The forums have always been a haven for negativity, nothing new or surprising there. What's most likely going to happen is the usual complainers around here will whine and complain, create their echo chamber, the game will launch and be massively popular, and they'll be left wondering how. Destiny 2 is a great case in point - if you think these forums are "uneasy" or "apathetic", they look like a paradise compared to the D2 ones leading up to their own new expansion that just released this week. D2 even significantly underperformed in terms of pre-sales. What ended up happening? The new xpac still saw the expected population explosion (minus the servers biting the dust day one) and it's generally getting great reviews. DT in comparison has the most pre-sales already of any FFXIV xpac. Huge numbers of players will be satisfied, while the malcontents continue naysaying everything here. To answer your questions:
1.) Started in ARR, played on and off until about 2021, steadily since then.
2.) Absolutely. I'm actually glad to have some time off in the first couple weeks the xpac will be live for the first time with FFXIV. I've thoroughly enjoyed my FFXIV experience so far throughout the years, I'm still having a ton of fun in the game, and I'm expecting to continue doing so in DT.
3.) Honestly, I couldn't care less about "media tours" and the like. Didn't pay any attention to it.
