Quote Originally Posted by Thayos View Post
The difference though (which many people gloss over) is that while rewards in FFXIV are more quickly "obsoleted" because of the game's vertical design, the tradeoff is that none of these rewards are really that difficult to get in the first place.

The relic weapon is a huge grind, for sure. But is it really hard to get? No. If you play regularly and do minimal activities (such as roulette), you essentially get the relic for free. Nothing in this game is nearly as grindtastic as what we endured in old-school MMOs like FFXI.

Personally, I'm perfectly fine with this tradeoff. Being 13 years older and significantly busier than I was when I took up XI, I'd rather play a game nowadays that didn't require the focus of a second job just to be "viable" or whatever.

And yes, this will result in a playerbase that has more freedom to subscribe/unsubscribe periodically without the fear of being permanently unable to "catch up." But if SE can do a better job of giving people reasons to stick around -- which, in my opinion, means an endgame scene that's more diversified than just raiding -- then we'll see a more consistent and lively playerbase between patches and expansions.
You think the rewards from A8S are not hard to get? We're talking about content that requires some groups easily over 100 hours of progression to clear.