FFXI fixed!

[Shoko]

Your missing a step:

4) After you have gotten to wear the best gear for a sufficient amount of time, the developer makes that gear available to everyone and you start back at step 2.

If you add something that average joes can't do, and add awesome gear to it, then the next new event has to be even harder to compensate for the new uber gear that the leet players will be wearing. Then when the leet get their Uber +2 gear from that event, the next event has to be even harder than the second one to compensate for the uber +2 stats. The fourth event harder than the third one. This goes on until you reach a state where 90% of the players get KOed for even mentioning the name of the event, while a few guys are cruising through it with basically the same degree of difficulty that they had with the first event, because they have all the awesome gear (or atmas or temp items or w/e) that makes things easier.

Step 4 is logical and fine, but it's currently been going on for over 3 years now. It's quite alright to go back to more hardcore times once again for a while, and treat those players to something nice. I know you are trying to joke with the mock up list I made, but there is no fault in what I'm saying. That's how a generic MMO works-- gear for hardcore players will always be much better than casual content, and they deserve access to it.

There is nothing stopping a casual player from taking a few steps to circumvent doing specific content and still getting top of the line gear as well. There's nothing in this game that cannot be purchased, R/E, AHable or otherwise-- the right amount of gil will get you whatever you want in this game if you decide to go that route. There is also nothing stopping the casual player from forming their own groups to obtain much better gear than what they currently have on as well, or from joining an LS to get gear for a specific amount of time. The only thing that stops them is general laziness, reclusiveness or their own personal morality factor.