Quote Originally Posted by machini View Post
I'd quit, never come back, and never buy another Squeenix product, even if they're only the distributor, if that happened.
That might be just a little bit extreme.

While it's part of FFXI's core gameplay, the pedant in me doesn't like it because changing clothing in the middle of a battle with a giant dragon or evil spirit violates my suspension of disbelief. Since it's a fantasy world, they could explain it away with magic, but you don't cast any magic or anything to change your equipment. Buuuut, for the same reason, I also hate enemy attacks that remove your gear because that doesn't make sense either and is rather perverse

Ignoring that aspect, things are much better now than they were in the old days thanks to gear sets and lockstyle, which solve the two biggest annoyances associated with gear swapping- complex macros and blinking.