Honestly I have played a lot of MMO's and I don't think any MMO has ever had the number of eternal optimists that FFXIV has.
1. When the beta first came out a bunch of people criticized it. Surplus is stupid, the world is too plain, the races are ugly, the story missions suck, the ui fails, theres no ah, etc.
But all the eternal optimists jumped to defend the game, stating that its just a beta and only 30% of the actual world. The UI was only laggy because they were testing it + would be perfect on official release. The market wards would work great with lots of people playing. etc.
2. Game is released EXACTLY like the open beta.
And then the eternal optimists come in. "Oh there will be a patch by next week". "People just don't understand the random SP system", "in a month 5 new zones will open up and we will have companies and everything"
3. Few months go by, game hasn't improved, people demanding an AH, Party Seek, Chocobos and Airships, and more content for gatherers + crafters. Tanaka releases the new plan for companies and hamlet battles, etc.
Optimists immediately state that the game will be fixed by early january.
dev teams change.
Optimists: "New dev team! they will fix the game in a month, we will get party seek, an ah, jump, hamlet battles, better transportation, etc.
Months go by, each patch optimists are saying how its just the beginning and everything will be fixed in the next patch. They defend the coblyn grinding system as a "great system for sp'ing" and when that changes to leve-linking and failing they describe that as "an intended feature since its a trade off, and a perfect way to level". No matter what, the game is always great and going to get better.
So far we don't have:
An AH
Chocobos or Airships
A sustainable economy with a real gil sink
new zones other than instances
hamlet battles
a redesign of the black shroud
the ability to change our hair (which we were promised at release)
a properly functioning way to get sp
crafting and gathering have now been delegated to support jobs and no longer seem to matter.
quests are still fail
etc....
Now i'm not complaining, I'm just pointing out there are tons of people who are now saying "This is just the beginning, now patches will be released faster and the game will be win shortly"
I'm not saying this is bad. But honestly, the people on these forums are insanely optimistic. The game can fail over and over and over and over and over and many will still defend it and say it will be amazing within 2 months. Now sometimes this leads to some really annoying white knighting. But for the most part i think this is a HUGE BENEFIT to this game.
Optimistic people are what this game needs, because it will ensure that the game will never fail on its face. So Optimists, please stay optimistic and thank you for your amazing abilities at optimisim :]