I came back in late November after a two and a half year hiatus. I had so many fond memories of this game. Several of my closest friends I met here. As time went on, I missed my friends and our ridiculous adventures. We did some crazy shit just to have fun. Throw on a Lv. 1 and run from Sandy to Bastok naked in Sprint Shoes only, LS Brenner grudge matches, survival mode (take a low level and no weapon and see how far we could get in a ridiculously infested area like Bostonieux Oubliette), and we always were up for a hunt. That, sadly, is what I expected to come back to... And all I got was a ghost town with a few frumpy old men sitting on a dried up old porch throwing empty beer cans at tourists. Maybe three people I played with are still on and 99% of the time they are AFK. Everyone else acted like anyone lower than 90 was a total n00b. I watched people ask for help and get no response. Then I would help them and notice a week later they cancelled their account because people were just too rude. This game is just not friendly or fun anymore. And the best way to prove this is to watch how many people quote me and explain to me as rudely as possible why I'm a dipshit and should just quit.

Someone tried to suggest a function to allow a mode that reverts the old, pre 75+/Abyssea exp system and people attacked that like those of us who actually had fun playing this game were a bunch of diseased monsters because we dared to challenge to make this game fun to play again. It's not. Even those who say it is, think about it for a minute. What do you log in for? To play with friends and have fun? Or to stand by while you wait for other people to help/fight you for something you need for a fictitious weapon that no one really cares about. R/M/E is like a class ring. They are pretty, but it's a lifesink that holds no meaning other than an accomplishment; its an annoyance and once you get it, then what? Nothing. THAT is why the old way was better. Yes, it was mind numbing at times and took forever, but IT TOOK FOREVER. Once upon a time (unless you were one of those who played 22 hours a day) it would potentially take months to get ONE job to 75. Now people can knock out 99 in like two days and get all the crap they need for it. Money and exp falls from trees now. Four years ago, if you had over 50k, you were rich. Now you can just sell Voiddust and make five times that in five minutes. There is no challenge. No motivation to succeed other than to wake up one day and realize that you are playing a game in which your sole purpose is to flame others who are just being honest. You know I'm right. This game IS NOT fun to play anymore unless you happen to be relatively new, and even then, once you realize that no one really cares anymore, you'll quit.

So SE, fellow players- You have two options. Continue to add crap no one wants/log in and do the same old tired crap day in and day out and get frustrated the whole time you are doing it, OR LISTEN TO THE DAMN COMMUNITY AND MAKE CHANGES BASED ON WHAT PEOPLE WHO PLAY THIS GAME AND DON'T WANT TO SEE IT BECOME A MEMORY SUGGEST. Throwing on a filter is not making the game better. Nerfing a job is not making the game better. And players, think back to when you first started, be it a month ago or eight years ago. Remember how it felt the first time you killed a rabbit, made a friend, traveled to the Dunes, broke your first limit, got your first merit, stepped through your first Maw, waited on the damn boat for 45 minutes to see Whitegate... remember these things. Those are what made you play all this time. And you wouldn't have gotten there without other people by your side. Do you want to be able to do that again, or are you content on living in Vana'Diel, which has since become the front porch of an old age home?