Originally Posted by
Dazusu
I see you didn't do your research properly. Tanaka was in charge of FFXI while it was at its peak, and had its biggest number of subscribers. Incidentally, when he was moved off FFXI, player numbers slumped (and this started with Abyssea).
Thinking he makes every decision on 'balance' without hundreds of team meetings lots of testing / number crunching shows that you know nothing about the development cycle or large organizations. While the 'blame' will fall on his shoulders (as it publicly has) - he's certainly not solely responsible and to think he is.... well, it's just irrational.
The game went downhill because of 'Abyssea' and SE as much stated it when they told us "Abyssea was probably a mistake" in a public interview - still visible on Zam's website.