Quote Originally Posted by Clavaat View Post
OK, I'll bite again, with a thought. Take it as you will:

You know Minecraft? The video game? It is wildly popular. It makes a lot of money. There is no goal. You make the game. Often referred to as a "sandbox" game. GTA is another good example. Why would I bring this up?

Instead of only picturing an MMO as a set of numbers to crunch, imagine it for a second as a sandbox game. You don't have to farm tomestones today, you can instead explore specific parts of a map and kill enemies around there for no particular reason. You are not restricted by the bounds of tomestones and events. Instead, you are given a realm to do whatever you want, whenever you want, with whoever you want. There are plenty of examples of people taking advantage of this idea, by making their own content. There was a house maze created on one server, PF challenges/help runs, player-made contests.

The point I'm getting at is, not only do I think there is enough content in general currently, but an MMO is a self-sustaining form of relaxation and gameplay. Of course, you don't have to think this way if you don't want to. But at the end of the day, people seem to be having fun, and you aren't. That's a lonely feeling.
Games like Minecraft and GTA encourage exploration and creativity. That is part of the appeal of those games. You won't see people looking for a creative experience playing just any random game so they can participate in activities like, in your own words, "explor[ing] specific parts of a map and kill enemies around there for no particular reason." Nothing about FF14 encourages this type of experience, from the tiny open world to the incredibly structured and mundane quests to the fact that most areas in the game generally can't even be explored due to the fact that they're gated behind the duty finder. I assure you that no significant amount of people looking for a creative experience are paying $15 a month so they can stand in the corner of Sourthern Thanalan killing sandworms.