I have to agree on the front of 'a grand jumblemesh of everything i like in a MMO'. To me it feels essentially identical to Guild Wars 2, but with the structure it was sorely in need of. The freeform, do whatever you feel like aspect was appealing, but it was easy to completely lose sense of direction. And with no formal job classifications and next to know reason to actually party up with people, group activities felt completely pointless... to me at any rate.
My experience with FF14 thusfar is that it won't punish you for not strictly adhering to the plot laid out before you, a la WoW, but there are things you have to do and there are things your class is good at. And when you get to the latter game stuff you need to have a sense of what those things are and a few good friends to boot or you're not going to get anywhere.
As far as Linkshells and Free Companies, it is as you described. Linkshells are custom chat channels anyone can make and you can invite your friends/guild mates/RP partners to without being a part of a formal guild. Free Companies have their own chat channel similar to WoW's /g chat and level like WoW guilds. Companies can activate certain perks like exp boosts and have a communal bank. Other than that, there's no big difference.
I'd personally recommend going with a progression based Company, if you want to do progression that is, and going for RP linkshells. They're mostly quiet unless someone needs something content related and will give you that little buff. It also means you have all your LS space for joining various different RP link shells that might be restricted to smaller groups or themes. But that's just personal input.
My experience with FF14 thusfar is that it won't punish you for not strictly adhering to the plot laid out before you, a la WoW, but there are things you have to do and there are things your class is good at. And when you get to the latter game stuff you need to have a sense of what those things are and a few good friends to boot or you're not going to get anywhere.
As far as Linkshells and Free Companies, it is as you described. Linkshells are custom chat channels anyone can make and you can invite your friends/guild mates/RP partners to without being a part of a formal guild. Free Companies have their own chat channel similar to WoW's /g chat and level like WoW guilds. Companies can activate certain perks like exp boosts and have a communal bank. Other than that, there's no big difference.
I'd personally recommend going with a progression based Company, if you want to do progression that is, and going for RP linkshells. They're mostly quiet unless someone needs something content related and will give you that little buff. It also means you have all your LS space for joining various different RP link shells that might be restricted to smaller groups or themes. But that's just personal input.
