4.1 - The emptiest patch yet.

[JunseiKei]

Show me an mmo that's not focused on combat. That stuff works for games like the sims but every popular mmo focuses on combat before everything else.

Mabinogi
Second Life

Runescape, though has a lot of combat, also has a very large "skiller" presence (people that do not raise any combat skills).

That's just games I've been exposed to. They are games that have combat, but are not centered around it. They are played with countless of other strangers online, ringing true to the qualification of being an MMO. They are games focused on the social aspect of MMOs more than anything. You could argue Facebook games are MMOs (require help from other players) to progress, like in Farmville, however I'm sure you'll tell me those aren't MMOs.

[KisaiTenshi]

Mabinogi
Second Life

Runescape, though has a lot of combat, also has a very large "skiller" presence (people that do not raise any combat skills).

Mabinogi is a bit of a special case, as Nexon pioneered the freemium, fueled-by-gachapon model, so they have to keep making new gear to feed that model. Sometimes they recycle things, just like Square-Enix.

Second Life however is not a MMORPG. It's essentially an empty sandbox. Most of the content in SL is centered on trying to simulate something, and that includes all things naughty.

All other MMORPG's focus on combat because that is the easiest way to create non-stop content by changing some levers. Just drop some slimes, wolves, and zombies, and you got a game. When your players get bored of that content, you change their colors and give them a new area with the same monsters again that have new skills, or are tougher, or faster, or whatever.

Like where FFXIV fails, on it's face, sometimes is how puzzles are handled. To put it bluntly, there are no puzzles in FFXIV. Most MMORPG's have no puzzles because they don't want to frustrate their players with puzzles, they want to frustrate their players with choreography that they can just learn. Playing with randoms is like herding cats, especially when there are language barriers. Hence I'm almost certain that the purpose of the squadrons was always to give new and experienced players a way to play content that is more puzzle-oriented.