Please remove the weekly lock out of stuff

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

Nice Bait.

Wasn't bait... and your "opinion" of my experience with mmo raiding is inaccurate. I've been playing MMO's for nigh on 2 decades and raided for most of them. Just because I don't subscribe to the paradigm you foster doesn't mean I don't have experience in raiding or a keen understanding of how mmo's work or how player psychology works.

Raiders weren't leaving FFXIV in droves before Stomrblood, they aren't going to magically start now. Any decline in raiding at this stage is a decline in people playing overall due to the lull between xpacs. This is not new nor unique to FFXIV. Considering you imply having experience with MMO's you should know that to be true. All mmo's have a lull between xpacs and all suffer a loss in subs during this time. That's not speculation, that's the time proven fact of the mmo life cycle. With 20 years of mmo experience, including some experience in mmo development, I have a fairly good grasp of the design process, the goals and the player psychology.

Reducing the anima steps was a GREAT design decision. Why? Because as time goes on, making more content accessible encourages players to engage in that content they otherwise wouldn't. If you think the periodic nerfing of anima steps over time is a bad thing they you really have a poor grasp of mmo design, mmo's as a business, and the player psychology that these decisions are intended to exploit. You seem to suffer from the same issue many gamers do... you care far too much about what other people have, or get, or how easily they get it. I finished the umbrite stage before the nerf. Was I sore over the umbrite nerf? Nope. Why? Because it doesn't matter that the guys who came after me had an easier time. They are late to the party and I've moved on to other things while they are still working on an anima I finished ages ago. If they have an easier time, I say good on them! I'm glad you'll get to enjoy the same thing I am enjoying. That you get to enjoy with less effort is irrelevant because my sense of self worth is not predicated on comparing myself to others. And that right there is your problem.

Your sense of achievement is tied to how it compares to others. You're not appreciating just doing what your doing and getting what you're getting for the sake of doing or getting it. Something doesn't have to be exclusive to have value. So what if people can go back to do old content to get a mount or title? That ship sailed ages ago. It doesn't diminish your accomplishment doing that content when it was current. And if it makes you feel like it does, then maybe you still have some maturing to do. You said your accomplishments "don't count" if other people can do it/get it easier than you did. Ask yourself why you feel that way and really explore the answer. When you stop basing your self worth by comparing your accomplishments to others, you might find yourself enjoying games.... hell LIFE... a lot more.

SE benefits from people going back to do old content on their over-leveled/over-geared characters because it increases the return on the initial investment they made to create that content. Creating content is expensive in both time and money. The more use that content gets the more value SE sees from that investment. Removing the incentives to do that content (the mounts etc), goes entirely against SE's interests. SE doesn't give a flying fart in space about our egos or special snowflake syndrome. They care about getting a good return on their investment and that means appealing to as many players as possible. Times change and the paradigms of old have gone the way of the dinosaur. It's the age of accessibility and its not going away until a new age and a new paradigm comes along. You either adapt with the changing times or you get left behind. It was a hard lesson for me to learn too, particularly since I'm at the age where I'm fairly set in my ways and am resistant to change. :P