Quote Originally Posted by Dazusu View Post
Incidentally the game was most active during the 'hardcore' grindy era.
This was also when FFXI was much newer than it is right now and the MMORPG market was much smaller than it is right now. Correlation does not always imply causation.

Not that I think people saying the opposite have a point, either; I just can't find a succinct quote from anybody taking that position. I think the scale and context of the whole debate is silly.

Anybody saying "This is definitely, most certainly bad for FFXI as a whole and it will make a lot of people quit," or "That made lots of people quit; it wasn't anything else, it was that!" sounds equally ridiculous to me. People are complex and weird and they live complex and weird lives. Presuming to know what makes anybody stop doing anything is overreaching of the highest order, much less presuming to know what makes a small army of people stop doing something.