Quote Originally Posted by Odett View Post
That's true, but FFXIV's overhaul came in the form of a brand new game. My experience with WoW wasn't very far-reaching, so if I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me :3
I started towards the end of TBC, and played endgame through Wrath, Cataclysm, and a little bit of MoP before I got tired of the game; i took a lot of long breaks in-between. If by overhauls, you mean the change from 40 person raiding, into 25, into the option for 10, or not having to do reputation quests to unlock the heroic version of a dungeon, and those all came with expansions. I'm not sure when they implemented raid finder feature, I wasn't playing by then, but all those things haven't been a wild change to the game's formula in terms of endgame objectives. You still did your daily and weekly heroics, and raided if you liked raiding.

If this game's endgame is being redefined, I would expect that to happen with the coming of a new expansion, not with a patch that happens every 3 months.
Indeed major gameplay system overhauls usually come with expansions. That's partly why players have been so tired of the game since 3.0 launched as none of the existing game systems were improved and very little truly new was added. We just got more content added to the same old systems.

In my experience with MMOs every expansion needs to add a new form of core gameplay to keep players interested long-term. Something new to do alongside all the other core progression systems. In FFXI each expansion included something like this, with wildly differing forms of endgame content. We got things like Besieged wherein the beast tribes invaded Aht Urghan and players had to defend the city, and Nyzul Isle which was essentially an endless tower dungeon.

The devs need to sit down and think of a new core gameplay mechanic to add to the game. Something besides dungeons, fates and hunts...