What went wrong? Is it the game or the grenre?

[Jonjon]

The game is only 5 months old. I'm not ready to cry foul and give up just yet.

No it isn't. It launched in 2010. Besides this is a terrible argument. Especially when you can see the developing view of the game based on what came before, what is currently, and what is coming. There is a pattern and a good chunk have noticed.
Also as evidenced by hundreds of 40+ member friends lists that are getting emptier every day.

I have seen people throw out terms like "Them Park" and "Sandbox" in regards to games, and honestly I had no idea what these referred to so I looked it up and I realize what the problem has been with a lot of recent MMOs, at least for me. The industry is starting to realize that theme park MMOs are just terrible. People burn through them far to fast, FF14 2.0 is no different.

A lot of gamers are tired of playing a game like it is on rails. This game is especially bad in that there is only one direction.


Luckily the MMO scape seems to be shifting. Companies are realizing that Theme Park, play on rails games are a bad move. They sought to capitalize on WoW's success when not even Blizzard could hope to replicate that, and while that landed them some decent short term revenue, it would never last. The shift is going towards a balance between sandbox and open world. Players still want a game story, but they want the ability to play that story how they wish and have the ability to design their own adventure.