17 Suggestions from an MMO vet

[nmekiller]

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are you saying SE was trying too hard to be different, so they threw away some things that worked in favor of things that were inferior? (The most common example here would probably be the Auction House/Market Wards thing.)

That's part of what I'm saying. It's more like it's the result of them trying too hard to combat RMT.

From what I understand, most of the differences in FFXIV are attempts to combat RMT. They were apparently the bane of FFXI, or maybe Tanaka just had an unhealthy obsession with them. People had bots that could fish, bots that could farm, bots that could craft, bots that could camp NMs, bots that could kill mobs, bots that could search the Auction House and immediately buy and sell goods that manipulated the market, etc. Here's a really good post by Hotohori on some of FFXI's problems with RMT, and how many of FFXIV's idiosyncrasies seem to be attempts to combat RMT. (Link in text)

If you're saying FFXIV has gone overboard, since the attempts to combat RMT often make the game less user-friendly for players, then I would probably agree with you.

^ this. It's like I said earlier, they've turned the world of Eorzea into a police state. The AH, mail system, and chat channels were intentionally left out to combat RMT. While FFXI didn't have chat channels, you would think that over the course of the last 8 years of MMO evolution, chat channels and these other things would be in there by default. Also I guess leaving the channels out goes back to creating an inferior product compared to other games on the market today.

I guess the biggest question when asking why FFXIV was a failure is how could they ever expect this game to be huge when it appeals to almost no one? Who is this supposed to appeal to besides the ever dwindling fanbois?