Quote Originally Posted by Tamoa View Post
That explains why so many people are so angry on this and other FFXI forums because their weapons have been reduced to a mannequin piece, right? So angry that they have already quit or are on the verge of quitting, even. Doesn't sound like a good way to revitalize this game to me.
That's just how progression works. For example, WOW has several legendary items that have come out over the years, as do other games. These items usually take the same level of time and commitment (if not more) than the RMEs (trust me, I've gotten some of these items in some oth/ler games. part of the reason why i'm not thrilled about undertaking those types of projects again). As the game progresses, and new content comes out, those items are not viable at end game anymore. However people still get them because they are rare accomplishments. Once people stop running that old content, the items become even more exclusive, which makes them cooler and more endearing.

Let's assume for a moment that SE decided to wait until SoA to raise the level cap to 99, then left the RMEs at maybe lvl 85 or something. People would still go after the cool top end delve gear, but keep their RMEs because of the coolness factor. The same thing would happen if they stopped upgrading the RMEs now, and decided to put full focus on SoA gear.

If that were to occur, then certainly some players who are attached to their RMEs might quit the game. But I can assure you that the number of people that would quit over that is far less than you think it would be. Vastly more players would just continue with the current content. In fact, if they make the new game content appealing enough, they can generate new subscribers even though the game is older.