Also Leviathan.
I might give Heavensward a pass though. I don't feel very great about paying $40 for some extra classes in a game I already had to buy, and pay a monthly subscription for on top of that.
Well, I dunno. Its nice to get free expansions, like EVE.
But...in theory the expansions that you pay for are bigger and better. And FFXIV DOES put out more content than any pay to play MMO does, at least way more than WoW. Granted, WoW is a perfect example of this not being true. You pay 15, get an occasional tiny big patch (they used to be way bigger and more often) and then...not even a year into the expansions life (and WoD was such a horrible, tiny expansion that people (including me) paid big money for...not even a year later they give up on it and its time to wait a year (even 6 months is too long if it happens to be that) for new content. So, paid expansions aren't always better...anyone can look at Blizzard for that counter-argument. They pretty much have given up on WoW and moved to cheaper bigger cash cows.
But, I've seen FFXIV. It seems the developers really care about their game, unlike Blizzard. It has its issues, like...I'd love a way to easily block spam bots without it taking an ignore slot like WoW does. And a right click "report spam" button like WoW does. That is my biggest annoyance. But they put out so much content, that...at least for now...its definitely worth the price.
But WoW expansions I felt were worth the price until the company changed and got lazy.
But its not just WoW. FFXIV puts out WAY more content than even GW2, granted GW2 is free and FFXIV you pay for...so not the greatest example. But still.
FFXIV is definitely not perfect. But its way better than any pay to play MMO out there, except maybe EVE (not really my type of MMO) and that is dying too (population is at 2008 levels now). And its better than the lame freemium MMOs that end up costing more money with either cash shop or having to spend vastly more time to get free cash shop items with in-game gold and that takes SO much more time than just paying for a quick unlock. And time is money, friend. The only other MMO I play on the side (well a few) is The Secret World (and that I play more as a singleplayer RPG) and Guild Wars 2 (that I also funny enough play as a singleplayer RPG lol). I occasionally play Ultima Online (free
) too, for a classic experience and that game is great for grouping like FFXIV is.
But, I can't think of any other MMO that puts out so much content than FFXIV. GW2 and maybe EVE too as I see their updates are quite often. Definitely worth the price.
If the FFXIV team ever become like Blizzard, unlike my time in WoW and trying to stick it out...I'm bailing the hell out of there