Quote Originally Posted by Velhart View Post
Those were examples to his overall point that tearing down the well established foundation of the game to just to add features like this won't just simply make everything better and can actually make them worse.

Let me ask, why does character growth have to be a thing? I've heard all the "it worked in FFXI" and "sense of accomplishment" arguments, but people do not account for newer players jumping into the game. FFXI was enough indication that if you wanted to play and be serious in the game, you had to do a lot to catch up to the serious end game scene. You really are asking for a niche market with a strict character growth formula.

Again, SE would benefit from copying Blizzard on WoW: Legion. Blizzard really is doing a great job moving forward in progression with the MMO scene, even copying some off FFXIV. Needs to be a Coke ~ Pepsi thing going on. Pepsi: See what Coke is doing. Coke: See what Pepsi is doing. If 3.4 wasn't a thing I would be playing it.
It doesn't have to be a thing, it is just more enjoyable if it is. Personally, I do not have fun unless my character progresses in some fashion. I think adding more choice allows for more diverse playstyle where you can play around with different things and lets you find something that works best for you, rather than what the devs decided works best for you.

FFXI, unfortunately, is a game that know very little about. I never played it, I've never googled it and I only even know of it's existence because of this forum. That said, I've seen on-going progression systems in other MMO's that are fun, and I'd love FFXIV to explore it. What I do gather from FFXI is that it is not at all what I want, and what I think of when I say horizontal progression or post-max-level progression. I'd rather systems similar to WoW and Guild Wars 2.

I completely agree about Legion. Artifacts are a great example of on-going progression after max level. Even if I don't have much to do, I can log in and do a few world quests (also a great thing, wish FFXIV had better open-world stuff like these) and grab some artifact power. Currently, I am playing both FFXIV and Legion, with about 6 hours per week going to FFXIV and 40ish hours going to Legion.