You're very right about 2.3 favoring the casual base. The thing is... why would you have expected otherwise? It's not unusual for this game. Pointing that out, is like pointing out that the forums have a character limit in posting. It's just something we know and have come to expect. In fact, there's never been any evidence from it's patch history that would suggest 2.3, where the attraction is ST/CT2 (as far as raids are concerned), was going to cater in a large/meaningful way to the endgame raiding crowd. This is literally the way this game does its content and has done so since it launched almost a year ago.
The philosophy behind FFXIV is not necessarily to divide the player base, but rather to accept both sides as the same. The only way to do this is to create a game that offers content that all can enjoy. Obviously people who want ONLY hardcore raids will get the short end of the stick, but that's how this game works. After spending a bit of time on it, and seeing patch history, there's no reason why someone should believe otherwise. A LOT of the content that attracts people to this game involves activities that don't require scheduling a raid time.
A lot of it just deals with feeling enjoyment from the little things. And that's the important thing that a lot of people don't understand. The little things... simple enjoyment. Raiders can keep asking for more endgame, but as I said, you're just heading for that little feeling called "disappointment". This game is not developed under the mindset of being absolutely sure to provide new max endgame content at every turn. Raiders that want this will get it... at the designated point in time. Is it possible that something meaningful for absolute endgame be introduced outside of a Coil patch? Of course... but don't expect it to happen on every patch. It takes time to do these things, and that time would much preferably be spent on providing things for everyone to enjoy, rather than just a very small crowd. They have a set schedule as to when they'll cater to the endgame, but they will never forsake the casual content. Afterall, only so much can be done in so short of time.




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