Originally Posted by
solracht
So what's the argument against auto-attack, exactly? Are people worried about lack of involvement during battles? That is not related to having or not having auto-attack at all. There are plenty of MMORPGs which are more involved and spammy than FFXIV yet have auto-attack. The key part: the damage from auto-attack is not as significant as in FFXI, and it's your special abilities that make the difference in battles.
Matsui himself said that you would not be able to win by only letting your character auto-attack, and he actually mentioned that he wanted to avoid FFXI and FFXIV auto-attack comparsions, which makes me think auto-attack is going to be the same as in other MMORPGs: something that doesn't contribute much to your overall damage, but that makes the combat feel more fluid and faster.
In the end, you're probably going to be left with the system you have right now (where your actions do matter) but with more animations.