Addressing things i think are deterring FFXIV from becoming complete
Now before anyone thinks this is unabashed excuse to criticize the game, i'd covered this theme many times with many likeminded and contrarian players of FFXIV in my server, and at least we have arrived to a consensus, in the sense that the implementations of various mechanics in the game do not make much sense from a progression point of view.
I think most issues with the game are feeding off each other, causing a rift between what's actually available and its real purpose
Economy & crafting
We can all start by admitting this is sorely broken, if they tried to put a stop to RMT's by completely negating economy in the game i guess they did a bang out job, i'll post reasons of course of how in nature the economy is broken. (not complaining about the nature or difficulty of obtaining gil, but the utter uselessness of it.
The problem with this game is not finding a way to create a steady source of income, that is easily done, however there aren't any real needs for both end game or starting players to use any of the gil the get, besides maybe food? and crafting mats for crafting gear which is a niche market.
The economy as is right now is broken into two groups people with copious amounts of gil, that are not spending on anything due to either the ridiculous prices of housing thus saving every penny and the second, because there is simply no need absolutely no need to buy anything.
This symptom is causing a half of the game's classes to go completely unused, i mean Yoshida and his team should at least acknowledge that there is a whole class in the game that has absolutely no use at all, which is blacksmith. this is astounding if you think of it carefully, there is absolutely no real use for blacksmith, in reality for any crafter to be frank.
The nature of materia is useless as it stands as there is no gain at all from it to even exist, any DL, CT, Allagan or mythos gear will far surpass anything crafted may provide, if anything it becomes a min/max game that still does not solve the larger issues with the game.
Here we have three game mechanics and classes who's relevance in the game is non existing, they could remove materia's tomorrow and no real effect on both the game and the economy would be felt.
Solutions that have been brainstormed to combat this is give crafting classes some relevance, give something between 80-90 crafting gear with meldable slots or even enchanting opportunities so players can min/max and even deck out their classes between the long hauls of extreme primals, CT, Coil etc. Even turn Darklight gear into meldable equipment, give the player base a opportunity to use their classes to the fullest.
What about housing items you might ask, these will provide a opportunity for players to spend and create items for guild houses to give the economy a nice boost, to which i answer, nay, there is still no need to buy/sell housing items, as housing is for all intents and purposes a community effort, thus in any FC who can afford the ridiculous prices of housing right now, will count with at least 5-10 crafters who can take care of the housing needs, thus negating again any interaction with the game's economy
The last point takes me to the issues with housing, withholding preparations for airships etc, housing in it's nature, even if it is a communal effort, at the end its owned by the leader, for all intents and purposes it's the leaders house , which my turn off any high end galilionaire players from even becoming involved with housing unless they are FC owners themselves.
So here we have a myriad of ways the game allows you to play as, that have no real benefit as the mechanics surrounding them incentivize the opposite.
Hardly anyone crafts for the challenge or thrilling nature of the process, crafting HQ's might be a challenge but even seasoned or master crafters already have resolved the abilities needed to guarantee a HQ, so there is hardly any learning curve there.
PVP
where to start, i know many times PVP in a MMO comes down to a convoluted rock, paper, scissors kind of thing, however the mechanic might as well not even exist as the ultimate bragging rights donto really do the human encoutner any justice and hardly gives anything rewarding as the match themselves aren't designed in a way that make it thrilling to even participate
Here i can't pass a very clear judgement, but i can share the thoughts of one of my friends who did get into PVP, "it's broken, really one combination of teams can wipe everything and there is hardly any skill involved, its more like playing against complicated NPC's"
This feeling resonates across the board when it comes to PvP it's just sort of meh all around, again another mechanic which could cease to exist that if it were to disappear would cause nothing or affect no one but a very small base of players.
Again it's hard to name any modern MMO, that if you were to remove PvP, crafting or it's economy wouldn't seriously injure the core mechanics of the game. However in FF you could actively remove them and the game could function perfectly without them.
Dungeon & Raids
i think this had been touched enough in the general discussion board, but as well has it's issues.
The main problem with FFXIV it's not that it's doing anything wrong, in my opinion the devs are either too scared to make it too much of a hardcore experience as XI that mechanics in the game end up feeling anemic.
If i were to describe FF in three words it would be, Potential, Anemic, Easy.
So what are your thoughts people, what can you brainstorm to make FF mechanics more engagin between each other, or are you happy with the way things are?
I'm eager to know everyone's opinion.
