The whole peer pressure thing is dumb. Like many others have already said, just man up. -_-

With regards to reputation though, that's a very real concern. FFXIV managed to become pretty infamous with the expectations it had from its brand and the end product resulted in some shockingly negative reviews. It can be hard to shake that off.

I think as long as they advertise Version 2 right and really promote it at E3 with great gameplay footage and a big "FFXIV: THE NON-CRAP VERSION" logo, it should be able to reel people back in. If the game is good and it has enough players on launch, then not only will those people stick around but they will likely bring in more people through word-of-mouth.

I'm feeling optimistic. The future looks bright, my friends.