I guess it's time

[Velhart]

So the question lies, would you rather have too much to do that is the same but gives you objective progression or 'new' things that are only a flash in the pain with pretty much glamour as a reward which is honestly subjective in terms of how good it it (since everyone has different ideas on what looks good).

I rather have new content(even if formulaic), and new things thrown in when they believe they have a good idea (Diadem, Aquapolis, etc.).

For FFXI's end game. While content was most definitely challenging, it was heavily gated. Gated to the point that a lot of LS's did not accomplish certain pieces of content. A lot of the content was not accessible unless you go through conditions just to be able to attempt it once. Rather it be seals in Sky/Sea, Kindred Seals for KSNM's, fighting other LS's for King HNM's, long wait times to try again like Dynamis, and so on. It is hard to say how quick content could be beat if FFXI had the level of accessibility that FFXIV has right now.

For FFXIV, I really have my doubts a gated system like that would flow on the casual part of the market. I personally like the accessible, yet challenging approach to content. FFXI's approach to bosses was a lot a preparation then hope for a proper execution. FFXIV's approach is more open to trial and error and get it done trying again and again. Not saying one is better than the other, but if you want a system that pleases all casual, midcore, and hardcore, I think one's chances are better with accessible/challenging. A heavily gated version I believe would drive casuals away and favor mostly hardcore players.

In terms of proper reward. I can agree to an extent. The issue is and would like to see how some suggest to approach it, is if you give too many options for say ilvl240 gear, you will end up in the same issue that happened in 2.0. Where AF+1 gear and relic weapon were on par with raid gear/weapon. To a lot it made it seem like raiding was pointless since they could just get top ilvl items without the hassle of raiding. They changed the ilvl of the weapon in raids to influence people to jump back in and have been doing that since then. So my question is, how can we offer these variety of options without breaking balance in other content? Not saying it can't be done, but I am interested to see how it can be pulled off.