Quote Originally Posted by Bourne_Endeavor View Post
Basically, what you're saying is Square Enix fired their lead developer and spent tens of millions to overhaul the entirety of their game... for shits and giggles?
Actually, what Lia Shan was saying is ...

People who enjoyed 1.0 (around the 1.20-1.23 time frame when the game actually felt like a finished product) and people who enjoyed XI, are going to think back on those games and tell you these amazing stories of personal accomplishment and camaraderie. That is because the things they did, the challenges they faced felt real and rewarding. The friendships you forge overcoming adversity are typically more visceral than the relationships you form (for example) running Snowcloak in the duty finder.

Lia Shan's point was - even though 1.0 was a failure - it provided an experience that Reborn will likely never provide in any meaningful way. Now of course results may vary. If this is your first MMO ever you may be having that wide-eyed, stary experience we all crave from our first MMO experiences. The point remains, though. Easy face-roll content with people you don't speak to and will never statistically see again isn't the same as forging your path in a game on the shoulders of your comrades with blood, sweat and tears. This game doesn't and won't ever provide that kind of content.

I speak of things I've done in some MMOs (1.0 and XI included) as if they were real experiences. As if they actually happened to me and not some made up character, because I was that invested in the character and the outcome due to the length or difficulty of the challenges faced. I'm not making an argument for or against it. I know why XIV is not going to be this way. SE is following the money. I'm not stupid. I'm just saying that regardless of 1.0's financial success or failure - the people who enjoyed that game got something from that game that ARR cannot reproduce in its current state. The expectations of those players that they will get something like this in some future content patch or expansion is vastly unrealistic and they will always be disappointed.

That is what Lia Shan was trying to express, I believe.