Originally Posted by
Divinius
I'm not trying to arguing with you, one, because I greatly respect you and your contributions to the community, and two, because the FFXI player in me totally agrees with what you just said.
But you have to look at this from SE's perspective. The fact is that gimps make up a hefty portion of the playerbase, and each of the people you mentioned is worth the exact same 12.95 a month to SE as people like you. If you were SE, would you rather implement an event where the gimps basically give up and ignore it, and eventually quit in frustration? Or one where you can dangle a carrot in front of them that they can realistically (eventually) obtain, but only if they play (and pay a subscription) for those two more years per piece of gear?
You don't maintain subscriptions by alienating the gimps. You maintain them by giving the gimps a reason to play (and pay) for much, much longer periods of time. This way, anyone with half a clue can still get their gear reasonably quickly, and show it off all they want, while those without a clue have a VERY long road ahead of them, but it's a road they are still capable of traveling.