The one consistent critic on Heavensward is "too much like ARR"? srsly?

[Bishop81]

And games with little to no direction are boring as hell.

You want to know what you spent most of your time in EQ doing? Sitting iin one spot killing monsters repeatedly. People remember bullshitting with friends and the rose goggles come out, "oh that was awesome!" When in reality, it was the most simple and boring thing ever.

Actually I was thinking more along the lines of Eve Online.

I'm not asking for FFXIV to be that sandbox-y nor that "free for all".

Instead just create a sandbox within the theme park. The main story is still SE's to write but let a portion of the game be controlled/lead/driven by players - still regulated by SE of course.