Final Fantasy 14 is well-known for its devoted community, which is made up of kind and sympathetic gamers, and this characteristic won the game its second straight Golden Joystick Award for Best Game Community. Though every community has a dark side, Final Fantasy 14 players have constantly shown a degree of personal decorum that genuinely shines out when compared to other MMOs such as World of Warcraft.
It’s clear that Final Fantasy 14 gamers, as well as the development team behind it, like their game, and this infectious enthusiasm may be off-putting to outsiders. Every server has its own personality, such as Balmung as the Moon Guard of Etheirys, yet they are all linked through mentors and sprouts, bards and concerts, free corporations and statics, creating the rich fabric of Final Fantasy 14’s community.
This game’s strong social component is why Golden Joystick revealed on Twitter that Final Fantasy 14 had won the award for the second year in a row. Though Square Enix has gradually made the game more accessible to players who want to play Final Fantasy 14 alone, much like a typical Final Fantasy title, it has done nothing to lessen Etheirys’ social life.
It's official – Final Fantasy XIV has the Best Game Community ? #GoldenJoystickAwards pic.twitter.com/bTY0Ga9rc4
— Golden Joysticks (@GoldenJoysticks) November 22, 2022
Square Enix has reported an increase in Final Fantasy 14 subscribers, indicating that the game is just becoming larger and better. Even more astonishingly, despite the increased population, it has not made the town sour or poisonous. Final Fantasy 14 refuses to slow down as Endwalker Patch 6.3 approaches, and the inclusion of Adventurer Plates has opened up a whole new avenue for players to express themselves in the game.
Aside from the creators at Square Enix, this accolade has been widely welcomed on the Final Fantasy 14 official Reddit forum, with many players sarcastically wondering how quickly they’d attempt to prove Golden Joysticks incorrect – even inside the congratulations thread itself. While there are specific game modes, such as Eureka, that draw a more boisterous audience, they account for such a little portion of the total Final Fantasy 14 pie.
Following its second victory, one can’t help but wonder whether Final Fantasy 14 will be able to three-peat in 2023. With the Endwalker expansion expected to be released in early 2024, and titles like Genshin Impact boasting a similarly fervent fan base, it will all come down to what Square Enix has in store for Endwalker’s last few updates.
