After playing several MMORPG's including (but not limited to):
- Aion
- Rift
- World of Warcraft
- Defiance / Defiance 2050
- Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Warframe

I can say this is by far my favorite so far. Reasons below as to how it stacks up:

Pros:

- Only one character needed. Unlike every other MMO I've played, FF 14 only requires you to make one character for your account. Any character you create, can learn ALL classes and jobs. All DPS, Healer, Tank, Crafting, and Gathering are able to be learned by only one character. This is FANTASTIC because that means you don't have to waste time on multiple characters repeating hours upon hours of content, or paying for max level character tokens. One play through on one character is all that is needed. This alone will make it hard for me to switch back to any other MMO that doesn't follow this model.
- Graphics look nice. Despite being 8 years old and an MMO, the game holds up pretty well.
- Story content: Overall I'd say this lands in positive side of things. While there are many themes and tropes that get repeated, the more optimistic tone that FF 14 takes with it's approach is a welcome change. In other MMO's when someone commits a crime, the enemy is typically portrayed as beyond redemption. FF 14 has a practice of offering a hand at redemption. Sometime it's taken by the enemy and good things follow, sometimes they attempt to stab you in the face and you have no choice but to kill them. But it's a nice change from immediately going straight to pitchforks and torches.
- Leveling lower level classes is fast. The game provides an "armory bonus" to all other classes that aren't your highest level class. Ex: If you primarily play a paladin and you keep that as your highest level class, and reach level 80 (max level as of this review) and you switch to summoner, your summoner will gain +100% experience as that class not your highest level. Stacking this armory bonus with other bonuses such ones from your Free Company (guilds), promotional gear that provide XP bonus from wearing them, and other consumables makes leveling EASY.
- Each class feels unique. Early on many classes only have a 1 to 3 abilities that will spammed over and over AND OVER again. But as you level up, especially in the 45-60 range, you will get more unique skills and traits. The first expansion Heavensward will introduce new a class resource for you and keep you on your toes.
- Virtually no gold farmers and spammers bothering me. Despite a VERY generous free trail period, gold farms and spammers aren't prevalent in the game. The ones that do exist get reported and banned quickly. Square Enix makes a point to release stats of banned bot accounts nearly monthly.

Cons:

- Global Cooldown of 2.5 seconds. This is rather annoyting and took me time to get used. It can make combat feel a bit slow / sluggish at times While you can equip gear to help decrease this a little bit, it's still a bit of an eye sore of the game in my opinion.

After playing several MMORPG's including (but not limited to): - Aion - Rift - World of Warcraft - Defiance / Defiance 2050 - Star Wars: The Old Republic - Warframe I can say this is by far my favorite so far. Reasons below as to how it stacks up: Pros: - Only one character needed. Unlike every other MMO I've played, FF 14 only requires you to make one character for your account. Any character you create, can learn ALL classes and jobs. All DPS, Healer, Tank, Crafting, and Gathering are able to be learned by only one character. This is FANTASTIC because that means you don't have to waste time on multiple characters repeating hours upon hours of content, or paying for max level character tokens. One play through on one character is all that is needed. This alone will make it hard for me to switch back to any other MMO that doesn't follow this model. - Graphics look nice. Despite being 8 years old and an MMO, the game holds up pretty well. - Story content: Overall I'd say this lands in positive side of things. While there are many themes and tropes that get repeated, the more optimistic tone that FF 14 takes with it's approach is a welcome change. In other MMO's when someone commits a crime, the enemy is typically portrayed as beyond redemption. FF 14 has a practice of offering a hand at redemption. Sometime it's taken by the enemy and good things follow, sometimes they attempt to stab you in the face and you have no choice but to kill them. But it's a nice change from immediately going straight to pitchforks and torches. - Leveling lower level classes is fast. The game provides an "armory bonus" to all other classes that aren't your highest level class. Ex: If you primarily play a paladin and you keep that as your highest level class, and reach level 80 (max level as of this review) and you switch to summoner, your summoner will gain +100% experience as that class not your highest level. Stacking this armory bonus with other bonuses such ones from your Free Company (guilds), promotional gear that provide XP bonus from wearing them, and other consumables makes leveling EASY. - Each class feels unique. Early on many classes only have a 1 to 3 abilities that will spammed over and over AND OVER again. But as you level up, especially in the 45-60 range, you will get more unique skills and traits. The first expansion Heavensward will introduce new a class resource for you and keep you on your toes. - Virtually no gold farmers and spammers bothering me. Despite a VERY generous free trail period, gold farms and spammers aren't prevalent in the game. The ones that do exist get reported and banned quickly. Square Enix makes a point to release stats of banned bot accounts nearly monthly. Cons: - Global Cooldown of 2.5 seconds. This is rather annoyting and took me time to get used. It can make combat feel a bit slow / sluggish at times While you can equip gear to help decrease this a little bit, it's still a bit of an eye sore of the game in my opinion.