Quote Originally Posted by gifthorse View Post
I don't know how FFXIV can possibly survive the impending disaster that is TERA, Blade&Soul, Star Wars, Rift, Guild Wars 2 and so on, without doing something that those games aren't doing. But, currently, all of those games do everything FFXIV does, and they do it better (apart from crafting, which is FFXIV's only strong suit at the moment).
Really? Let me correct a bit of a error. "Currently all of those games do" *nothing at all*, considering that they haven't even launched (if you exclude that blandfest wow clone that's rift), most of those don't even have a firm release date, and no one has any idea if they will have any real quality behind the PR claims.

FFXIV needs to differentiate itself and tap into the almost untapped market potential of Sandbox gaming if it wants to survive.
There's no need to be "sandbox" in order to compete. All it needs is more rides, and better rides than the competition, which is entirely possible.
It already has plenty diversifying and unique features (the armory systems for instance). I do find it funny, though, that some, OP included, clamor for the removal of the unique features the game *already has* and then say that it needs to be unique to compete.
Quite telling.