Simplicity over complexity, time to change.

[Redemption]

Just because you don't like something doesn't mean that you can label it as something else and pretend it's not an evolution of the genre.

EDIT: And to make my point clear, yes, FFXI did use a lot of outdated systems because the ye ol' MMO's were based on making you waste as much time as possible in order to get stuff done so content would last longer and you'd keep on paying monthly fees. Hence why teleports were so limited, gear had severe lockouts that puts FFXIV to shame, why the vast majority of content required groups, etc, etc.

Except that stuff also serves another purpose? You're so full of crap its not even funny. Re-examine my example, FFXI invested a lot of effort into making elements of the world feel realistic and alive and worldly. Removing things just because they take time can have a detrimental effect on that purpose and doing so is the opposite of an evolution imo. IF you insist that the two are not separate then WoW is the regression as it stripped away things that made mmos great and added in cheesy throwaway addiction forming content instead.

Or you know... it was built around a virtual world that people would explore and exist in. If the point was to play content longer, then FFXI wouldn't have airships, ferries, and the crag teleports, which barring the crags, make sense in a virtual world which would have some sort of transportation. The crags even were given a deep lore behind the reasoning for their existence, and were spread out enough that it let you move across the world without too much trouble, but still made players actually move through it like a person living in Vana'diel would have to. The old games were based on the roots of RPGs which was based on DnD, a game where you take the role of an adventurer in another world.

This.