This is a great post by Yoshi. I must admit, he is probably one of the best producers when it comes to explaining what he is doing, where the game is going, and everything else. In fact, even the western devs currently making the hyped mmos could learn a lot from how Yoshi is handling the additions / evolution of this game and more importantly relaying that information to customers.
With that said this gives me confirmation on a lot of issues I hoped would be dealt with. I think it's interesting that he stated almost the exact things I had stated in other threads : A way to efficiently use the economy, and a way to efficiently connect you with other players wanting to do the same thing is critical to an MMO in this day and age. And the fact that he has committed to these revisions before 1.20 comes out, is enough to secure at least a 1 month sub from me.
I just hope they can have a marketing blitz big enough to get peoples attention to play the game again, once it is worth playing.
Also this. People complaining about this becoming a "wow clone" are just silly. If making the ui more moddable, and making connecting with other players easier makes the game a "wow clone" then I guess every MMO to come out in the future will be a "wow clone."
Take a good hard look at the game. There is almost no parallels to WoW as it is right now. Implementing things like player finders or auction houses doesn't make it a WoW or FFXI clone. If it did, then the reliance on shouting in ul'dah to find groups would make this an EQ clone, and we all know people were tired of that game a decade ago.
This game is its own. Just as a reference, go play the free trial of wow, then come back to FFXIV. If you honestly think that XIV couldn't use some of the things existing in WoW, such as the responsive combat, useful and clean ui, and fluid economy, then I don't know what to say. At the end of the day, even if XIV was as smooth as wow gameplay wise, it would never be a WoW clone. It is simply too different from the ground up.