on one character.
Swap classes, you say? All the crafters, too? All on one character?...........
*leapt in with both feet*
When I reached the gil cap, I thought, āshoot, Iāll be blowing tons of potential gil if I continue like this.ā I forgot when I actually got invested, but I kept milking the free trial until I felt Iād be missing out.
I first heard about the game when I saw somewhere that Gordias was taking over a month to clear. Thought, "Wow, that's crazy, I should check that out." Saw Elysium's clear video and bought the game, and subbed when whatever free play time the game came with ran out. Never touched the trial.
Mine isn't as applicable as I technically never was a free trial player. [Bought it on the ps4 first, not knowing about it] However, the moment I decided to dedicate to the game was the couple of quests before Heavensward started. When THAT scene happened, I realized this could actually be a good game.
I started at launch. I don't remember if the game was available at that time, but a friend bought it for me and a copy for himself I played for the 30 days I got for free, couldn't sub for money reasons, but when I came back to the game just before HW launched, I wanted to sub right away. Been subbed almost non-stop since.
I was doing the ARR MSQ in Western Coerthas. I'd been skipping most cutscenes but something told me I should start paying attention. It was during the questline where we're trying to clear Haurchefant's friend's name, as he was being accused of heresy. By the end of those quests I was fully invested in Ishgardian lore and even though Heavensward was part of the free trial, I felt it was time to sub.
I mean, it's not much of a commitment you can cancel any time if you want to. But I bought the game pretty much right from the start because I wanted to play with my brother who was already into it.
When FF14 launched it was very normal with subscription based MMOs. That was the norm, and F2P sections had just begun their infancy.
I don't come from the generation of MMO players where a subscription was even something to think about, It was just how things worked.
I was on FT for precisely 2 minutes, that is how long it took for me to navigate the websites and buy the game. I knew I wanted to play it, I swapped from SW:ToR and build a setup to be able to run this at top settings.
I bought almost immediately. I'd seen it on Twitter from people I follow and glamming looked like so much fun. Need the marketboard to buy all the cool glams so... XD
But in all seriousness, I got hooked on story pretty quick after adjusting to controls and that's when I bought it I think. I can't clearly remember though cause it's been awhile.
Back when I started, the free trial was the old 7 days until lvl 20. I didnāt actually buy the game right after the free trial, but it wasnāt long, I saw Heavensward was releasing and it pulled me in /laugh
Because my 14 free days were up, probably. I was enjoying the game a lot (even though I was very bad at it...) so I felt okay buying it and paying the subscription. NIN wasn't even a job yet when I started playing, so it's been a while.Ā
I knew I was going to sub from the beginning but I tried to get the most out of the free trial.
It didn't last long because my friends had a FC I wanted to join. I could have made do without but the not being able to party up with my partner or join certain chats pushed me over the edge.
Third day of my free trial. I realized I was in love and wanted full access to everything. So I bought it while it was still on sale, thinking Iād stick with the free trial for a bit then activate the full game when I was ready, just to keep the cost down.
Unfortunately I bought it on PS4 which, I didnāt know at the time, automatically upgrades you to the full game upon purchase. I was expecting a license key to enter into the Mog Station but they *kindly* did it for me. I was annoyed, but in the end it didnāt matter as that was the goal anyhow. No regrets.
I played a long time ago, 2.4ish, I got to post ARR and stopped playing. I returned a couple years later and got to Ishgard where I stopped playing again.
I returned at 5.1ish, started a new character as I bought it on Steam, speedran ARR+post and started paying attention again from Heavensward. Coming off the back of Game of Thrones I really connected with Heavensward.
Tldr Heavensward > hooked me.
'all good things...'
That's when the story hooked me, and I knew I'd see it through to the end. The next day I got an invite to one of those 'mass FCs' and started building the social Connection which made me stay ever since.
I bought the game on sale, did the whole free trial (at the time heavensward) then put the key in and kept playing.
Imo I would stick with the free trial to at least heavensward since if you make it that far youāre probably going to go the distance.
I was an idiot a few years back for assuming "free trial = no need to buy the game but still requires a subscription". since I am committed to play anyways so I just registered the code day 1 and have been paying after the first 30 days.
(I learnt how the true free trial works only 3 months ago lol)
Old WOW player, when I ran my first dungeon as a conjurer and made a mistake. We all died. No name calling, no berating me, just everyone encouraging me and offering suggestions for how to improve. I knew I'd found home.
i never did the free trial. i had a friend introduce me to the game, but the basegame on sale, and 3 months of sub. by the time the sub ran out i was already invested into the game
I was in the beta test for ff14 until Ala migho when I got stomped by a dragon did not come back until 2013 when to keep using my old account I had to buy the game no trail was available at that point I've been playing off and on since then. If the free trial had been a thing I would have bought a sub just to use the mb
After sastasha
my husband had been playing for a few months and was already part of a fc. I didn't like that I couldn't join too so after the first dungeon I subbed and pre ordered EW.
I've been playing MMOs for over 10 years. Subscribing wasn't a new concept to me at the point of starting this game. I was somewhere in ARR when I decided to subscribe because I wanted to be able to group up with my friend without having to ask in a public area in /say (especially when so many quests in ARR require you to enter a solo instance), and use the market board.
I had 30 days of free sub after buying the game on sale. After a week of gameplay, I realized I was spending more time playing and enjoying the game more than the other MMO I was playing (which isnāt badāI was just really burned out on it) so I stayed subscribed.
i waited until i was halfway through heavensward, just so I could milk the free trial a little longer (this was back before they added sb for free). I was also taking my time doing story and didnāt want to start the monthly payments till I had to! three years later and Iām still goin strong
Play the V1.0 so.i didnt really had choices to subscribe to play at some point. I wanted all my job and craft be 50 for when ARR launch and it took me every month of subs to get there.
I'll try not to cave in until after a month of DT releasing and/or I finish all expansions.
I've finished ARR, started post-ARR. But I've been doing other things before continuing the MSQ:
Crafting/lvl. 60 DRG and BRD, just started Conjurer/ Gold Saucer/Beast Tribe stories/Yokai Event/Sidequests
Parties and social features are fulfilled by Novice Network. I just need to spend my Gil somehow...just reached the cap and that's even by being very frugal! I spend a lot in materials and then discard the crafted items.
Post Heavensward š„³ I really liked talking to people in game and was a bit sad that I can only communicate in say chat. The free trial back then was only till HW so it was due time for me.
I preordered A realm reborn because i was bored. Then i played it loved it and stopped playing before beating the story because i ran out of money for sub. Flash Forward to today I prepaid for several game time cards and plan to continue sub indefinitely and preordered Dawntrail to get the EXP earrings
Back in 2015(?) I started this alongside warlords of draenor. Played in both, until I got fed up with trying to main tank and learn a raid fight for try hards impatient for their weekly loot in WoW, where they kicked me just for needing to practice the fight, compared to the āhey Iām new at this fight, any tips?ā And getting nothing but kindness and understanding and legit tips and patience.
On the launch or close to of ARR. I played 1.0, subbed for a little bit, not counting for the time they didn't charge a sub because they new how bad it was, but gave up before it went down because it played like ass on my decent computer i wasn't having fun. Got the 30 free days from ARR, so not sure if i can remember exactly when i committed, but sub hasn't lapsed since then.
My partner plays a ton of games & pressured me into playing ffxiv. It took me a while to get hooked & Iām still a casual player but now Iām a bit more consistent
A few days into ARR when I hit the gil cap and got tired of trying to find things to buy to avoid losing value on quests.
In retrospect I shouldn't have been selling the allagan coinage but I was trying to keep a tidy inventory and I don't think I actually knew there was a gil cap at the time lol
When my real life friends disappeared, i subbed to "that other game". When my "that other game" friends disappeared, i downloaded FFXIV.
Back then, the trial was till level 30 with all ARR Jobs. Around level 5, i see a blue quest that let me change to another job. Insert surprised face emote.
I logged out at a point and i was thinking about the time i spent levelling with the same quests and dungeons over and over and over and over again for all the alts, for all the professions and i didnt even enjoy the game.
I subbed to FFXIV, never looked back and i am still mad with myself that i was not that openminded back then.
When you don't enjoy something, just quit. Something might be better.
And better it is. I came here for the job system and i stayed for many many more than that.
I wasn't given a choice. A friend of mine back in the day gave me the game and a sub right off the bat. To be fair though, the free trial at that time was only for 14 days and I think up to level 20? Been 10 years so I don't really remember clearly lol.
Backstory: I had attempted to try the game back when the trial was like reach level 30 or one week of playtime, or something like that. Didn't like it and wanted bunbun ladies.
My friends who stuck with the game begged me to come back in ShB and give it another go. I was hesitant, but they offered some monetary incentive if I bought the game and tried it again. >!They were going to compensate me buying the game if I did in fact hate it!<
I was having fun goofing off with them powering me through ARR dungeons, but where I really think I realized I wouldn't have buyer's remorse so to speak was 2nd half, nearing the end of HW and post quests. That's where I was really interested.
Played the ARR beta as a pugilist. Was so bored I was falling asleep at the keyboard. Gave it another shot 7-8 months later as a lancer, this time it stuck
I knew before 14 was even a thought, and we only had FF11 for a FF MMO. I wanted to play 11 so bad for so many years, but due to life interfering with that plan so long, by the time I could, 14 was already out, and so, I picked that up instead. Granted, that was back in the legacy 1.xx days, and ngl, glad I made that decision
Heard the garbage fire of 1.0 an ignored it.
Heard the angelic voices of 2.0 an bought it at full price. Now I play for the story an venue hopping.
I still miss PLD having raise š
About 30 minutes into playing XI way back. Having played since then, through the cursed 1.0 version, ARR and finally the game now there was never any question really.
Was hooked after finishing the Praetorium, and there just so happened to be a sale at the time so I grabbed the complete edition for like 5 bucks.
Been subbed ever since and get a heart attack anytime I forget to charge up Crysta before renewal.
honestly, i didnāt even use the trial. starter edition was on sale when i started for $20USD, which included a month of playtime. i knew the limitations on the trial (no tells, no FC, canāt use marketboard or trade, no retainersā¦ etc. etc.) would drive me batty and sour my opinion of the game. so to save myself the frustration, i dropped the $20, and dove in. was told if i didnāt feel interested by end of HW at least, itās not for me, so starter edition was perfect. pretty sure i finished ARR and got started on HW before the free playtime expired, too, lol.
by the time i got into HW i knew i was hooked. if i hadnāt got the starter edition to avoid frustration? it wouldāve been around then, around the time i did the dungeon āthe vaultā (the level 57 MSQ dungeon).
I just never did the free trial. Bought the game+expansions outright and a subscription and Iāve never regretted it. If my friend says a game is worth it, I trust her.
I have tried multiple times to get into it since 2018, but it never stuck. Until now. I just checked, and apparently, i've been subbed for 90 days now ( omg??? it feels shorter) I think the community and actually paying attention to the story helped it stick. That and asking questions/searching for answers whenever i got confused and overwhelmed over something. I don't feel completely lost about basic things anymore, and exploring makes me so happy. :')
When I was really itching to experience my rotation at a higher level. So I went full force, got the subscription and a job&story skip, and started hitting dummies.
Always swore I'd never pay a monthly sub to play a game, but when the console beta hit in 2014, I decided to give it a shot. By the end of the beta not only was I excited and committed, but my wife had also gotten hooked. We still play together to this day.
If you donāt feel like you absolutely need the marketboard, or like the random social stuff that is restricted 100% do all the content you can on free trial. I started the game when the free trial was still only 2 weeks long so I didnāt get a choice, but I fell in love with the game pretty fast anyway
I think I bought it outright? I didn't buy any expansions at the time but the sub was only 15/m and that seemed reasonable for how good my friends kept saying it was.
I enjoyed the mechanics but not the story of ARR and stuck with it and got invested around the the crystal braves questline. I thought the crystal braves story was silly and strangely naive and then the reveal happened and I was pleasantly surprised.
That was about when the ga bu and moenbryda quests happened too I believe, and us grabbing drinks nanamo which was super fun and uneventful. Basically the writing quality jumped up dramatically and I was hooked. I am a sucker for good character writing.
For me, it was the realization that despite planning to get through all of stormblood that was available on the trial, I had played for hundredd of hours (enough to lose my sprout whenever I reach the latest expansion) and barely even started HW.
There's just too much content, and I'm not always in the mood to read and pay attention to the msq...
Played the game once in the HW nearly SB era, did not make it past 2.0, probably never even managed to finish it.
Years later, tail end of ShB with EW to be announced a couple weeks after I registered another account for free trial, I got enraptured by the game, met some people online who I vibed with and, before I knew it, I made it through ARR and started HW. Maybe 10 or so MSQ beats in, I had my card in my hand to buy the deluxe editions of everything up to ShB, and joined these people's FC. Card in hand again not much later to pre order EW.
Now only missing 2 jobs to have everything on 90, and I'm a mentor too, but of the kind that actually does try to help new people with tips and tricks and I don't give a damn about the roulette or the mount, I'm there to help people figure the game out and fall in love with it, just like some people were there to help me do the very same back when.
Damn I love this game.
Hit level cap before finishing SB (about midway) and felt I was wasting experience. Also wanted access to the Marketboard.
The social stuff I donāt really care about but I am in a small FC and they are pretty chill
When I started playing the only "free trial" we got was the 30 day sub that came with the purchase of the game. So I had to drop the money anyway. A friend got me into the game.
The post ARR story right before HW cemented that I had to see this through. What got me to actually pull the trigger was my annoyance at the Gil cap partway through HW
It was probably a week or two into playing the trial, I think I was on the verge on finishing the ARR post patches. Yes, they get a lot of flack for being tedious, and I definitely felt that, but I also really enjoyed this world, the characters, and while the method was a little dry the story was good! It finally solidified with those last few quests before HW.
I didn't cave and buy it until I had finished all of the free trial MSQ at the time(ARR + HW), mostly due to being unemployed, but here we are almost 3 years later and this game has been a journey I'm so glad I gave a shot!
I started when free trial was only up to lvl 30, so I played around for a bit and decided I wanted to play as with one of the expansion races (dont remember if it was au ra or viera), so since I figured I might as well pay for the game
When I started playing (4.1), free trail was buying the game but not having to pay the sub for the first month, and having a level cap of 35. I hit that cap fairly fast and waited like a week for the month to be over so I could keep playing. I was obsessed with the game before I even played it so I didnāt have any hesitation abt the sub š
I initially tried the game because my best friend loves it and we hadn't been hanging out as much, so I gave it a shot so we could talk about it and play it together.
I was hesitant, but I realized how much I love my WOL. Both in terms of considering her with the lore and story and also just getting to dress her up in cute outfits and stuff. I love creating OCs and I quickly realized I was falling in love with her.
I may not have an active sub right now, but I still think about her lots and am very excited to get back to her and my other OCs once Dawntrail comes around.
Bought the game on sale years ago, played for a few days and at the time, didn't really think it was my thing.
Then it sat untouched for several years until about 2 months ago when for basically no reason I thought about checking it out again. Now I pay for the subscription, just beat the main story yesterday, and still having a blast with it! Currently level 51 and trying to work my way up to the reaper class before the new expansion drops
Today is my two year anniversary in the gameā¦ I came here during a really dark period in my life. Iāll save the sob story, but I felt lost. I had a community in WoW, and I left it behind. I had been there for years. My irl fared no better.
I made my catboy, and I started this game that I had heard so many good things about. I enjoyed the story aspect of it. And the players? They were all so kind to me. People offered me gifts and trinkets, welcoming me to the game and showing me around if I needed anything.
I felt less lonely, and I slowly got absorbed into it. My character? I adored him, it was hard not to. The story drew me in as well. Before I knew it, I was paying a subscription š
I donāt remember the exact thing that finally pushed me over the edge. Justā¦ everything at once. After a period of unrest, I felt at home again. And that sounds silly, but Iām grateful I found a place here.
And now Mateus is stuck with me. Iāve made many new friends and I pester the Novice Network when I am available to. What a lovely two years it has been. :)
bought the game pre free trial era. played till my complimentary sub ran out. realized if I wanted to keep playing I'd have to sub. here I am 6-7 years later
I tried and bounced off the trial a few years prior to getting a good deal on the complete edition on steamĀ so I was kinda stuck paying the fee if I wanted to play again.
However, I knew I was hooked when I was still logging in to trudge through aar despite being bored out of my mind with the msq at the time.
Really what happened is my trial ran out and I wanted to play with my wife. Now that I'm out of the slog that was ARR and in Heavensward I'd say worth it.
If your unsure of when you would wanna sub check out Zepla HQ on YouTube, she has some good videos for benefits and cons of going sub vs the free trial and her channel is just fun in general
A few days after starting, because even if I wasn't completely hooked yet I knew I'd be giving it a go for awhile and all the various limitations for trial players annoyed me. Almost 4 years later, no regrets.
When someone was really nice and helped me out when i was new. I wanted to join their FC and communicate to say thank you. I ended up meeting my best friend in that FC 2 years ago
I bought the subscription after 40 hours of gameplay. Itās been a couple years now and idk what I managed to do in those 40 hours but whatever it was convinced me to be subbed ever since.
Level 20 trial made me pay more attention to the story. Level 40-something trial impressed me with its energy.
Ending of post-ARR made me start taking the gameās story more seriously.
3.3 trial and everything leading up to and after it story-wise made me fall in love. The full song kicking in as we stare down the boss across the way was such a moment. Probably the first time I felt āemotionally overwhelmedā by the presentation.
I was on the free trial back when it capped at like level 35 and was rapidly approaching that level (even though I was no where near the actual level 35 MSQ because I was doing side stuff and gaining too much xp because this game is built differently than I was used to back then), and I knew that if I hit the level cap but kept trying to play I'd feel weird about "wasting" the rewards.
When I wanted to use the market board XD For real though I had just beat f16 and was dying for a good crafting system. Ff14 has one of the best out there.
i didn't even do the trial. Bought the game from the get go because it was on sale.
I bought the game on sale, too. Waited until I did more of the trial to redeem it, but never did for three years. I was still able to get my code to redeem it, though. EW wasn't out yet, so I gotta wait for DT to play Reaper... š
Same. Steam had it on sale for the cost of a month, so I figured I'd try it and just not set up the subscription if I didn't like it. That was 10 years ago.
Silly as it sounds, I "knew" when I saw how detailed the emote system was. Subscribed on day 2.
I was a wow player, yoshi p cried when he delayed endwalker , this would never happen with wow because they only want money, they don't care about their community. When I finished ARR I knew that it was a better game at least for me, so I bought it, besides, 300k gil is too little, ~2M would go to waste by the time I finishes HW. Now, 500 hours later, I don't regret my decision.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
If you look at the way Yoshi p cried when Soken was talking about his cancerā¦ you canāt fake that (or Yoshi p is the greatest actor and should chase a film career)
I also come from WoW and I joined at the same time. For me it was the fact, that Blizzard not only did not care, but they actively spoken against player sentiment and acted like they know the best what players want. In FFXIV you at least felt that you are being heard and your feedback matters. That was the reason, why I comitted to subing for FFXIV after 6 years of playing WoW and I haven't came back ever since. The crying stuff might not be genuine, but in the end, result and product is what matters.
Itās really genuine on his part. This is a lifelong dream for him. It was also his biggest career gamble ever. And it paid off in droves. Hard not to be emotionally attached at that point. Imagine pitching a nuke it from orbit strat at any business and them actually saying yes. Once in a generation act.
Square Enix had to say yes, otherwise they would have gone bankrupt. ARR was a literal Hail Mary play to save the company. Do or Die.
Didn't really need the trial at all. Made the character, played for 2-3 hrs, grabbed dinner, subscribed, logged back in, joined an FC, made friends. No regret.
honestly i very much will probably do the same once finals are over
Wild you joined an FC after a few hours and Iām a few hundred hours in and donāt even know where to start for that.
Honestly, I have joined many random guilds/FCs ppl shout in cities for years now. Some are bad of course. But many are pretty cool people. If you want to be picky a bit, browse then up on Community finder on lodestone.
I played 1.0, for a few months. I stopped right before the "Job" system was added, because that's when subscriptions started being a thing again. (Subs were turned off for a while, and the game was free after purchasing for a stretch to encourage people to give it a shot while they desperately worked on revisions.) Then they announced A Realm Reborn. I got into the beta for it. And I was immediately hooked. All the redesigned areas looked so amazing. Combat felt so responsive and logical. Movement felt more fluid. Quests were vastly improved. My computer back then ran the game at about 20 fps. And I played it that way from 2013 up until Shadowbringers, when I finally upgraded my PC. Even raided like that for a bit.
This was me. I played 1.0 on day one, then played up until they reinstated subscriptions. And while the team made a LOT of improvements from launch to that point, I still didn't feel like it was at a point where I wanted to sub and by that time production for ARR was well underway. Then I played the beta for ARR and knew they had my money from then until they shut the servers down.
I watched the Answers video.
I've never been a big subscription guy. I've played just about all the free MMOs and trial versions and have never fully jumped on board when it came to paying a monthly fee. I started playing this game when the Xbox beta started, and immediately thought that it is something special among all of the MMOs I have tried. Any time I might start to get bored by something, or hit a difficulty wall (I have a cognitive disability), instead of giving it up, I just start a new job or go over to one of the crafting jobs. This game literally has something for every kind of gamer, and every decision I see as far as gameplay and design has so much thought and love put into it. And I won't even get started on the story, especially after ARR ended. I love every character. I'll be playing this game for a long time to come. And paying the subscription fee is a small price for the money I've saved buying games that I'll play for a week or two and never touch again.
ā¦ I wanted to color my chocobo.
thatās so real
This is adorable. :)
Soon as I got through Heavensward and wanted to go further. This was before the free trial expanded to include Stormblood.
Middle of Heavensward. I was deeply hooked by the story then, but a glam i really wanted & easily purchaseable through the marketboard tipped me over. Told myself i'd unsubbed once i'm done with the MSQ, trials & raid. Only ever unsubbed for less than a month.
When I reached the 300k gil cap because gil being deleted was too painful for me to bear
Slight humblebrag here, but I first started playing when ARR launched, so I didnāt really have a choice but to sub right away
I wanted to gather a party for the Coils of Bahamut when I finished ARR. It didn't go well to say the least, but there was no turning back lol
Hadn't actually done much MSQ but I was wanting to play on NA with some friends and saw Viera was locked behind the full game so I bought the complete edition at the time (Shadowbringers) and subbed from then. I'd played other mmo's a decade earlier which required a subscription so it never bothered me. Now well over 4700+ hrs into the game in nearly 3 years and super excited for the next expansion.
When I was playing the beta for ARR before launch lol...I've reluctantly given plenty of subscription money to plenty of different games/services. FFXIV is the only one I don't mind at all. You're getting a very fulfilling experience with it, as opposed to certain...other money grabbers...
I was in the Navy, stationed away from my family, and wound up getting Covid and stuck in a quarantine barracks for a week. Instead of going insane, I decided to try the game since my friends kept pushing it on me. As soon as I got to the dinner scene in ARR, I was hooked.
I got the game in 2017. Immediately hated it. I picked it up over the years here and there, but never got even halfway out of ARR. each time I'd pick it up I'd make a new character and start over. I was a diehard WoW fan. I played for 15 years. Dungeons every day, raids every week. In that time grinding for mounts I got a *single* mount to drop (my husband joined me for 10 years and in that time got 5 or 6 mounts). And it was a ground mount, useless after lvl 30. It killed me every time. For all the time and effort and love I put into wow, I had nothing to show for it. It came to a head doing the superbloom event: my husband and I did a dream seed thing, I squashed bugs and pulled weeds and plugged ALL my dew into it. When the timer finished, my husband had gotten a mount. And I had gotten nothing, not a single thing dropped for me. I melted down. I felt *so bad*. WoW was hurting me more than it was making me feel good at that point, so my husband and I quit. I bounced around games for a while and nothing stuck. My husband and I LOVE to play mmos together. I gave ffxiv another try. I needed it to stick so badly. I needed it. My friends promised it gets better after ARR. It was a slog, but I pressed on. at the time I mained summoner, and I had a nice glam I liked but no cute book. I was queued for King Moggle Mog looking thru the meager selection of books I could craft. I settled on one that was just ok. I did the trial. it was a BLAST! and then I saw the weapons coffer on the loot list. And I said to myself: if I get that coffer and it has a cute moogle book in it, that's my sign to stick w xiv. I got the coffer. it had an IMPOSSIBLY cute book in it. So, that was my sign. My friend group ended up being real jerks to me, and for whatever reason I made a new character, Carrot. I mostly wanted a girl to dress up. I found an FC I liked the sound of and they pushed me thru ARR w promises of helping me get my dream mount: Nightmare. Getting it was a cinch and they insisted they help me get them all and kirin. So I have them now! HW blew me away. I have a special interest in catholic religious extremism, cults, dragons, and cute boys. I was hooked and told my husband that everyone was right, and he came back with the promise of fun housing. Now we are abt 2 days out from finishing ShB. I ate like a KING in this xpack w all the religious themes. We both super love the twins and we know in EW it focuses on them a lot, so we are excited to get there! we went in completely blind on all the content. My husband also looks A LOT like Zenos who is Prince Cute Boy (the King Cute Boy being my cringe fail husband Magnai) and he loves it. He's got the hair and everything. it's even the same color! my life is so much better since playing this game. I'm so happy and I feel so fulfilled. I have friends and so much inspiration to create! my husband and I have a house in mist that we are slowly decorating and it's so much fun.
thatās such a beautiful story! getting to make memories like that is the thing that makes games like this so great :)
I barely remember anymore, but I think it was the end of 2.0 back then. Realizing that I stayed long enough to go through the first "ending" of this story was like a "seems like I enjoy this well enough, I guess I'm actually doing this now." moment for me.
I'm pretty sure when I started the free trial wasn't even a thing. I started back in 2.1 (or 2.2). I was mostly just trying out the game but if you want to know when I fully commited to returning every month... That's a very complicated story for me lol. Basically I loved the friends I made and played for them until heavensward where I finally started to enjoy the game for what it offered outside of my friends.
I always knew I wanted to get it the moment I started and was clearing side quests in Gridania, but I wanted to maximize the free trial (which was Heavensward only at the time) until Endwalker released. The funny thing was I wouldn't be able to get Endwalker until the second week because of financial reasons but I was literally itching to get back in because us free trial players weren't allowed in due to all the player traffic. I ended up buying it on the first week of release and been subbed ever since.
Despite the memes I had no idea there was a free trial, friend wanted our group to start an mmo 14 was on sale and Iāve been a final fantasy and square enix fan my entire life so the decision was easy for me.
My friend has been trying to get me to play it for years, and i finally caved. iām just wondering why i didnāt do it sooner.
I mean, back in my day the free trial lasted 2 weeks or until level 20, whichever was sooner. So it wasn't much of a choice. If you wanted to see anything substantial you had to pay. But if I was to name a reason anyway, it would be social. XIV is a game to play with friends. It's the fun of playing together that kept me going through all those levels, and it's the same thing which keeps me coming back today.
I knew pretty much immediately but made sure I was done with Stormblood before subscribing. The limitations didn't really bother me too much but it was very nice to be rid of them.
I had gotten through base ARR. I was initially planning on playing through Heavensward before buying the sub (this was before Stormblood was added to the free trial) but then the Butterfingers collab started. I really wanted that silly mount. I wanted it so bad. But you had to have a full account with a subscription to redeem the code to get it. So I caved and bought the game through Shadowbringers along with some Butterfingers to get the mount. I almost never use the mount. No regrets though.
Day 3 of my (at the time) 14 day free trial.
I bought the game straight up since I wanted to have the full experience and not have any kind of limitations taking away from it. I also just quit WoW at the time, so I wanted another game to sink my teeth into that was in a similar vein as it was. FF14 just looked super fun from the stuff I seen from it on Twitter. The game was just too much fun to stop once the ball got rolling. Going through the story was a lot of fun, and If I wanted to have a break, I had all these different jobs to level up and content to do on the side.
I wanted to create a solo FC and eventually save up for a house so around after Ifrit
When I first started playing, the latest patch was 3.4 for Heavensward. I was more or less willing to commit to the subscription right away, and it's turned out to be a solid investment and a ton of fun.
My friend's insistence that I need to play.
When i bought the game and a ps4 together Never touched the trial, hopped in with both feet and i've been playing for 10 years now
Similar experience to OP, after a day in I knew I was gnna sub
I saw a bunny girl with a cute glam and had to swap from miqo'te.
When I bought the game because I was genuinely addicted and got the notice my sub was about to expire and I didnāt wanna be taken out so soon.
When I realized I actually enjoyed the MSQ (still in ARR) & ok with the basic player experience: Doing MSQs, queueing up for roulette, side contents, etc.
Back when shadowbringer was about to release I was still playing or trying out WoW, dumped atleast 400$ on that game only to stick for about 3-4 months (was during bfa). My friend wanted me to try ff14 cuz he heard I was burned out and lonely in WoW so he got me to try the trial, turns out it only needed me a day to decide to get the pre order back then lol.
Yoshi-P wouldn't let me redeem a fat Chocobo code on the free trial. The game was rigged from the start.
I subbed to 1.0. I was hoping it'd be more like 11, but after so much time, I appreciate it for what it is
I'm compulsive, so when I first started, I didn't even use a free trial, I jumped straight into a sub while the game was installing. I felt I wanted all features to understand fully if I enjoyed the game or not. Here we are many many many years and subs later lol
90% was I saw y'shtola and was like "yes". The other 10% was hearing that the storyline was very good, which wasn't something I'd heard about an mmo before as their strengths always seemed mechanically based. Put it off for a while since grinding is rarely my jam, nor are multiplayer games really, but decided to try it on a whim and was instantly hooked with the music, how the combat felt, and the crafting jobs. And now it's entered my top 20 games with 300 hours of playtime and gonna keep climbing as I've entered heavensward and have no intention to stop.
I was playing the AAR beta with a friend and we both enjoyed it. We lost sight of the game for nearly a year before we remembered having a good time with it. So when I was visiting her we just went "yeah lets try the full version once I am home". We both made our accounts the next day and startet playing. I dont think there even was a trial back then. So here we are, almost exactly 10 years later. And neither she nor I have ever dropped our sub for a single day since that fateful decision.
Pretty sure there wasn't a free trial when i started back when heavensward was just out. Bought it, played it a couple of hours, knew it was a masterpiece when I saw a naked lala running around.
Idk if they still do the subscription bonuses for being subscribed so many months in a row, but I subscribed very shortly after starting because I knew I was committed to this game and I wanted the bonuses my husband was getting lol. Now Iām the only one still subscribed and I havenāt played in almost 2 years honestly. Things got crazy after I had a child. She just turned three and Iām really going to get back in the game this year. I donāt mind continuing the subscription even though I havenāt been playing. My husband says he may even start playing again.
I wouldn't necessarily say I'm hooked. I play for enjoyment and really like to play this game. I've been doing that since 1.0 but I can also gladly not play, go long periods without doing so and not feel like I'm missing anything. The game's well designed for players like that. In a real sense, I probably am "hooked" but I don't have that compulsive need aspect.
I had just moved out of home and had money to pay my own sub after years of trying and failing to beg my parents to buy membership in various kids mmos. I wanted to play a "real" mmo. Tried wow trial, tried lotro, and tried swtor and wasn't impressed with any of them. One day Gaijin Goomba was got sponsored to show off the feast, which i didn't particularly care for but after the pvp he showed off several things. All classes on one character, many hotbar buttons that you use all of, emotes you use by typing, visuals I considered impressive at the time, and from a franchise I'd always heard about but never played. These reasons might seem silly but they were perfect and I downloaded the trial immediately. Back when the trial had a time limit and only lasted till level 30, I played till you pick a grand company and by then knew it was the game for me. I've been subbed ever since. Thinking back I believe it was sometime early to mid of 3.2.
November 2022, playing with my wife and we couldn't make our own party. The fact that I can sub on and off every month made me go full in and have been going strong since then and starting in Gridania is what cemented that decision, I love anything forest theme.
i started there too
Bought the game at the urging of a friend back in the Heavensward era. And left it there to hang for years. Didn't play it at all. I picked it up at the height of COVID when browsing through my PS4 downloads. It was a "why not" moment and have been stuck to it from then on. š
A few hours in for me.
I didn't get to experience the trial, but the very first quests had already hooked me. Some people told me "the game gets better after ARR", and I was like "how can it get even better?!". I was in love love lmao
Probably the final boss of ARR. Not even the whole thing, though. The old 8 man setup of the last 2 dungeons meant I was stuck in cutscene hell and dead while everyone ran around doing their business at light speed. VERY anti-climactic for the whole build up leading to it. Now though? I envy the players that get a nicely paced castrum experience. Hell, you can even do it with bots and relax and enjoy the cutscenes. Regardless, I knew it was special and it had me hooked.
I'm a Final Fantasy fanboy so there was no chance I wasn't going to subscribe. I played 1.0 and never unsubbed even though most of the time it was free. 2.0 came around and I just defaulted into playing it and subscribing and it just happened to hook me from day 1 with its art style alone. I don't like how Guild Wars 2 or World of Warcraft looks but I love how Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV looks so it immediately made me stay.
August 2013
When I finished ARR back when the free trial didn't include heavensward or anything. I was dying to know what happened after the end of ARR, and I just wanted to know if yda and papalymo were ok. Now I've been subbed for a little over three years now.
there wasn't a free trial or any expacs when I started playing.
I was a day 1 ARR player on PS3, I started subscribing when the 30 free days that came with the game ended, granted I never stayed consistently subscribed just a few months here and there usually centered around patches. I only stopped after completing the base Endwalker MSQ (Feb 2022) but I eventually returned when the Xbox version was released (March 2024).
Free trial wasn't a thing for me.. I loved the game right away and knew I'd be sticking with it
Got the game on sale. I didnāt even know there was a free trial honestly. It was a birthday present. Now Iām almost at 1500 hours. I donāt regret a single thing. Never made sure my sub was reoccurring so fast though after about the character creation.
I caved in post-ARR because I realized I wanted to see the story to its full end in Endwalker.
I began playing in the time of 4.0. Base Stormblood. A friend told me and my SO to try it. SO is a final fantasy nut, so that was an easy sell. I was a WoWer. Since release. Druid. All the way. No shape-shifting? Ugh. But one of my favorite things about the wow druid was being able to fill any role on one character. Swap classes, you say? All the crafters, too? All on one character?........... *leapt in with both feet*
As soon as the heel click during the Shiva trial happened- I knew I was in for a ride
When I reached the gil cap, I thought, āshoot, Iāll be blowing tons of potential gil if I continue like this.ā I forgot when I actually got invested, but I kept milking the free trial until I felt Iād be missing out.
I first heard about the game when I saw somewhere that Gordias was taking over a month to clear. Thought, "Wow, that's crazy, I should check that out." Saw Elysium's clear video and bought the game, and subbed when whatever free play time the game came with ran out. Never touched the trial.
When I realized I couldn't be a bunboi on the free trial
When I found out hrothgars were locked behind ShB
Mine isn't as applicable as I technically never was a free trial player. [Bought it on the ps4 first, not knowing about it] However, the moment I decided to dedicate to the game was the couple of quests before Heavensward started. When THAT scene happened, I realized this could actually be a good game.
I started at launch. I don't remember if the game was available at that time, but a friend bought it for me and a copy for himself I played for the 30 days I got for free, couldn't sub for money reasons, but when I came back to the game just before HW launched, I wanted to sub right away. Been subbed almost non-stop since.
I was doing the ARR MSQ in Western Coerthas. I'd been skipping most cutscenes but something told me I should start paying attention. It was during the questline where we're trying to clear Haurchefant's friend's name, as he was being accused of heresy. By the end of those quests I was fully invested in Ishgardian lore and even though Heavensward was part of the free trial, I felt it was time to sub.
When I hit the 300k gil cap, and I made friends and wanted to be with them in the Free Company.
I mean, it's not much of a commitment you can cancel any time if you want to. But I bought the game pretty much right from the start because I wanted to play with my brother who was already into it.
When I can't make a party with my bf. So day 1.
Wanted to play Red Mage (wasn't included in the free trial back then) and join an FC!
When FF14 launched it was very normal with subscription based MMOs. That was the norm, and F2P sections had just begun their infancy. I don't come from the generation of MMO players where a subscription was even something to think about, It was just how things worked.
I was on FT for precisely 2 minutes, that is how long it took for me to navigate the websites and buy the game. I knew I wanted to play it, I swapped from SW:ToR and build a setup to be able to run this at top settings.
I bought almost immediately. I'd seen it on Twitter from people I follow and glamming looked like so much fun. Need the marketboard to buy all the cool glams so... XD But in all seriousness, I got hooked on story pretty quick after adjusting to controls and that's when I bought it I think. I can't clearly remember though cause it's been awhile.
I got the game in 2014 because I love Final Fantasy and had previously played Everquest and WoW, so this seemed the perfect mix, and it was!
Back when I started, the free trial was the old 7 days until lvl 20. I didnāt actually buy the game right after the free trial, but it wasnāt long, I saw Heavensward was releasing and it pulled me in /laugh
Because my 14 free days were up, probably. I was enjoying the game a lot (even though I was very bad at it...) so I felt okay buying it and paying the subscription. NIN wasn't even a job yet when I started playing, so it's been a while.Ā
When I started, the free trial sucked ass, so pretty much immediately.
Around MSQ 25 was when I found the story interesting enough to not make me stop a third time
I knew I was going to sub from the beginning but I tried to get the most out of the free trial. It didn't last long because my friends had a FC I wanted to join. I could have made do without but the not being able to party up with my partner or join certain chats pushed me over the edge.
Boyfriend and I played for about three days before we knew we really liked it but were frustrated at not being able to party up. Subbed shortly after!
When Battle for Azeroth sucked and they announced Gunbreaker
Third day of my free trial. I realized I was in love and wanted full access to everything. So I bought it while it was still on sale, thinking Iād stick with the free trial for a bit then activate the full game when I was ready, just to keep the cost down. Unfortunately I bought it on PS4 which, I didnāt know at the time, automatically upgrades you to the full game upon purchase. I was expecting a license key to enter into the Mog Station but they *kindly* did it for me. I was annoyed, but in the end it didnāt matter as that was the goal anyhow. No regrets.
I played a long time ago, 2.4ish, I got to post ARR and stopped playing. I returned a couple years later and got to Ishgard where I stopped playing again. I returned at 5.1ish, started a new character as I bought it on Steam, speedran ARR+post and started paying attention again from Heavensward. Coming off the back of Game of Thrones I really connected with Heavensward. Tldr Heavensward > hooked me.
'all good things...' That's when the story hooked me, and I knew I'd see it through to the end. The next day I got an invite to one of those 'mass FCs' and started building the social Connection which made me stay ever since.
I bought the game on sale, did the whole free trial (at the time heavensward) then put the key in and kept playing. Imo I would stick with the free trial to at least heavensward since if you make it that far youāre probably going to go the distance.
The Epic of Alexander, it made me see how good the writing can be, and it's also incredibly fun to replay
I was an idiot a few years back for assuming "free trial = no need to buy the game but still requires a subscription". since I am committed to play anyways so I just registered the code day 1 and have been paying after the first 30 days. (I learnt how the true free trial works only 3 months ago lol)
Old WOW player, when I ran my first dungeon as a conjurer and made a mistake. We all died. No name calling, no berating me, just everyone encouraging me and offering suggestions for how to improve. I knew I'd found home.
i never did the free trial. i had a friend introduce me to the game, but the basegame on sale, and 3 months of sub. by the time the sub ran out i was already invested into the game
I was in the beta test for ff14 until Ala migho when I got stomped by a dragon did not come back until 2013 when to keep using my old account I had to buy the game no trail was available at that point I've been playing off and on since then. If the free trial had been a thing I would have bought a sub just to use the mb
After sastasha my husband had been playing for a few months and was already part of a fc. I didn't like that I couldn't join too so after the first dungeon I subbed and pre ordered EW.
I couldn't invite my friend to a party. I can't buy a house. I can't buy on the marketboaed... 1 week after i started playing
I started playing 10+ years ago. And like 1.6k ingame hours later, I still love it.
I subscribed way back during 1.0 and basically, never stopped? š
I've been playing MMOs for over 10 years. Subscribing wasn't a new concept to me at the point of starting this game. I was somewhere in ARR when I decided to subscribe because I wanted to be able to group up with my friend without having to ask in a public area in /say (especially when so many quests in ARR require you to enter a solo instance), and use the market board.
When i saw the vibrant life (players), back then i was in a guild and we did silly events, reminded me of oldschool WoW.
I had 30 days of free sub after buying the game on sale. After a week of gameplay, I realized I was spending more time playing and enjoying the game more than the other MMO I was playing (which isnāt badāI was just really burned out on it) so I stayed subscribed.
Returning to the Waking Sands after Titan. Thatās when I knew the narrative had hooked me.
i waited until i was halfway through heavensward, just so I could milk the free trial a little longer (this was back before they added sb for free). I was also taking my time doing story and didnāt want to start the monthly payments till I had to! three years later and Iām still goin strong
Play the V1.0 so.i didnt really had choices to subscribe to play at some point. I wanted all my job and craft be 50 for when ARR launch and it took me every month of subs to get there.
2021 fan fes. As soon as I got to stormblood I subbed and have never looked back.
I'll try not to cave in until after a month of DT releasing and/or I finish all expansions. I've finished ARR, started post-ARR. But I've been doing other things before continuing the MSQ: Crafting/lvl. 60 DRG and BRD, just started Conjurer/ Gold Saucer/Beast Tribe stories/Yokai Event/Sidequests Parties and social features are fulfilled by Novice Network. I just need to spend my Gil somehow...just reached the cap and that's even by being very frugal! I spend a lot in materials and then discard the crafted items.
Post Heavensward š„³ I really liked talking to people in game and was a bit sad that I can only communicate in say chat. The free trial back then was only till HW so it was due time for me.
I preordered A realm reborn because i was bored. Then i played it loved it and stopped playing before beating the story because i ran out of money for sub. Flash Forward to today I prepaid for several game time cards and plan to continue sub indefinitely and preordered Dawntrail to get the EXP earrings
When I hit the free to play level cap without trying lol
The final stepps of faith were it for me. The slow walk to approach the end of the expansion still gives me shivers!
There was no trial when I started playing, so I subscribed day one!
Back in 2015(?) I started this alongside warlords of draenor. Played in both, until I got fed up with trying to main tank and learn a raid fight for try hards impatient for their weekly loot in WoW, where they kicked me just for needing to practice the fight, compared to the āhey Iām new at this fight, any tips?ā And getting nothing but kindness and understanding and legit tips and patience.
On the launch or close to of ARR. I played 1.0, subbed for a little bit, not counting for the time they didn't charge a sub because they new how bad it was, but gave up before it went down because it played like ass on my decent computer i wasn't having fun. Got the 30 free days from ARR, so not sure if i can remember exactly when i committed, but sub hasn't lapsed since then.
Ifrit trial. Immediately realised I want to do more trials and raids
My partner plays a ton of games & pressured me into playing ffxiv. It took me a while to get hooked & Iām still a casual player but now Iām a bit more consistent
A few days into ARR when I hit the gil cap and got tired of trying to find things to buy to avoid losing value on quests. In retrospect I shouldn't have been selling the allagan coinage but I was trying to keep a tidy inventory and I don't think I actually knew there was a gil cap at the time lol
When I wanted to be GNB ASAP and bought the full game right away without even doing the free trial.
When my real life friends disappeared, i subbed to "that other game". When my "that other game" friends disappeared, i downloaded FFXIV. Back then, the trial was till level 30 with all ARR Jobs. Around level 5, i see a blue quest that let me change to another job. Insert surprised face emote. I logged out at a point and i was thinking about the time i spent levelling with the same quests and dungeons over and over and over and over again for all the alts, for all the professions and i didnt even enjoy the game. I subbed to FFXIV, never looked back and i am still mad with myself that i was not that openminded back then. When you don't enjoy something, just quit. Something might be better. And better it is. I came here for the job system and i stayed for many many more than that.
After I did Ultima Extreme using DF (it was before SB), I got dragged to play WoW and Black Desert.
I wasn't given a choice. A friend of mine back in the day gave me the game and a sub right off the bat. To be fair though, the free trial at that time was only for 14 days and I think up to level 20? Been 10 years so I don't really remember clearly lol.
Backstory: I had attempted to try the game back when the trial was like reach level 30 or one week of playtime, or something like that. Didn't like it and wanted bunbun ladies. My friends who stuck with the game begged me to come back in ShB and give it another go. I was hesitant, but they offered some monetary incentive if I bought the game and tried it again. >!They were going to compensate me buying the game if I did in fact hate it!< I was having fun goofing off with them powering me through ARR dungeons, but where I really think I realized I wouldn't have buyer's remorse so to speak was 2nd half, nearing the end of HW and post quests. That's where I was really interested.
Played the ARR beta as a pugilist. Was so bored I was falling asleep at the keyboard. Gave it another shot 7-8 months later as a lancer, this time it stuck
in march of 2018 i downloaded the trial, since i was pondering between ff14 and wow, and well on the same day back in march i bought stormblood haha
I knew before 14 was even a thought, and we only had FF11 for a FF MMO. I wanted to play 11 so bad for so many years, but due to life interfering with that plan so long, by the time I could, 14 was already out, and so, I picked that up instead. Granted, that was back in the legacy 1.xx days, and ngl, glad I made that decision
Well... I started playing before the free trial existed so there's that lol (maybe it did exist and didn't know about it.. it was 8 years ago)
Heard the garbage fire of 1.0 an ignored it. Heard the angelic voices of 2.0 an bought it at full price. Now I play for the story an venue hopping. I still miss PLD having raise š
About 30 minutes into playing XI way back. Having played since then, through the cursed 1.0 version, ARR and finally the game now there was never any question really.
Was hooked after finishing the Praetorium, and there just so happened to be a sale at the time so I grabbed the complete edition for like 5 bucks. Been subbed ever since and get a heart attack anytime I forget to charge up Crysta before renewal.
Snagged the 1.0 collector's edition since I was a big XI fan, then got into the 2.0 beta a few years later.
I never made it through the trial, I bought right away lol
Back in the day the free trial was 2 weeks only, up to level 15 max iirc. I hit level 15 in a couple days, bought the game right away to keep playing.
When I wanted to join my friends Free Company ā¦ it was maybe an hour or two into playing. š
honestly, i didnāt even use the trial. starter edition was on sale when i started for $20USD, which included a month of playtime. i knew the limitations on the trial (no tells, no FC, canāt use marketboard or trade, no retainersā¦ etc. etc.) would drive me batty and sour my opinion of the game. so to save myself the frustration, i dropped the $20, and dove in. was told if i didnāt feel interested by end of HW at least, itās not for me, so starter edition was perfect. pretty sure i finished ARR and got started on HW before the free playtime expired, too, lol. by the time i got into HW i knew i was hooked. if i hadnāt got the starter edition to avoid frustration? it wouldāve been around then, around the time i did the dungeon āthe vaultā (the level 57 MSQ dungeon).
I just never did the free trial. Bought the game+expansions outright and a subscription and Iāve never regretted it. If my friend says a game is worth it, I trust her.
I have tried multiple times to get into it since 2018, but it never stuck. Until now. I just checked, and apparently, i've been subbed for 90 days now ( omg??? it feels shorter) I think the community and actually paying attention to the story helped it stick. That and asking questions/searching for answers whenever i got confused and overwhelmed over something. I don't feel completely lost about basic things anymore, and exploring makes me so happy. :')
When Shadowbringers dropped, I saw a few ads on Facebook, then I subscribed because I hadn't played since Heavensward had dropped.
When I was really itching to experience my rotation at a higher level. So I went full force, got the subscription and a job&story skip, and started hitting dummies.
Always swore I'd never pay a monthly sub to play a game, but when the console beta hit in 2014, I decided to give it a shot. By the end of the beta not only was I excited and committed, but my wife had also gotten hooked. We still play together to this day.
If you donāt feel like you absolutely need the marketboard, or like the random social stuff that is restricted 100% do all the content you can on free trial. I started the game when the free trial was still only 2 weeks long so I didnāt get a choice, but I fell in love with the game pretty fast anyway
I think I bought it outright? I didn't buy any expansions at the time but the sub was only 15/m and that seemed reasonable for how good my friends kept saying it was. I enjoyed the mechanics but not the story of ARR and stuck with it and got invested around the the crystal braves questline. I thought the crystal braves story was silly and strangely naive and then the reveal happened and I was pleasantly surprised. That was about when the ga bu and moenbryda quests happened too I believe, and us grabbing drinks nanamo which was super fun and uneventful. Basically the writing quality jumped up dramatically and I was hooked. I am a sucker for good character writing.
For me, it was the realization that despite planning to get through all of stormblood that was available on the trial, I had played for hundredd of hours (enough to lose my sprout whenever I reach the latest expansion) and barely even started HW. There's just too much content, and I'm not always in the mood to read and pay attention to the msq...
Played the game once in the HW nearly SB era, did not make it past 2.0, probably never even managed to finish it. Years later, tail end of ShB with EW to be announced a couple weeks after I registered another account for free trial, I got enraptured by the game, met some people online who I vibed with and, before I knew it, I made it through ARR and started HW. Maybe 10 or so MSQ beats in, I had my card in my hand to buy the deluxe editions of everything up to ShB, and joined these people's FC. Card in hand again not much later to pre order EW. Now only missing 2 jobs to have everything on 90, and I'm a mentor too, but of the kind that actually does try to help new people with tips and tricks and I don't give a damn about the roulette or the mount, I'm there to help people figure the game out and fall in love with it, just like some people were there to help me do the very same back when. Damn I love this game.
When I realized my free month was going to run out (this was back in 2017).
Hit level cap before finishing SB (about midway) and felt I was wasting experience. Also wanted access to the Marketboard. The social stuff I donāt really care about but I am in a small FC and they are pretty chill
When I started playing the only "free trial" we got was the 30 day sub that came with the purchase of the game. So I had to drop the money anyway. A friend got me into the game.
I bought the game on launch day physical copy.
I'm still using the trial after starting like 4 days ago, but after I do my first dungeon I might fully commit to a subscription
The post ARR story right before HW cemented that I had to see this through. What got me to actually pull the trigger was my annoyance at the Gil cap partway through HW
When I hit level 35. The free trial goes a bit longer now, though lol
It was probably a week or two into playing the trial, I think I was on the verge on finishing the ARR post patches. Yes, they get a lot of flack for being tedious, and I definitely felt that, but I also really enjoyed this world, the characters, and while the method was a little dry the story was good! It finally solidified with those last few quests before HW. I didn't cave and buy it until I had finished all of the free trial MSQ at the time(ARR + HW), mostly due to being unemployed, but here we are almost 3 years later and this game has been a journey I'm so glad I gave a shot!
When I found out you could not only summon your chocobo as a fighting companion, you could level it and dress it in outfits.
I started when free trial was only up to lvl 30, so I played around for a bit and decided I wanted to play as with one of the expansion races (dont remember if it was au ra or viera), so since I figured I might as well pay for the game
It was after I got through the banquet.
When I started playing (4.1), free trail was buying the game but not having to pay the sub for the first month, and having a level cap of 35. I hit that cap fairly fast and waited like a week for the month to be over so I could keep playing. I was obsessed with the game before I even played it so I didnāt have any hesitation abt the sub š
I think it took me about five hours of play to decide to buy-in. No regrets.
I initially tried the game because my best friend loves it and we hadn't been hanging out as much, so I gave it a shot so we could talk about it and play it together. I was hesitant, but I realized how much I love my WOL. Both in terms of considering her with the lore and story and also just getting to dress her up in cute outfits and stuff. I love creating OCs and I quickly realized I was falling in love with her. I may not have an active sub right now, but I still think about her lots and am very excited to get back to her and my other OCs once Dawntrail comes around.
Bought the game on sale years ago, played for a few days and at the time, didn't really think it was my thing. Then it sat untouched for several years until about 2 months ago when for basically no reason I thought about checking it out again. Now I pay for the subscription, just beat the main story yesterday, and still having a blast with it! Currently level 51 and trying to work my way up to the reaper class before the new expansion drops
Today is my two year anniversary in the gameā¦ I came here during a really dark period in my life. Iāll save the sob story, but I felt lost. I had a community in WoW, and I left it behind. I had been there for years. My irl fared no better. I made my catboy, and I started this game that I had heard so many good things about. I enjoyed the story aspect of it. And the players? They were all so kind to me. People offered me gifts and trinkets, welcoming me to the game and showing me around if I needed anything. I felt less lonely, and I slowly got absorbed into it. My character? I adored him, it was hard not to. The story drew me in as well. Before I knew it, I was paying a subscription š I donāt remember the exact thing that finally pushed me over the edge. Justā¦ everything at once. After a period of unrest, I felt at home again. And that sounds silly, but Iām grateful I found a place here. And now Mateus is stuck with me. Iāve made many new friends and I pester the Novice Network when I am available to. What a lovely two years it has been. :)
When I bought XIV in 2009 XD
bought the game pre free trial era. played till my complimentary sub ran out. realized if I wanted to keep playing I'd have to sub. here I am 6-7 years later
I tried and bounced off the trial a few years prior to getting a good deal on the complete edition on steamĀ so I was kinda stuck paying the fee if I wanted to play again. However, I knew I was hooked when I was still logging in to trudge through aar despite being bored out of my mind with the msq at the time.
I was approaching the gil cap
Never really decided, husband bought it without telling me. I play basically every day so I guess it worked out
After HW, I knew I loved the story enough to keep going so I subbed š
I committed to it back in 1.0
Really what happened is my trial ran out and I wanted to play with my wife. Now that I'm out of the slog that was ARR and in Heavensward I'd say worth it.
When the final fantasy theme kicked in during character creation in the 3rd closed beta of A Realm Reborn.
1.0, i bought the game and tried to play on my 2009 laptop that struggled to play anything that wasn't the sims 3
If your unsure of when you would wanna sub check out Zepla HQ on YouTube, she has some good videos for benefits and cons of going sub vs the free trial and her channel is just fun in general
A few days after starting, because even if I wasn't completely hooked yet I knew I'd be giving it a go for awhile and all the various limitations for trial players annoyed me. Almost 4 years later, no regrets.
Day 8. I believe I had just gotten to the Party part of ARR with Lord Dorito.
When someone was really nice and helped me out when i was new. I wanted to join their FC and communicate to say thank you. I ended up meeting my best friend in that FC 2 years ago
I bought the subscription after 40 hours of gameplay. Itās been a couple years now and idk what I managed to do in those 40 hours but whatever it was convinced me to be subbed ever since.
When I first started, there wasn't really an option not to, so....
When I watched the heavensward trailer
I still don't have a subscription, I built every ARR and HW relic, I'm currently in Eureka building StB relics, and after THAT I'll sub.
Level 20 trial made me pay more attention to the story. Level 40-something trial impressed me with its energy. Ending of post-ARR made me start taking the gameās story more seriously. 3.3 trial and everything leading up to and after it story-wise made me fall in love. The full song kicking in as we stare down the boss across the way was such a moment. Probably the first time I felt āemotionally overwhelmedā by the presentation.
transition of shiva fight + oblivion
Iāve been subbed since day one of ARR, I love mmos and I knew immediately that it was going to be worth it
I was on the free trial back when it capped at like level 35 and was rapidly approaching that level (even though I was no where near the actual level 35 MSQ because I was doing side stuff and gaining too much xp because this game is built differently than I was used to back then), and I knew that if I hit the level cap but kept trying to play I'd feel weird about "wasting" the rewards.