I still wonder what happened.

[Elexia]

Depends entirely on what their intention was. If they wanted to make a game that attracts new players who didn't like XI, stepping away from what that particular fanbase liked was the right step. Releasing the game a year too early was not

Even with the early release of the game, it was flawed conceptually and would have continued to be flawed a year later. People who know me knows I had high hopes for this game and felt that it would have succeeded XI in every way, yet it ended up throwing out every type of concept and basic system that made XI and any MMO work.

FFXIV didn't do so poorly merely because it stepped away from FFXI's "Grind 'Til You Drop" playstyle.

It stepped away from content concepts and basic systems. The 'grind' is present in every game in some fashion. It was largely accepted that Chains of Promathia was the best expansion even with the love/hate nature of the level cap, because it actually got people out there exploring and experiencing a great story and tough fights. Stuff like this should have been brought over in terms of concept. Stepping away from FFXI was in essence stepping away from FF in general, because even though Tanaka led both of the game's developments, he made XI to be an extension of what they couldn't do with older FF games while using EQ as inspiration.

So given 1 or 2 more years, XIV would have still been conceptually bad. Unfinished MMOs still have the basic systems because they're systems that are created first before going into the meat of your game. If you remember, the only plans they had for the next year at best was Hamlet defense, which means another year of time, outside of bug fixing and optimization the content beyond guildleves would have been 1 other system, still not enough to say XIV would have done well more "finished" when they already stepped away from 20+ content concepts they could have easily made better for this game.

[Naqaj]

Even with the early release of the game, it was flawed conceptually and would have continued to be flawed a year later. People who know me knows I had high hopes for this game and felt that it would have succeeded XI in every way, yet it ended up throwing out every type of concept and basic system that made XI and any MMO work.

I absolutely agree with that. I was trying to say that the conceptual flaw was not abandoning XI's designs, but failing to come up with a working alternative.