The World: so Big so Beautiful... But yet so empty

[Sandpark]

How to make the world feel alive?

You make creatures and npcs in the world have different hopes, dreams, unique characteristics, and different reasons for being in particular places at a particular time. 1.0 had some of this with the creatures and FFXI had it in spades.

Implementation of that comes at a cost though. Zones would no longer just be a means to reach the end, a trivial obstacle, a detriment to questing.

Most Npcs & Enemies here have no life/goals/activities outside their purpose. Which is to stand around and give you quest or wait to be killed.

• Even the ones that supposedly have a purpose, that purpose is only watched real time in the MSQ. Retainers and squadrons are supposed to be adventurers as well, but you never see them actually out in the world fulfilling that purpose. Why do you never see the scions or Aymeric out fighting the good fight if it is not part of your quest line?
  
• Where is the XIV version of Besieged, a city under constant assault which must be protected by it's inhabitants and generals? The closest thing to that here is the MSQ in Stormblood when the scions accompany you on this journey, and that is only in MSQ.
  
• Where is the XIV version of Campaign or City-State Alliance content, where battles and wars are waged over the entirety of Eorzea? Again, some of this happens in the MSQ but not much elsewhere. In FFXI there were battlefields in multiple areas at somewhat random times.
  
• Why is it every common enemy has a limited skill set that can be averted the same way which is dodge?
  
• Why do we have Control skills when a majority of stuff worth killing resist it completely?
  
• Why do common enemies not have their own group tactics such as flanks, rear, etc, or change the way they react to things based on party composition or circumstances?

Why isn't the world alive? Because the majority of people don't want alive.

They want a nice, neat, package all created to make the game relaxing and stress free, minus the raiding community.

Why in the Seven hells would it be fun to actually ask people to depend on one another or communicate in the open world? When it so much easier to queue up and be proactively friendly or the be worst kind of as#, and regardless of which, they can queue up again and again without the trouble. I read in 1.0 certain creatures used to react differently and to some people it was annoying.
If npcs had goals they set out to achieve at certain times of days or seasons, and they had some relevant quest to progressing, people would scream in outrage at the gating.

TLDR:

• You can't have a living world, if it doesn't change.
• You can't have a living world if it doesn't inconvenience you at times.
• You can't have a living world if job creation has to adhere to everyone being able to be a flavor of another job to facilitate faster grouping up without segregation.
• You can't have a living world if most things worthwhile are locked behind instances.
• You can't have a living world if there is no long lasting persistence in skills or gear or the content you challenge.
• You can't have a living world if the world itself stops until you continue the MSQ.

I have ideas on capturing the spirit of a living world, but it exist in a self contained vacuum which will probably never be implemented. Because if it spilled out into the open fields of Eorzea, all havoc would break out and bunch of players who value convenience over immersion would run to the next game that values convenience.