FFXIV is in a Prime Position to Make Some Drastic Changes

[Cherie]

This game is a success at the moment. Everything is the way it is because it is what makes people pay to play this game. Like you mentioned how awesome Rift was, and all those other games. You know what happened to cool innovative games like that? Flops! Wildstar? Please, we all know what happened to that game. Don't get me started on rift though, I loved that game... but it probably was too unapproachable for some. Easy MMOs sell! That's the difference. If this game swapped up the elements so much, we'd have another Rift or Wildstar and it would just die a horrible death like those and probably go free to play.

This game is fine. Official forums always say their MMOs suck. I frequented Rift and WoW forums, same deal. Once they start going into death throes by putting the relics on the cash shop or something, I'll get worried. People don't want innovation, they want the things they like copied from other games. They want it to be easy and require little effort or thinking. Just look at how first person shooters or football games work (rehashed over and over)! :P Hey, FFXI went on for what, 12+ years? These guys have incredible drive and willingness to make this MMO their life's work. I think it's in good hands.

[Alberel]

This game is a success at the moment. Everything is the way it is because it is what makes people pay to play this game. Like you mentioned how awesome Rift was, and all those other games. You know what happened to cool innovative games like that? Flops! Wildstar? Please, we all know what happened to that game. Don't get me started on rift though, I loved that game... but it probably was too unapproachable for some. Easy MMOs sell! That's the difference. If this game swapped up the elements so much, we'd have another Rift or Wildstar and it would just die a horrible death like those and probably go free to play.

This game is fine. Official forums always say their MMOs suck. I frequented Rift and WoW forums, same deal. Once they start going into death throes by putting the relics on the cash shop or something, I'll get worried. People don't want innovation, they want the things they like copied from other games. They want it to be easy and require little effort or thinking. Just look at how first person shooters or football games work (rehashed over and over)! :P Hey, FFXI went on for what, 12+ years? These guys have incredible drive and willingness to make this MMO their life's work. I think it's in good hands.

Those games did not fail because they were innovative, they failed because players got bored. Do you know why they got bored? Because there wasn't enough to do...

Do you know why players are moaning about FFXIV? Because they are bored because they have very little to do.

The game is not fine. It was great during the 2.x cycle because the content releases were fresh and interesting and regular. It's been going steadily downhill since the expansion launched and this can be easily traced by just looking at the delays to patches and the shrinking amount of content in each. Couple that with everything still following the same formula as the 2.x cycle and most of the new content already feels stale when we get it.

If easy sells then why are so many people complaining that everything is too easy? The devs even acknowledged in the latest live letter that there's no difficulty curve at the moment; the game just jumps from stupidly easy to insanely hard (savage) with little in between. That is why we're seeing so many players bored at the moment. If savage is too hard for you but everything else is too easy then you're screwed at the moment, and unfortunately a LOT of players fall into that bracket.

The OP isn't even asking for anything drastic. It's a request for some ability to allow us to customise our playstyle in some way. This is a basic feature of pretty much every MMO out there and is one of the best ways to help players keep the experience fresh and interesting. Right now once you hit the level cap your gameplay NEVER changes until the next expansion. That's a huge flaw in my opinion.