
Originally Posted by
Jericho
I'm expecting FFXIV to be a different game every 1-2 years. I'm not expecting old content to be relevant, revamped, or even used at all once newer, higher rank content becomes available. It doesn't matter though... Nothing will take you as long to get as they did in FFXI. You won't be upset about the pants that you've been wearing for 2 years becoming obsolete because they only took you a couple weeks worth of raid attempts to obtain. New expansion, new areas, new content, new cap, new gear, new game. This is what happens when a game is tailored to casuals. A lot of people, maybe even the majority, are completely fine with this. I'm too much of an FFXI junkie to be into it.
The thing is... There were a lot of things casual about FFXI. Just because things took a long time to get doesn't mean they weren't catered to casuals. Dynamis and Limbus were twice a week, for 4 hours and 2 hours, respectively, less than what Yoshi is targeting, players playing for 1-2 hours a night. Which is pretty much Salvage, or what Dynamis is now. You didn't have to do everything at once, I did just Dynamis for probably a year. And you didn't have to spend all day and night playing. You could find a sky or sea shell that would allow you to play every other night for a couple hours to earn points. Sure, leveling took a looong time, especially pre-ToAU, but it didn't matter, because there were plenty of missions to do in between, with level caps, and the rewards and story were worth it because the freakin cap didn't increase every other day. Want to level a 2nd job, for fun or something more event useful? Do it between event nights or whatev. No, my glasses are not rose tinted. There is nothing I disliked about FFXI. The rewards and pride were worth any frustrations.
Like I said, I know a lot of people don't agree with me. And I know its expensive to run an MMO. Thats a lot of salaries, a lot of development dollars, a lot of electricity and equipment maintenance. I can't get exactly what I want as long as I'm in the minority, and the cost isn't worth the revenue. I understand.
I also know where the door is, and I'll probably be walking through it soon. But these forums are a place to explain why, so I'm explaining why, and 20 pages deep in this thread sounds like a good place to do it, without making too many people butt hurt.