Cross-World content? Take it all the way or don't do it at all.
So, it seems Yoshida is attempting to bring dungeon finder to FFXIV. Instead of leaving it at that, this concept should be taken much further in the future or not be attempted at all. By itself the feature has aspects that many don't like or prefer, so it would be in the developer's best interests to turn those aspects into a strength to be used to promote what I consider a more global community in-game. Let me explain my thoughts through specific examples that simply represent the point I am trying to make:
In the future the developers could promote more cross-server activities, kinda like in the ballista royale. It may be even possible to promote the identity of the residents of a single server and strengthen the bonds of its community that way (kinda like being part of a sports team competing against each other). While this [instant dungeon] feature may not be one to do that, it opens up possibilities for other sort of content that is.
If it is possible to create a community that is larger than anything we've experienced so far in-game (from a small tight-knit linkshells to larger companies, to servers as a whole and lastly all the servers together), that would be interesting to see. All groups would have their own content (content for loners and individual linkshells as well as friends to do, things to accomplish as a larger private company (which could be a sum of every linkshell doing their thing), more server-wide activities like what Campaign in FFXI was (which ties to Grand Companies), and lastly cross-server activities with their own consequences, individually (instant dungeons etc.) or in a small group (server vs. server team PvP etc.)).
When doing an instant dungeon (or any cross-server content), perhaps there could be a title and a world-related "flag" to show your origins in-game. Like "Betelgeuzah of Selbina" for example. Or an option to party primarily with people from a world of your choosing. If there was any way to create a situation where server-wide "alliances" or "rivalries" could be made that would be pretty awesome. If they can tie to the lore somehow, even better. I guess it's pretty hard to make it sound believable though.
All that said, I feel that when approached correctly this sort of content has many interesting prospects to it that can be used to strengthen the communities instead of crippling them. But if the developers decide to leave it at the instant dungeon system, these concepts will never be realized and the communities can not prosper. Thus I feel that if the developers want to implement this sort of feature, they need to be able to expand on the concept in the future. I think the outcomes could be interesting and, dare I say, fun. It is like putting the Massive back in Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game. It's not just about you and a twenty thousand or so other players in a single server, or you and your linkshell of 30 people anymore, you "exist" with potentially hundreds of thousands of other people that each have their place and are not simply irrelevant "mass" to you.
This thread is made with the mindset "if it is coming, might as well make most out of it", and as such it is not a "it should be implemented" or "should not be implemented". Toss around ideas or what you think about this sort of global community, but remember that the threads for disagreeing or agreeing about the [instant dungeon] feature already exist and you can take those kind of opinions there.
To me this sounds like potentially fun times to be had.
