FFXIV is in a Prime Position to Make Some Drastic Changes

[Terribad]

I wish people would stop going to the extreme opposite end when someone mentions horizontal gear progression/different builds.

- I've played loads of mmos with horizontal gear, I never had to carry more than 5 sets or anything over 2. And the second set was used for 2-3 dungeons and pvp. There's always a happy medium.

- If someone doesn't want to play with you because you don't have a cookie cutter build, don't play with them. Once people with that mindset start limiting themselves and noticing it's taking longer and longer for their parties to fill, they'll come around.

This game needs variety, the gear here, which is usually the main reward with mmos, is horribly boring. Yes he said they'll add materia slots in tome gear, but 2 slots? No overmeld? Secondary stats only? Not good at all. With Aion for example, you can take your gear enchant it (Making it +1, +2 etc), add manastones (materia), combine the weapon with another, add a Godstone (bonus effects), add an Idian (more bonus stats) and condition it (activate bonus stats). Now we don't have to have all of that but 2 materia slots on end game gear with boring stats, that's not good enough.

Before someone starts screaming because I used Aion as an example. Just like the games mentioned in the OP, they didn't die from having horizontal gear and variety. And depending on how you look at success most of them did better than FFXIV. FFXIV doesn't have millions of active subscriptions, just accounts, which is saying something.