I have no doubt they'll need to go through many iterations, updates and patches to make the app a lot more user friendly and USEFUL but not REQUIRED.

It's just that, in it's current state, there's no real incentive to want to use it. I'm sure it took a LOT of time, effort and money to develop.

But you know, it's not the whole P2W doom-and-gloom or even the cost that bothers me about it -- yes, that would be bad BUT --

What bothers me most is that we weren't even asked what features we might like in such an app. Maybe the JP forum was asked and this is what we got -- but I doubt it.

Yes, you'd probably get 100 different answers but that's part of what makes an app enticing, is that it incorporates player feedback and wishes. Your audience gets to see that they made an impact -- that they and their feedback matter (and not just in terms of dollar signs).

For example, some things I can say with a pretty good degree of confidence that we would want:
- Hunt notifications
- Raid scheduling/planning
- Rare node notifications for gatherers
- Retainer management when not in game
- Inventory management when not in game
- The ability to play triple triad with others players
- The ability to manage our squadrons
- Character preview with different gear (like a dressing room of sorts)

Of course it's one thing to suggest these things and another thing entirely to actually implement them without breaking both the app AND the game or straining the servers. But as it is right now, it just feels like we have an app...to have an app.