FFXIV: The State Of Raiding

[Thayos]

I may be wrong, but I don't think this is due to people not wanting to raid, I think it is due to the jarring skill gap in progression.

That's partially true, but many people want progression that doesn't require hours of practice per fight -- which many players would refer to as "beating your head against a wall."

I think back to the glory days of FFXI, and never did anyone spend so many hours wiping in rapid succession to single bosses. That kind of challenge appeals to a limited scope of gamers... to others, that's just not fun. There's a lot more competition nowadays for people's time... over the past decade, the average age of MMO players has risen from the mid 20s to the mid 30s. That's why SE built XIV the way they did, to be more accommodating for casual and midcore players. But the endgame scene wasn't built to match.

Raiding shouldn't be XIV's core progression endgame. It should be the most elite form of endgame, but it should be treated as something that only appeals to a small fraction of the playerbase. The core of endgame should be based on engaging a larger portion of players. Everyone would win from that, including those in the raid community, who'd have a more engaged and skilled playerbase to recruit from.