Make FFXIV more like FFXI and less like WoW!

[Welsper59]

Primarily, they evolved around an increasingly busy population of players.

Can't access something right away? No issue if you have infinite time, you just wait. Big issue if you have only limited time to play, by the time you get access you have to stop playing already.
Slower travel? No issue if you have infinite time, you just take the walk. Big issue if you only have limited time to play, you actually wanted to do something more than looking at scenery today.
I'll add another: Long queues/party making? No issue if you have infinite time, you can just keep going. Big issue if you only have limited time, by the time the party is made you might not have time for the actual content you made the party for anymore.

Another fun fact: Increasingly less people cook themselves, while fast food and deep frozen food are common as never. It's a general societal trend to cut down on unwanted/unnecessary processes in one's free time, which is correlated with the fact that people have less free time on average. One is downright inclined to wager a causal connection to increasing demands on the job in competitive markets.

It really comes down to a matter of priorities. This has never once changed since MMORPGs were created. Hell, for any form of entertainment, priorities have always been a factor as to whether or not someone can enjoy something that demands time. We definitely are a culture of wanting to do all the things in as short of a time as possible. This is the exact opposite mentality to have for people that want to experience the MMORPG genre as it once was.

The rush mentality is heavily related to why it's easy to relate modern MMORPGs (like XIV) to mobile app gaming. Those games are designed to be able to be played by anyone. They're designed to require you to spend time on them, but not a lot of it to make some form of progress (by relation of what average content completion time is). It's all part of making the brain "addicted" to the pattern of quick rewards the game gives you. Honestly, it's not too far off from normal games, but MMORPGs have that social stigma and competitive basis behind them due to being with other players (even if you don't interact with any). This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but certainly open to criticism. In a way, it explains the cash shop too, love it or hate it.

Personally I find long term content and goals as positive things in the game. Not 3ver thing needs to revolve around it of course. He'll even FFXI had billions of ways to do things and rewarded players for specializing in the stuff they found fun.

That's the big crux of the issue I find. XI had tons of really well fleshed out content. It knew it's focus and hammered it. Content wasn't watered down so everyone could do everything.

Even as a more casual player I enjoyed being able to master one thing slowly then branch out as I grew over time. I didn't no life the game hell took me a solid year to hit my first capped job.

Unfortunately, with todays market, it's not what the general public want. I would seriously consider the idea that it might be a situation where people say they "want" or "need" it, but when they get it, it becomes the straw that broke the camels back. That they get what they want, then realize that while it might be nice or fun, it's still missing something we're more accustomed to (now). I experience this whenever I hop on XI now. It's a matter of not experiencing something derived from nostalgia in the exact way you want it to be, even if the option is there or it's close to it. In fact, throughout the year, I have to hop onto multiple MMORPGs to satisfy whatever need for gaming entertainment I might have (primarily XIV, XI, and WoW). The days of the old are long gone for most of us.

People need to quit with the whole "maybe you should quit" verbal on both sides. It adds nothing to the conversation and in the long run hurts the community.

Just because we don't agree means we should stop discussion.

Sometimes the "quit" response is merited though, albeit uncommonly right lol. It's very easy for the "wrong" type of people to try out a game, really not like anything about it, but feel the need to keep playing and complaining because they spent money on it. By "wrong", I'm referring to people that don't understand the genre. The sort that don't realize it's not aimed at solo play, though there are things available to be done solo (just not endgame usually). The sort that complain about something being rare or taking time to do because they don't understand "prestige" in an online game... and good lord there's A LOT of those folks that don't get it, even if they act on in it unknowingly. That one is very subjective though, admittedly. Sometimes, it's just folks that feel like they should stay, but they just don't enjoy their time spent for one reason or another. I've met at least 5 people IRL like that, be it for this game or another. Much happier now that they've quit the game, and that's honestly all that should matter.