Quote Originally Posted by Alahra View Post
No, we don't. Nothing in those other games prevents you from *also* playing every class (unless there are character limits, but those are rare). Being able to play the other classes in, say, WoW, gives you just as much customization as we currently have in FFXIV, even before you consider the inclusion of talents and specializations.

And as mentioned, FFXI also has customization, despite also letting you play every class on one character.
Did you miss the part where you have to start from scratch to play a new class in other games? if course because it doesn't support your idea. Having to repeat all the banal "setup" stuff over and over is a big investment just to play another spec. That is why games like wow even have specs so that you can still try different playstyle and roles without repeating all that. Jobs in 14 serve that function of changing roles and playstyle without starting 9ver. Even in wow there are different gear sets for each jobs specs so you still need to collect gear for a new role just as a mnk needs to get gear to play a tank here.

And ffxi having customization is the paramount example of the illusion of choice idea. You could gear up to he a xbow thf if you thought it was cool. But it's performance was poor so it wasn't a thing. Pvp, as with most every game is the only place you can really do things outside the box of a job. PvE is forever trapped in the illusion. You could spend a kingdom for a kclub melee whm. You know what you could do with that? Solo trash mobs and pvp. You want to be a healer drg with your wyvern? Works on solo trash and pvp. Want to be a dps pld? Solo trash ad pvp.

You can do whatever you want on trash solo content and pvp. You can't for content that has a smidgen of difficulty.