In-game Games/Misc features that add to user experience.
I've just read Yoshida's 20th letter, and what he said about theme parks made me remember something about FF9, and why its my favourite FF title, and also, whats missing that could make FFXIV even greater than it is/is becoming.
I am a bit of an oddball in that I play hardcore, 6pm - 1am every night for 2-3 weeks, grinding and raiding and then I burn out for maybe another 2-3 weeks before I am ready to play at that level of intensity. The same was true in FF9.
Tetramaster: I spent maybe 30% of my time playing tetramaster on FF9, another 40% grinding all my characters to level 100 and the other 30% playing the storyline.
In FFXIV, when I'm sick of playing hardcore on my MDR I usually revert to armourer or blacksmith, but again, it kinda feels like a grind. In reality, all I'm doing is chatting to shellies and passing the time by grinding a craft.
I've played many MMO's since the '90s, Ultima online, Ragnarok, Lineage, Legend of Mir and Myth of Soma. A few of these had dice items you could roll, which would post a random number into text chat (done in a way that could not be faked by players). This allowed people to bet/gamble and create their own games.
I think, in the spirit of yoshi's post, FFXIV should have in-game card games, perhaps not tetramaster, or tripple triad, but something in that same vein. A game within the game that could slowly be built upon to be when bored of playing the traditional RPG grind fest that is most MMO's. Even something like chess ( a game in the public domain ), would add tremendously to a much more social/casual aspect of the game.
Most of these social games have themselves a hardcore and casual player base, further adding diversity and enhancing the world of FFXIV. People could place wages on the outcome of the games, enabling them to make money in a different way, stimulating economic movement across eorza.
I propose either a card game, based around the twelve perhaps? more cards could be introduced as patches are released in order to enhance the scope of the game over time, cards could be leve rewards, drops of human mobs, crafted, bought from npcs, won in games as in tetramaster.
Alternatively a simple board game akin to chess, with pieces named after legends and heroes in the lore.
This may seem like a big ask, but if done over time implementing something like this would not be huge. I have programmed a clone game of chess myself and it took me a little under a week in the evenings, obviously I didn't have to invent rules or anything, but still.
I'd like to hear developers thoughts on this, and wether anything will be added to the game that is purely for fun, and not tied directly to the progression of my character's gear.