Catering to the Majority

[amnie]

those 'classic MMOs' came out before the Internet Boom. why the hell do you think it was WoW out of all the games that came around at that time that drew in the masses? look at the other games! WoW catered to the people who got their first at-home internet access around 2002-2004.

the 'niche games' you are aiming for is NOT something SE will ever cater to, not with Final Fantasy. FFXI was extremely successful. everyone who knew about MMOs back then knew FFXI or SWG, but THE WHOLE GENRE was a niche. that is not the case anymore and it hasn't been for a long time

you may as well start claiming it's Green Day's and The Offspring's fault that Blink 182 has fans (which may or may not be true but can you seriously 'blame' a band - or a company - for appealing to the masses?)

I get that you want ARR to be the game you are looking for, but it simply isn't. you want a niche game, go play a niche game.


edit:
@Sunarie
please don't put words in my mouth. what you find to be 'ironic' is simply you leaving out something. namely my opinion on people actually ASKING for the game to be 'dumbed down'. I can assure you have my opinion on that, too, which is basically the same as the one I stated in regards to this topic (which is the complaining from the people that want a 'hard' game)
not forgetting to mention that I replied specifically to statements here on this page of the topic where the things I addressed where mentioned. I too have my ideas about the 'perfect' MMO. currently such a game does not exist, and so I'm here, because it's the closest I have to it - from the little that I actually do know about it and the little that we've all seen. we don't know what the next couple of years will bring, but we sure as hell can make statements about WoW, FFXI and SWG. there's a reason why one is super successfull, why one is striving/doing fine, and one is dead (and unlike popular belief TOR is not the reason for SWG shutting down. SWG shutting down is the reason for TOR releasing before it was ready)

btw, you're not up-to-date about the F2P status. Joshi-P stated a while ago that he would actually not be 100% opposed to it, if it was actually saving the game - just that he doesn't see it happening any time soon, for the reasons we all have heard for months now (which are the same reasons why FFXI is still running. SE is Developer and Publisher)

[Sunarie]

the 'niche games' you are aiming for is NOT something SE will ever cater to, not with Final Fantasy. FFXI was extremely successful.

I don't know that I agree with this. Subscription based MMOs are slowly on their way out. To the point where that could almost be considered a niche thing. Yet it's been said they'd close down the game before making it free to play. In fact, I would even go so far as to say that my interpretation of how the game has been talked about very much fits into a "niche" game. They want everything to keep the Final Fantasy feeling and aren't always willing to compromise if it means giving that up in their eyes.

That isn't to say they won't be dumbing things down or anything like that. They've already said they will be dumbing down old content when new content is released afterall.

I also find it a bit ironic that you're telling people that enjoy the game as is that ARR isn't the game they're looking for, but apparently it is for people who want to change the difficulty/time of obtaining things?