Yep -- Tanaka isn't incompetent, but a lot of the base ideas were flawed mostly because of trying to make it as different as possible from XI. The CT engine I think isn't fully the culprit as much as poor optimization for MMO use. Given time based around: http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...f018ec5fb504d2 it seems that XIV would have needed quite a lot more than another year or two to be acceptable compared to if they had initially built off of all XI accomplished and made it bigger and better while at the same time making it casual friendly.

A lot of XI was made through the concept of "having enough time" though the fact they went through FFXI and FMO as their major MMORPGs, XIV really felt like they were trying something different for the sake of it.